Blog by Dal Stanton

I leave Bulgaria Monday, to join my family as we celebrate the wedding of my youngest daughter, who will be married to my future son-in-law in Nashville, November 6^th!  I decided to give my future son-in-law a wedding gift – not just my beautiful daughter!, but also his choice from among the pipes that I’ve restored.  I sent him a picture of pipes that all have been published on rebornpipes.com and encouraged him to look at the write-ups by searching my name and to choose the pipe he favored.  His choices were (from top to bottom), the No-name from Sozopol that was just published as my Dremel Polishing Techniques essay; Horn stem throw-away Pipe; a Butz-Choquin Rocamar with a Cumberland stem, a Jeantet Fleuron and, at the bottom, a Denicotea Deluxe Curling.He chose well.  He was drawn to the Butz-Choquin…

Blog by Dal Stanton

My reaction to Steve’s request that I write a step by step procedure of how I use a Dremel in my restorations was, “Who, me?  Uh….”  When he said that I was the only one that he knew of that uses a Dremel for the entire buffing/polishing process and that my results were up there with high powered buffers, these results piqued his curiosity.  When he also said that others too might be interested in my approach, I agreed to write this essay because I’ve benefit a great deal from reading others and discovering both methodologies of the art and the camaraderie that exists among pipe men (and women!) and those who restore tired pipes.  So, I proceed with this caveat: Since I’ve never used a normal sized powered buffing wheel I can’t compare these with my use of a Dremel.  My use of a Dremel…

Blog by Dal Stanton

When southerners in the US invoke the phrase, “Bless his heart….”, I’ve learned that it usually means that there is some problem or abnormality associated with the person that usually isn’t something he can control, or can’t be explained, or perhaps, even better, should be left without too much comment.  When I received these emailed pictures from Gary, my colleague in Plovdiv, and set my gaze on the two pipes he had purchased at a local antique shop and was gifting me, my reaction was to invoke, “Bless their hearts….”  Here are Gary’s finds that summoned forth my southern invocations.I would like to say how much I appreciate Gary – the stories we have shared and life we’ve experienced together – he with a choice cigar, I with a favorite blend and a named pipe – all my rotation pipes have names!  I also appreciate…