I am curious for those that hunt estate pipes down and renew them. What are your tricks for finding them? I wanted to try my hand at rejuvenating some pipes.
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for practice on crappy pipes you wn't care to destroy, try ebay for the cheapest crap lots of pipes you can find.

once you've got that down, then i'd focus on older pipes that have a history... if you've never heard of it, there may be a good reason why (like finding places to eat out of town - don't go to the place that's empty, there's a reason why).
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Beware all pipes on ebay with one or two blurry photos and/or a seller who opens with, "I don't know anything about pipes..."

It amazes me how few pipes show up at yard sales, flea markets, etc. Online sales and auctions seems like the place.
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yep, i concur with Moo. if you're buying pipes on ebay for personal use after a refurb, then stay away from the seller that only puts 1 or 2 really bad out of focus pictures with no description up there...

but if you're wanting to buy a "lot of 5" totally crappy pipes to practice on that you don't care if you destroy them, ebay has a # of those types of auctions... which is what i meant by my first post.
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I concur with Curly Cut whenever he is concurring with me. Getting a bunch of nasty old pipes for $5.00 on ebay is a great way to hone your skills and, sometimes, even find a cool pipe.
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and if you ever wanna get serious about restoring pipes, a pipe retort is the way to go
http://cgi.ebay.com/PIPE-CLEANING-RE...item3efb8e026f

I don't have one myself yet, but plan to get one soon, and I know some who have them rave about them.
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