Uncategorized

Back at the end of October in Post #367 I finally came out of the closet and told the world I love Ebony Petes.  It wasn’t an easy decision but my therapist said it would be for the best.  What he didn’t tell me was how much he charged for that enlightenment or how susceptible I’d be to adding more Ebony Petes to my rotation. Sometimes it's best not to know these things. During the course of my therapy, Adam Davidson, the renowned artisan as well as head of SPC’s estate restoration department, suggested a formula for making our own ebony pipes using the ages-old natural iron-vinegar dye recipe used from earliest times to seal doors, cabinetry, handles for hammers, hatchets, shovels, and other tools.  Certified Pete Geeks being what they are (intelligent Thinking Men), science teacher John M. Young CPG (Post #370) and machinist par excellence Fletch Hiner (Post #374) took up the gauntlet and made their own iron vinegar dye to create their own Natural Ebony Petes, which shows what lengths we go to in our love of Peterson pipes. I owe all three giants a deep debt of gratitude, because without their assistance and help along the way, I would not be presenting two more studies this morning. As with most things, I’m a slow learner and got off to a miserable start.  I could make excuses about having The X Pipe to finish for the Chicago Pipe Show, but the larger truth was simply that it took me weeks and weeks just to figure out which pipe I wanted to submit to the possibility of an epic fail. Feb 13th: Gearing Up Feb 13th: I’m going to skip over November, December and January, months I had extremely good intentions of getting my project underway but actually did absolutely nothing, and begin with the real action in mid-February.  As you can see, I’ve got all my gear—coffee cup heater, steel wool, vinegar, cheese cloth, canning jar with convenient date printed on the lid. How could anything go wrong? The American Way (for those of you in other parts of Pete Geekdom) is simply to buy all the gear, as in, “Want to be a marathon runner? Buy the shoes. Buy the clothes. Buy the sports watch.” Then the rest just somehow magically … happens. The first thing I did wrong was to pack the jar with #0000 steel wool, poor vinegar over it, seal it up tight, and leave it. And leave it. And leave it. Nothing happened. Finally I contacted John Young (science teacher), who said the stuff needs air. It’s a chemical reaction sort of thing. D’oh. So I unscrewed the cap a little, and as it was in my study / man cave / workshop, whew what a stench. I was in a pickle factory. Still, I bore up for a week or two, when examining the stuff, I noticed (surprise!) nothing was happening. That’s because, Fletch Hiner told me, “You also need to…