Sweatbandjo
Familiar Face
- Messages
- 53
Do you long to switch to vaping but only in real style? A real pipe... with no giveaway button to press... just a vintage pipe and sip and vape? Not possible? Oh yes it is!
I had the same problem, puffing at some hefty piece of plastic/ metal plumbing didn’t fit well with my Borsalino fedora or Beku, or my Swiss mountain peasant look.. or with any look for that matter, so I set about experimenting for purely for myself. Not with homemade juices or herbal brews you understand, just the briar hardware, vaporisers, batteries and wireing.
I had great fun finding fine vintage pipes, cleaning, sterilising, renovating, replacing, precision drilling and reaming them both to remove any trace of tobacco or nicotine and to turn them into “air pressure, on demand” (no button to press) vaping pipes, just sip and gently vape, et voila! It wasn’t easy but I’ve now mastered it, to look at these when vaping they are what they are - real pipes - no two are alike, each is unique. I’ll have a straight stemmed “Canadian” converted shortly and some more 1940 and 1950’s shaped pipes before long.
Some are by the famous Swiss pipe maker Josef Brunner his pipes became known as Bru-Bu’s they were often sold as a bowl, wind-cap and mouthpiece only, the purchaser would cut a dry shank from a hedgerow or orchard hollow and fit it at the length he required. For reasons of hygiene I have replaced these with new, dry, usually hazel shanks.
Other pipe is a French Ropp “ Norwegienne” from the pipe making town of Saint Claude, a big satisfying vape pipe with an extra trick. It has no wind shield so if you look down into the bowl as it is sipped you can see glowing embers among the “tobacco” it’s utterly realistic but there are no glowing embers and no tobacco old or new!
I’m really making these pipes for myself, for the challenge of making them well, it keeps me occupied (I’ve lost the use of my legs to MS). I want to continue with this pass time and very limited output, but can only afford the outlay if I sell a very few that I’ve already converted and made.
It struck me that fellow like minded Fedora Loungers might well feel as I do - yes to vaping but only in style!
So here we go...
I had the same problem, puffing at some hefty piece of plastic/ metal plumbing didn’t fit well with my Borsalino fedora or Beku, or my Swiss mountain peasant look.. or with any look for that matter, so I set about experimenting for purely for myself. Not with homemade juices or herbal brews you understand, just the briar hardware, vaporisers, batteries and wireing.
I had great fun finding fine vintage pipes, cleaning, sterilising, renovating, replacing, precision drilling and reaming them both to remove any trace of tobacco or nicotine and to turn them into “air pressure, on demand” (no button to press) vaping pipes, just sip and gently vape, et voila! It wasn’t easy but I’ve now mastered it, to look at these when vaping they are what they are - real pipes - no two are alike, each is unique. I’ll have a straight stemmed “Canadian” converted shortly and some more 1940 and 1950’s shaped pipes before long.
Some are by the famous Swiss pipe maker Josef Brunner his pipes became known as Bru-Bu’s they were often sold as a bowl, wind-cap and mouthpiece only, the purchaser would cut a dry shank from a hedgerow or orchard hollow and fit it at the length he required. For reasons of hygiene I have replaced these with new, dry, usually hazel shanks.
Other pipe is a French Ropp “ Norwegienne” from the pipe making town of Saint Claude, a big satisfying vape pipe with an extra trick. It has no wind shield so if you look down into the bowl as it is sipped you can see glowing embers among the “tobacco” it’s utterly realistic but there are no glowing embers and no tobacco old or new!
I’m really making these pipes for myself, for the challenge of making them well, it keeps me occupied (I’ve lost the use of my legs to MS). I want to continue with this pass time and very limited output, but can only afford the outlay if I sell a very few that I’ve already converted and made.
It struck me that fellow like minded Fedora Loungers might well feel as I do - yes to vaping but only in style!
So here we go...
Last edited:
