From: Steve Masticola (??????????????????????????)
Subject: Norm's questions

I'm also glad we've been having some more activity here! I'll
contribute my share by answering Norm's questions (tho I might be
totally off base, in which case I'm sure someone will set me aright
(alight? :-)

Well, I almost never have the problem of the flavor being gone at the
bottom of a pipe - in fact, usually the reverse is true for me! (The
tobacco sometimes gets juicy and kind of rank.) 

But the fact that you're getting a lot of ash at the end implies that
you might be leaving the tobacco loose at the bottom of the bowl. Try
packing the bowl a little more firmly at the bottom and see if that
doesn't help.

Another possibility is that the tobacco has dried out and crumbled
into dust, as it often will when being bounced around in a pouch. The
only cure for that is to get some new!

Regarding the used Ben Wade, offhand it doesn't sound like you passed
up an outstandingly valuable pipe. Ben Wades retail in the range of
about $50 (or used to when I was buying a lot of pipes) - actually, I
think they're the brand name Stanwell uses to market their seconds.

Regardless of who made it or how much it originally cost, you can
approach used pipes as a collector or as a casual smoker. If I were
being casual about it, I'd look for a good deal the same way I would
if I were buying a new pipe (check fills, sand pits, grain appearance)
and look for damage (broken stem, cracks in the wood, burns around the
tobacco hole, scuffs, stains, spots, etc). A stem can be replaced (and
this would be a good bargaining point), but damage to the bowl is
harder to undo invisibly. Basically, don't buy a used pipe unless
you'd feel good doing so!

This reminds me of a rack of pipes I saw at a flea market a month or
two ago. These disabled veterans qualified as some of the most pitiful
specimens of pipedom - complete with house paint stains, burns
_through_ the bowls, cracks in shanks and stems, and every kind of
defect imaginable except living fleas. The price was marked at $35 for
an ugly rack full of unsmokable pipes. I looked at them, hoping for an
errant Dunhill, but they remained totally nondescript under close
scrutiny.  The owner, seeing what he took to be my interest, offered
to come down to $30. He may well remain their owner to this day. :-)

Of course, someone who's a serious collector will have to do a lot
more research about brand history - this gets into stuff like pre-
versus post- transition Barlings, Sasieni one-, four-, and eight-dots,
and like arcana about which I claim no expertise. Ben Rappaport wrote
a "Guide to Collecting Antique Pipes", which is still in print; this,
plus Hacker's book, are a start. But for noncollectors, I still
believe the rule is to buy what you'd like to smoke. That way, when
you buy, you'll...

					Smoke in peace,
					~\U Steve.


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( Pipe smokers will rule the world!      *   ??????????????????????	 (
 ) (if they don't run out of matches...) *   Steve Masticola, moderator	  )
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