Smoking Pipe Repairs
I always try to smoke my pipes very gently so until now I haven’t had an occasion to need a serious pipe repair job.
Things changed when I purchased a badly abused but nevertheless quite extraordinary pipe a few months ago. The pipe needed a great deal of work. Its original amber stem was shattered, the separate screw-in tenon was destroyed, and likely worst of all, the tenon’s threads within the shank were mangled.
There were some less serious problems as well, but I was able to correct them on my own.
I sent the pipe off to Dave Wolfe at Walker Briar Works for the shank, stem, and tenon work.
Through the process Dave and I communicated via email and phone, I found him to be a great pleasure to do business with. Friendly, knowledgeable, and caring, qualities I imagine we all want to see in the people we entrust with our treasures of pipedom.
The newly repaired pipe arrived this week, and I am happy with the job Dave was able to do. He took a pipe that was in no way smoke-able and turned it into a pipe that I should be able to enjoy smoking for years to come.
The shattered amber stem was replaced (at my request) with a modern Lucite stem, the screw tenon was replaced with a standard push tenon, and the mangled threads within the shank were drilled away to accept the new push tenon. The pipe looks wonderful with its new stem and it resides in its fitted case perfectly. The stem/shank fit is off ever so slightly, but given that the shank itself is hand carved at a less than perfect angle I doubt if any stem could match up without some measure of light gap.
Overall I was quite pleased with the job Dave was able to do for me, and based upon that I do not hesitate to mention Walker Briar Works here.