Stanwell de Luxe No. 86

I tried a new bit polishing idea with this one. Instead of doing the entire bit and losing some of the Stanwell stamping I only polished up to the shoulder of the saddle. I quite like the contrast, might do more this way.

A lovely pipe that I will post more photo's of once I have polished the stummel and used carnauba on it :)

The Sultan playing Stair Dismount

Grinder conversion

After Hoot and i talked about surface speed i decided it get an adapter for my bench grinder $20.
I all ways though that it was too fast 2850 1/3hp.
But the wheels i have now are small so a low surface speed .
Works a treat easier to transfer the wax more friction and light pressure to polish the wax .
I polished a test pipe and it worked great.
And it's almost silent i can polish at all hours of the night yea.
But hang on tight and never loose concentration for a second 1/3hp will shoot it across the shed.

Left wheel has my old wax on it second from the right has carnauba wax 

Finally made the wax melt.

Sultan with a feather

Well, here are a few quick snaps of my meer. Not much colour yet, then again I've only put maybe 10 bowls through it...I shall have to get back into it one day...on the list :) You can see the pink coming through in the places that have been more deeply carved. enjoy! Oh, it's white in real life, I just forgot to change the colour balance and couldn't be bothered going back and retaking the photo's...or colour balancing in Photoshop...meh.

The Sultan Turkish Meerschaum

I looked out the back door at the letter box and sitting on top was probably the most anticipated parcel  ever.
I limped  down the stairs like an arthritic  51 year old on Christmas morning.

HAHAHA

I so love a case.
I was quite surprised by the size its huge.
Built like a guitar case.

Fits the case very nicely.

He's a good looking fella.
I like the hole between  his head and the sash on his turban   

What a profile.

If i trimmed my beard and had a turban.
At least we have the same color beard.

Nicely tapered bowl.
The last time it will be this white ever.

Great detail and its a sitter.

My first Lucite bit.

The first bowl gently packed and not to full.
Smoked  wonderfully.
Very cool. 

After 7 bowls.

I am going to smoke this pipe a lot.

I want to see some colour.

I have only handled it with cotton gloves.

Not sure if i can keep it up or not.

It would feel so good in the hand. 

Some say just have clean hands.

Now to become educated about waxing meerschaum pipes. 

Last but not least my thanks go to Hobo Hoot for this incredible gift.

It will be become a true friend.        

Coming soon the Sultan

This weeks new Tobacco

Eileen's Dream Irish cream & white chocolate truffles.
All i'm going to say is it was cheap and better then Borekum Ruff

Sounds better than it is.

Either way it's a weeks worth of nicotine. 

Carnauba wax first Pipe

Fired up the Hobo buff today running my drill at full speed and pressing hard i managed to transfer a little wax on to the wheel.
The wax is so hard the HH block is like a piece of plastic wow.

You can see the edge of the wax is rounded.
The wheel on top has the wax on it.  

I used the Barling as a test.
You really have to be careful now as producing enough friction to transfer the wax to pipe has its risks.
So full speed on the drill.
Press the pipe hard and hang on.
And keep the pipe moving
In the end i had a thin coating over the pipe hard to see it but you could feel it.

This is with out a doubt the next level of polishing. 

Dr Plumb is a bit out classed 

Then at slow speed i polished  the pipe.

In the flesh it looks like glass.

Carnauba wax experiment

I melted down some more carnauba wax yesterday. However, this time I placed it in the freezer to cool directly from the oven. Initially everything was fine, but then the wax cracked badly. No matter, back in the oven to remelt and then an hour or so cooling on the bench-top and everything was ok again.

As you can see the colour of the quick-cooled version is the same as the bench cooled version. The quick-cooled wax does have a slightly more consistent appearance. But I noticed that when I put the remelted wax on top of the cool (big) stove-top hotplate in my kitchen it cooled rapidly without cracking and also had a more consistent appearance.

I think the day that I did the original batch it was quite warm so the outer layers of wax had longer to cool and set before the middle layers started to cool and set. Not that it makes any difference I guess, but I am trying to make the highest quality product possible and every little thing may help. Let's see what HD can do with that initial block :)

Badly cracked but more consistent in colour. I'm quite impressed by how resilient carnauba seems to be, not even poor handling seems to change it's physical properties.

A perfect Meerschaum pipe

“A perfect Meerschaum pipe is decidedly 

one of the choicest and rarest gifts of 

the gods; but like all choice and rare 

gifts, it is a source of considerable 

anxiety to the owner. Like women, its, 

‘name is frailty.’ As originally taken in 

hand, and presented to the lips, nothing 

can exceed the loveliness of its looks—its 

delicious smoothness, its graceful 

rotundity of form, and apparent innocence 

from everything that can tarnish a 

reputation. But, alas! you take it as 

you take a wife, ‘for better and for 

worse;’ and again, alas! it does not fare 

better with the smoker and his Meerschaum 

than with man and wife.”

-The Smoker’s Guide, Philosopher and Friend 

A Veteran of Smokedom, 1876 

Wade Pipe stand

A very nice Wade made in England Pipe Rest

I think i might retire my Hobo 1/2 a Dunny roll stand.

Alexander Briar ebauchon - grain investigation

Well, I was keen to find out what the grain was like in the Alexander ebauchons, bring out the sander! After a few quick licks on my hobo sanding disc, and a wipe with some water, I was mightily impressed. Mr Zavvos, you have a quality product sir :)

Hobo sanding disc...check. Briar ebauchon...check.

Tentative light sanding...check. Possibility of nice grain...CHECK (getting very excited at this point, heart pounding).

Light wipe with water...check. Possibility of jumping around the yard screaming 'WAHOO!'  check check check CHECK CHECK!

WAHOO! Close-up, what can I say, got to be happy :)