I was at my parents today and as we sat there having coffee I pulled out the pipe I had brought along and started to fill it. My dad said "Oh, you are converting over to pipes now?". They both are cig smokers, and my dad used to dabble in pipe smoking on and off from his college days up till say... 25-30 years ago or so. I told him yeah, he was like "Well, heck... hold on... I don't need this taking up space anymore...". He goes into a drawer on the desk, starts digging way into the back of it, and starts pulling out his old pipes and putting them on the table for me.
The most interesting ones are 2 Dr Grabow Vikings, with several different bowls, all of which are in very usable condition with minimal cleaning and such, and a French made pipe with a meer lining. I can see the meer has a crack in it, but it's not actually missing pieces out of the lining, so not sure if that is salvageable or not. Then there is a vintage Medico briar, and an Italian made most likely basket pipe. Those two are also still in working order with minimal cleaning needed.
I already cleaned up the inside of the Vikings with some everclear and pipe cleaners and paper towels... then cleaned up the two bowls on the stems in the pic with some light reaming (not anywhere near down to wood, just enough to smooth out the bore), then some everclear on pipe cleaners and paper towels in the bowls. I was careful to not get the everclear on the rims, and cleaned those up best I could with saliva.
Over all, I'm pretty pumped to have those in my collection at this point, even if I never actually smoke them much (or at all).
The most interesting ones are 2 Dr Grabow Vikings, with several different bowls, all of which are in very usable condition with minimal cleaning and such, and a French made pipe with a meer lining. I can see the meer has a crack in it, but it's not actually missing pieces out of the lining, so not sure if that is salvageable or not. Then there is a vintage Medico briar, and an Italian made most likely basket pipe. Those two are also still in working order with minimal cleaning needed.
I already cleaned up the inside of the Vikings with some everclear and pipe cleaners and paper towels... then cleaned up the two bowls on the stems in the pic with some light reaming (not anywhere near down to wood, just enough to smooth out the bore), then some everclear on pipe cleaners and paper towels in the bowls. I was careful to not get the everclear on the rims, and cleaned those up best I could with saliva.
Over all, I'm pretty pumped to have those in my collection at this point, even if I never actually smoke them much (or at all).
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