Post by Goldbrick on Mar 12, 2022 12:13:50 GMT -5
I'm wondering just how many of you guys and gal have a pipe in your rotation that has survived a brush with death. Perhaps you dropped in in a pond, while fishing, and managed to save it, or you lost it, only to find it years later, in an old suitcase or behind a desk, or maybe it fell from your lips and landed in a campfire on a camping trip. Here's my story... 
Back in 1989, I traded an old Mastercraft billiard for a nice looking bent pot {at the time there were three young pipers, myself included, within a circle of ten miles...unreal, but true} and we'd meet-up for a trade now and then, Anyway I ended up with this nice smooth, bent pot, that was barely broke in, and it was everything I wanted in a pipe at the time, thick walls, golden oak coloring, light and well balanced, with ITAYL stamped on it.
After a few weeks of almost daily smoking I took it to a really nice pipe shop down town, The Tobacco Company, now long gone. As I walked through this Holy Land of pipes, sticking my nose in one jar after another, I had one of the salespeople shine my pipe and buff the stem on their wheel {
find a shop like that today if you can} and later I returned home with three or four new tobaccos and a fresh, shiny pipe.
That evening I sat down, having fetched in some firewood, and fed the Black lab, who was the newest member of our family back then, and I reached in the pocket of my flannel shirt, for my pipe, finding no pipe... as fear began to build I retraced my steps, no pipe on the table or counter, nor out at the woodpile, where a light rain had begun to fall, then I thought of the doghouse, and that's where I found my poor, poor ,chewed to crap pipe, and what a mess! What had only a short while before ,been a nice pipe, was now just a nasty old chew toy.
Some weeks later I sent the poor thing to a Carolina Crafter, and pipe-maker, named Jerry Perry, with the hope that he could salvage it. Jerry did a fine job, sanding, and restraining, and fitting a new lucite stem to it, but some of the toothmarks were so deep that the sanding left the pipe looking out of round, and for years it's gone unsmoked.
This week I found my hand drawn to the ole boy, for some reason, and I'm having a bowl of C.B. Royal in it right now, and reflecting about that old black lab and her strong teeth.
A longwinded account, I know, but I like to hear your story, if you have one.
Back in 1989, I traded an old Mastercraft billiard for a nice looking bent pot {at the time there were three young pipers, myself included, within a circle of ten miles...unreal, but true} and we'd meet-up for a trade now and then, Anyway I ended up with this nice smooth, bent pot, that was barely broke in, and it was everything I wanted in a pipe at the time, thick walls, golden oak coloring, light and well balanced, with ITAYL stamped on it.
After a few weeks of almost daily smoking I took it to a really nice pipe shop down town, The Tobacco Company, now long gone. As I walked through this Holy Land of pipes, sticking my nose in one jar after another, I had one of the salespeople shine my pipe and buff the stem on their wheel {
find a shop like that today if you can} and later I returned home with three or four new tobaccos and a fresh, shiny pipe.That evening I sat down, having fetched in some firewood, and fed the Black lab, who was the newest member of our family back then, and I reached in the pocket of my flannel shirt, for my pipe, finding no pipe... as fear began to build I retraced my steps, no pipe on the table or counter, nor out at the woodpile, where a light rain had begun to fall, then I thought of the doghouse, and that's where I found my poor, poor ,chewed to crap pipe, and what a mess! What had only a short while before ,been a nice pipe, was now just a nasty old chew toy.
Some weeks later I sent the poor thing to a Carolina Crafter, and pipe-maker, named Jerry Perry, with the hope that he could salvage it. Jerry did a fine job, sanding, and restraining, and fitting a new lucite stem to it, but some of the toothmarks were so deep that the sanding left the pipe looking out of round, and for years it's gone unsmoked.
This week I found my hand drawn to the ole boy, for some reason, and I'm having a bowl of C.B. Royal in it right now, and reflecting about that old black lab and her strong teeth.
A longwinded account, I know, but I like to hear your story, if you have one.
I have a Grenci, I traded for it knowing the history, the present owner got it from his uncle who was in the CIA, While his Uncle was in Italy he bought the pipe from Grenci himself, a big bent horn, coming back to the states, he lived in Washington DC, he killed his wife, dismembered her and threw her in a dumpster. My friend inherited all his pipes at his death, liked a Stanwell I had, I saw the Grenci and even with the story I liked it. Told the wife the story with a warning, if I start smoking that pipe a lot, be careful.! 
