Testing a Teipen
-
Kevin Godbee - Feb 7, 2013
- 16 min read
A Free-Hand Dublin of Excellence
Tom Spithaler
Nestled in west-central Indiana, the city of Cloverdale has a population of 2,172. It hosts a single McDonalds, an Econo-Lodge and a beautiful natural attraction called Cataract Falls along Mill Creek. Cataract Falls is the largest waterfall in Indiana with a drop of over 80 feet cascading over a set of double waterfalls. The epitome of small town America, Cloverdale has a proud heritage going back nearly 150 years, and looks like a community right out of a Normal Rockwell painting.
What? You’ve never heard of Cataract Falls? Well, that’s OK, as Cloverdale, Indiana boasts more than just a great mom-and-pop community feel and stunning examples of nature’s beauty. It is also home to another of America’s best kept secrets, pipe carver Wayne Teipen.
I first came to know of Wayne Teipen and his work last year as I was researching quality American pipe carvers. I did a brief spotlight on Wayne last June on my blog, and we have stayed in touch exchanging emails several times over the half year or so. Wayne’s focus, enthusiasm and desire to just be the best at what he does is just infectious, and it carried across all components of life for Wayne.
Wayne is a registered nurse by trade, a skill that does not come without years of study and commitment. He has also been employed as a full time hospital administrator, another position that is not gained by being indifferent or apathetic. Everything that Wayne has involved himself in, he has done with commitment, drive, and pride—with a goal to excel.
In sharing what was going on in his heart and mind when he began making pipes, Wayne once said,
"Like most things I commit myself to, I immersed myself in researching anything I could find related to pipemaking and absorbed it like a sponge … I’m fascinated with the engineering of a well made pipe."
After a brief time smoking and collecting, Wayne began carving in 2008. With an intellect towards engineering, a keen attention to detail and an eye for the artistic, it was not long before Wayne was producing some pipes with a quality far beyond his years of experience. One comment on a popular pipe forum made by a very satisfied customer said,
"His work is excellent and his eye for style is great. You will certainly steal a deal getting one of his pipes. His value is truly not known in the pipe world yet."
I approached Wayne shortly after posting his highlight on my blog and asked if he’d like to participate in a review in 2013. In covering his product in a broad sense, Wayne shared,
"My pipes are made from the finest Mediterranean briar available and my current stock is over ten years old. I hand carve my pipe stems from German ebonite, Cumberland, and, on occasion, Lucite rod stock. Many of my pipes include accents made from exotic woods, ivory, antler, acrylic, and other materials to enhance the aesthetics of each piece and make them one of a kind. Each pipe also comes in a quality handcrafted pipe sock made by me."
Wayne quickly agreed to the review, but based on his work schedule, family plans and other commitments he was not so sure when he might be able to get a pipe off to me. It just so happened he ended up with a few available before the end of the year, so here we are taking a look at this beautiful Teipen pipe.
The Free-Hand Dublin Arrives
Arriving well packaged in bubble wrap, the pipe was stored in a beautiful dark royal blue velvet sock topped with a hand-tied satin bright silver braided rope pull-tie that looked elegant. The tie holes are capped with matching silver accent rings that keep the material from fraying, and give an additional appearance of grace to the packaging.
The pipe fit well within the sock, and is ample for shipment and storage. Few things are more frustrating to the buyer of a high-grade custom pipe then to find that the sock in which his investment was delivered was too small for the job. Investing several hundred dollars in a pipe and having to replace the sock right away is a real disappointment. Such was not the case here. I know spending too much time talking about a pipe sock might seem a bit of overkill. However, it is an important part of the buyer’s experience, and to pay too little attention to it as a pipe carver, is to be short sighted. Wayne’s care for the sock shows a desire to excel at all levels of this craft, and it will be appreciated by the consumer.
First Impressions
Right out of the box I was struck by a few points. Aesthetically, it was instantly appealing. I loved this shape. A variation on a theme, Wayne calls this a ‘Free-Hand Dublin’, and the moniker is apropos. The stem was flat and exceptionally wide; wider than any I had ever seen before, and that caused me to wonder. The merging of the bowl to the shank was a center-point of focus for me, and the shank was capped with a beautiful white accent ring.
The bowl was thick at the rim, and the pipe overall seemed to have quite a bit of mass, but yet it was extremely light. It fit well in my hand, and simply begged to be held.
The coloring, while not especially out of the ordinary, was beautiful. The pipe came with a certain ‘glow’ to it in both design and initial appeal. It gave off a very professional look, and would at first glance be put on the top shelf by any reputable smoking pipe reseller. In short, it made a fantastic first impression.
A Closer Look: Blasting
I immediately loved the blast on this pipe. Curious that I felt this way, as I later found out that blasting is one area of his craft that Wayne feels he is just beginning to get a handle on. In his own words, he said,
"I’m not that seasoned of a sandblaster so I’m still figuring out its idiosyncrasies. I’ve only been blasting pipes for a couple years now. It’s seems though that the quality of the blast is 50% equipment/setup, 25% the briar itself, and 25% the pipe maker’s skill. I could be completely off base in that assessment. The one thing I can say from my experience is that how well a pipe blasts is typically very evident by how prominent the growth rings reveal themselves before ever making it to the blasting cabinet."
If the confessed lack of experience is truly a practical one and not just humility coming through, then Wayne has an eye for briar like a seasoned pro who has been carving for decades. The blasting jobs I’ve seen on his pipes, and most especially the one on this Free-Hand Dublin are superb.
The blast is harsh where it needs to be, gentle when gentle is called for, and blends its intensity seamlessly like a Cecil B. Demille film. This is an Oscar winning blast here. The flow of the grain is accentuated at the same time as the growth rings, without making it look like a squashed checker board, or a dirty fly-swatter. The effect of the blast is to give it an aggressive look, and at the same time a gentle feel to the pipe that still provides a firm purchase for the smoker. I like everything about it.
Geometry
The Free-Hand Dublin, in spite of its size is very light and comfortable as a smoker. It weighs in at 43.1 grams, and measures 5.75" long with a 3/4" tapered bowl. It has a rocker-bottom contour to it that adds to the mystique and class of the pipe. It seems to have a slight forward bend to it, but when looking closely at the engineering, it is rather an optical illusion.
In choosing this variation, Wayne addressed his thoughts on various shapes:
"I have a wide spectrum of interest in pipe forms from traditional shapes to Danish inspired shapes. I enjoy exploring these well-established shapes, giving them my own interpretations."
The geometry is fascinating. That curved underside moves your eyes forward towards the bowl area where the blast takes over, and with its stunning lines draw your eyes to move further upwards towards the top of the bowl like fine elfin fingers grasping the entire pipe from below.
The bowl itself while seemingly slightly angled forward is not when looked at with the mind on linear detail. Just shy of being 2" tall, the bowl thickens from the base upward, topping out with a fantastically dramatic rim that is a full half inch thick! While thick rims so often mean physically heavier pipes, and a look that seems bulky, the Free-Hand Dublin is neither. And the blast on the rim is so attractive. Being slammed into the end of the grains of the briar block, the blasting created the look of a Thomas’ English Muffin with all the little nooks and crannies. It is delicious looking.
At the base of the bowl transitioning to the shank is the centerpiece of this pipe. With the arched under-angle created in this Free-Hand Dublin, there is no definitive heel to the pipe. Because of that you have this nice even flow from the wide rim at the top of the bowl, narrowing as it morphs directly into the shank itself. The narrowest point of the pipe is at this transition point, and as the shank proceeds to the stem, it broadens once again to nearly a full inch in diameter. The narrow band between the opposing ends of the pipe create a wasp-waste look that reminds me of the old B58 Hustler bomber or the experimental XB-70 prototypes. This wasp-waste technology in the aeronautical field proved quite valuable in reducing drag coefficients, and transformed design standards in the fighter and supersonic airplane industry. I like it equally well in the pipe industry and in the case of this pipe, adds a flair that cannot be achieved any other way.
