by Steve Laug

I went to visit my father in Idaho at the end of June for his 96^th birthday celebration. I stayed with my brother Jeff who many of you have met in our online pipe groups, sales and purchases here on rebornpipes. We got to talking about the sheer volume of pipes we have in boxes for restoration. We went to his basement where they are stored by country in bins on his shelves. I am not sure you can feel the impact of the volume of pipes that were on the shelves in front of us. It really was overwhelming and honestly, I felt a sense of the impossibility of the work ahead. Jeff and I looked at the boxes of pipes in front of us and it began to dawn on us that neither of us would live long enough to finish all of the pipes we had waiting there. If you also consider the fact that we keep buying pipes because we love the hunt and sense of being able to help families liquidate their loved one’s pipes. You would think that we could just stop. However, the fact is that we continue to both enjoy the hunt and rush of finding that illusive pipe that we have been searching for as well as interacting with the families of pipe men who have left behind some beautiful and unique collections. So, the short answer is that we have no plan on stopping until someone else picks up where we have left off.

We decided to go through our collection of pipes to restore and get a clear picture of what we had. Our method was to go through them by country and have a look at each pipe and decide if we wanted to work on it or let it go. I know that this sounds relatively simple to many of you. But you must understand that we sorted through these pipes many times and put together over one hundred pipe grab bags through the past four years. Many of you have bought bags of pipes to restore that came from us because of our regular sorting of these pipes. We still have hundreds (dare I say thousands) of pipes that needed our attention. The problem for us was that each pipe we looked at had a story about the previous owner or the store or estate we purchased it from. As we held them those stories rolled through our mind. We had sorted them already several times and we were quite satisfied with the lot that remained. But the niggling reality of the volume of pipes, the time needed to restore them and the number of years of life we have left called us to face reality and be rigorously honest. To put it simply, the fact is that even if we both live for 10 more years we will never finish restoring this entire collection of pipes.

I was going to be in Idaho for almost two weeks so we made a plan that while I was here, we would go through all the pipes. Our plan of attack was clear, and we began the sorting process. We would look through all the pipes in our collection – going through each country group one pipe at a time. We would divide them into pipes we would keep and those we would pass on to those of you who want them. We committed to processing them for a portion of each day until we were finished. I know this is a first world problem – so many pipes and so little time! Many of you probably laughed at what I have described and just shook your heads at our simple problem. I am sure some have said that we should get rid of all of them. I am certain though that some of you understood the dilemma we were in and would offer to have us send them to you as a solution to our problem. Whatever you think I know that my wife and daughters and Jeff’s wife and sons were happy that we were reducing our collection.

The process began in earnest on the first weekend I was here. We carried each set of boxes up to Jeff’s office and poured the contents on the desktop. Each of us went through the pipes and sorted them into keepers and ones we would pass on to folks here. Jeff would have two piles in front of him. Once he finished a box I would go through both piles and continue the sort. We tried to be merciless and honest as we looked at each pipe. We had to leave behind the story of each one, the sentimental attachment to the pipe, even our feelings about the shape and finish of the bowl that had originally caught our eyes. These were hard decisions and ones we worked through together. By the end of each box, we concluded that we had done well in our sort. The number of pipes was going down and the number we would pass on to you was growing.

Now what have we put together? I think we can safely say that you will find some amazing pipes for sale on the rebornpipes store in the country-of-origin sections. All of them are in need of various levels of restoration and refurbishing but all of them show real promise. They were hard for us to let go of. Once we had a pile of pipes for the country we were sorting we divided them into groups of eight pipes. Each group was bagged and given a full description of the stamping, condition and any specific areas that were issues. We also included photos of the pipes for you to have a look each bag’s contents. The pipes are for sale for $96USD per bag of eight which breaks down to $12USD per pipe. Not a bad deal for sure!

Today we finished the last of the pipes remaining to be sorted. We have added these bags of 8 pipes to each of the following country pages on the store:

England – 9 bags

Denmark – 4 bags

Italy – 5 bags

France – 3 bags

Holland – 1 bag

USA – 5 Bags

You should go to the store section noted above that you are interested in and read what pipes are included. We will not re-sort them to include what each one wants and realize that each lot has some higher demand pipes than others.

Once the briar pipes were finished we turned to go through our metal pipes – these included a surprising number of both English and American made Falcon pipes as well as a couple Dr. Grabow Viking pipes. There were a few bents and a lot of straight pipes. The bowls are Dublin and Billiard shaped with smooth and rusticated finishes. They are well worth having a look at if you are in the market for them. Each bag contains 7 pipes and we have them listed at $72USD or roughly $10.28USD per pipe. Also a good deal!

Metal Pipes – 2 bags

We finished our sorting with our boxes of Meerschaum pipes both smooth and carved figurals and were able to add some cased pipes and uncased pipes that include some real interesting pipes. Each of the bags has 4 meerschaum pipes in it. The price for these is $60USD or $15USD per pipe. Yet another good deal. Go have a look at what is there.

Meerschaum pipes – 2 bags

Jeff took the following photo of the bags laid out in his basement and ready to be shipped to those who make an order. It is an amazing number of pipes.

Don’t miss out on the deal. Thanks for helping us through this painful process of saying goodbye to pipes that we wanted to work on. If you have more than one pipe you know what we are experiencing in thinning our collection. Thanks for reading this rambling!