Put here in the Gallery instead of Repairs & Maintenance because it straddles categories, and there are several pics.
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(Copied):
Here's a pipe of my own that I recently worked on. It was bought over the Net, so the subtle things that were sub-standard about it weren't noticed until it was in my hands. Then, I regretted not returning it because as such pipes often do, it just sat in the rack. This past week I decided to finally get on with correcting the problems, and change a couple things that were matters of personal preference in the process.
The engineering-related or "true" problems were the bowl was severely underbored---only 18.5 mm on a Grp 6-sized pipe---and the mortise wasn't axially aligned with the outside of the shank. Meaning the stem "cocked" noticeably to one side. The preference issues were a Lucite stem (regardless of claims to the contrary by the maker, his proprietary substance is indistinguishable from it, imo), which is too glassy-feeling for my taste; plus it was oddly cut. Quite thick and chunky, but with a disproportionately small lip that was both narrow side-to-side, and quite low in profile. The result was the pipe rotated horizontally between my teeth, and would sometimes slide forward unexpectedly. (Unsurprisingly, preventing those things are why lips evolved on mouthpieces.)
So, the bore was honed to 22 mm, and the shank re-faced to be square when mated to a stem that was modified to line up correctly. Then a much thinner saddle-style stem with a Dunhill-profile "fishtail" was made out of vulcanite to take care of the comfort and security issues.
The result? The difference between a dust collector, and a favorite pipe. It always smoked well, and tasted great, it was just the ergonomics and aesthetics that kept it in the rack. No more. It's a really rich, tightly grained piece of wood that deserved to be smoked, and I'm delighted to "have it back."
The point? It occurred to me that there are undoubtedly other people with dust collector, regret-having-bought pipes out there that have correctable problems. In the past few years, reasons for sending a pipe to the shop has expanded from only when something's truly broken or worn out, to include getting the airway opened and smoothed. Why not, then, for the additional category of work that isn't damage/wear related or internal performance related, but the sort of "ergonomic tuning" that was done to this pipe?
Why not, indeed. It sure is cheaper than a new one. And now that I have a shop, something I hope every pipe smoker thinks about.
(click any pic to enlarge)
The crooked shank (Ignore that the pic is tilted---sight down the sides of the pipe to see the problem):
Shank/stem joint after fix:
What's not to like? After tweaking, it's a joy to smoke.
