Chicago Pipe Show Pad/Tad

That's some haul! :clap:

You've had an epic day. Keep on enjoying yourself.

Nice ! I always say the pipes are just a good excuse to get together with a great bunch of people for a few days. It's hard to find a better crowd anywhere!

Adding to this thread on the Chicago Show, I arrived at 10:05 Saturday to again be greeted by a looooong line of people waiting to get into the show.

Same as last year!

ONE individual taking money and ONE giving a ticket. Took about 15 minutes to gain access to the Show.

I will have to assess my attendance next year.

Should be a way to get an advance ticket and just walk in the door!

Anyway, I spied the C&D table and walked off with tin #173 of 'The Beast' and a tin of 'Bijou' when i left.

I had an appointment ith Basil Meadows to pick out wood for a Modern 'Bing'.

Basil graciously helped me pick out the blank and a rod of exquisite Cumberland material for the stem.

since the rod had enough material for 3 stems, i told Basil, keep it and I will order two more pipes from him.

The number of makers both factory and custom was overwhelming, EVERYONE seems to want into the PIPE BOOM!

I hate to be critical but I saw this before in the Custom Duck and Game Call Boom.

More makers than you can shake a stick at making pretty calls but very few were able to make great sounds.

I wonder how many of these pipes are good smokers?

I was most taken by the Tsuge Exhibit of pipes manufactured by them over thier history.

The pipes made for 'Occupation Forces' caught my eye as well as two 80th Anniversary Pipes.

The Tsuge importer knew next to nothing about the exhibit.

No ikebana's either!

I scanned the tables but nothing really caught my eye.

Basil Meadows has a good reputation and that's where i put my money.-Richard

Very nice haul!

A 15 minute wait? The horror.

Nice haul!

I always use the wait at the ticket table to scope out the layout of the exhibits and maybe shine up the staff a little, which last month got me the last of the freebie Missouri Meerschaum caps which I have been wearing ever since (take it off for bed if I remember). Anyway, that pipe show haul looks pretty wonderful. Don't go to the show unless you expect to come home with some of the product. At TAPS I bought two pipes, had arranged for a third to be brought there but had to follow-up on that by phone. Got tobacco samples, pipe cleaners both churchwarden and two regular, and a nifty stainless pipe tool for half what I'd pay online, so there you go. If you're in a thrift mode, go take a nice hike instead, probably. But you do have to go in an easygoing frame of mind. The staff volunteers aren't professionals, just pipe smokers, so you have to go to stand around and chat and let it happen. I was bowled over on my final go-around the exhibit tables when a long-coveted particular pipe carver's pipe was offered to me by the carver for about a third or less of my estimated price. I thought I was hallucinating. I think the savings paid for the rest of my day including the pipe I got online later.

Looks awesome. The fifteen-minute wait seems like a mess, but that's something that as an organizer you often have to see to understand. Good score by the original poster. That's a lot of The Beast, which you will enjoy in great clouds of smoke that like Rorschach blots will reveal your darkest inner impulses... be ready!

I'm envious! Someday I'll have to make the journey. Sounds like pipe smokers heaven. Congrats!

Woo-hoo! Great grabs!
I've gotta make my way next year.

WOW What a haul. :worship:

Once again I missed a show that is a 50 min drive for me. I feel ashamed. But I'll get over it.

Killer haul.

Bought my first corn cob pipe ever, and already smoked a couple bowls through it. (duh. Why haven't I bought several of these long ago?)

Click to expand...

I had the same reaction, and since that time, I've accumulated a fair number of them. I love briars also, but cobs have a certain utility and joy for portable all-day smoking.

Glad to hear everyone enjoying themselves at the show!

Bud, I never see lines as an issue at CPCC, that's actually how I've got to know many people that I now call my friends. It seems every year I rub elbows with a few new people standing in line, sitting next to them at the Friday night dinner or just bumping into them a few times over the course of a show. But lines are a bit inevitable as mso points out, the staff is almost entirely volunteers from the Chicago Pipe club.

Jpm, looks like you found some nice pipes while you were there ! Did you take the train home, or pick a faster route going back ?