Today i managed to make some photos of the broken pipes that i have gathered in time, from different friends, family and strangers.
Below are some photos and a story of each pipe that needs to be repaired:
1. Small Chacom Sport, received as a gift from a doctor that has quited smoking pipes. The bowl is cracked because of to much cake, i do not think that i could repair such damage. But i keep this pipe as a teaching material for new pipe smokers, who need to see what happens if they do not ream the bowl:
2. Old bruyere pipe, received from one of my aunts, it belonged to his husband. I don’t know the brand, it is not written on the pipe. It was smoked a lot, the varnish has big stains on it, and the bowl rim was burned and doesn’t have a smooth surface anymore. Also, the tenon doesn’t fit anymore in the shank :
3. A Mount Tai pipe, made in the ’70, received also from an aunt, it was smoked by an old relative of her’s. The bowl is in good shape, but the stem was broken and someone, not an professional pipe maker, repaired it with it think usual glue, and inserted an metal tenon instead of the old one. Off course that the new tenon does not fit well into the shank, which is also damaged, as you can see in the photos bellow.
4. A Venini pipe. I received from an colleague. the bowl is OK, but i think it was smoked a lot and the heel of the tobacco chamber has a very very small hole which is allowing air to enter from outside. I cleaned this pipe i think 20 times until it was smokable, but still has a sour taste (my friend told me that his younger brother used to smoke cigarette tobacco in it) so i removed the varnish as an experiment, but i did not had the time to go further with the repair:
5. An Gigi Collection 1993 pipe. I received this one from a friend, who told me that he had her at his home from some old relative, but did not smoke it. The exterior is nice, the briar is in good condition, but the problems are on the inside. The rim of the bowl is bitten on the inside, i think that someone tried to clear the cake without the proper tools. It has some cracks in the tobacco chamber from the old cake:
6. A BigBen pipe, the number and type i cannot see. This pipe had her shank cracked, and the former owner decided to repair it with glue and insert and metal ring to hold the shank together. The problem is that he glued also the stem together with the shank, so i cannot clean the pipe:
7. Unknown producer pipe. The varnish is in bad shape, also the tenon was destroyed and it was glued (what is this idea to glue the stem to the shank?) but off course that the glue did not hold, so the owner inserted a metal tenon. Also this solution did not work, so the pipe arrived into my hands:
8. Amphora straight pipe. For this pipe damage, i am guilty. The tenon was quite fixed into the shank, so i wanted to clean the pipe after a smoke and i forced the stem. Instead of detaching it from the shank, the bit decided to leave the stem, so now i have a broken stem:
9. An full bent La Montagnarde Derosee pipe. This one i bought from a pipe smoker, as used pipe. It has a lot of problems: the rim is not equal, on one side it was burned and the surface is no more smooth, the stem which is made from two parts is loosen in the shank and also the lip is not well connected with the shank, the previous owner inserted some scotch tape to hold them together. I want to replace the wooden shank with a longer bamboo or corn shank, until now i found only a corn piece suitable for the job:
Wow, I think the former owners of these pipes were more lucky than their pipes! Some of them look really with disabilities and need in resuscitation urgently , but some of them will not help anything.
N1 – dead man
N2 – You can sand off the rim of the bowl and surfase of the bowl also, You can grate tennon with a pencil, it will help. If not – sandpaper will help you
N3 -New stem, band on shank + a lot of albow grease
N4 – Sour taste speaks for itself
N5 – Remove completely old cake, if the bowl has cracks/burnouts – throw it away
N6 – dead man
N7- New stem + albow grease
N8 – N9 -new stems
IMHO
Igor