Meerschaum full of plug

Smokes cool

Re-carve: Old Briar 512

This one was nasty dirty and painted with both black paint and shellac. In the first photo it looks okish, but trust me it was nasty  So, I figured that it's briar and that it's not worth anything, so why not give it a re-carve and see what happens?

Well, lessons learnt today:

1. Briar is hard, even sharp tools slide off it.
2. Sanding disks in a hobo drill setup take off a lot of material - FAST
3. My god briar is hard. I learnt this several times and in several different ways so it gets another mention.
4. Symmetry is very hard to achieve when you are trying to work around existing things such as rustication. I had to take off a lot of material and as a result left a few places very thin (bottom of the shank for one).
5. Re-facing a stummel is a pain without some sort of guide  to align the cut 90 degrees to the mortise.

The original pipe.

Hobo pipe sanding and shaping disc.

Step 1: Remove most of the rustication. 80 grit sanding pad...WOW briar eater!

Hobo pipe clamp. Old rake handle...meet pipe.

I had to remove a lot of material to get through all of the rustication. A cup of tea and redesign was required!

After much sanding I stopped here for the night, sun had gone down. May have to wait all week before I can work on it again...big week at work. I'm happy with the general shape and the symmetry is getting there. The stem/shank interface is terrible and the rim is close to even but not close enough. The shank is square with rounded corners. Note also the bit has gone from a double saddle to a single saddle. If I manage not to kill the pipe (have come close a few times) this one will head to Hobo Dave for extensive 'testing'.

One of tonight's smokes

The rock Peterson

Bullet Tamper

Full of Erinmore

Great prices Great pipes Look at those Bulldogs

Morning head spin

Ready to go

Not a quick smoke

Starting to get short best bang for your buck tobacco.

Puffed a bit hard and paid the price haven't smoked the plug straight for a while.

Tonight's main smoke. Der Hauptrauch von Tonight

P-Lippe-Deutsch-Hauspfeife
P-Lip German house pipe 

This tobacco flake cutter is the best thing i use it every day more than once.
Dieser Tabakflocke-Schneidende is the bestes Ding verwende ich es jeden Tag mehr als einmal.

Morning pipe.

The classy Comoy's Tradition 363 and the last of the Samuel Gawith Chocolate flake.

This tobacco is the nicest tobacco i have smoked good nicotine hit smooth just the slightest hint of dark chocolate.

Peterson's 80S Silver Spigot

Melbourne smoke polished and ready for action, shall have to find a nice park to smoke it in.

Plug cutter and silver Peterson's

My plug cutter arrived today, shall have to make a wood block for it. I also pulled some silver Peterson's out to pose for a photograph. They are all next on the 'need to clean' list. Won't be this weekend though, off to Melbourne. Next week perhaps.

Hallmarks

All Peterson Silver Mounted Pipes carry three distinctive marks :

Image and info credit: www.peterson.ie

1. The Symbol Hibernia (Ireland) denoting the country of origin.
2. .925 is a new European standard mark denoting the high quality (purity) of the silver used.
3. The Date Letter Code for the year in which the silver was hallmarked and the pipe made.

Tonight's main smoke

Tonight the good Dr Plumb the more i smoke it the better it gets.
The flake cutter is wonderful look at the flakes it cuts remember this tobacco is as hard as wood.

Can't carry all that around  when you go out.

A little corrosion ads Patina   

House of cards

So hard to rub out.

Precision  cuts need to find my vernier calipers. Forgot to cube it may be next time.

The morning jolt

The Lama packed to the brim with Irish cake.

Now that's a kick start .