Columbus Pipe Show - Bigs w/Pics

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kcghost

Lifer
May 6, 2011
13,152
21,419
77
Olathe, Kansas
THURSDAY: On Thursday Carl Staudenmyer, Club President, and I began our journey to Columbus, OH, for the NASPC Pipe Show. The trip is about 680 miles and we started off at 7:30AM CDT. Once we entered Illinois the amount of road construction really ramped up and Indiana was unbelievable. We were able to navigate all the road construction without any great difficulty, but noticed that eastbound traffic was all but at a standstill in some areas.
We got to the hotel at 6PM CDT (it was actually 7PM EDT as we went through a time change). No problems checking in. The hotel staff was very friendly and helpful.
Rather than unpack we took off for Smoker’s Haven to meet with Premal Chheda and others. Premal is one of the best people in the industry. Unlike most smoke shops in America Premal’s is mainly a pipe shop. He has cigars but that’s not why he is there.
Already at the shop were carvers Bill Walther, Jesse Jones, Nate King, Micah Redmond and Premal. Later we were joined by Joe Nelson and Scott Thile.
Premal’s shop is a smoking establishment so there was plenty of smoke in the air. It was great to have some quality time with the guys. I didn’t realize that Jesse Jones had moved from Texas to be part of Premal’s staff in Columbus.
Nate King was showing off his latest Gear Punk pipe. It was not as large as some of his previous GP pipes, but even for a traditionalist like me I had to admit it was gorgeous. I wish to hell I had a real camera but had to make do with my cell phone.
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Nate King's Latest GearPunk Pipe
After visiting for a bit we decided to go out to eat. We went to something called the Crest that advertised itself as an organic pub. They were even growing their herbs on the roof of the building. The menu was rather of the foo-foo variety so most of us ate a burger. At this point we returned to Smoker’s Haven for another bowl of the best.
About 1AM EDT we journeyed back to the hotel to sleep the sleep of the dead.
FRIDAY: Obviously we slept in on Friday. We finally got in gear and got back to Premal’s at noon. As part of the overall NASPC show he was having a big do at his place. There was a ton of people there. I got a chance to meet and talk to Neil Yarm. He is out of Long Island New York and probably the maker of the most desired pipe stands in the business. He is a real story teller, too.
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Neil Yarm
While at the shop I was clever enough to pick up a couple tins each of Exotique and 20th Anniversary that are private Smoker’s Haven blends. They are extremely good and have some “oomph”.
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Premal Chheda & Son Dillon
Premal also carries a wonderful selection of pipes by American carvers including Michael Lindner, Joe Nelson, Jesse Jones, Nate King, Micah Redmond, Bill Shalosky, Premal himself, Bill Walther, and Scott Thile, etc.

About 4PM we journeyed back to the hotel as the NASPC had made a change on the timing of events. They were going to open at 4PM to let the vendors set up and then at 6PM they were going to let the public in. I was a little confused as to how the public was supposed to know we were open, but c’est le vie.
First thing we found out was the NASPC had sold 114 tables, but 39 of them were outside in the hall. You know how fond we are of tables outside of the main hall. It is a great problem to have when that many people want to come to your show. On the other hand having over a third of your customers in the hall is not a good thing. The NASPC may be staring at a venue change or having to reduce the number of tables they sell.
Anyway Carl got the table set up by 6PM and we waited. We weren’t real excited where we were located. We were actually out in the hall and around the corner from the main entrance to the exhibit. This didn’t bode well.

Seems like the visitors were going in to the hall and then when they came out they just turned right and followed all the exhibit tables around to the left. This is where we were. So we have no complaints about the foot traffic we saw. Now if you were out in the exhibit hall on the left side of the main entrance it was not a good thing. Once people got done with the main hall and then following the tables outside to the right they just wouldn’t go down to the tables at the other end.
Saturday: At 9AM the show doors opened to the public. Even early there was pretty good turnout. This wasn’t terribly surprising as Columbus us just a couple hours away from Cincinnati and Cleveland. Gives them a nice population base to draw on.
I first task was to hook up with Shirley Hando. Three years ago I wrote an article titled “The Pipe Carver of Bataan”. That was about Shirley’s Dad John. She had wanted to display her memorabilia at least once at a pipe show and I had told her the Columbus show would be best as it is well attended and only three hours from home.
When she contacted me about attending the show I told her the show was sold out bit the KC club would give her a third of our table. I then told her to call Jeff Knoll (Shoe Honcho) and see what he could do. He had no tables but was able to get CoRPS (whose table was next to ours) to also give up a third of their table for her. Turns out CoRPS couldn’t make so we kept our table and Shirley got one of her own.
This first photo is a picture of the memorabilia she bought. None of this material is from WWII as none of that stuff survived 3-and-a-half years in a Japanese POW camp. The photo doesn’t really do it justice. The best thing she had was all the clippings and letters she had in her notebook on the table.
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Hando Display
Her Dad continued to carve pipes after the war with what we would today consider pretty primitive tools. You can see below in the photograph that he had some pretty serious skills.
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John Hando's Pipes
I was gratefully surprised at how many people stopped and talked to her about her Dad’s memorabilia. At times some eyes got pretty damp.
The photo below is Shirley holding her Dad’s uniform. The medal in the center bottom is a Bronze Star. There is also a WWII Prisoner of War medal.
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Sheely Hando & Her Dad's Uniform
If you didn’t see the original article and would like to just email me and I will email it back. Well worth the read.
About 10AM the show hosts began announcing raffle winners. The prizes were generally modest but a ticket only cost a $1. They also began selling this year’s Hobbit tobacco. They had 175 tins each of Red Goblin and Brown Goblin. I had always figured these tins sold like hotcakes considering the value they command on eBay. But they don’t. By mid-afternoon the two tin limit was removed and you could buy all you wanted. I figured 9 tins of each was enough.
Below are Joe Nelson and Scott Thile with the charming Kate Jones in the background.