The shank has an accent cap of pre-ban elephant ivory. It is as white as a spring daisy and having a dimension larger than the shank itself, is rounded off smoothly. This adds aesthetic value, provides a clean border break between the shank and the bit, and ensures that the smoker feels a smooth line down the entire length of the pipe.
Wide Angle
The stem is silky smooth and polished to a high lustrous finish. It is slightly bent, which for me allows the pipe to rest so comfortably on my chin while smoking. But that is not the feature that makes this pipe SO comfortable. Surprisingly, it is the width of the bit.
When I first opened the package, this is one feature that caused me some pause. "Wow! That thing is wide", ran through my mind. "It’s going to feel like smoking a wooden spoon!" I could not have been more wrong.
This bit spreads what little tension this willowy pipe might put on your mouth across a wide area of lip or teeth. Distributing that weight across a greater surface area increases comfort level dramatically and in a very practical way. It’s so comfortable I find myself holding it in my mouth even when I’m not smoking. In part because it is just quite possibly the most comfortable pipe I have ever smoked, and secondly, because I want people to ask me about it! I want to tell people how much I like this pipe! It is a new experience for me, and one I like a great deal, so much so that I will look to incorporate more wide bit pipes into my collection.
One question I like to ask the carvers about any particular pipe they send for review is about the briar block. When the block was first selected, was it chosen to be the finished shape that it is, or did the briar declare to you along the way what it must be. In the case of Wayne Teipen, the briar wins out.
"I let the block of briar decide what it wants to be. I study the grain pattern on a block and sketch a shape on the block that I envision. Sometimes it is a very quick process. I pick up the block, see the shape, sketch it out and plan the engineering, and go to work making the pipe. Other times I will look at a block and study it then put it back on the shelf until I’m inspired and the shape inside the block reveals itself. Even still I will think I see it and sketch it out only to be disappointed with what I’ve sketched, erase it and put it back on the shelf. If I recall correctly, the pipe you are reviewing revealed itself loud and clear."
Loud and clear seems to be right. I cannot imagine this briar having been finished any other way. This is a practical experience among artists that I see crosses genre of artistic talents. Paul Hewson, better known as Bono of U2 fame, once remarked in an interview for a video documentary of the recording of the Unforgettable Fire LP, "all songs are already written", and went on to intimate that it was up to the artists to bring them to life. Michelangelo is perhaps best known for his Sistine Chapel work, but was noted by his contemporaries as the best sculptor of his time. He once pronounced that, "the sculpture is already inside the stone. I have to just remove the material that isn’t supposed to be there." In that same vein of execution, Wayne took a block or briar that was already made in his mind, and brought it to life by simply removing the material that he knew was not supposed to be there.
Stain/Bowl Finish
Not wanting to give away too much information on the subject of finish, Wayne did declare that he mixes all of his own stains from powder.
"I like the freedom mixing my own stains gives me and the nearly infinite options. I don’t want to reveal trade secrets on my methods so I don’t want to go into too much detail. I can say though that I employ several well-known techniques and a few that I’ve figured out on my own through experimentation."
Beginning last summer Wayne started coating all of his pipe’s bowls. Knowing that bowl coating is a polarizing topic when it comes to pipe carvers and collectors alike, Wayne confessed he was reticent to even begin coating his pipes. In the end, after weighing the pros and cons.
"It is my opinion that the first few bowlfuls of ‘tasting the wood’ doesn’t outweigh the benefits of protecting the wood. That being said, I don’t like a bad tasting bowl coating and I prefer a bowl coating with all natural food grade ingredients. So, I set out to find one that was all natural and had as neutral a taste (or at least pleasant) as possible. The bowl coating on this particular pipe is a mixture of honey that I purchased locally from a friend that keeps bees, water, and activated charcoal."
Drawing it to Life
His bowl coating decision served him well at least on this pipe. Filling the bowl with the fine contents of a previously unopened 12 year old tin of McClelland Bombay Court had me excited for a number of reasons.
