Bigger. Better. More Pipe.  This year’s Chicago Pipe Show was a larger event with an expanded smoking tent and the addition of the special events section at the back of it, and the show boasted way more attendees than previous years.

While we didn’t have the most interesting man of the year at the show this year, there was an actor sighting at our hotel of Brian O’Halloran (better known as Dante from Clerks). It is unknown if he came into the show itself or was just there at the hotel, and sadly, I didn’t find any pictures of him there, just the rumors.  Stay tuned on that one. 

Tim Garrity (Chicago Pipe Club President) shared with me some numbers this year; there were over 950ish in attendance.  For those of you playing the home game, they reported to me that in 2024, a little over 400 attended (after checking with Tim this was just the attendees not including vendors it was around 800 with everyone).  That’s more than double for 2025.  

“We had an increase in carvers and tobacianna makers. A large international presence with vendors coming from China, Brazil, Italy, France, Denmark, the UK, Austria, Germany, Turkey, Cuba, Cyprus, Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain, Canada, and a few others as well….

I really want to highlight two pieces that stick out to me. As mentioned before, the international showing. Our guests came from all around the world. While it rained outdoors, only friendship and fellowship reigned in our tent. Our community continues to bring me joy, for in divisive times, we are coming together. Pipes over politics, personalities, and persuasions,” said Tim.

The line to enter stretched almost outside this year.  Below are a handful of pictures to give you a general idea. 

Upon first entry into the ballroom, vendors and carvers were stacked in with more tables than in the past couple of years, as Tim discussed.  To the newcomer, this can be a bit overwhelming because there are so many pipes, but do yourself a favor and do the “Brian Levine” advice and walk the whole floor looking before coming back to settle on some pipes. 

New Tobaccos Coming out from C&D and Per Georg Jensen

I ran into Per Jensen this year at breakfast and ended up heading out to the smoking tent with him before the show opened, and we sampled several blends that he’s working on in collaboration with Jeremy Reeves (newly minted Doctor of Pipes) at C&D. 

Per: In a collaboration with C&D.  One week ago I was playing ping-pong with Jeremy at the C&D factory.  Two tobacco-interested people who came into talks and discussions and decided to collaborate.  So I’m coming out with four blends under the name Legacy Collection, where I honor my father and his job.  The first four will be with sailor motifs because he was onboard the royal yacht Dannebrog. 

Per: Every summer, the King and Queen travel around Denmark visiting the different cities.  This was a tradition that goes back to the Vikings because at that time they didn’t have any facebook or Instagram so a lot of people didn’t know how the king looked.  So they had to travel around to all the cities to show his face.  He didn’t have a castle.  This tradition is taken over by the present kings as well. 

Per: The crew onboard the yacht are selected from the regular navy, and conscripts are hand-picked and sent onboard the royal ship to work for the summer.  Officers were always assigned to the ship, but every summer a different crew.   The ship he started on was the paddle boat steamer, and then in 1932, a new ship was built, and that is the same ship we use today, almost a hundred years old. 

When are we going to see these blends come out?

Per: If everything goes as we would like, it will be the beginning of July.  I’ve got two blends ready, and I’m smoking the new ones now.  They are:

100% Virginia (Red and Bright)
Virginia Dark Fired Kentucky
Burley Dominant Blend
One more Virginia blend. (Red and Bright)

For all of them, they are going to be so natural, that means a little bit casing, no top note (with the exception of the burley).

The goal, Per says, is to have balance in the flavors and no tongue bite.  Kings Watch is a 50/50 blend of red and bright virginias. Interesting note: Per said, each tobacco company calls variations of Virginia something different. MacBaren, for instance, would call it bright Virginia because it had a higher sugar content.  The red Virginia has all the flavor, so the more red, the more intense the taste.  When sampling this, the flavor profiles are citrus fruit, mellow cream, and a slight floral note.  

Tasting the Burley heavy blend, which is ready to go as well, is smooth, nutty, and cocoa-flavored. With that nougat taste, I’m reminded of a Toblerone candy bar, but don’t go assuming it’s full-on aromatic. It’s subtle. Another commented that it was like a truffle. The Burley forward blend does have a hint of Virginia in it as well, but just a hint. 

