WDC Special Wellington

[Briar Lee]

My first really good pipe was a huge WDC Wellington with a blast finish and P lip in 1977, and I still enjoy it when I want a looooong smoke.

For $40 delivered I just bought this 10 inch WDC Wellington Special.


It’s tempting to call this a poor boy’s Peterson house pipe, but when I bought my other Wellington 45 years ago a friend in the dormitory claimed a Wellington was a certain shape of pipe and not a counterfeit Peterson system pipe.

I paid $5 for my first one, but it had been placed in a box under a box of laundry detergent in an old time service station, and it took quite a while to smoke the soap ghosts away.

This one looks pretty low use, and older production, with more stampings.

Anyone else have a Wellington?

 

[cosmicfolklore]

Lee, I may be wrong, but did you not make a very similar post a while back? Pictures and all? I remember the bit about the box of detergent.

 

[romaso]

More info on the Wellington here & the post after:

Leather Pipe Stand Hack :: General Pipe Smoking Discussion

I stumbled across something and figured I'd share with the class. Leather pipe stands look nice but can be a little costly. Amazon sells leather headstock straps for just over $1 a piece and they are available in several colors. Normally, the straps are meant for guitars, but they can be...

pipesmagazine.com

 

[Kobold]

Lee, I may be wrong, but did you not make a very similar post a while back? Pictures and all? I remember the bit about the box of detergent.

I think you’re right. I remember the box of detergent part too.

 

[Briar Lee]

Lee, I may be wrong, but did you not make a very similar post a while back? Pictures and all? I remember the bit about the box of detergent.

Yes, I did ruminations on my old soapy WDC giant Wellington.

For the last 45 years I’ve kept an eye out for another one, and here it is.

That first one was also my first sandblast pipe. Looking at the lack of stampings on the first one compared with this one, my old one was post World War Two and this one might even be pre World War One.

Before World War One, a big, nice WDC pipe was as a matter of course made in the USA out of imported Mediterranean briar.

My first WDC giant Wellinton has a base metal collar that’s unstamped, and this one reads Nickel Plated. They were proud of that.

This one also has a fishtail button. WDC wasn’t copying anybody when it was made.

A ten inch long pipe is a moose. The very size of it likely saved it from heavy use.

This is like owning a big 500 Smith and Wesson revolver.

The main objective is to say

Lookie here at my big giant toy!

Then it goes right back to the drawer where it usually sleeps.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

Yes, and I believe you said that your first one was a gift from your wife.
Well... nice pipe. I'd probably put it in a drawer too.

 

[anantaandroscoggin]

I have one, smooth finish. The metal band is stamped "NICKELOID EXTRA PLATED," and the bowl and stem are both marked with the WDC in a triangle and the word Wellington.

I also have a small Wellington which has a dark-yellow shade of pipe stem (but not a p-lip style at the mouthpiece end).

 

[Briar Lee]

Today there was a black powder shoot at Jordan, and afterwards I drove to my farm to see how the fence row clearing was going, and drove back home the long way so I could eat at a little drive in.

I smoked my huge NOT FOR SALE White Spot all day, burned up a lot of tobacco, and enjoyed every puff.

It’s a giant Wellington shape.



It takes a huge hunk of briar to make any jumbo Wellington. They have a water well, and a large condensation chamber that goes up in the stem.

No matter who made my White Spot it’s a deluxe, very well made large pipe with not one fill or any stain I can see.

A Peterson System is so close it’s interchangeable.

Those old giant Wellingtons by WDC are a bargain.

Who cares, who stamped it?

 

[Briar Lee]

My WSC Wellington arrived today, and it’s even larger than I’d hoped for. With my German Hunter’s pipe as a possible exception, this is the largest pipe I own, and I’ve ever seen. Such a deal for $40.




30 seconds in the microwave allowed me to bend the stem to suit me.

It’s clean, barely smoked, almost new condition.

I think there’s highly figured briar under the deeply stained and well polished finish, but I’m leaving it alone for now.

There’s a reason they stained it that dark. It looks good now, and it might not if I steel wooled the stain away.

It smokes like a huge, ancient briar pipe should, cool, sweet, and dry.

 

[anantaandroscoggin]

You don't use musket caps, do you? I can't find them anywhere at all.

 

[Briar Lee]

You don't use musket caps, do you? I can't find them anywhere at all.

I don’t, but I wish I did have a black powder gun that used real musket caps.

All mine take #10, #11 caps or 201 shotgun primers.

I worked up the courage to strip the stain off this pipe, and it worked out for the best. Grapeseed oil and steel wool, are a pipe smoker’s friend.