Yello-Bole Chinrester billiard

This is the last of the four pipes that I purchased together at an estate sale in the mid-90s. This is not a fantastic pipe, but it's serviceable. I bought it mostly because at the time I had never even heard of a Chinrester, and didn't know then that it had a special name. I just bought it because it was different. Yello-Bole was the seconds line for Kaywoodie, so Yello-Bole pipes are very similar in shapes and gimmicks to Kaywoodies.


This is also a Carburetor pipe. The Carburetor was another gimmick side-line that Kaywoodie used. They put a tiny aluminum pipe in the bottom center of the bowl. It extends a few millimeters up into the bowl so cleaning out the very bottom of the bowl is a little tricky because you have to clean around it. I also recommend running a pipe cleaner through the Carburetor to keep it from gunking up. The theory was that in addition to the "hot" air that came from drawing air down through the burning tobacco, a very small amount of "cool" air was also drawn in from the bottom through the Carburetor to "cool the smoke," you know, the usual.

I don't think the Carburetor makes any difference. I will say, however, that this is by far the most comfortable straight pipe I have--and yeah, it's more comfortable than some of my bents. If I had the wherewithal to make my own stems, I would put a chinrester stem on every straight pipe I have. The drawback, of course, is that it's impossible to slide a pipe cleaner down the stem into the shank to sop up excess moisture during a smoke. But still, as far as I'm concerned the comfortability makes up for that.

Another unusual thing about this pipe is that it was made in France. The vast majority of Kaywoodies and Yello-Boles were made in the United States. So this old pipe has three things going for it that will keep it in my collection: the chinrester stem, the carburetor, and being a vintage Yello-Bole that was not made in the U.S.

These four pipes together (the Tyrolean, the Ben Wade, the Longchamps, and this one) were what originally prompted me to begin attempting to actually refurbish pipes--going above and beyond mere cleaning. I never thought I'd begin a new hobby of actually trying to salvage old and abused pipes, but it has been a lot of fun and I've learned a lot about pipes just from handling so many different brands and shapes.