So, you decided you don’t like walking. Well, If you’re going to ride, you will need a bike. How hard can find a bike be? “It’s as easy as riding a bike.” The intent behind that quote is basically, once you have learned to ride a bike, you never forget. An article in the New York Times stated once we …
(Warning: Even though I have stayed at a Holiday Inn Express many times, I am not a medical professional. The following does not constitute medical advice, it is just a recounting of what I have done over the past 10 months to be more proactive with my physical and mental health.) First, some background… One of the things I have …
Hello again. Remember me? I used to write about several different topics like pipe smoking, fishing and life in general. Then, I stopped. Life started getting in the way. Sometimes I just got busy. Occasionall I would start to write but stopped because I felt that I had nothing to say. Sometimes, I would have ideas but not the words …
Over the months since my last post, I have been enjoying a number of new (to me) blends I have found. Meistermischung blends are produced by Kohlhase & Kopp and I suspect that at one time they had fancier names. Meistermischung translate to English as “Master Mix” and there are at least 10 different blends ranging from Nr. 11 to …
Why the name The Untouchables Special Mixture was chosen for this blend is unknown to me but maybe they should have named it “Unfindable.” I only found it by painstakingly going through every blend available on the Estervals Pipe House website (http://www.tecon-gmbh.de/index.php?language=en) in May 2021. While it is widely available in Europe. Don’t bother searching U.S. retailers for The Untouchables …
One of the things I’ve “enjoyed” doing during the past year is exploring new tobacco blends. Define “new tobacco blends” as blends I haven’t smoked before. Since July 2020, I have become an even bigger fan of Rattray’s, HU Tobacco, Kohlhase & Kopp, and Dan’s Tobacco. The problem is that many of the blends I enjoy are hard to find …
Let me blunt. In my opinion, Rattray’s makes some of the finest tobacco blends available. A large percentage of their blends have earned three- or four-star ratings on tobaccoreviews.com. I have enjoyed many a bowl of Red Rapparee, Hal O’ the Wynd, Bagpiper’s Dream, Exotic Orange and the Rattray’s Winter Editions. Now comes a blend I’ve never knew existed – …
When it comes to estate pipes, one of the biggest turn-offs is the heavily oxidized vulcanite or hard rubber stems. Non-pipe smokers will see an estate pipe with a grayish green crusty stem and think, “Why would you want to put that in your mouth?” Savvy pipe collectors know deoxidizing hard rubber stems is worth the effort. What they don’t …
The truth about Stanwell Danish Star Pipes is elusive. If I was to have a nightmare about pipes, it would be me sitting at a table and a famous carver, like Sixteen Ivarsson, sitting there yelling, “You can’t handle the truth!” like Jack Nicholson did in “A Few Good Men.” Take, for example, the three Danish Star pipes I just …
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 …
