LL
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(This is a copy of a post I just made to SF, since there are a number of BoB'ers who don't go there and I frequent both boards.)
I rarely post cleaned up pipes, but this batch seemed like an interesting story.
First, they were acquired as a set, and the taste of the original collector was exceptional. Both the shape choice and specimen choice are outstanding.
Second, they were by a considerable margin the dirtiest pipes I've ever worked on. In excellent condition under the grunge---no dents, burns, cracks, chewed stems, etc.---but they'd been smoked heavily for 40-50 years and literally never cleaned. All had 100% lava coverage of the rim, cement-hard cake closing the bowl to the diameter of a pencil, stem and shank you could barely see light through, and a 100% closed tenon/mortise gap (meaning completely filled with varnish/tar).
Then, once the lava was off I saw something rarely encountered in the PipeWorld---acid etching. On every pipe, the color layer was gone. In fact, there was no longer a clear boundary between the lava and the wood, one just merged into the other. Ditto the airway. It had started to erode outward and was textured like the surface of the moon. It had to be re-cut to achieve smoothness.
In short, the "satisfaction index" of getting this set in shape was the highest I've experienced in recent memory, so I thought I'd share. From a something that required a mask and rubber gloves to handle in the beginning, to a set I would dearly love to own myself.
I rarely post cleaned up pipes, but this batch seemed like an interesting story.
First, they were acquired as a set, and the taste of the original collector was exceptional. Both the shape choice and specimen choice are outstanding.
Second, they were by a considerable margin the dirtiest pipes I've ever worked on. In excellent condition under the grunge---no dents, burns, cracks, chewed stems, etc.---but they'd been smoked heavily for 40-50 years and literally never cleaned. All had 100% lava coverage of the rim, cement-hard cake closing the bowl to the diameter of a pencil, stem and shank you could barely see light through, and a 100% closed tenon/mortise gap (meaning completely filled with varnish/tar).
Then, once the lava was off I saw something rarely encountered in the PipeWorld---acid etching. On every pipe, the color layer was gone. In fact, there was no longer a clear boundary between the lava and the wood, one just merged into the other. Ditto the airway. It had started to erode outward and was textured like the surface of the moon. It had to be re-cut to achieve smoothness.
In short, the "satisfaction index" of getting this set in shape was the highest I've experienced in recent memory, so I thought I'd share. From a something that required a mask and rubber gloves to handle in the beginning, to a set I would dearly love to own myself.