 

kcghost

Lifer
May 6, 2011
13,152
21,419
77
Olathe, Kansas
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Joe Nelson, Scott Thile, & Kate Jones
One of my favorite people pipe shows is Her Redness, Sally Gottliebson, the Pipe Tart. Sally lives in Columbus so Carl and I had thought we could drop by her place of business. Turns out she is an internet seller only and works out of our home. I don’t know what she did since the KC Show but she really looked great in Columbus.
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Sally Gottleibson
Next I moved on to my good friend John Seiler, the author of the Emperor Leopaldo stories. He will have some exciting news about Emperor Leopaldo later in the summer.
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John Seiler
If you haven’t met John you need to take the time to do that. His next public appearance will be at the upcoming CoRPS Show in Richmond.
Also on hand was Pat Morgan of Missouri Meerschaum. We had had a funny chat at Premal’s. Seems like some boor touched her display of cobs and said “Cheap pipes, won’t last)”. Needless to say she was offended. I told her corn cob pipes were inexpensive but not cheap.
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Pat Morgan
Next up was the ubiquitous Brian Levine of Brigham Pipes and the pipesmagazine.com radio show. He was comfortably ensconced along the right wall of the show.
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Brian Levine
I got a chance to stop by and chat with Thomas James and Wendy Richards. They are just such a nice couple. Wendy probably has more offers of “if you ever dump this big galoot” than any lady in the business.
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Thomas James and Wendy Richards
Jesse Jones was there with his wife Kate. Jesse has actually moved from Texas to be part of the Smoker’s Haven team. I really like Jesse’s pipes. Now if I could just get him to bend one of those things.
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Jesse Jones
Ryan Alden was also at the show. It is hard to believe he drove all the way up from central Texas to the show. I think he spent 22 hours behind the wheel. Hopefully his pipes sales made it all worthwhile.
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Ryan Alden - Big Tex
Across from me was Dennis Cullinan of Red Bell Pipes. Dennis had four or five estate Lee von Erck. I have always wanted a LVE pipe so I had to buy one of these pipes. It was in kind of rough shape but it was all original so it’s nothing that can’t be restored.
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Dennis Cullinan and Unknown
As the show was winding down Carl Staudenmyer had been talking to a new carver at the table next to him. Not a pipe had sold off his table. Not a great thing to happen at your first show. Anyway Carl looked at his pipes and thought they were pretty well done for a new carver attractively priced. As he frequently does at show Carl bought to two pipes as a show of encouragement.
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Joe Hinkle
Carl bought the pipe at the top center and lower left. When I saw the first one I bought it from Carl. It was really that good.
I think everyone ought to take the time to check out Joe’s pipes. They are very good and generally priced under $200. He sells them under the name Solomon Pipes.
Click on the link below to see Joe’s available pipes at Tobacco Pipe Collector’s website. The pipes are listed from $190 to $245. Joe will give you a nice discount if you contact him about one of these pipes.
Tobacco Pipe Collectors - Joe Hinkle
You can reach Joe at solomonpipes@gmail.com. Tell him Groucho sent you.
After the show ended we went out of the patio area to have a smoke and a beverage. This is where Carl showed me Hinkle’s pipes and I bought one.
At the table next to us was a couple smoking cigarettes. As we would come to find they were in town to enroll her son at The Ohio State University. They were Scott and Victoria. I’d tell you how lovely Victoria is but without photos you won’t believe me.
Anyway Victoria asked what was the difference in the tobacco she was smoking in her Marlboro Lights and the tobacco we were smoking in our pipes. In the tactful manner I am renowned for I told her that the tobacco in cigarettes was crap.
Anyway we kept talking back and forth and before you know it Carl has sold Scott the other Joe Hinkle pipe, some tobacco, a tamper and some pipe cleaners. Then Carl gave Scott a smoking lesson. He showed him how to pack the pipe, light it, how and when to tamp it, and how to clean it up when you are done. Scott did a very nice job of smoking a pipe for the first time.
Our next event was dinner with Premal. This was a mistake of the highest order. I don’t do well in groups and there were roughly 30 of us. The pipe business must be very good as Premal picked up the check for everyone.

We then went to Jeni’s Ice Cream Parlor for the “best ice cream in the world”. Well, it wasn’t but it was still mighty good.
That was pretty much it other than the drive home.
The NASPC is a great event that I can heartily recommend. They do have a venue issue with too many exhibitors out in the hall and some in very undesirable spots.

 

bentmike

Lifer
Jan 25, 2012
2,422
37
Nice review of the show KC thanks for posting! Having attended the previous couple of shows at Columbus I sat this one out. Didn't really have the extra funds and pipe shows have that way of making you spend the dough even if don't have it. I agree C-bus is a great location and with only a hour drive for me I'll get down to it again for sure.

 

delkhouri

Can't Leave
May 4, 2013
446
22
Columbus Ohio
Thanks for all the pics. You even got a pic of me. I'm the big bearded guy with the blue shirt talking to Thomas James in the background of the Missouri Meerschaum picture.

 

lonestar

Lifer
Mar 22, 2011
2,854
161
Edgewood Texas
Fantastic review of a great show. You captured what really makes pipe shows great. It's about the pipes for sure, that's what brings us all together, but it's the wonderful people that make each show so much fun.

My drive was not quite so bad, just 16 hours, and it was worth every minute.

Dinner was well worth the crowd ! Premal is a fantastic host, a fantastic pipe maker and a genuine all around great guy. As for buying everyone dinner, I don't know if business is that good, or just that Premal is that generous.

Thanks for the great pics.

 
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