Burnout or Buyers Remorse?

With the proliferation of pipes on the internet, what do you in order to insure that you're getting what you pay for?

Recent threads and subsequent emails currently circulated on the web are those of an ebayer who didn't "get what they paid for". This predicament has drawn the attention of those (most of us) who are buying and selling pipes on the internet. Without going into detail or naming names, this missive is intended to help both buyers and sellers of pipes understand that what they may be getting is not really the same product that left the pipe makers workshop.

It's tough to tell "what is what".

Buying a pipe on the internet can be a joyous occasion or a nightmare. Most often than not, the pipe you buy on the internet will be exactly as described. The number of folks that recondition pipes is pretty small; However, once the pipe has been changed from it's original condition then the pipe is no longer "as new".

I don't own a buffing wheel. Sometimes I wish I did - but if I did then my stems wouldn't be as crisp and sharp as they were when they left the craftsman's bench though they would undoubtedly be a lot shinier than they are right now.

So, what does 'reconditioning' mean?

There are a few sellers (websites/ebay/combined) who do recondition pipes. Reconditioning is a very broad term! This reconditioning could mean that the pipe has been boiled out with a retort, the cake trimmed and the pipe buffed with carnuba wax. Traditionally, this has been the reconditioning method used.

As pipes have become a more active "trade" on the internet, there have been a very few who will recondition pipes in more drastic measures; Shaving the tops of bowls to make them look crisp, completely refinishing the pipe and sanding down dings and fissures; Replacing stems that have teeth marks or scratches - or even sanding down the original stem. This is altering more than reconditioning because you're removing significant wood from the pipe. But, the term "reconditioning" still covers (in part) what has happened to the pipe.

The question you must ask yourself is, "Does this matter to me"?

If the answer is "YES, it does matter to me" then you have a pretty big dilemma on your hands. The dilemma is to deduce whether or not the pipe you're looking at has been buggered with - and that is a pretty tough call to make.

Let's use a Dunhill Shell LB as an example. Earl's ebay shop has a Dunhill Shell LB that is advertised "as mint". Chances are that Earl is a reputable guy! If I was interested in the pipe then I'd shoot old Earl an email and ask about the pipe: Has the pipe been "topped or shaved"? Are there any stress marks or cracks in the bowl? Is the stem seemingly original? Is the pipe "in round"? Where did he get the pipe? Can I return the pipe should it not meet my expectations?

Earl may have bought that Dunhill from a collector - and the pipe may be exactly original with a slight round in the bowl rim, otherwise mint. Or, Earl may have shaved the top until it's crisp, back in round and then took a dremel tool to the top, roughing it up a good bit in order to give it a sandblasted look and then refinishing the top to make it look "mint". Or, Earl may have sent this pipe to a repair shop and had the work done.

There is very little that you can do to tell the "original" from the "reconditioning" if the person who did the reconditioning is good. The only way you could tell, from a picture on the internet, is to have seen enough of these pipes to be able to tell if the picture (pipe) "looked right". Some are obvious, most are not so obvious.

A dremel tool will NOT look like sandblasting. A dremel tool will look more like a sea rock finish with indentions in the wood, not "bringing the grain out" like a sandblast does. If you look at the color of the pipe and then at the inside of the bowl then you will normally be able to deduce whether the "like new finish of the pipe" is in equal proportion to the number of times the pipe has been smoked. When a pipe has been heavily smoked, the inside walls of the bowl will show this. Wood is a natural product and there will be softer areas (small areas) that will burn a bit - so in other words, the inside of the bowl will not be completely smooth if the pipe has been smoked a good bit.

And if the pipe has been smoked a good bit then the finish will not shine like new - it will be dulled a little bit and will not look like it came right out of the box. Again, we're talking about a Dunhill Shell LB here, a sandblasted pipe.

With regards to stems, it's tough to tell a well done Dunhill replacement bit from the original. The older Dunhill bits had registration marks stamped on the underside of the bits - but many of these reg. numbers have been buffed off over the years. Well done replacement bits are very, very tough to discern from the originals. But, if the pipe has been smoked then one should expect a few teeth scratches and possibly some light dents in the end of the stem. And to get even more technical, if the pipe is indeed from the 1930's then one should see a bit more of an oval shaped tip on the bit vs. the flatter bits made today. Alas, a fine stem-maker can make an oval or "orific" bit to match the original so this (again!) is a very tough call to make.

