I’m on a roll with a Lot of 7 pipes I found on a picking expedition in August 2021 when my wife and I were visiting our home of 15 years in Bulgaria. We returned to see friends and we decided to go to the Black Sea coast for some much-needed holiday. We found ourselves …
Continue reading New Life for a Classy Big-Ben Royal-Silver 445 Made in Holland
This resurrection project cannot be descibed as a mere restoration. It started in August 2021 when my wife and I returned to Bulgaria a year after leaving this our home of 15 years. One of our special places we visited and a place of respite during our time in Bulgaria was a little lazy fishing …
The next pipe on the table brings back very good memories. Our 15 years living in Sofia, Bulgaria, provided many opportunities to visit our neighbor to the south, Greece. One such visit was in April 2018 when I attended a conference on better understanding of the Eastern Orthodox Church and its impact on Eastern European …
Continue reading Pipe Picking in Athens, Greece – An Unbranded Slightly Bent Oval Shank Billiard
Well, after about a month of fighting off sickness and finally getting some antibiotics, I’m able to get back to the restoration of this Barok Pickaxe. Here we go! The next pipe on the worktable came to me in what I call the Lot of 68 that I acquired in February of 2019 from a …
Middle Earth Churchwardens are cool, and truth be known, I don’t think I’ll achieve either the Hobbit or Wizard standard when this project is completed, but I like to fashion Churchwardens out of the orphaned, tossed away bowls. A simple search in Google of ‘Pipes in Middle Earth’ produces many Tolkien worthy pipes and Lord …
Continue reading Fashioning a ‘Middle Earth’ Churchwarden from a Rusticated Orphaned Bowl
The next pipe on the worktable is a classic Custombilt, a brand that always recalls a campfire in a rustic setting for me. It came to me in February 2019 in a Lot of 68 pipes from a seller in West Hartford, Connecticut. This Lot of 68 pipes has provided and continues to offer up …
Continue reading Unraveling the Nomenclature of a Custombilt IMPORTED BRIAR Panel
The next pipe on the worktable is a nice-looking Apple shape that came to me from a pipe man who wished to remain anonymous. He had seen my restorations in various Facebook groups and because they also helped to support the work of the Daughters of Bulgaria, he reached out to me in 2019. My …
Continue reading Refreshing an Elegant Chapuis Comoy Sunrise Amber Grain Vintage Briar 159 of France
The next pipe on the worktable is the second of three pipes that N.R. has commissioned. The first pipe was a Lillehammer GL Super Extra 61 Made in Norway which came out beautifully (New Life for a Classic Lillehammer GL Super Extra 61 Made in Norway – The Pipe Steward).The Savinelli Capri Root Briar that got …
Continue reading A New Start for a Savinelli Capri Root Briar 310 Italy Cherrywood
The next pipe in the queue is FINALLY on the ‘mobile worktable’ here at Dale’s Hollow Campground in Tennessee. My wife and I embarked on a 4-month road trip in April from Golden, Colorado, and we will not return until mid-July. We are visiting churches that have supported us over the years in Ukraine, Spain …
I describe this next pipe on the worktable as a Dublin shape. The bowl is slightly canted and has nice lines. It has beautiful vertical grain and that is the main draw-factor of this pipe. This is the second pipe that pipe man Bill from Pennsylvania has commissioned. The first was a Tribune Rusticated Dublin …
The Pipe Steward 