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mso489

Lifer
Feb 21, 2013
41,210
60,433
I have north of eighty pipes. Most started out good smokers and got better. During my heavy Peterson buying phase -- and I've been lucky with the brand -- I bought a new slightly bent rusticated author Peterson with a big nickel band, moderately priced. It smoked well in terms of draw, airway, chamber size, moderate weight for its size, balance and feel. But it took several years for it to fully deliver taste the way it seemed intended to do. There was a "meh" aspect. But slowly, sure enough, it started to prove itself with blends of five or six different tobaccos. Finally that broad chamber and ember delivered the goods, so now it is a natural choice for more elaborate English, Balkan, and burley blends. It went from slow-learner to a rack stalwart. Right now I'm enjoying a bowl of Briar Works Country Lawyer with six tobaccos, and the Pete is doing its magic. Do you have a most-improved pipe?
 

mso489

Lifer
Feb 21, 2013
41,210
60,433
chasing', I'd guess both. I somewhat knew the Peterson brand, and the style pipe (shape, size, chamber) wasn't new to me, so I definitely had the feeling that the pipe was "moving in my direction" in some way beyond my efforts on technique. Hard to tell. Since I don't build cake, it may be that the thin carbon layer took a while to do its job. The pipe just learned to love me more ... just kidding.
 
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p40warhawk

Starting to Get Obsessed
Jul 18, 2019
107
15
I have a Savinelli Clarks Favorite that was a slow learner and now, its a champ!
 

ophiuchus

Lifer
Mar 25, 2016
1,557
2,052
Around the time pipesandcigars.com was acquired by Cigars International, I was having a mild PAD relapse and in the midst of this, bought from them a Bjarne Viking Copenhagen Sandblast, a quarter-bent apple. Most of my experiences with this Bjarne "seconds" line had been positive from a bang-for-buck standpoint. The pipe in question was a little heavier than it looked, the blast looked coarser than I was used to seeing on a Viking, and it tasted like bitter tree sap in a way no bowl coating could hide. It had a noisy draw, almost a whistle.

I thought about getting rid of it. It occurred to me that the wood might not have been cured long enough before being machine-transmogrified into a pipe. What it had in its favor was a flat, comfortable acrylic saddle-bit and thick walls. It became a designated beater. I puffed on it with the proverbial reckless abandon. I smoked it on windy days on countless hikes up and down the Rogers Park lakeshore. I treated it like a nothing pipe, less than a cob, incinerating tubs of OTC and bulk VaPers in its bowl.

I'll be damned if this misfit pipe, over the next couple years, didn't emerge from this abuse not only a pretty decent smoker, but one of my go to companions. When I moved from Chicago to Grand Traverse, it was one of a small handful of pipes I kept out to use while the rest of the collection found itself meticulously packed away for the trip.

The night after unloading the first truck, I rubbed out a Dunhill Flake (I usually fold and stuff, but I didn't feel like messing around at this point) and loaded it into my "Bjarne Beater," parked my bruised, sore carcass on a plastic patio chair with an unmatching seat cushion, cracked the first can of a six-pack and lit 'er up. Listening to chickadees and titmouses in the windless night, I had one of sweetest, most sublime smokes of my lifetime.

This pipe didn't just graduate; it refined itself with great distinction.
 

Humblepipe

Lifer
Sep 13, 2019
1,787
6,243
Guerneville, CA
I have north of eighty pipes. Most started out good smokers and got better. During my heavy Peterson buying phase -- and I've been lucky with the brand -- I bought a new slightly bent rusticated author Peterson with a big nickel band, moderately priced. It smoked well in terms of draw, airway, chamber size, moderate weight for its size, balance and feel. But it took several years for it to fully deliver taste the way it seemed intended to do. There was a "meh" aspect. But slowly, sure enough, it started to prove itself with blends of five or six different tobaccos. Finally that broad chamber and ember delivered the goods, so now it is a natural choice for more elaborate English, Balkan, and burley blends. It went from slow-learner to a rack stalwart. Right now I'm enjoying a bowl of Briar Works Country Lawyer with six tobaccos, and the Pete is doing its magic. Do you have a most-improved pipe?

Not exactly on topic, but I Just tried to score some Briar Works Country Lawyer based on your post. Sold out. You have my curiosity piqued. I will hunt it down.
 

mso489

Lifer
Feb 21, 2013
41,210
60,433
ophi', you used to live in Rogers Park? The last residence of Vivian Maier, the recluse nanny street photographer of posthumous fame, and you hiked the same lakefront with your improving pipe. Wow.
 
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