Check Out My Cellar

I discovered, by way of A Pipe Smoker's Cognition blog an online site for keeping track of my tobacco cellar, called Tobacco Cellar.com. Don't click the link yet, as I haven't had time to put my stuff in there yet, but I will add the link to my links list and by mid-week it should be filled in.

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That's me again, this time enjoying my latest and best homemade corn cob pipe! This one is definitely a winner!

Add Your Own Caption

This picture appeared on the The Briar Files blog with the admission that the author did not know what it was about and an invitation to caption it. I have done so. Check out the blog and enjoy.


Look what your Latakia did to my mustache!

Pipe Smoking and the Life of the Mind

It has always seemed patently obvious to me that pipe smoking is not only the hobby of intelligent people, but actually contributes to people's intelligence. This interview of Bertrand Russell on Pipesmagazine.com supports that assertion.



PENNSYLVANIA MEERSCHAUM UPDATES:

So pipe number one burned out. Pipe number two looks great but doesn't hold much. Pipe number three burned out. Pipe number four, which I made yesterday, will be the test. First of all, I went to the market and bought a better, wider piece of corn. White corn, in fact, which I've been told is stronger than yellow. I'm much happier with the width of the bowl and made the length larger as well. Everything came out as desired. All that remains is to smoke it...a few times and see how she fares. Either way, I'm out of the business for awhile, but it has been a fun diversion. Meanwhile, I ordered a couple of more Morgans from Missouri Meerschaum, just to be safe.

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Pennsylvania Meerschaum 2

Yes, I have taken another stab at corn cob pipe making. I think you'll agree that this second attempt is better than the first. I worked a little harder at it, used somewhat better tools and a surer hand to shape and finish it. I think it looks right smart. I'll take it on its maiden smoke this afternoon.

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when I will break open a new tin of tobacco, Burley Flake #2. There are now 4 numbers in this series. Burley Flake #4 contains Latakia, which is not a preferred taste of mine so I haven't decided whether or not to try it. But Number 2 is the only one of the other three expressions that I haven't tried and I'm anxious to compare it to its compatriots.

UPDATE

The pipe smokes well. The walls are thicker than the first and I think there is less chance it will burn through, though the chamber is narrow and the pipe holds less tobacco. But I'm getting there.Considering I didn't give a lot of thought to purchasing the corn in the first place, the next step is to look for corn with a wider pit in order to carve a larger bowl.

The tobacco is pleasant. A good straight burley with a nice touch of the Red Virginia to make it interesting, but not as interesting as the perique makes Burley Flake #1 and #3. All told I think #1 goes on my favorites list while the others go on the occasional list.

Nautilus Pipe

I hope this is not a violation of blogging ethics, but I couldn't resist. I came across a new blog called Tobacco Days and I couldn't resist not only mentioning it , but reproducing these incredible photos. They are of a pipe called the Nautilis by Michail Revyagin and really speaks for itself.





Check out the whole story at Tobacco Days!

Presenting Pennsylvania Meershaum

For whatever reason, it inevitably is the dream of every serious pipe smoker/collector to carve his own pipe. I've tried on several occasions, purchasing ebuchons, the ubiquitous Pimo instruction booklet and a few tools. My first attempt was truly terrible. My second was smokeable but not much better aesthetically. I do not have either artistic or mechanical talent.

None the less the bug persists! Buoyed by the previously mentioned YouTube video I found demonstrating a step by step approach to making a corn cob pipe, Sunday I bought an ear of corn and a sheaf of bamboo sticks and got to work.

Yes folks, I made my own corn cob pipe today. And I think it came out pretty well, if I must say so myself!

SO HOW DOES IT SMOKE?

Like a dream! I actually couldn't believe it, but it smokes cool and easy and, dare I say, better than any of my store bought cobs.

