I've got an old pre-colored claw pipe, seen here as it arrived from eBay:
This came to me with an old vulcanite stem, which had turned green and sour. I know these can be reconditioned, but I suspect it had amber when it was new. I took it to Racine & Laramie in San Diego, the owner of which fitted it with a 1930s Catalin stem. Soon after I got home, it fell off a table and the tenon snapped. The old tenon was dark brown, nearly black, of unknown material (I assume bone), and was stuck tight in the shank.
I'd like to have it re-stemmed with something that looks like amber, preferably like the transparent red-orange I see on antique pipes with amber stems. Whoever does it will need to figure out how to remove the old tenon. To which shop should I send it? Can anyone who has had pipes re-stemmed by some or other shops please post photos of their faux-amber? I'd also love to have the bowl and shank cleaned a bit inside, so I could really smoke it again.
I asked this of Condor a while back, ended up not having the necessary funds to spare, and soon forgot who was recommended to me.
Edited by jvnshr: Title capitalization.
This came to me with an old vulcanite stem, which had turned green and sour. I know these can be reconditioned, but I suspect it had amber when it was new. I took it to Racine & Laramie in San Diego, the owner of which fitted it with a 1930s Catalin stem. Soon after I got home, it fell off a table and the tenon snapped. The old tenon was dark brown, nearly black, of unknown material (I assume bone), and was stuck tight in the shank.
I'd like to have it re-stemmed with something that looks like amber, preferably like the transparent red-orange I see on antique pipes with amber stems. Whoever does it will need to figure out how to remove the old tenon. To which shop should I send it? Can anyone who has had pipes re-stemmed by some or other shops please post photos of their faux-amber? I'd also love to have the bowl and shank cleaned a bit inside, so I could really smoke it again.
I asked this of Condor a while back, ended up not having the necessary funds to spare, and soon forgot who was recommended to me.
Edited by jvnshr: Title capitalization.