This pipe gives me everything I like in a pipe. I like rusticated and blasted pipes. This pipe comes off showing an elegant style befitting the lifestyle of quiet sophistication. It is very light, bold, has lines that flow so smoothly from end to end, never being drawn to a point of visual departure, and it just plain fit my hand perfectly.
In Las Vegas on a business trip at the time, I stepped outside of the Rio Hotel into the courtyard area; I chose a bench and planted myself. I had filled the bowl before I left the room and the tin aroma and immediate notes of a smoky Latakia came bursting out. The pungency of the Latakia was foremost, and not being a big smoker of these hardier blends I was curious to see what this was going to smoke like being so far out of my usual choices in tobacco blends. But when I fired it up, I was so glad to have stepped out of my comfort zone.
The Teipen had a smooth draw and was ever so comfortable. While I did eventually feel the bowl warm from the fire within, it never got hot, and the smoke stayed cool the entire time. And the flavor! I know the flavor experienced might be 90% the choice of tobacco, but I’m equally confident that this wide duck-bill sized stem had a large part in the way I was enjoying this smoke.
That stem flattens the smoke, spreads it out, cools it, and laid soft flavors over my tongue and roof of my mouth that gave me a pleasure in pipe smoking that I had hitherto not experienced. It was such a joy to smoke- I just sat there and soaked it up.
The passersby must have thought me daft, or perhaps a few cards short of a deck I can presume (and perhaps rightly so), because I just sat there talking to myself, mumbling under my breath with a smile from ear to ear. I cherished that bowl for the better part of 25 minutes and was angry with myself for not bring more tobaccos with me. Even when the smoke was over, I just sat there giggling, making notes on my iPad, and making a spiritual note to myself about how glad I was to have met Wayne Teipen.
Wrapping Things Up
I have smoked a lot of pipes over my time in collecting and smoking. I have smoked pipes from all over the world, some of lesser resale value, and some priced far beyond what we see for the average price on Teipen pipes. While there are a few pipes of the hundreds that I own that I might say I like a little more (some for sentimental reasons, some for aesthetic reasons, and maybe for no reason at all), but can I’ll tell you this; I cannot remember having a single more pleasurable smoking experience with a new pipe, EVER. I had to work to get the smile off my face!
I love this little gem of a pipe, and want to thank Wayne Teipen for giving me such an opportunity to review a piece of his work. Having done so, I can recommend his pipes with full confidence that every buyer will be satisfied. I also know this to be true because Wayne guarantees such an experience on his web site as well. I’m confident that Teipen will become a ‘Titan’ in this industry.
http://pipesandcigars.com/teipenpipes.html
https://twitter.com/WayneTeipen
Tom Spithaler is an Award Winning PSEA writer and member of the American Press Association who has cut his professional teeth in the outdoor and firearms media. Tom currently operates Born Again Briar, a small pipe sale and restoration business, blogs at www.briarmeditations.blogspot.com, and operates Spithaler Media Services, a dba of Paraklete Consulting Services, LLC. A husband of 20 years and father of three, Tom currently resides in Bonney Lake, WA. Contact: tom@bornagainbriar.com. |
Written by Kevin Godbee
More Pipes and Tobaccos Articles
4 Responses
Recent Posts
Welcome to The Pipes Magazine Radio Show Episode 634! Our featured interview on tonight’s show is with Warren Ertle. Warren is an extremely accomplished musician with a PhD in music. He started early as a percussionist in sixth grade. Later his grandmother got him a cheap Casio keyboard which he taught himself to play. He started playing in blues bands in high school, and has been a pianist with jazz big bands for years. Even though he was already a professional musician, he took his first real piano lesson when he enrolled in college with his studies in classical music. He is of course a pipe smoker. At the top of the show we will have an Ask the Tobacco Blender segment with Jeremy Reeves. Jeremy is the Head Blender at Cornell & Diehl, which is one of the most popular boutique pipe tobacco companies in the USA.
Soon now, supposedly, our neighborhoods will shift from grinning pumpkins, skeletons in various assortments, and zombies dashing about to pretty reindeer, angels, and flashing lights illuminating homes with sparkling stars and laughing, scurrying Santas. But, lest we forget, there is the turkey season, fancy pie aromas wafting from kitchens, and a national pardon of a big Tom Turkey. Remember, now, that only one of these holiday personalities is a pipe smoker. And that is the hefty, bearded fellow in a bright red suit sitting in a sleigh with a herd of deer hitched up and ready to streak across the globe, bringing tidings of joy and many presents. Ok, the scene is set for the next couple of months, right? So, before we get too far off the beaten path, let’s just take a deep breath of fresh autumn air, shall we? Ahh. That’s better, isn’t it? What’s got the Pundit in a snit is not all the Halloween spooks who came a-jostling for candy. Or the wild turkeys gobbling in the backwoods or all the fuss and feathers over the big one—Christmas. No, it is that we might need to take note of all the little things that mean so much to us. Like a good sunrise (seriously, Pundit has not gone all Pollyanna.) Mayhaps we need to appreciate more of what we have than what we have not. Or something like that. Like, a good pipe in the morning with coffee as the dawn brings us coolish weather now that we have flipped the calendar to autumn. But it also brings beautiful leaves that have become a spectacle of technicolor in the wind. It is the little things. The rereading of an enjoyable book and finding something you did not see or learn in the first go-round. Or a stunning phrase you commit to memory with the re-read, while smoking that favorite pipe. And you notice a superior puff that just seems to be different. It’s in the air and the seasons of meaningful little things. It’s aromatic! Or perhaps it is that sense of satisfaction knowing and appreciating you made it to another day. With the world in a kind of rinse-and-repeat history, reminiscent of a Shakespearean play, it is perhaps a good moment to remember some of Pipedom’s philosophers whose cogent thoughts brought light to clear a path in the mists of confusion and confounding opinions. Ok. No gloom and doom. Just some down-home thoughts. Think of times in the past when history was running off the rails. It took our pipe-smoking thinkers (the mind workers of the world) to speak of better pathways to more light. Think for a moment, with a pipe in hand, these wizards of the world and word: Albert Einstein, J. R.R. Tolkien, Mark Twain, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Edwin Hubble, Bertrand Russell, C. S. Lewis, and Jean-Paul Sartre. All learned and enlightened. They offered wisdom instead of storms of meaningless roads to nowhere. All while smoking their pipes! Maybe especially with the help of their pipes in the art of thinking and philosophy. Recall the words of Mr. E=MC2 when he said, “I believe that pipe smoking contributes to a somewhat calm and objective judgment in all human affairs.” Amen and amen! Dealing with world-rattling events takes a calm and objective view of things, to the Pundit’s way of summing it up. You just don’t go messing around with quantum physics without a calm and objective approach, methinks. Or as the extraordinary physicist Robert Oppenheimer said after he and a team in the Manhattan Project at Los Alamos Labs developed a way to split atoms into bombs during World War II. “I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds,” said Oppenheimer referring to the development of the first nuclear bombs dropped on Japan. It must be pointed out that Oppenheimer was more of a cigarette smoker than a pipe smoker. Nonetheless, pipes were part of his personality. Now, if you have read some of the great authors of the past and present, their pipes were always nearby. Reading Sir Arthur Conan Doyle can be a three-pipe problem at times. S. Lewis and Jean-Paul Sartre require time with your pipes to reflect on the existential problems and solutions these authors provide in learned novels and other narratives. Or take Edwin Hubble and Bertrand Russell, philosophers of another world. Pipes are required for reading. The quantum lode of ideas Pundit is attempting to sort out is that our pipes are relaxing and stimulate our thoughts and creativity. Especially in these last months of the year. Many times Pundit has had that light bulb flick on while smoking my beloved pipes. And friends in Pipedom, it ain’t easy to turn on the lights in Pundit’s rock pit head. Now it’s time for a quote from a Pipe Smoker of the Past. Shelby Foote was born Nov. 17, 1916, in Greenville, Miss., and died June 27, 2005, in Memphis, Tenn. A fact is not a truth until you love it—Shelby Foote. A parting thought: It is said that famed Southern author William Faulkner carried a packed pipe in a coat pocket wherever he went. That’s one effective way to deal with workday conflicts and confusion. A calm and objective judgment in our everyday human affairs, as the quantum man said.
Welcome to The Pipes Magazine Radio Show Episode 633. Our featured guest tonight is Jon David Cole. JD is the Owner/Tobacconist at The Country Squire in Jackson, MS, and the accompanying online store. We’ll have JD and Brian talking about what’s new at the store and in the business in general. At the top of the show, Brian will discuss tobacco growing, what happens to the leaf, and provide updated information on where tobacco is being gown today. Tobacco production originated in the United States and we were once the #1 producer. It’s quite different now.
Well there’s nothing like a touch of the plague to usher in the changing season. Leaving the airport just when the first advertisements for all things pumpkin spice began to appear—lattes, muffins, shampoos, trash bags, and myriad other concoctions—so, too, my ability to breathe freely disappeared. The unfortunate side effect of losing one’s sense of taste and smell for weeks is the utter inability to enjoy tobacco. Not that I consider myself an expert on anything but my own tastes, but be forewarned that this review was made with mildly impugned sensory equipment. Just when a comforting pipe was most needed, its comfort was denied. Be that as it may, the road to recovery found me limping along on one lung this past month, trying to wrest the particulars of two blends on offer from Sutliff: the latest 175th Anniversary blend, Silver Quarter, as well as their spooky seasonal Maple Shadows II. Silver Quarter is a new style on offer from Sutliff, their first coin-cut blend. Naturally a Virginia-Perique, it is enhanced with a traditional core of black Cavendish. In the tin it holds much promise, with a lightly bready and very woody, if ever-so-slightly sour, aroma. After some time acclimating to air, the bouquet softens further and offers hints of the burley with some chocolaty notes wafting through the more dominant dry grassy aspect. The tin art is of a coin-style bas-relief bust, presumably of a founding Sutliff brother, à la The Old Boss On the reverse of the tin we find the blend’s description: Reflecting on Sutliffs 175 years of tobacco excellence, we came across a brand that embodies true value, SILVER QUARTER. This name pays homage to Sutliffs roots, the legacy of two brothers who popularized pipe smoking in the burgeoning mining society of San Francisco. We celebrate this heritage with a coin cut composed of the finest African Virginias, complemented by a core of Perique and Black Cavendish. The tin notes are, forgive the pun, on the nose for a good VaPer blend: mild tart sweetness peeking out from behind dried hay and slight chocolate undertones, with a lightly tannic finish of weathered oak. It is always a joy to prepare a coin cut, my preference being to put a few in my palm and vigorously warm my hands together to fully break them apart. These well-formed discs pack and light easily, and smoke with little prodding to the end of the bowl. For technical points it scores well—it smokes light, and it’s easy to tend the ember. While it gets sharp after a few quick bowls, pacing should be heeded to easily smoke down to the heel without inviting bite. Of the flavor, though, I am left a bit wanting. There are tart and high notes aplenty, but very little of the lemony citrus I would anticipate, as well as scant midtones; they tend more toward the red wine-vinegary and sour. The flavors are muted, also, lacking the sweetness and piquancy of other marques—the small measure of Perique tickles the nose now and again with peppery hints, and there is a smidge of a deeper sweetness to be found in the Cavendish from puff to puff, but overall it lacks some dynamism. The Virginias, to my palate, come off a bit on the dry side, and here they dominate the blend. The aftertaste and mouthfeel are neutral, again evincing more of the dry, woody, tartly tannic end of the spectrum. The blend has plenty of polish, but not enough depth or richness (*yet) to make it a standout. Here, comparisons are inevitable: Luxury Bullseye Flake has more sweetness, both from its Virginia as well as its Cavendish, and a better finish; Davidoff is similar but with a pronounced umami that is absent here; as for Escudo, I haven’t had any fresh tins lately so it would be unfair to compare. While it rates as a solid, fairly mild smoke, particularly to lovers of the genre, it does not surprise with any exceptional flavors. To be fair, all the boxes have been checked for the blend to