Simply elegant!

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Puff Daddy

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There's a lot to be said for understated elegance. I'm an admirer of the Danish flair and the Italian aesthetic in pipe carving and have examples of these styles - specimens of which I am quite fond - but when a simply cut traditional pipe possessing smooth clean lines which also exudes a certain warmth comes around I'm struck with the affirmation that such a pipe is as elegant and lovely to behold as the most impressionistically carved briar pipe out there.

These things do not come about easily [the creation of such beautiful simplicity] and the oft misguided commentaries claiming that pipes of this genre are easily massed produced and are therefore unoriginal (diluted by association) fail to recognize that even though such a shape may in fact have been replicated thousands of times on some machine, the archetypal examples of the shape are hard won and come about through much effort in seeking to execute perfection. Just ask any carver how difficult it actually is to execute the perfect billiard.

Couple that with the fact that this certain pipe is a seasoned veteran with many long years of service, expertly brought back to life by the hands of a caring craftsman, and you've got something irresistible!

A hand made Stanwell Flame Grain Registered saddle bit straight billiard came into my possession some months ago and I recognized it as such a pipe. It was, however, tired and battle scarred with dings and scratches, fading stain and worn finish, a stem in sore need of replacement and sadly possessing a certain unfriendly funk in the smoke chamber. Clearly this was a pipe deserving a life renewed, a pipe with considerably more yet to give. Where else to send it but Precision Smoking Pipe Rejuvenation and Repair, to the hands of George Dibos who possesses an uncanny intuition in the realm of fine pipe resurrection.

The pipe came back into my possession yesterday after a brief visit to PSPR&R and it looks like a brand new pipe! It's simply beautiful 8) A new acrylic stem (my choice) and an airway opened to match the pipes bore and length, a new finish that was expertly done and a pipe which no longer possesses any off it's former scars. Simply amazing!! Smokes like a dream too! Am on my second bowl, a gently smoldering portion of Rattray's Brown Clunee which tastes wonderful coming from the little group four chamber.

Cheers to the bygone carvers of that Stanwell era who took the time to craft such elegant briars and hats off to George who lovingly rejuvenated such a worthy companion! I am most grateful 8)

 
Even' PD, Your most elegant pipe tho is your Castello Liverpool! 8) Ken.
Pacem en Cantu! :tongue: :pirat:
 
That's a :star: beautiful :star: pipe PD. I don't remember seeing that one on your rack. :scratch:
I'll have to come over and check it out! :D

I am inspired to search for such a pipe and send it off to the Master for rejuvenation. He seems to have the :star: magic :star: touch.
 
George has done five pipes for me so far, and number six is currently up there in North Dakota waiting its turn.

What tweaks my pipe twanger are English/Irish and Danish old-timers from the mid-sixties and before. There are a lot of good things you can say about pipes like these, but superb airway engineering, bowl-to-bit isn't one of them. (Even the Reg.No. Stanwells have constricted draws).

The first two were for new, custom-made lucite stems to save the originals from further deterioration in use (inevitable in the long run with vulcanite, and 40+ years of previous use is a pretty long run already). They came back with the shape tweaks I requested (it's neat the way a stylish stem can really set off a nice stummel) & Rad Davis airway specs. The difference in their smoking quality was (to somebody used to living with old-timey airway shortcomings) amazing. Revelatory.

So the next two went up there for similar stems and having their flavor odometers rolled back to zero (enduring years of waiting for the accumulated residue of eau de Lakeland to gradually fade away through further smoking in an otherwise nice estate pipe is not my idea of enjoyment). Once again, mission accomplished. Embarcadero tasted like Embarcadero in them from the first bowls of it in them.

By now, I just figure $56 ($44 for the custom-made stem + postage to and fro) into the equation any time I'm pondering an eBay treasure flying under the radar (this still happens every once in a while. Not even every month these days, but the hunt is part of the fun). The end result is fewer pipes, but better-smoking ones than I could come up with for two or three times the outlay involved any other way. Said pipes being old & mellowed through age and use to begin with, the smile quotient of the racks here increases every time a renewed old one comes back from George's shop.

And that's how matters stand with

:face:

(who -- needless to say -- is not doing a "commercial endorsement" in return for money or some other benefit here because [a] nobody knows him from a can of paint in the first place and in the second place, he rubs a lot of people the wrong way. Nobody with a functional brain -- and I can assure you that George Dibos certainly has one -- would get him to endorse anything -- they'd get him to distance himself from what they did, lest they incur dis-taste-itude by association).

Now (assuming you didn't before) you know.
 
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