Ben Wade Chesham bent billiard

Ben Wade was another English pipe maker that was at some point bought by Charatan. After the Charatan takeover, Ben Wade was used as a Charatan seconds line. I don't know if this Ben Wade is an original or a Charatan second, but either way, it's a great pipe.

This pipe was another that I purchased at the same estate sale where I acquired the Tyrolean. Actually, this pipe was free. I had already purchased an antique pipe rack. Very nice pipe rack, by the way. It has two six-pipe racks on top with a brass humidor in between, and two small drawers underneath. I had also selected the Tyrolean and two other pipes, so the seller told me to pick out any other pipe I wanted for free, and I took this one. All the pipes were dirty and fairly caked up, but this one really turned out well and has become one of my favorite pipes. It was one of the pipes I spent a good deal of time on this morning, because I had allowed the cake to build up so much that the bowl volume was probably cut in half. I do want to replace the stem eventually because I'm a pretty heavy biter and I've managed to bite a small hole in the top of the bit, but there's no nomenclature on the bit so I'm not going to feel bad about it.

I'm running a bowl of C&D's Bayou Night through it right now and this morning's reaming has returned it to fine smoking form.