409. In the Blink of An Eye
by Gary Hamilton, CPG As the title of this story suggests, and the accompanying photo illustrates, it all happened in the blink of an eye. Pipemen the world over take pride in displaying and presenting the pipes that they companion on a daily basis. And how best to ready a pipe for a “show and tell” event? Why a good buffing of course! For the buffing of one’s pipe, there are many options. Ranging from the elaborate to the elementary, pipe enthusiasts have access to various options to keep their collection looking its finest. Options perhaps limited only by one’s imagination, and of course, the purse. Yet, regardless of which path is taken, comparable results are achievable. And no matter which version is used, the principles, physics, and pitfalls of either, are on an equal playing field when it is time to shine up that favorite Peterson 307 sterling mounted spigot. From the elementary approach…to the elaborate, the principles of buffing are the same. As pipemen, I’d venture a guess that we, at one time or another, and some more routinely than others, have all tried our hand at buffing a pipe on some variation of a powered buffing wheel. And If you have been in this hobby of pipe collecting for any length of time, odds are that you, like myself, have had that in the blink of an eye moment while buffing your most prized possession. There you are, buffing away and smiling at your progress, marveling at the shine that is developing on stem and stummel. And then it happens, in the blink of an eye, your pipe is snatched from your fingers. From this point everything goes into slow motion, like you’ve just been inserted into an episode of Rod Serling’s Twilight Zone. You watch in astonishment as the pipe goes flying from your hands, bumping and bouncing off everything in its path, and then seemingly going out of its way to make contact with everything else possible before coming to rest in some forsaken corner of the shop. As a devoted pipeman, you rush to the aid of the distressed pipe, picking it up and preparing to perform some type of pipeman’s CPR to make it all better. But the damage is done. But I don’t really want to go off on a tangent about the pleasures and pitfalls of pipe buffing at the moment. I’d rather get back to that rather unsightly dent in the silver mounting of that Peterson 307 spigot. However, for those of you that really like a good story from Chuck Stanion, take a look at the Fall 2010 editorial in Pipes & tobaccos magazine (Vol.15 No.3). In a manner that no one other than Chuck Stanion can, he writes of his experience with the “Fluffy spinning doom.” I think you will find it very entertaining.* Now about that dent. No matter which way you hold the pipe, there it is, just grinning at you daring you to try and…