benefit from some real aging, and it would be worth checking in on this after a couple of years sealed away. I’ve set half my tin aside to sample again in a month or two, in case I’m merely suffering from the lingering effects of parosmia, and will amend this review in that case. Maple Shadows II, on the other hand, made up for the weeks of sniffling and sneezing I’d endured. Offered in a full 8 ounce tin with delightfully spooky Halloween art, it’s (hopefully) enough to last through the season. Somehow I had missed this last year, so it’s a real pleasure to get some in my candy bucket this year. As the chilling winds of autumn draw eerie prattle from contorted, deciduous limbs, we find ourselves possessed by the spirit of the season. Bewitched by a dissonant charm, we’ve created Maple Shadows. In a season that is defined by the unlikely harmony of treats and frights, we’ve joined the enchanting sweetness of maple with the earthy spice of Dark Fired Kentucky for a smoking experience that captures the senses with an otherworldly fusion of flavor. This may be the best aromatic blend Sutliff’s ever made—and they make a ton of them. First off, it’s not overbearing in the least—quite the opposite, it is also one of the more restrained aromatics they’ve ever made, with a clear but very light topping that melds oh-so-well with their choice Kentucky added to the mix. Opening the tin, the sweet maple is up front and center, but so too is the must of fallen leaves, bready pie crusts, and a crackling fire in the hearth—a perfect invocation of Herbstdüfte in a can. Packing best in an open and capacious bowl, the flavoring is subtle, and recedes to the background while puffing. With a sweet coffee or tea to accompany, the aftertaste of the maple is reinvigorated on the palate […]
Welcome to The Pipes Magazine Radio Show Episode 632. Our featured guest on tonight’s show is the host of the Pipe & Tamper Podcast, Mike Murphy. Brian and Mike will have an extended chat revolving around the days before, during and after the Las Vegas International Pipe Show. We will hear about their travels to the show and the anxiety of Hurricane Milton bearing down on Florida at the same time while running a show and not knowing if your house is going to be there when you get home. In the end, the show went great and our homes survived, although many others in Florida were not so lucky. We’ll have clips from the show, and shoutouts to other podcasts and vlogs that were broadcasting from the pipe show.
Vegas Baby The show started out strong on the 14th floor hospitality suites hosted by the Vegas Pipe Show and Smoking Pipes as well as room hopping to carvers, estate sellers, and vendors to pre-game for the festivities. If you’re interested in what that looks like I’ll refer you to last years pipe show round up. I circled with Brian Levine to get the totals in comparison to last year: This year’s show numbers: 108 Exhibitor tables, 445 attendees, 3,250 Raffle Tickets, 100ish dinners, 172 Rooms in the Hotel. Last year, by comparison, 107 exhibitor tables, 425 attendees, 2,200 raffle tickets, 104 dinners, and 175 rooms on Friday and Saturday nights. We were at capacity, basically, when it came to vendor tables and the dinner, so there is no physical room for growth at this point except for attendees. That said, we filled that smoking lounge to the brim. New Carvers Spotlight Garret Woo (Pipes by Woo) How long have you been carving? Garret: I’ve been carving since 2021, and I’m guessing your next question is probably how’d you get started carving? James: Yes. Garret: In 2021 I took a break from my full time job – that included machining and assembly work and I thought maybe it was time I made something that I would like and I started looking at youtube and Instagram and putting together my shop. I did struggle on the stems to start and there was a lot of failure at the beginning. James: How many pipes have you made so far? Garret: I number my pipes, so I just finished up 186. James: What is your favorite shape you’ve been making? Garret: I really dig Canadians and pipes with longer shanks and lovat Canadian blends. I like to play with different shapes of stems on the longer shanked pipes. The billiard would be my go-to shape but I want to learn more techniques on freehanded shapes. I like to put brass and copper adornments on my pipes with my machining background it helps. James: What is the craziest thing you’ve seen at this show? Garret: The first thing that comes to mind is the table over there with C-Pipes with the shapes and the size and petiteness and the intricate details they did. You can check out what Garret is working on by going to his Instagram. Stefan Cashwell James: how long have you been carving? Stefan: about 3 years. James: What’s the craziest thing you’ve seen at the show? Stefan: The Adam Davidson pipe with the clear shape and the bamboo—I don’t know if it’s 3D printed or what, but it’s amazing. James: What’s your favorite shape to do? Stefan: That’s a tough question. I think they’re all the same shape, but what’s fascinating is that Dublin, volcano, and blowfish are all the same depending on how you turn them. Playing with that, with all its variations, is a lot of fun. My favorite accent to use is also horn; it’s finicky, but it’s a great accent on pipes. You can check out Stefan’s work on his Instagram. Science: Meet Pipes I chatted with Chris from the San Diego Pipe Club; he started off doing stem replacements for estate pipes but also improved the airflow. James: How are you doing 3d printing? What is the thought process? Chris: It’s a 3D-printed pipe with a briar insert. The design is a calabash meets a Peterson system meets a metal Falcon/Kirsten radiator style. It is a bottom draft smoking bowl like a radiator like those metal pipes. The inside chamber is a calabash. The stummel and accent rings in the stems are all 3d printed. The insert is briar, olive wood, or I have the potential to use meerschaum as well. This idea came about through the San Diego Pipe Club, wanting to see if we could 3D print a pipe and being curious about the technology; I have a printer and design ability, so here we are. James: What’s the type of plastic you’re using? Chris: It’s all PLA plastic, a renewable potato starch plastic that is food-safe. The stummels are printed with a plastic that has wood in it 40% wood fiber, bamboo, rosewood, ebony, redwood, and walnut are the woods I’m printing. For the accent rings I just got a new material that I’m printing that has 40% copper, so its real metal that you can sand, and polish the same as wood filament. The stems are 3d printed as well. The concept is renewable and cheap from a production standpoint, with the ability to make a very high quality smoking pipe based on the experience. By combining the calabash system pipe and bottom draft hole and using 3d simulations to see airflow, I can see where I’m having eddies and ripples in my current, and see where my moisture and all the particles are dropping back out from a vapor to a liquid. Most people who have tried these say the stems are clean, and they don’t even have to run a pipe cleaner afterward because everything collects at the bottom. Chris has also been experimenting with color-changing plastics so you can see the hotspots. Chris said he was able to use this to slow down his cadence, which, of course, could mean you could get a slow-smoke training pipe to teach yourself to perform better. If you’re interested in learning more or want to check one out, you can contact him on Instagram: Copper Beard Pipe Works The Negative Space The show was buzzing about one specific pipe, which had everyone guessing how it was made. I chatted with Adam Davidson briefly about it. James: How did this idea come to fruition? Adam Davidson: Smokingpipes.com had an expo back in August open to all of the makers they carry. The theme was to make a pipe utilizing bamboo. Given that the last time we had the expo I made a smooth Almond with three bamboo shanks, […]
Awesome looking pipe and a great review.. Thank you for sharing..
Great review Tom! I enjoyed it as I do your blog posts. That is a beautiful pipe.
As a wood worker I’ve always been partial to smooth finished pipes -I like to see the grain and nothing brings it out like a fine polish. But lately I have been developing an appreciation for a good blast. It’s an important tool in the pipe carver’s box and a different way to enjoy the natural beauty and grain structure of the wood. The method is unique to smoking pipes and the only place I’ve ever seen a similar effect naturally is water worn driftwood on the beaches of the Great Lakes.
Thanks Kevin for providing an outlet for such great writing!
Flawless.
That would be a perfect pipe for my taste. An excellent blast, the right weight and inner bowl width. The stem, as important as the briar, being flat makes it a home run. Great looking pipe!