SmokingPipes 2018 American Exposition

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May 3, 2010
6,423
1,461
Las Vegas, NV
Wow, just wow. SmokingPipes asked American carvers to create a piece for this 2018 Exposition and they didn’t disappoint.
Scott Thile offered up this amazing blasted strawberry wood. Once I saw it I couldn’t pass it up. Haven’t had a strawberry wood yet, so any advice on breaking it in would be greatly appreciated.
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Pete Prevost made a breathtaking horn calabash out of horn. Scott Klein did an amazing tomato out of horn with a horn stem. Jeff Gracik did a fantastic Danish style egg out of boxwood with horn accent. Silver Gray did a great HawkDog out of olive wood. Sam Adebayo did a very interesting one using Bakelite for the shank and base of the bowl. Bill Shalosky, Abe Herbaugh, and Scottie Piersel made some incredible pipes out of morta. The crowning jewel is by far Todd Johnson’s where he used a nautilus shell and inserted a briar bowl with aluminum bit between bowl and Bakelite stem. Just incredible work. I’m still stunned by it.
Great collection of pipes from AMAZING American carvers.

 

Chasing Embers

Captain of the Black Frigate
Nov 12, 2014
43,248
108,345
advice on breaking it in would be greatly appreciated
No different than briar. I love how light strawberry wood is this magnum sized billiard is light as a feather.
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May 3, 2010
6,423
1,461
Las Vegas, NV
No different than briar. I love how light strawberry wood is this magnum sized billiard is light as a feather.
Oh that’s good to hear. I got a maple wood from Don Warren a few years back and he stressed with maple you really need to do the honey coating for the first dozen bowls or so to get the cake built up and don’t end up with a piece of firewood instead of a pipe. Hadn’t heard if strawberry wood was like that or more like briar.

 

mso489

Lifer
Feb 21, 2013
41,210
60,433
Mighty fine, and better yet, a pipe with a story. I like the brightness of the stain and the horn accessory.

 

Chasing Embers

Captain of the Black Frigate
Nov 12, 2014
43,248
108,345
Hadn’t heard if strawberry wood was like that or more like briar.
Other than the lightness of the material, it's very briar like. Fire that beauty up and enjoy it!

 

ron123

Part of the Furniture Now
Jan 28, 2015
541
984
Park Ridge, IL
I picked up a Cooke from JT at the Chicago show and commented to him that it looked like it could have been made from strawberry wood. He looked at it and said yeah it is strawberry wood. It hadn’t been sold to me as a strawberry wood, so his response caught me a little off guard, but I was totally ok with it because I’ve been wanting to try a strawberry wood for myself anyway. So, that’s how I came to have any experience with strawberry wood. To me, as has already been said, it didn’t smoke any different to me than my briars.

 

pendergrass2

Lurker
Apr 18, 2018
2
0
Hey guys! First off, congratulations on snagging a wonderful one-of-a-kind pipe, I hope it will be enjoyed for many years to come. Thank you for your great commentary on all of the pipes in the Expo as well! It's great to see appreciation of all of the carver's hard work and dedication. To all the pipe lovers, Smokingpipes thanks you!

 

bigpond

Lifer
Oct 14, 2014
2,019
13
You pulled a nice one lord. The Abadayo (fuschia) pipe caught my eye....but Bakelite colors as it smokes and the thought of a brown strip running down the backside of that pipe is unappealing. That Kline tomato sure is pretty but...,
I guess I won’t pass the test to get my pipe collectors license.

 

cigrmaster

Lifer
May 26, 2012
20,249
57,280
66
Sarasota Florida
Lord, I just looked at all the pipes that were available and yours is the only one that I would have bought. All the others were not anything I would ever buy. You got the best of the bunch for my tastes, well done.

 
May 3, 2010
6,423
1,461
Las Vegas, NV
Thanks. It’s an excellently executed bent apple. He did a great job on the stain and the sandblast.
I like the creativity the difficulty and talent required to make all the other offerings.
Big thanks to SP for putting this together and a huge round of applause to the carvers.

 
May 3, 2010
6,423
1,461
Las Vegas, NV
It came! Had the first bowl in it this morning, some Capstan Blue RR. It’s an amazing smoker. Very well balanced, pretty light weight wise, excellent draw, fantastically comfortable bit. Big thanks to SmokingPipes for putting this collection together and to Scott Thile for the excellent work.
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npod

Lifer
Jun 11, 2017
2,942
1,024
Congrats! She’s a beauty. Glad you had time to enjoy a smoke in it over the weekend.

 

Chasing Embers

Captain of the Black Frigate
Nov 12, 2014
43,248
108,345
After looking at it, I actually like the nautilus. May see if Todd will make me one.
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josephcross

Part of the Furniture Now
Dec 30, 2015
963
93
Very nice pipe Lord. Love the sandblast.
I like that Nautilus too. It was the first one I went to look at and was already sold by the time I got to it.

 

Chasing Embers

Captain of the Black Frigate
Nov 12, 2014
43,248
108,345
I'll have to call him sometime and see. Even without the resin and epoxy, that would be gorgeous with a virgin ring blast paired with a cumberland stem.

 

mso489

Lifer
Feb 21, 2013
41,210
60,433
For those not familiar with strawberry wood, it's not briar but a different heather tree or bush with a woody root for this purpose. It's noticeably lighter weight than briar for its size, which is appealing. It has nothing to do with the berry-producing plant (unless genetically, and that I don't know). I'll keep my antenna up for pipes made of this material, though another pipe is not a pressing need. Ahem.

 
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