'Restoring' a no-name estate.

[0ldManJenkins]

I ordered a couple clay pipes on ebay..   There were two little clay pipes, and two 'wood' pipes.  I bought it just for the clay, because they looked like fun (and it is.) ~$13 including shipping, seemed OK to try the two clay pipes.

One of the wood pipes was like an MM Ozark in shape but not as good quality, with a chewed up stem... so nothing I really care about.
The other pipe was a briar, with no markings that was a dusty brown, with an oxidized stem and some teeth marks.  Pretty nondescript.

I didn't take any before pictures, because I wasn't expecting anything, but after hours of cleaning, polishing and buffing, I was surprised at what emerged.

I still have some polishing and there is still some oxidation that is visible in the sunlight, but some birds-eye grain appeared, and the pipe is starting to look nice.
There is a chip on the shank, that I will need to figure out how to fill, and the pipe does have a few small dings that I'll probably ignore.

Here's the one 'before' picture I have, taken from the Ebay pic;

And here's a pic that I just took with my cell phone;

It will never be worth a lot, but it's a bit like finding a treasure when I didn't expect anything, and I'm looking forward to smoking it.

 

[ontariopiper]

Nice find, OMJ! That's my kind of estate acquisition - cheap, cheerful and pleasantly surprising.

RE: the chip on the shank, I've had good luck mixing briar dust and CA glue to form sort of a wood paste filler. Dries fast, so get it in place quickly, then sand to shape. It ends up darker than the natural briar, but I don't think that would detract significantly from your estate find.

Of course if the dark fill bugs you, you could fit a nickel band over the end of the shank to hide the fix. That would dress up the old girl a bit, too.

 

[0ldManJenkins]

Thanks for the tips Ontariopiper.

Having a little color mismatch wouldn't bother me much on this one, but I really like the idea of a silver band. That would really look good.

 

[kaitlyn3837]

Nice little find!