As most of you know I don't tend to spend a lot of money on pipes. I like to look for the best for less as far as pipes go. So naturally most of my pipes are estate pipes.
Ok, to the subject at hand, I've never bought a Tsuge pipe as I've never found one I liked that I could afford. To my surprise a seller on eBay was listing some Tsuge Tasting 21 straight sandblasted billiard pipes. I'd never heard of them before, so I looked them up and they seem to be just an inexpensive plain jane pipe for tobacco tasting. I guess they were left over from some type of tasting event or some such, and looked to have been smoked about one time. This normally $50-60 pipe he was selling for $20 each plus free shipping! I realize this is not a great pipe, but it is a really nicely made pipe. The fit and finish is immaculate, and the drilling is spot on. The billiard is one of my favorite shapes, and the black sandblast on this looks very rich. The acrylic stem is well finished as was the button and slot. It's a decent size pipe as well, not some little pipe with a small capacity. It measures 5.75 inches long and the bowl is 1.75 inches tall with a 3/4 inch opening.
Needless to say, being my anal old self, I just had to get some Tsuge tobacco to smoke in it. P&C's summer sale had great prices on the Tsuge tobaccos, at about 50% off. I ended up getting two of their aromatic blends because they didn't sound horrible and were lightly flavored. I also picked up a couple of the non-aro blends to try. I've only smoked one of the aro blends so far, The First Days of Spring, which was quite nice. In fact it reminded me a little of Rattray's Exotic Orange but with more of a berry flavor rather than orange.
So my first foray into Tsuge pipes and tobaccos is pretty positive so far. Even at $50-60 dollars for the pipe, you can't go wrong, the pipe is just that good! Can't wait to try the other Tsuge blends perhaps in a pipe that isn't (gasp) a Tsuge... :mrgreen:
Ok, to the subject at hand, I've never bought a Tsuge pipe as I've never found one I liked that I could afford. To my surprise a seller on eBay was listing some Tsuge Tasting 21 straight sandblasted billiard pipes. I'd never heard of them before, so I looked them up and they seem to be just an inexpensive plain jane pipe for tobacco tasting. I guess they were left over from some type of tasting event or some such, and looked to have been smoked about one time. This normally $50-60 pipe he was selling for $20 each plus free shipping! I realize this is not a great pipe, but it is a really nicely made pipe. The fit and finish is immaculate, and the drilling is spot on. The billiard is one of my favorite shapes, and the black sandblast on this looks very rich. The acrylic stem is well finished as was the button and slot. It's a decent size pipe as well, not some little pipe with a small capacity. It measures 5.75 inches long and the bowl is 1.75 inches tall with a 3/4 inch opening.
Needless to say, being my anal old self, I just had to get some Tsuge tobacco to smoke in it. P&C's summer sale had great prices on the Tsuge tobaccos, at about 50% off. I ended up getting two of their aromatic blends because they didn't sound horrible and were lightly flavored. I also picked up a couple of the non-aro blends to try. I've only smoked one of the aro blends so far, The First Days of Spring, which was quite nice. In fact it reminded me a little of Rattray's Exotic Orange but with more of a berry flavor rather than orange.
So my first foray into Tsuge pipes and tobaccos is pretty positive so far. Even at $50-60 dollars for the pipe, you can't go wrong, the pipe is just that good! Can't wait to try the other Tsuge blends perhaps in a pipe that isn't (gasp) a Tsuge... :mrgreen:
