Unbelievable

Check out this post at my-pipes.com. Really, go look. The cake is just as thick as the briar!

I got a box of estate pipes once that I assumed all belonged to the same person. Going through the pipes, I came to the conclusion that this person had smoked one pipe, and one pipe only, never cleaning it, until it became unusable. Then he tossed it in a box and started on another one. In this box of pipes there were probably about a dozen that looked pretty much like the pipe at the link above, plus one pipe that had only rudimentary cake and one pipe that was completely unsmoked. I can only assume he died not long after starting the penultimate pipe, and never lived long enough to touch the last one.

Fortunately the referenced pipe above was restored, and the "after" pictures look much better.

"From basket estate to centerpiece"

Pipe repairmen perform many tasks for their customers, but few match the satisfaction of saving a fine old pipe that’s been so neglected that many smokers would discard it. The key is knowing the difference between abuse and neglect. While there is some crossover—some types of neglect can indeed cause damage—often a pipe is structurally fine “underneath” its rough appearance.

This is the kind of thing I aspire to, but with my limited skill and knowledge it will be a long time before I can even pretend to approach this level of professionalism.

I highly recommend reading this article by a professional pipe restorer, complete with photographs documenting the process, of restoring a badly neglected pipe to its original, like new condition.

The Wally Frank Cavalier -- From Basket Estate to Centerpiece.