This morning before I finished my coffee I was going through my box of pipes that have come in for refurbishing and came across this old cob. Now usually I don’t rework cobs. If they are in bad shape then I just pitch them in the bin. There is no need to repair them. The stems usually are junk, the shank is not reusable and the bowls are generally not worth cleaning. But this one had an interesting look to it and I kind of thought, what the heck let’s see what I can do with it just for fun.

I topped the bowl to take care of the piece that was missing out of the edge and also to clean off the burn. I sanded the outside of the bowl and buffed it with White Diamond to smooth the surface and give it a shine. I cleaned out the tobacco in the bowl and scraped it clean with a dental pick. I worked over the shank and the inside of the stem with many pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and then a dental pick on the slot. I used isopropyl to clean the stem. I then sanded the tooth marks and tooth chatter off the stem. I polished it with a very light touch on the buffer as it is plastic and a good push will melt it! I then polished the stem with micromesh pads. Now I have a serviceable cob for my afternoon smoke! Not bad for about a 30 minute makeover!

The stem was stuck and I was able to work it free of the stem just before I snapped this picture and decided to blog on it! When I got it out I found that the tenon on it was not wide open and thin – set up for a filter. This one was slotted and opened in the shape of a little oval. I have not seen one that is not wide open to receive a Medico Filter so I am figuring that this must be an old timer of a cob. The shank also has not been drilled to receive a filter – it is only drilled far enough to receive the tenon and then it reduces to the size of the airway in a regular briar. The bowl has a faded tag on the bottom that is unreadable. There was even a bit of unsmoked tobacco in it. Anyway the long and short of it was I decided to have a bit of mercy on this old cob and give it a once over!