The Dark-Fired Kentucky and Virginia blend has that expected BBQ smell/note. The room note is more mellow. Per says they are still tweaking the two other blends, and they don’t have names for them yet, other than being under the Legacy Collection banner.  Stay tuned!

Battle of the Briar

This year’s Battle of the Briar featured Ping Zhan, Silver Gray, and Nathan Davis as the carver competitors. Once again, our Master of Ceremonies was Steve “Pipestud” Fallon, with Jeff Gracik providing the play-by-play.  Missouri Meerschaum was a sponsor this year and also did a live stream of the event; you can go back and watch here.  I’ll expand a bit on that video with things you didn’t know, with a couple of comments from the carvers and Judges, so strap in.

I chatted with Jeff a bit about the differences this year vs previous years:

In the past years we were using fixed speed motors that were underpowered and prone to overheating and shutting off abruptly. This year, the show committee allowed us to invest in six more expensive, more powerful, variable-speed motors identical to what most professional pipemakers use. This along with improved dust collection meant that the competitors (and students in the pipemaking seminar) could work more quickly and with more confidence. Further, we added an upgraded grinding disk that was designed by me and made by Kevin Foster and Stefan Cashwell. These gave more power and precision to the shaping stage. 

One more comment on the equipment. In the past competitions, we had a bottleneck for the competitors created by a single polishing station. This year, each workstation had its own full polishing setup.

What surprised you this year?

That the pipemakers practiced to prepare—this is different than years past and indicates to me that the Battle is earning a reputation in the pipemaking community. For me, that is very, very rewarding.

The shapes were more ambitious than in past battles, in part due to the precedents set by previous competitors and in part due to the new equipment.

The ‘pivoting’ that was required by pipemakers this year was more dramatic than in years past. The most notable moment was Ping making a mistake that ruined his planned idea for a mouthpiece inset into a natural plateau shank end. Instead, he sanded that away and created a flush-mounted stem.

The Competition

Pipe makers drew numbers for who gets to choose the briar first. Ping got first pick, then Silver, then Nathan.  Ping Zhan chose a pipe that had birdseye on the sides. Silver chose straight grain with a plateau on top. Nathan chose another straight/flame grain with plateau on top.

By comparison of the pipe makers this year Silver makes around 40 pipes a year, Ping makes around 60 pipes, and Nathan makes around 1000 pipes (which he commented he hadn’t made an individual pipe in about 6 years. He normally is batching pipes and averages around 30 minutes per pipe.)

“In case you’re wondering, this is what a pipe maker’s workshop sounds like: a vacuum and grinder going all day. We were wearing headphones for ear protection, of course, but we didn’t offer that to them for this.” Jeff commented as they started up.

After each of the carvers had done their initial cuts on the band saw, they began.  Silver bent her stem at the very beginning – to get it out of the way – she wanted to do it early.  Because she carved a sitter, she wanted to make sure it sat, and it throws the balance off if you do that last. You bend the mouthpiece first and adjust your sanding and shaping so that it’s perfectly balanced, as opposed to coming back to it at the end.

Ping Zahn decided to go for a blowfish shape, which is a tough shape to get sanded and done within the hour.  Silver and Nathan did more freehand.

“I have to say the upgrade on equipment was absolutely fantastic! My hat is off to previous competitors for sure! I thought the judging was absolutely fair. The whole ‘show’ was professional and extremely well executed! I have zero negative thoughts and can only say it was a wonderful experience,” Silver reflected. 

With 5 1/2 minutes remaining, all three pipe makers are polishing. Jeff commented that this year’s updated machinery is helping out, as they appear to be much further along than in previous years.

“If you polish the acrylic mouthpiece too hard you can melt it.” Jeff commented  and Nathan actually found the melting spot of his mouthpiece and had to go back and tweak it.

Steve asked Shannon Hoch what she did to stay looking so young, considering how old the Missouri Meerschuam company is – she said she takes an exfoliating cob for her face scrub. Her Husband, Brett, said “corn syrup”.

Judges this year were:

Truett Smith (Smoking Pipes), First time judge
Jared Coles (former contestant, now Judge)
Neal Osborn (Master of Pipes first-time judge) 

“I had so much fun this year. Getting to participate in the battle of the briar for a third year in a row was an honor. Getting to sit in judgment of others is such a responsibility, and we behind the bench felt it and tried to be as objective as possible. It was so interesting to all the pipemakers at once, trying to deduce their strategies, looking for mistakes, rooting for all of them. My colleagues on the bench are men of taste and sound judgement; It was a pleasure serving on this year’s panel.