Likewise, the finishing is the same. Jim Benjamin (who is one of the finest men in our hobby!) has a re-finishing method that looks better than the original Dunhill shell finish! Jim can bring out the red highlights and undertones superbly. So - if the pipe is a 1930 Dunhill Shell LB and looks like it's been smoked a good bit yet the finish is sparkling like new and there are no tooth scratches on the stem.. well, you hopefully get my picture.

With regards to refinishing the inside of the bowls, let's just make this general statement: If it looks too smooth to be true then it probably has been refinished if the outside of the pipe looks less than sharp and there are toothmarks on the stem. This is akin to playing Sherlock Holmes and looking at the pipe as a whole and deducing if (as they used to sing on Sesame Street) "one of these things is not like the other".

Let's get away from the Dunhill Shell. We'll now look at a smooth Castello.

On a pipe like this, it's tough to tell if the top has been shaved unless you've seen so many Castellos that you have an idea of something that seems "out of whack". But I use this illustration to talk mainly about the bowl. If the pipe has been smoked and the inside of the bowl has been sanded to look almost like new then you'll know that the pipe has been fiddled with. This too takes an eye for the pipe and some Sherlockian deduction. Of course, if the pipe was smoked once then there may be just a spot or two of black in the bowl - but generally this blackening will be at the top of the bowl and not at the middle. If the previous owner has smoked one "half bowl" to break in the pipe then there may not be any black at the top, only in the middle. Again, you have to talk to the seller and more often than not the seller will tell you what reconditioning has been done.

Let's examine a Bang pipe. Most Bangs come from the bench with a bowl coating. When you see a used Bang (or other pipe) where the pipe has been "reconditioned" and a fresh bowl coating has been applied - well, you don't know what's under that new bowl coating, do you? No, you don't know what's under the fresh bowl coating! On many "high grade" pipes there are no shape charts or good abilities to tell what may look out of the ordinary. This is indeed a tough call. One could shave the top, refinish the pipe, sand out the bowl of any "spots" and make a new stem and it would be hard to tell from the original if the job was done well. Yes, this is kind of scary.

So - I bought that LB from Earl and it came in today's mail. I love the pipe, it looks great and every piece of the puzzle seems to check out: The bowl has been smoked a good bit, there is a little rounding on the rim of the bowl but nothing that Earl didn't tell me about. The finish is very nice (for it's age) and doesn't look like it just came out of the box, so that's all in synch with the age of the pipe. The top looks like a sandblast and follows the grain in the wood - it doesn't look like Earl took a dremel tool to the top and tapped some rough spots into the rim and refinished it. The bowl walls are as thick as they should be and have a little irregularity to them - so I don't believe that the bowl has been sanded out. The stem is as it should be though it's hard to tell an original Dunhill stem from a well made replacement. I do look in the shank and the dark spot in the shank (from moisture) correctly fits with the placement of the current tenon... KEEPER!

I send Earl an email and accept the pipe.

Two weeks later it burns out.

Guess what? I bought the pipe, was happy with it and now I'm stuck with it. Earl has no obligation once I've accepted the pipe after close and thorough inspection. It is my decision whether to email Earl and tell him of what's happened - but I should certainly not expect Earl to do anything about it. Once you take ownership of an estate pipe then it's your pipe, your problem.

One can, of course, send the pipe to Jim Benjamin or Ronni Bikacsan and have them work their wonders! However, it is up to you to mention these things if you choose to sell the pipe to another owner.

Last tidbit - I once traded for a Barling EXEXEL Apple, a beautiful and large pre-trans model. The pipe was scuffed severely on the outside but I knew that this would be a keeper for me, not something that I wanted to get rid of. I sent the pipe to Jim Benjamin (I didn't know Ronni at that time) and Jim made that pipe look like new! He shaved the top, removed the scuffing, resanded the stem and completely refinished the finish. I could sell that pipe tomorrow on ebay for upwards of $500.. but it wouldn't be right UNLESS I mentioned the complete refinishing job.

Would it be wrong to list this Barling as "reconditioned"? No. In fact, the pipe has been severely reconditioned! That's the point that drives this whole article.

However, without a detailed mentioning in the ebay listing that the pipe had been topped, sanded, refinished, etc. then I'd not be telling the full truth.

Altering the pipe significantly, removing wood, changing the wood.. it's more than reconditioning - it is severely altering the pipe from it's original state.

And that, my friends, is the difference between "reconditioning" and "reconditioning". Caveat Emptor, Caveat Lector. When in doubt, email the seller and also email a friend or five friends and ask their opinions before buying.