Writing About Writing About Pipes
I’ve noticed an interesting pattern in terms of the number of reads each of these blog posts gets over time. Posts about tobacco get a lot more attention than posts about pipes. That is not,…
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The Pipe as a Friend
I am coveting another man’s pipe. Well, to be fair I don’t know the guy, and he (as of this writing) does not yet own the pipe. But I have fallen in love with…no, full…
A Defense of (God help me) Aromatics
As I write this, I am smoking cherry flavored pipe tobacco. Anyone that knows me will understand how difficult it was for me to write that sentence. I began my pipe smoking journey, the way…
What is a Pipe Part 5a: Stummel Materials
We call the bowl and shank of a pipe the stummel. Stummel is a word borrowed from the German language meaning stump, stub, or butt. I am not sure why this word became associated with…
Tobacco Aging and Melding
As I write this I am smoking a bowl of Petter Stokkeby Luxury Bullseye Flake (LBF) in a large Hercules billiard. I like LBF as a change of pace from my usually burley-laden rotation and…
Things to Come
I am traveling to Pittsburgh this week and won’t be able to take the time to put together a regular post. So I thought I might take the opportunity to update you all on what…
Better, Faster, Cheaper…Pick Two
Some of my favorite tools are files, and I am always looking for more. There are good and bad files to be sure, but for the most part even very inexpensive files can be sharp…
Holy Smoke
I realize that not everyone that reads this post will be a Christian, or for that matter a theist. However, don’t think that there are any among us that do not feel something special in…
Perfecting the Tenon Replacement
One of the most common repairs I’m asked to do involves a snapped tenon. Most of the time the pipe arrives with the tenon stuck in the mortise and the stem in otherwise perfect condition.…
An Exploration of Burley Tobacco
I enjoy Virginia perique blends, an occasional light English, and even an aromatic now and then. However, I love burley. Now love is a strong word, and used by a guy for an inanimate object…