The Missouri Meerschaum Morgan

I was very pleasantly surprised today when I received my newest pipe from Missouri Meerschaum. It is the Morgan, a proto-type/experimental shape that is not yet displayed for sale on their web site. Marilyn, the sainted lady with whom I have been communicating, suggested it as an alternative to the nosewarmer that I was looking for before we determined that, in fact, I had purchased the nosewarmer from Walker's Briar Works and not Missouri Meerschaum. It is perfect! I love it! It is probably no more than an eighth of an inch longer than the Walker nosewarmer and the bowl is not as high but it is a wonderful nosewarmer type pipe. Of course it doesn't have the acrylic bit of a Walker but I bought extra bits and this shouldn't be a serious problem. For the price differential between the two I can buy lots of extra bits!

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I want to direct your attention to the post where I mentioned the blog Firecured. Check out the comments where I learned that the blog is actually written by Michael from Maryland and not Pearce from Ireland. Thanks for the correction, Michael.

More Video

I don't want to become a pain in the neck, but I have continued to explore the pipe and tobacco possibilities on YouTube and came across one more that really warmed my heart, so to speak. Actually two more, but it is one video in two parts and it is an "instructional" on how to make your own corn cob pipe! This gentleman takes you through his process step by step and it seems pretty workable. I tried and failed to do this myself years ago, but armed with this new learning, I may try again myself one of these days.

The "New" Medium

Its not that I'm a luddite; far from it, I think. But I do have a predilection for written as opposed to aural/pictorial communication. So while I have been very good at scouring web sites and blogs about or related to pipe smoking, I now learn that I have entirely overlooked the vast amount of pipe communications available through youtube. As recently noted, I have become a member of the Pipesmokers blogging community (which you can access by clicking on the tobacco tin to the left) and I've been trying out the different fellow bloggers therein listed. So today I tried a blog called Firecured where I found the author featuring a youtube video he made. Not only did I watch and enjoy it, but I suddenly realized that there was a whole community of pipe smoking youtubers. The author of Firecured is called Pearse and he is from Dublin. His youtube channel is called "dubinthedam.




So I began to investigate a bit and found Requim Pipes, a video channel run by Gustavo from Portugal with some wonderful tobacco reviews.



Check them out and do some of your own investigating! From the number of other "channels" that I saw having to do with pipes I may be at this for a while and will occasionally report my findings.

Mystery Solved!

When I sent my photo of my corn cob nosewarmer to Marilyn at Missouri Meerschaum she rightly recognized the stem as coming from Walker Briar Works but still could not claim the bowl as one of theirs. Of course, I knew that the acrylic stems that I use on my corn cobs had come from Walker's, but I'd forgotten that in this particular case, so had the bowl! I checked the web site and, lo and behold, mystery solved. I ordered a second nosewarmer to have as a back-up and also confirmed my interest in receiving Missouri Meerschaum's Morgan, an experimental shape, to test out. So much to look forward to in the coming days.

In addition, while buying a re-supply of Burley Flake #1 and #3 at Holt's I noticed that they now also had Burley Flake #2, which I haven't had a chance to try out yet. bought a tin and its on my waiting list.

The Mystery Of The Corn Cob Nosewarmer

We are back in the city. We actually came home Friday, which was a much better idea. We. Were able to get everything put away, relax and ease back to work today. One of my modest goals for the day was to find another corncob nose warmer waiting for me upon my return. I had gone online last week to order one at Missouri Meerscham and couldn't really find what I was looking for. So I ordered miniture corncobs and they were waiting for me at the office today and they were definately not what I wanted. So I called Missouri Meerschaum to look into it

They had no idea what I was talking about. They were exceedingly nice and helpful as could be, even looking up the records of everything I've bought and still couldn't figure it out. Instead they are sending an experimental pipe, not shown on the web site which might be satisfactory. But the mystery remains. What did I purchase last year? So I emailed a picture of my pipe and perhaps they'll figure it out

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Meanwhile I'm back at work and had a post luncheon pipe at Holt's. Could be worse.