Dug this old pipe out of the junk drawer and decided to give her a once-over. This pipe was part of a lot I purchased last summer. It is a Medico Guardsman. Briar, not Brylon. I keep forgetting to take "before" pics because I get too antsy to get started and next thing I know I'm half done and think "dangit, why didn't I take pics?" Oh well, next time. This pipe was really dirty. Had tobacco up in the stem, was badly caked up, and the stem was nearly bit through in three places. I did not even realize it was a carburetor pipe because the carburetor was caked in. There must've been a bit of a hole exposed but I didn't see it until I was digging into the bottom and caught a glimpse of silver. Both the rim and top of the stem had dents in them from being whacked on something. It is beyond me while people treat their pipes the way they do. I mean, he obviously liked it because it was smoked a lot. Anyway, I scraped a bunch of crud, then soaked it all in alcohol for about a week. Then went to work on it with q-tips, pipe cleaners, paper towel, and sandpaper for a couple days. Repaired the deep bites in the stem with superglue and West System graphite powder. Sanded the bowl to bare briar and was surprised to see no voids or filler. The grain was not exactly inspiring so I did a contrast stain job on it. In the end it polished up to be a fairly nice looking pipe. I'm not smoking or keeping this one. It's on an online auction for ten bucks. Hopefully it'll make someone happy.
