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 …
“Do High Priced Pipes Really Smoke Better.” My Conclusions… After conducting my smoking test and talking to several expert pipe carvers and restorers, I decided the answer is so subjective for a yes or no answer. What makes a pipe a quality smoker depends on the definition of a quality smoker by each pipe smoker. I have several hypotheses and …
Here’s the question. When shopping at antique/collectible/flea market/junk shops, how much is too much to pay for a pipe? Of course, the final answer is, “It depends on how much the buyer is willing to spend.” But other than that, how do you determine if the pipe you’re looking at is a good value? I look at different factors when …
As a general rule, if the critics hate it, it’s probably something I’m going to like. Doesn’t matter if it’s a movie, a TV show, booze, coffee or food – 90 percent of the time I find myself disagreeing with supposed “experts” who write reviews professionally. I have read reviews on something and said, “Someone paid good money for that …
As I sit here preparing to practice for a long smoke contest in two weeks, I thought I would pass on some words of wisdom and insights. First, and most importantly, the rules for long smoke, slow smoke or pipe smoking contests and competitions vary as much as the locations they are held in. There is no governing body that …
