Blog by Dal Stanton

This Rossi of Italy, along with several other pipes, were donated to The Pipe Steward from a good friend and pipe man, Dave Shain, who I worked with in Ukraine several years ago.   Dave also restores pipes and has a great website, http://www.ThePipery.com and regularly produces live podcasts opining the latest tobaccos, pipes and also critiques on cigars he’s tried out.  In 2017, Dave won the Master of Pipes award from the Chicago Pipe Collectors Club for his restoration work and charitable activities through The Free Pipe Project where Dave spearheads a program to send quality restored pipes to servicemen serving their country.  A few years ago, I visited Dave where he lives near Atlanta, Georgia, and we had a great time renewing our relationship.  He showed me his workshop, pipes and tobacco collection, and of course, we settled down in the ‘Barn’ flanked by a vintage…

Blog by Dal Stanton

With Christmas vacation before me I decide to take The Pipe Steward work desk on the road!  I’ve never done this before, but the holidays give the opportunity to think through what packing up would look like.  In the end, with the rotary tool as the workhorse of my pipe restoration operation, I was able to consolidate the essentials.To see this great country and more safely visit loved ones amid COVID concerns, we acquired a small travel trailer called an R-pod to pull with the car.  We make a 5-day trek camping from Golden, Colorado, to Port St. Lucie, Florida, to spend a WARMER Christmas with my mother on the ‘Gold Coast’ of Florida.  The Pod is pictured below at our wintry first night’s stop near Pueblo, Colorado, with snow-covered mountains in the background! An interesting pipe occupies the mobile worktable now.  It is the…

Blog by Dal Stanton

The Aldo Velani Trio Classic Billiard now on the worktable represents the 6^th of 7 pipes Daniel commissioned from the For “Pipe Dreamers” Only! collection.  It also represents the second Aldo Velani Trio Daniel included in his trove of 7.  I acquired 4 Aldo Velani Trios in 2018 in what I have called the St. Louis Lot of 26 that my son, Josiah, found in an antique shop. The original 4 Velanis are pictured below.The  Bent Apple and Rusticated Volcano have already found homes with new stewards. The Pot on the bottom is waiting for the Billiard to be completed to join Daniel’s commissioned pipes all which benefit the Daughters of Bulgaria – women and girls who have been trafficked and sexually exploited.   This is a classy line up of pipes!  Looking at their current restored states:   With the Classic Billiard next, some pictures…

Blog by Dal Stanton

With 4 of 7 of Daniel’s commissioned pipes completed, the pipes remaining are the last 2 Aldo Velani Trios that remained in the For “Pipe Dreamers” Only! collection and what I have called a, ‘Spotted Bent Billiard’ or perhaps, dragon skin!  This pipe is a ‘specialty pipe’ where the stummel was wrapped with a carbon resin material.  The ‘skin’ almost looks like dragon hide to me. The 2 Aldo Velani Trios remaining were acquired in 2018 in what I have called the St. Louis Lot of 26 that my son, Josiah, found in an antique shop. He was impressed by the quality of pipes in the Lot and emailed me in Bulgaria with a proposition of going in together for the Lot of 26.  His part in the purchase would be his Christmas present to me – that I would choose a pipe for my own…

Blog by Dal Stanton

Thanksgiving travels are now completed with us visiting kids and grandchildren in St. Louis and Nashville and I’m now back at the worktable in Golden, looking at an interesting pipe.  Daniel was bold to commission 7 pipes from the For “Pipe Dreamers” Only! collection and with 3 completed, the fourth is now on the table, a Meer lined Hilson Fantasia.  I acquired it along with another commission of Daniel, the Paul Viou Plume (See: Discovering the Vintage of a Paul Viou ‘Feather’ with the Help of Sebastien Beaud of Genod Pipes of St. Claude) from a Lot I acquired from an eBay seller in Paris.  The pictures show the French Lot of 50 and the Hilson marked by the arrow in the picture below.The Hilson is next on the worktable and I take some pictures to get a closer look.The Hilson name is…