Two years ago in May when I started this blog I literally had no idea how it would go or what its life expectancy might be. The only thing I dreamed of was to provide a spot online to gather the refurbishing posts and experiments that I was doing in a central place to lessen the number of “Look at this refurb” posts that I was putting on Smokers Forums and Pipe Smokers Unlimited Forums at that time. I know that there are only so many ways that folks can say nice job. My purpose in posting was not to hear the kudos but to disseminate information on an aspect of our hobby that I had come to love. I also wanted to build a community of amateur refurbishers that could share experience, hope and joy with each other in the midst of a common hobby. I remember how hard it was to find the information I sought on how to do some aspect of the restoration of an estate pipe. I would post on the forums, send emails to repair people and generally make a nuisance of myself to find out how to do things.

I truly wanted to have a web spot that provided helpful experiential and experimental information for the people seeking to do their own restoration work. I wanted it to become a place that people turned to for help and ideas but more importantly I wanted it to be a place where more people than just me wrote about my work. I wanted to see a broad range of writers from around the globe share what they were learning and new methods that they had tweaked or developed in the work of refurbishing pipes. I had little or no idea on how to achieve that. One of my daughters had set up blog on WordPress so I had a look and just started posting some of my earlier work. It was pretty much a one note trumpet the day I started it – just me posting what I had learned.

Over the two years I have invited others to post their work as well. Some of them were individuals I had met online or in person and enjoyed reading about their work. Others were readers of the blog who wrote to thank me for what I had posted. I always appreciate the thanks but also am fairly quick to invite submissions for posts. From its early days on the blog has added contributors to the list of writers. I think some of the earliest were Al Jones and Fred Bass. I so appreciate their willingness to step out “where no one had walked before” and submit articles to the blog. Over the years others have joined them on the list. The list of thanks to contributors has grown and continues to grow even today. I have included a screen capture of the list below just to give you an idea of the growth. What originally started with me grew to Al and Fred and I and now the list includes 25 individuals from a broad representation of countries. There are writers from Canada, the US, England, Ireland, Scotland, Netherlands, Germany, South Africa and Poland. The age of the writers is also broad from younger pipemen to old timers who have been pipemen for many years. They represent many walks of life and levels of skill in the practice of refurbishing but they share a common love for the pipe and hobby.

Since I last updated this list several other contributors have been joined. Sometime very soon I need to update this list and show the new additions. But even with the growing list of contributors there is still room for more practitioners of our art to write up their work and share their processes with the community at large. I hope that in the coming year many more of you will consider sharing what you have learned as you practice our hobby.

While hearing from other refurbishers and reading about their work is something that I have enjoyed through the blog it is not the only aspect that has been a great pleasure for me. I have found that many more people read the posts than contribute either through comments or articles. In the statistical part of the WordPress interface it has been fun to watch the growing readership and see where they come from. The readership of the blog is growing globally. People from nearly every continent are reading and responding to the articles. That has been exciting to see. It is amazing to me to see articles from the blog translated into many languages and see people in the national forums interacting with the methods and tips. It only makes me wish I could spend the time to interact on each of the online communities and enjoy the fellowship of the pipe more broadly.

The numerical growth in readers that rebornpipes has experienced has been something that I truly never imagined the day in May 2012 when I started it with a few of my articles on refurbishing. I am glad that we seem to have reached a niche that was not tapped before. To show some of that growth, I have included the screen capture below showing the growth in readership/visits over the past two years. In summary, the first year (starting in May 2012) there were 39,646 readers/viewers of the blog. In 2013 there were 131,441 readers and this year, 2014, in the first sixth months the number of readers/viewers is 84,633. It is mind-boggling to me to try to comprehend the extent of the readership of the blog.

It has been great to hear from quite a few of the readers over the years. I am thankful that many of you have taken time to send me an email and let me know what you enjoy and what you would like to see covered. I appreciate the notes of thanks and encouragement that continue to come to me. It has been a pleasure to work on rebornpipes. I am thankful to the readers and all of the ongoing and one time contributors for their willingness to take the time to write about what they have learned and to be willing to pass it on. I only ask that you continue to do so.

In terms of my own work, I don’t think that I will ever stop hunting for and finding estate pipes to refurbish. I am continually on the lookout for pipes needing the attention. Even when my box of pipes for refurbishing is almost empty it seems to almost magically fill up again. Lately even friends in the city drop by for a visit with pipes for me to have a look at or repair. It is something that is now a part of my leisure life, one in which I find rest and pleasure.

Once again, I thank you all for your support. The past two years have flown by so quickly that I can hardly believe they have passed. It seems like only yesterday I was sitting with my daughters dreaming up a name for a blog that they encouraged me to write and now we celebrate two years. Wow. I raise my pipe today and say to you all, “Here’s to yet another great year ahead as we work on the pipes that come our way. Take time to read about, write about and smoke the pipes you are reworking”.