The Lot of 66, as I have called it, was probably my first large acquisition of pipes. I saw the Lot on eBay in September 2017. The by-line by the seller in Georgetown, Texas, was this: “Huge Lot of 66 Smoking Pipes, Pre-Owned, Pre-Smoked and Deeply Loved.” The final tag caught my attention. The seller …
Continue reading Reclaiming the legacy of a Comoy’s Made in London England P510 – D Billiard
This Ser Jacopo Rusticated Bent Egg came into my possession in a totally serendipitous way in June of 2021. The world was still up in the Covid frenzy, and my wife and I were still transitioning from life in Bulgaria to setting up shop in Golden, Colorado. One of the necessities of life I was …
Continue reading A Five-Month Adventure restoring an Exquisite Ser Jacopo Spongia R2 of Italy
The classic Gourd Calabash on the table came to me a few days before Christmas in 2018, when my wife and I were in the US from Bulgaria to celebrate the holidays with family. I was anxious to do some ‘pipe picking’ and so the family went on a ‘picking’ day together. One place we …
Continue reading Mending Shank Cracks to Revive a Gourd Calabash – Austria
January of 2018 was when I saw this Mastercraft Bulldog on the eBay auction block. The Bulldog seemed to have good ‘bones’ from the seller’s pictures, but the straight saddle stem was a bit out of kilter mounted on a bent shank. The stem seemed to be begging to be bent to the proper orientation. …
Continue reading Reviving a Mastercraft Imported Briar Bulldog
The Pipe Steward 