It is an unfortunate truth that available pipe tobacco blends constantly change. Lost forever are old, revered tobacco blends. New blends go on sale. Then suddenly become hard to find or disappear. Old blends lost, new blends found is the constant we live with today. Hundreds of old pipe tobacco blends dating back to the late 1800s have completely disappeared. …
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 …
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 …
Searching antique shops & malls has always been a hit or miss situation. You go hoping to find something worthwhile and you get nothing. Or, you walk in not looking and you find treasure. Last week was definitely a “finding treasure when not looking” one for me – mostly, anyway. My wife collects salt & pepper shakers and pie birds, …
Pipe smokers keep asking me how I keep finding good pipes at antique shops, malls and junk shops. My answer is always, “Just dumb, blind luck,” and that is the Truth. I’ve come to the conclusion, that I go looking for a pipe, I don’t find one. For some reason, I seem to have more success just going into a …
Even a blind squirrel finds an occasional acorn. That’s how I feel sometimes when I walk into a junktique shop (the signs usually say “Antique & Collectibles) and finding something worth adding to my collection. A recent Saturday expedition to one of these shops uncovered 15 or 16 usual Medicos, Dr. Grabow’s and Kaywoodie’s damaged beyond consideration. I found the …
The topic keeps resurfacing on pipe smoking forums. Do the higher priced, premium pipes really smoke better than less expensive pipes? There are some pipe smoking snobs who claim the more expensive pipes do smoke better. But how does that explain the thousands of pipe smokers who collect and swear by the smoking qualities of Kaywoodies and Dr. Grabow’s for …
For the testing I loaded two grams of Dunhill My Mixture 965 in each pipe. I weighed the tobacco on my kitchen scale. Stanwell HCA: Passes a pipe cleaner with some wiggling. Draft hole off center high. Avg. size airway in stem. Good, easy draught – like sipping a fountain drink through a plastic straw. Bowl was warm but comfortable …
