Father the Flame

 

Restorations

These are all pipes that I’ve been working on lately and had finished. The last three pipes, the Danmore, Calabash, and the MacDonald’s pipes were all of the set I received in March from the mid 60′s to mid 70′s.

Mauro Armellini 302

Mauro Armellini 704

Kaywoodie Standard 805

Basket Pipes

Savinelli Oscar 606 – Unsmoked

Danmore 3020

Calabash Gourd – Unknown maker

MacDonald’s

 

H.R. 4439, The Tobacco Tax

I got an email from Pipesmagazine.com letting the community know that the government is proposing a huge tax increase on tobacco products.

H.R. 4439, the Tobacco Tax Parity Act of 2010 was introduced on January 13, 2010 and would raise the tax on pipe tobacco 775% from $2.8311 to $24.78 per pound.

Now, in fairness, I can understand a slight tax increase, even though I don’t agree with it. But this?! It’s just unspeakably ridiculous.

There’s a petition that everyone can sign and have emails and/or letters sent to our congressmen and senators. Follow the link below.

http://pipesmagazine.com/blog/pipe-news/stop-the-pipe-tobacco-tax/

Now, what’s your thoughts?

 

Getting the Mrs. Hooked?

My wonderful wife has been in the mood for some good tobacco. Cigars aren’t something she’d try, but she’s enjoyed some finer cigarettes over the years. Camel used to make these cigarettes that were flavored, kinda like pipe tobacco, but we haven’t been able to find them and we doubt that Camel still makes them.

Well, last night she comes in with a pack of cigarettes that we bought, but decides instead to ask me if there’s some pipe tobacco I have that she might enjoy in a small pipe. Most of my pipes are rather large, but I have a few smaller, more pocket type of pipes. She chose the Bent Bob’s pipe, my first pipe which was given to me for Christmas one year and then we explored my different tobacco blends. Again, most of my tobacco these days are latakia based, so a little too woodsy for her taste, but then I remembered some sample pouches of tobacco I acquired from Altadis and she decided on their Blue Note. Burly and Virginia. Smells wonderful and a little more aromatic.

Cyndi really enjoyed that pipe. She’s not a big smoker, so I ended up finishing the pipe when she was done. With good experiences like that, think I could get her hooked into smoking a pipe with me? Anything’s possible. It was a delightful tobacco and I completely forgot how well that little pipe smoked. It’s a cheap pipe, but not bad at all for a starter pipe.

Here’s Cyndi posing for her pipe smoking debut.

 

New Pipe! Stanwell Colonial 186

Smoked once and what a wonderful smoke it was. This is a very smooth pipe to smoke. Easy to light and easy to keep lit.

 

Vacation And New Tobacco

I finally took some well needed and deserved time off from work. Today, I went up to my favorite tobacconist and bought a couple tins of tobacco. Tobacco is the one thing that I have still much to learn. There are so many different brands, cuts, and blends, that it takes a long time to sample them. Let alone the fact that I don’t smoke very often, I usually leave it up to some of the recommendations of Smitty (the tobacconist).