I’m back with 3 Ascorti’s to be restored and sold.
It’s not like I really went away, but a combination of advancing preparation for one of my other “hobbies” and getting ready for the holiday season. That, and I just didn’t have any new estate pipes or new tobacco blends to blog about. Until now.
In early February I received an email from a reader who was looking to help a co-worker whose family inherited over 50 pipes. He searched the internet and found me. A week later, I met with the lady and she handed over the pipes. I promised her to research the pipes, restore and sell what I could. In exchange, she told me to keep three of the pipes.
The pipes belonged to her father-in-law, Fred Woodruff, passed in May 2017. The collection includes: Ascorti, Bebbia, Comoy, Charatan’s and Savinelli among others. Two pipes caught my attention right away, a Castello Sea Rock (grade KKK) by Carlo Scotti and a Thomas Cristiano freehand. Those I’m keeping.
Over the next three months, I will be writing about the pipes and the progress I’ve made. I’m starting with three Ascorti’s I found in the collection.
Woodruff Ascorti’s
Ascorti Pipes was founded in 1980 by Roberto Ascorti (source: https://pipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page) Roberto learned pipe carving from his father Giuseppe Ascorti who worked for the Castello pipe factory starting in 1959 and would later form Caminetto Pipes with another famous pipe carver, Luigi Radice, who was also working for Castello. Roberto worked in the Caminetto factory until leaving to start his own company in the 1980s. He has been making quality briar pipes ever since. Later, when the Caminetto factory closed down, many of the pipe carvers moved to the Ascorti factory.
I own a Business KS which I restored and it’s in my regular rotation of pipes.
The pipes in the estate collection included an Ascorti Business, Ascorti Business KS and a Peppino 167. The Peppino was made for the Tinder Box (http://www.tinderboxinternational.com/ascorti_peppino.htm) chain of cigar and pipe shops. While the Peppino has a vulcanite stem, it is missing the Ascorti “A”. There are a couple of possible explanation for this; 1. The original stem broke and was replaced, or, 2. The original owner preferred the softer vulcanite material. I’m going with the latter.
The Business KS also has a vulcanite stem (sans logo), while the Business (without the KS designation) has the original acrylic stem with the Ascorti logo.
Cleaning Process
All three pipes appeared to be in fairly good condition before I started my cleaning process. The rims had some carbon build-up, but the bowls were in decent shape. I used both the alcohol/salt and coffee ground treatment to sanitize the bowl and remove the ghosting. The vulcanite stems were soaked in an Oxyclean bath to raise the oxidation and then wet sanded with 800 to 12000 grit sanding pads to restore the shine. I was also able to heat the stems and remove some of the toothmarks.
It was while cleaning and polishing the bowls, that I did find a problem with the Business pipe (acrylic stem). There are two cracks in the shank at the mortise. The two cracks contribute to the looseness of the acrylic stem in this pipe. I can’t do a repair on that myself but will be shipping it to Steve Laug at https://rebornpipes.com/. If he can’t repair it, he will place a band around the shank and then handle the sell.
I own a Business KS which I restored. https://pappyjoesblog.com/restoring-an-ascorti-business-ks/
Anyone interested in purchasing either the Peppino or the Business KS can contact me to discuss pricing.
© J. Gibson Creative Services. February 23, 2020
