By Al Jones

For the past 10 years, my ever-expanding pipe collection has been stored and displayed in a old, oak bow-front cabinet. My wife indulges mea and this sits in our formal living room. The oak cabinet has been a wonderful solution. Guest to our home are always drawn to it and it allows me to talk about my collection and hobby. Neighbors and relatives usually stop by to see what is new in my collection. I added several puck style LED lights and I’ll often turn on the light and admire the collection, before going upstairs to bed at night.

Over a period of several years, I found a number of “Fairfax” six-pipes stands and one 12-pipe stand that fit perfectly on the back of each shelf. Those were modified from top “O” holes to u-shape stem holders, to better suit my mostly bent, larger pipes. We had two beloved Westie’s in our family, and I slowly acquired a large group of “Scottie” style pipe stands for my most cherished pipes (on the top two shelves). At point, this cabinet held close to 100 pipes. As we get ready to transition to a smaller retirement home, I’ve slowly been selling some pipes and I’m now down to around 60, which is still a bit too many. I knew moving the oak bow front cabinet was not going to be wise.

Below is the oak cabinet. The wood carvings on the top were purchased by my father, from Oberammergau, Germany, which is home to many wood carvers.

Scanning thru classified listings on Facebook Marketplace, I determined that a “Bachelors Chest” would best suit my needs. I found this one at a local antique store. It has four drawers of the right height and the footprint was idea. It had some scratches on top, but I knew it would refinish nicely. Below is the cabinet as found.

I stripped the top, sides and drawer fronts. A red mahogany stain was chosen that matched up well with the factory finish. I did want it to have a darker stain color. After several applications of stain, a satin finish polyurethane finish was sprayed on. Below are pictures of the stripped pieces and then re-stained. We have a tent to spray on the finish. My wife has the right touch for the spray on poly, so she had that task.

I didn’t want to reuse the old fashioned looking hardware, and I found a set of less busy, antique bronze replacements on eBay. On Amazon, I found a roll of 1/8″ thick foam padding with a sticky back that was used in each drawer, to keep the pipes in place and provide a cushion surface for the them.

Here is the finished cabinet, with my pipes and decorative items moved over. It easily holds my collection, with a little room to grow for the inevitable “must have”. I’m that moving forward, this cabinet will serve me well.

Below are the racks and stands that I have collected. I’ll eventually sell them on the PipesMagazine classifieds forum. I have the oak-bow front cabinet for sale locally, thru Facebook Marketplace. The wood stands are mostly Duck-it and I also have brass and Syroco stands.