They say that wait times at your local hospital Emergency Room are bad, but I think this case proves that some victims wait longer than others. The patient in question had obviously been lingering between life and death for some time before I encountered it on my operating table. The question was could I save it?

I acquired this Brigham 526 Bent Bulldog through a recent eBay auction. It wasn’t really much of an auction, though, as it turned out that my opening bid was the only one submitted. These pics of the pipe shortly after arriving at my door illustrate the obvious reason for the lack of bidder enthusiasm.

At first glance, the pipe looked to be in fair condition. It was dirty, of course, as you’d expect from an estate pipe, and the rim was banged up from some vigorous dottle-knocking. The stem was oxidized and showed tooth…