Zeno Marx
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- Jun 26, 2010
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I recently ran into little issues on a couple estate pipes where the stem had elements of possibly being replacement and then the other possibly having a delrin insert added for the tenon . Something about the trademark didn't seem right on the one, and the insert didn't seem normal in the other. While many trademarks and stampings are included on sites like pipedia, they could use more details and examples of the minutiae. I would have liked to have access to images of the buttons and how the tenons are finished. Little pieces of evidence to aid in establishing the pipe and/or stem as original or unaltered. The stem work is where I think a lot of this would be most helpful. There's no way for anyone to be able to document whether an airway has been redrilled and gaped wider. That's a whole other deal.
Examples of this are like how Charatan often has a 2-step tenon, where the first step butts up against the mortise, and then the smaller second step goes into the airway a little. Or how some Italian makers don't have just a slit in the mouth end of the stem. They have a little round accent indentation, for lack of a better way to put it, dead-center in the slit, maybe as a guide for pipe cleaners. Or how some tenons aren't just cut flat. They've been cut and then lathed to have a rounded concaveness to feed the smoke in a gradual manner into the stem airway. Another poor way of describing that, but if there was a photo, it would make sense. You'd immediately have another piece of evidence that this was an original stem, because even the best replacement stems don't usually go into that unique original detail.
I'm 95% sure about my conclusions for both pipes, but it would be nice to have a place to reference these things. I don't know if pipedia is interested in including that kind of stuff, though. By the way, this is where rebornpipes can be really handy, if he's taken multiple angles of stems.
Examples of this are like how Charatan often has a 2-step tenon, where the first step butts up against the mortise, and then the smaller second step goes into the airway a little. Or how some Italian makers don't have just a slit in the mouth end of the stem. They have a little round accent indentation, for lack of a better way to put it, dead-center in the slit, maybe as a guide for pipe cleaners. Or how some tenons aren't just cut flat. They've been cut and then lathed to have a rounded concaveness to feed the smoke in a gradual manner into the stem airway. Another poor way of describing that, but if there was a photo, it would make sense. You'd immediately have another piece of evidence that this was an original stem, because even the best replacement stems don't usually go into that unique original detail.
I'm 95% sure about my conclusions for both pipes, but it would be nice to have a place to reference these things. I don't know if pipedia is interested in including that kind of stuff, though. By the way, this is where rebornpipes can be really handy, if he's taken multiple angles of stems.