I cellared it for 16 months. I believe that tin was 2012 production, on a reccomendation, from the magical stash of a local tobacconist. It's the same shop where I bought a Jobey and a bunch of accessories the last couple of years. He also stocks fine men's hats, shave soaps, and even a few razors. Same guy who sold me my first Orlik.
Interesting finds! Something I've found that worked on heavily oxidized vulcanite stems is to make a fairly thick paste of baking soda and water. Rub the stem with this paste using a rag, or even your fingers. From time to time, rinse the stem and dry it to check your progress. After you have removed the oxidation, use a soft cloth and rub olive oil into the stem. That will restore some sheen, as well as some protection against further oxidation. You can buy product for shining and protecting a vulcanite stem, but olive oil works well, and you've probably got some in your kitchen already. Be sure and post some pics of your restoration progress!
Figured I'd respond to this one. I have no experience with either Mr. Brog, or Pearwood pipes. However the GF surprised me last night telling me there will be a package arriving at my house from Ukraine with a pair of Pearwood pipes in it. From the pictures she sent, one is a typical billiard style churchwarden. The other however is intricately carved and has a silver snarling wolfs head inlaid in either side of the bowl (making it VERY special to me, as I'm of Geatish decent and the white Direwolf Goldrinn is my guardian effigy). While neither is a Mr. Brog, I'll let you know how the Pearwood compares to Briar. I'm guessing it will be similar to Cherrywood, which was the prefered wood for pipe making before Briar.
Good to know. I may have to grab some SG tobaccos and cellar them if all goes well with the Navy Flake.
Hey KLF, Alabama is in the Deep South, and is pretty humid. I do pretty well air drying when drying is needed. Give it a try and see what happens. Or the lamp method would probably speed it up. You're 100% right about pipe smoking being cheaper, as you can acquire a tin of premium pipe tobacco that will give quite a few smokes for the price of one premium cigar. Of course you have the cost of your pipes. I'd like to say that once you get enough pipes to have a rotation to allow sufficient drying of your pipes, you,would be set. But PAD is a common affliction among pipe smokers! You've always got to have just one more...
Interesting, I'll give it a try then. From what I understand pipe tobacco should be around 72% humidity ?
Not a Sav then they use that same stem material on their basket pipes. The main dental work is done but still have one back tooth to be capped. That will take another couple months, I have to wait 3 weeks to heal, then get the temp cap, 4 weeks for the permanent one. I hope this will have me done with the dang dentist for awhile. The pipes are kind of up in the air for now. I went from cigs to pipes and have been smoking at least two bowls a day for a while since quitting the cigs. Now that I have quit the pipes for a while now my blood pressure has gone down considerably. I may give them up to keep from having to take pills for it. I miss my me time with my pipes though.
The pipes cleaned up nicely, but I made a mistake in soaking the Yello-Bole stem in everclear. The yellow O swelled and partly dissolved, it's still there but just recessed a little. Here's a pic of the bowls with kosher salt and ethanol. The Medico didn't darken the salt, I guess because it Brylon instead of briar. The stinger pulled out of the Yello-Bole easily. The B-C cleaned up OK, but unfortunately the stem has a couple of holes in it, the previous owner must have been a real clencher. The baking soda worked great.
I wonder if you reduced the frequency of smoking if that would help, maybe go from 2 bowls per day to 2 or 3 bowls per week if that would be enough of a reduction to maintain the lower blood pressure. I'm really not a heavy smoker, having 2 to 4 bowls per week most weeks. But you know what you need to do, and your health would take precedence over pipes. I would miss them if I had to give them up entirely. I enjoy not just smoking the pipe tobacco, but the whole ritual of the pipes.
Looks like those pipes cleaned up nicely, and the stems do look good. Did you rub them with olive oil also?
Some like their tobacco a little drier. I think a humidity range of 68 to 72 would be about right. My son keeps a hygrometer in his cigars, but I've never done that with pipe tobacco, I just go by feel.
I have a hygrometer and boveda packs in my cigar tupperdor. I am no expert, haven't actually smoked 10 bowls, just what I read online.
Just the vulcanite stem. Any suggestions where I can get a replacement stem with a 9/32" diameter tenon? I miked the tenon at 0.276" diameter. I think a Missouri Meerschaum unfiltered slim stem might work (like for the MacArthur pipe), but I'd prefer a little better stem. There seem to be a lot of third party stems for the filtered MM's, but I haven't seen much for the smaller tenon models.
No, I'm not sure. The only markings are Frank Medico V.F.Q. on the side and pat 1967585 on the bottom.
The medico is the pipe on the right in the top pic and middle in the bottom one, right? Brylon looks more like plastic than wood. No grain with Brylon. I'm pretty sure that's not Bryon. The newer V.F.Q are made of brylon. That has to be older one before brylon was introduced. This is what aged brylon looks like. Great find BTW. I love those old Medicos, Grabows, and Yellowboles!
Also @BamaT and @Weeper Warrior I am gonna try to restore the vulcanite on my Parker today. Will post before and after...thanks for the instructional posts!
