What Should I do With This (?)

[madox07]

I was gifted this, picked up by a friend who knows I am into the hobby - probably at a flea market for a symbolic sum. He was excited that he found this for me, just sent me pics ... however ... I noticed this on the side of the shank. Should I smoke this? Will it crack on a first smoke? Can it be fixed? Pity ... I like bulldogs too.

 

[matchstickman]

As far as it cracking on first smoke, I seriously doubt it. Does the stem come out and go back in with relative ease? If the stem is a tight fit and you have to rotate it quite a bit to get it out of the shank, it might make it worse over time, but it's hard to tell at this point. I've had pipes that have had cracks like that and sent them off to a repair person for a simple band to draw the shank back together, but I've never had it done on a shank that is squared off like that. I'm assuming that a reputable repair person could still get the job done for reasonable cost, and if it has sentimental value and is a pipe that you will use, it would easily be worth the money to get it sent off.

 

[madox07]

Not sure yet .. I haven't received the parcel. What is this Mori's brand anyway? I couldn't find anything online ..

 

[mso489]

Unless this is part of a small rotation of pipes, I think it would not only smoke, but it would probably smoke for four or five years and perhaps after that for years, if handled and maintained gently. If you clean it up and especially like it, you could have it repaired by a pro, for not too much I'd guess, or with advice from Forums restorers, you could do a fix yourself. But I don't see this as the end for this pipe for a long time. I would guess a previous owner had a heavy hand in taking off the stem and either one-time or over time cracked the shank. I don't see this as a process within the pipe itself. Some people just don't know their own strength and have a heavy hand.