The Rutkus Refurb

[Scott M]

So I reply to a thread Brandon, (Rutkus) posted about slapping some carnauba wax on a pipe of his, since I've got a bench buffer. I've spruced up most of my own, and figured it was a decent way to "spread the love" around and gain a little more experience with refurbs. Brandon said he just wanted some wax on his new pipe, which didn't sound too rough, so I said sure... send it out, I'll see what I can do for ya.

Now, allow me a small digression; I've got a small but fairly respectable collection of pipes and I've seen a bunch more so I have a pretty good idea about style, size, and form. There's the traditional standards, the billiards, the canadians, and the bulldogs, like my GBD;




Or styles that are slightly more eclectic, like my Sav Oscar;




THEN, we have a relatively newer style, one that's pretty uncommon. Freehands are pretty unique, individual shapes even within the style, and from the pic Brandon sent me, I thought it'd be an interesting challenge. Unfortunately, Brandon failed to mention this particular type was the rarely seen PLANETOID Bari Wiking Freehand;



[SIZE=6]THIS FREAKIN' THING IS THE SIZE OF A SMALL GRAPEFRUIT, FOR CRYIN' OUT LOUD!!! I MEAN... I KNOW YA'LL IN TEXAS HAVE THIS "IT'S BIGGER IN TEXAS" COMPLEX, BUT GEEZ LOUISE.... MAN-OH-MAN, TALK ABOUT COMPENSATING FOR... SOMETHING... I DUNNO WHAT!!! DO YA REALLY HAVE SO MUCH TIME ON YOUR HANDS THAT YA GOTTA BUY YOUR TOBACCO IN POUNDS PER WEEK????[/SIZE]




More follows

[Scott M]

Alright, after me and the harpie...uh...Mrs... get over the shock of his size, I get down to brass tacks. Over the course of a couple of days, I proceed to wrestle with this thing on my grinder / buffer. Kind of a rough go, since the rough parts wouldn't really catch the wax well and there was a smooth part of it near the bowl that I wanted to hit with the wax. And let me tell you, even with a bowl THAT FREAKIN HUGE, it's still entirely possible to have the grinder rip that sucker outta your hands and bounce it into some nasty things, (for which I STILL humbley and profusely apologise). Ya gotta watch yourself when buffing around the rim, (of the pipe, you perverts), 'cuz THAT'S where it'll happen most often.

So I get to this part, and we agreed it was what he wanted in the first place so he gets it back, and I get to crawl into a corner and blow spit-bubbles, mumbling to myself about planetoids and nursing my sanity back to .... well... whatever state I was in before all of this.







I took the liberty of cleaning it up a bit for ya, Brandon. Hope you're happy with the results!

Cheers!

[drrgill]

Very Nice..I want One I am a Big guy and I like pipes like this that fill your hand!!! Looks great Scott....So I guess you were able to buff out the ..flew out of my hand marks...

Drrgill

[rutkus]

thats too damn funny, it looks GREAT Scott, can't wait to get it back! when i do i'll post pics of the other huge Bari Wiking i have. i just became enfatuated with those big pipes so i have two of them now.

thanks again!