What does fills look like after LOTS of smoke?

[Isagar]

I know people hate fills for 2 reason:

1. Craver trying to hide flaws from buyer (either unethical or just low grade pipe/briar)
and
2. After lots of smoke it melts down and eventually show off the flaws beneath

So as regards to reason no.2, is there any photos anyone can post to show me what it actually looks like after lots and lots of smoke?

Reason I asked is that a while ago I bought a Soren Refbjerg pipe and I was very disappointed to discover it had some MASSIVE fills. One is half an inch in size. I have yet to smoke it as in its current form it is quite pretty and I'm afraid after smokes it will lose its beauty due to all the flaws surfacing.

 

[Geoff]

You've nailed the problem with fills. The maker tries to match to the current coloring -- often not that well. As the pipe ages it naturally darkens and the fill stands out.

I haven't seen any melt away for the factory pipes. It appears they use a prestained plastic wood that cures well.

Truthfully, I rather see the pit than what results later. You view a pipe and maybe think it isn't bad. Then you start living with the fill and aging and it becomes a constant, nagging reminder.

 

[scotties22]

This is an old Comoy I bought off ebay a while back. It was well taken care of, but heavily smoked. The fills are quite visible, but very solid. I bought it for the shape, so the fills don't bother me too much.

As a pipemaker I will never use fills. The pits are either okay or too big to make the pipe saleable. ...there is no middle ground.

 

[Isagar]

Thanks for much Scottie for that photo. It's exactly what I was looking for :cheers: 

Bad news is...I'm probably not gonna smoke the Refbjerg pipe....for now.

 

[Fr_Tom]

Here is another good example.

 

[pepesdad1]

This is an old Comoy I bought off ebay a while back. It was well taken care of, but heavily smoked. The fills are quite visible, but very solid. I bought it for the shape, so the fills don't bother me too much.

As a pipemaker I will never use fills. The pits are either okay or too big to make the pipe saleable. ...there is no middle ground.

 
 
 
Are you sure it is a Comoy?  Is the wood stamped with the Comoy logo?  Reason I asked is that stamped Comoys allegedly had NO FILLS.  Their seconds did have fills and that is why they were seconds (Guildhall, etc.)

 

[scotties22]

This is an old Comoy I bought off ebay a while back. It was well taken care of, but heavily smoked. The fills are quite visible, but very solid. I bought it for the shape, so the fills don't bother me too much.

As a pipemaker I will never use fills. The pits are either okay or too big to make the pipe saleable. ...there is no middle ground.

 
 
 
Are you sure it is a Comoy?  Is the wood stamped with the Comoy logo?  Reason I asked is that stamped Comoys allegedly had NO FILLS.  Their seconds did have fills and that is why they were seconds (Guildhall, etc.)

it is stamped Comoy's over Guildhall. Do you know much about Comoy's? I have a few and am interested in learning more......sorry for kinda hijacking the thread..

 

[BigCasino]

I don't like to use "fill" on my pipes either, like Scottie says either they are good to go or too big to sell, and I keep them and smoke them myself

personally I like the little pits and flaws in briar I think it gives them a little bit of character, and make the pipe look more natural

In highschool wood shop our instructor made us use those plastic type of fills you had to melt with a soldering iron and then drip it into the knot, crevice and then sand it smooth, it never stained  the same color and looked more nasty then the flaw at least for my tastes

 

[sisyphus]

Comoy's hierarchy:

Specimen
Blue Riband
Selected Straight Grain *
Extraordinaire
London Pride
Tradition
Grand Slam
Sandblast

those are all the first quality lines. The following are Comoy's house seconds:

Guildhall
Everyman

after that are many, many seconds lines that do not bear the Comoy's name at all.

In that first group you won't find fills. The stems will be hand cut. Specimen and SSG are straight grain. Blue Riband straight and flame. Extraordinaire more often than not ODA sized pipes, but occaisionally used for pipes with spectacular birdseye. All the rest are mixed grain.

In the last decade before the merger Comoy's introduced a few new lines, but nothing really of interest except for the Pebble Grain sandblasts.

* Selected Straight Grains were themselves seconds of a sort. They would have, but for some flaw, been Specimens. Sometime you can't find the flaw, sometimes it's more obvious. Sometimes they had a C on the stem, but more often they did not.

 

[pepesdad1]

This is an old Comoy I bought off ebay a while back. It was well taken care of, but heavily smoked. The fills are quite visible, but very solid. I bought it for the shape, so the fills don't bother me too much.

As a pipemaker I will never use fills. The pits are either okay or too big to make the pipe saleable. ...there is no middle ground.

 
 
 
Are you sure it is a Comoy?  Is the wood stamped with the Comoy logo?  Reason I asked is that stamped Comoys allegedly had NO FILLS.  Their seconds did have fills and that is why they were seconds (Guildhall, etc.)

it is stamped Comoy's over Guildhall. Do you know much about Comoy's? I have a few and am interested in learning more......sorry for kinda hijacking the thread..

 
 
 
I have 12 Comoy pipes from the 60's....I wouldn't say I know much about the Comoy brand pipes...not as much as some of the other guys here....but enough to know that if it is stamped Comoy and has a "C" in three parts on the stem...it is gonna be a winner with NO fill.

 

[pipe dreamer]

I too don't sell pipes with fill. I will repair the flaw then give it to someone with full disclosure that is on my list for rejects. No since in waisting briar, if they burn through, I repair them for free.In this economy a lot of people just can't buy a pipe and it feels good to see a happy puffer.I would hate to pay good money and find a fill or two.When I have, it's always a factory pipe.I don't think a pipe carver would purposely sell a pipe with fills.imho.

 

[rothnh]

I don't care for fills, but like many puffers, I do have some pipes that have them.

That said, I think what it all boils down to is how the pipe smokes, and fills, in and of themselves, will not affect the pipe's smoking qualities.

Using that Comoy Guildhall second as an example, as long as the fills are the pipe's only "flaws," I believe it smokes just as well as a "first."

 

[pipemaker]

Funny,
I was led to believe that a fill looked like a popped zit after being smoked.

Mike B

 

[rothnh]

Funny,
I was led to believe that a fill looked like a popped zit after being smoked.

Mike B

Fills are annoying.

But the reality of life is fills do not impair how the pipe smokes. I just looks bad.

 

[Richard Burley]

A contribution to this topic:

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[Briar Spirit]

Like some already stated, fills are a no-no, nature made the Briar exactly the way it is, the 'flaws' as we call them are just her form of beauty marks with Briar, sure, some are a little too 'beautiful' for the Briar to be used for a pipe I feel and those blocks get cut up and used for tampers or keyfobs with me.

A contribution to this topic:

Now there's a pipe that should never have been sold.  :shock: 

 

[Hawker]

Like some already stated, fills are a no-no, nature made the Briar exactly the way it is, the 'flaws' as we call them are just her form of beauty marks with Briar, sure, some are a little too 'beautiful' for the Briar to be used for a pipe I feel and those blocks get cut up and used for tampers or keyfobs with me.

A contribution to this topic:

Now there's a pipe that should never have been sold.  :shock: 

Wow and they even put there makers mark on it. You'd think it would of went in the basket briar as a no name.

 

[joshoowah]

That block should have been chunked, period.

 

[Peter-B]

That block should have been chunked, period.

I refinished one of my first pipes - an entry level Savinelli and it looked the above picture when I sanded it back (dropped it a few times). I think it's fairly common for cheap factory pipes these days. It's one of the reasons i've tried to sink more money into older estates instead of dropping the same money into cheaper new pipes.