I don't really have a story specific to pipe smoking so I think I'll go with more of a ramble.

I've never been very good at working with wood. Measure twice, cut once, I still muck it up. I can take a motorcycle engine apart and put it back together again, but someone else has already gone through all the trouble of making sure the pieces fit in the first place. All I have to do is put things together in the opposite order I took them apart.

So how does all this tie into pipes? Well, when my interest was piqued about pipe smoking the tobacco wasn't the only draw. I became intrigued with the tools used to participate in the hobby. Tampers, reamers, brushes, knives, and of course the pipe itself.

I have always had a thing for tools. Growing up, my dad...let's just say he was frugal and would never pay anyone to work on our vehicles. I spent many an hour in the garage with dad holding flash lights, passing him tools, and learning an entire spectrum of four letter words (often strung together in an amazing tapestry of profanity!). Dad passed his knowledge of machines onto me and the plethora of tools that exist to keep them functioning properly. To this day when I'm putzing in the garage I'm a little tickled when I find “Well, damn...I'm going to have to add another tool to the box.”.

After smoking my first cob it wasn't long before I was spending hours at a time admiring the different styles, shapes, and materials for these smoking utensils. Reading theory about bowl size and complimentary tobacco. The unofficial science that is pipe smoking. This is also when I first learned about estate pipes.

Cleaning old grimy stuff is something I'm quite familiar with. When I was 15 my dad, an avid motorcyclist, purchased me a 1971 BMW R60/5 for Christmas. It had been sitting for years, the engine had been painted black, and it hardly ran. We had six months to fix it up before my 16th birthday to be ready for a 4000 mile father/son road trip. In those six months I cleaned more ancient grease, grime, and dirt from more parts than I care to remember. We did get the project completed in time and the bike is still my daily rider.



Flash forward to my research over on the old site and I see this guy @Branzig turning stuff that looked like this:



Into this:



I caught the disease. Winter was coming and I needed something to keep me occupied while I became a hermit until Spring. I did have my doubts considering I was going to deal with my arch nemesis...wood...but on the other hand mindless scrubbing for hours on end? I can do that!

I have now cleaned up around 30 estates (thanks a lot Branzig). It has been fulfilling bringing the old tools back to life. Even if it meant falling down another slippery slope. I'm to the point now that I want to try my hand at refinishing. If that works out possibly rusticating then repairing. I may even get to buy more tools!