This is a pipe smoking zone

[dopey]

Hmmmm. As I type this on my blackberry, I am having the tires changed on my car while I smoke a nice macbaren latakia roll cake in a Dunhill cumberland bent bulldog. Bent bulldogs and rhodesians are among my favorite shapes, but I also like the elegant prince and long shanked billiards.
The macbaren I mentioned might, in fact, be the answer to your question as it is a spun rope (like the Gawiths) sliced into coins. There is only a small amount of latakia in it -the name is very misleading- and you can feel it but barely taste it. In any event, by happenstance, this is my first bowl with this tobacco as I am trying it out on a short beach vacation. Ask me again in a week, but so far, so good.

[alden]

I have tried that Macbaren tobacco and it tasted funny to me. I am used to lake country flakes and their clean taste. Dunhill Navy Rolls used to be a favorite of mine but they a too strong now.

I would add Apples and Cuttys to your list of shapes. A small bowled apple makes a great flake pipe.

Cheers

Michael

[dopey]

...

I would add Apples and Cuttys to your list of shapes. A small bowled apple makes a great flake pipe.

Cheers

Michael

You will be please to know that one of the pipes I took with me and am enjoying now is a small bowled paneled apple shape. I purchased it from trever talbert's Ligne Bretagne. He calls it a squashed Pumpkin- I think of it as a paneled Prince. Of course, it is simply an Apple variant. I bought it because i like the shape, it was an interesting blast and, best of all, was clean enough to be left unstained, and I really enjoy letting pipes color themselves as they are smoked. It smokes beautifully, but I prefer a more defined button than this has for my straight stemmed pipes.

I don't own any Cutty . It, along with a nice Zulu, is a shape I like that is missing from my collection. On the other hand, I have enough pipes. Each is a little jewel and, like potato chips, it is hard to stop at just one. So I am reminding myself that the natural finish ones need a lot of smoking to reach their potential beauty and they will suffer from the competition for attention with any new pipes. As it is, I still have a lovely long shanked Rad Davis Canadian in a natural finish that has yet to be smoked (and Rad Davis does a nice button, too).

[alden]

Trevor makes a nice pipe.

The zulu and cutty look great, are easy to carry around, but they can be finicky to smoke. For a flake pipe a small apple, billiard or Prince is tough to beat.

If you like English blends, try the Onyx by Hans Schurch....superb.

Cheers

Michael

[dopey]

Thank you, Michael. I like trying new tobaccos and will have a look.
In the meantime, here is a nice gallery of Rad Davis pipes shot by an enthusiastic pipe collector:http://www.apassionforpipes.com/rad-davis-collection
There are some nice Zulu examples. If you follow the links on the site, you will see some beautiful photos of many other pipe makers as well. His collection of old Comoy Blue Riband pipes is extensive, as his familiarity with contemporary artisinal pipe carvers. Also,the blog entries are well worth reading as Roan is a thoughtful writer.

[alden]

That is a great site. Yes, the Zulus look very fine indeed. My Grandfather left me a few hundred English pipes many from the 20s and 30s. I picked out twenty or so and the rest are somewhere..who knows. The Comoy Blue Riband is as elegant pipe as was made. I also like the old Castello pipes from Italy. I have to dig out one Zulu for you to see...just perfect.

If you go to the Synjeco site you will find a list of Schurch's English blends: my favs are Onyx and Mogano.

http://www.synjeco.ch/pataall/taba/4060.php?i5s13

M

[alden]

Dopey

Here is the Castello Zulu:








Michael

[dopey]

That Zulu of yours is beautiful. What makes it special is the way it bends, barely perceptibly, from the stem into the shank and bowl. It is easy to design a swoopy pipe. It is much harder to make one that hints at movement without showing a lot of obvious curves.

[NJS]

That is a stonker.
NJS

[Gruto]

I know very little about pipes, so maybe I should just stay away from this thread. However, I'm living close to one of the world's best pibe makers (well, that is what a friend, who he very much into pibes, tells me). I visited his workshop not long ago. He showed a wonderful poetic approach to his craft. Especially, I remember one sentence "The great pibe maker finds the pibe in the wood": http://www.eltang.com

[uppercase]

All this talk is going to get me smoking again.

[alden]

All this talk is going to get me smoking again.

We all hope this talk will get you writing again...

[alden]

That Zulu of yours is beautiful. What makes it special is the way it bends, barely perceptibly, from the stem into the shank and bowl. It is easy to design a swoopy pipe. It is much harder to make one that hints at movement without showing a lot of obvious curves.

I have had a chance to visit the Castello workshop a few times. You see a whole table full of beautiful, hand carved pipes in every imaginable shape, no two of them are the same..and then one steps out from the rest. Its the thing we like about these hand crafted goods.

Michael

[dopey]

This was yesterday's pipe - a pencil shanked billiard in an unstained natural finish, made by Rad Davis. When new, this pipe was a pale butter color. The bit work on this pipe is fantastic, and it is light as a feather, despite the relatively large bowl size. I am not sure if you can see the grain well, but the blast reveals a very nice ring grain centered on the foot of the bowl.
Where I have let this pipe down is in using it to smoke primarily Virginia plug and flakes. The relatively vertical bowl shape means that unless I am very careful, the expanding flake or cube turns into a dense rock inside the bowl. I could spend more time rubbing out the cut, but that takes some of the fun out of smoking pressed blends. As soon as I find a ribbon Virginia that I love, this pipe will find a permanent use, but in the meantime, I enjoy it too much to leave aside - even if other pipes handle flakes better.




Hmmm. The photos seem oddly truncated. I will try to fix that later.

[alden]

Dopey

Great looking pipe.

If I smoke a flake in a large bowl, I will simply roll the flake into the shape of the bowl and then rub out just a bit to sprinkle over the top to get the smoke started. If you know how to smoke slowly and patiently, this technique will provide a very cool and taste filled experience.

Cheers

Michael