While I appreciated getting to spectate instead of compete this year, I was a little jealous of not being able to do some pipe making! Pipe making is so much fun, it’s hard to sit on the sidelines and not make some dust and mix it up with those briar warriors.

It was such a privilege to be a part of it again. Big shout out to Jeff Gracik who organized it, the Chicago pipe club for facilitating, my fellow judges and esteemed colleagues Neal Osborne and Truett Smith. But most of all to those dusty few, Nathan Davis, Silver Grey, and Ping Zhan,”  Said Jared Coles.

 
Ping turned in his pipe, and he had one minute and thirty-five seconds remaining. 

“The competition was exciting and nerve-wracking at the same time.  It was harder than I thought it would be, and I made a mistake when making the pipe, so I had no choice but to change my original plan.  I was so happy that the end result was not so bad,” Said Ping Zhan about the competition.

What about laying the pipe down first on the table?
“I was relieved, of course,” Ping stated.

Silver turned hers in with 35 seconds remaining and Nathan ran up the very last second putting on that last coat of wax and popped it on the judges table. 

“It was a great experience. I thought I would be stressed because I knew all the carvers, but it was not that way; it was very straightforward to judge,” Said Neal Osborn.

In the end, there can only be one—first place, that is. Once again, putting your pipe on the table first has the advantage of getting an extra 3 points for time.

Ping 1st.
Silver 2nd
Nathan 3rd.

“They did an amazing job upgrading equipment. While part of the fun is a level playing ground and out of our shop, Jamie did a great job tuning the motors, Kevin made some great new wheels, and the materials were top-notch. I love all they are doing. The streaming to the tent was great, but I had large groups of people back home and at clubs watching me, too. Planning out the commentary a little would be good, so they are not scrambling in the slow periods. A couple of filler plans (Note: Good feedback for Steve and Jeff), but I digress,” said Nathan Davis.

“I think the whole team deserves some praise because, for all I do with the UPCA, these guys found a way to include pipe and even non-pipe people in what we do and broaden the audience,” Nathan concluded.

Each pipe gets laser-engraved, with the pipe maker, the battle of the briar, and the pipe placement. They get auctioned off to support the show.  If you haven’t watched the competition, I encourage you to check out the YouTube replay linked earlier to see how it all played out.  I  also reached out to Truett for comment, but have not heard back from them at the time of this article going live. 

Slow Smoke Competition

This year’s pipe was a Merchant Service Billard by Greg Polla.  The UPCA mentioned that additional pipes left over may be available for purchase. 

Dimensions:
6” long
2.25” tall
1.42” wide at the rim
Chamber: .82″x~2” deep
Weight : 64g

The competition mixture this year was Spilman Mixture by Iwan Reis

The slow smoke was quicker this year, and Kyle Bowen (UPCA president) stated, “The final two contestants (Eric and Barry) were at the same table and took twenty minutes longer than the rest. It was an intense finish.”  You may notice that Lester Young who has previously dominated got knocked out early.  Best of luck to our winners. 

1 CABRERA Eric Toby 1:02:39 National Winner
2 TANNENBAUM Barry 1:01:01
3 BERGSTROM Michael 0:43:29
4 WANPLER Jeff 0:41:26
5 SHEEHAN Pat 0:39:27
6 ST. PETER Austin 0:38:00
7 AITKEN Tom 0:37:00
8 HAYNES Joey 0:36:36
9 BARNES Johnathan 0:34:40
10 ZHANG Guoqing 0:34:20 International Winner
10 HANSON Jason 0:34:20
12 YANG Yajun 0:33:30
13 YOUNG Lester 0:31:42
14 YERO Todd 0:31:24
15 VIG Edward 0:29:57
16 BOLAND Nate 0:28:57
17 CARPENTER Terry 0:28:40
18 COOPER Jordan 0:27:33
19 EWART Jules 0:27:05 Woman’s Winner
20 WEINER Fernando 0:25:03
21 WEINER Jeff 0:24:37
22 MILLARD Adam 0:24:30
23 HUBBS Gregory 0:24:13
24 ABARCA Javier 0:17:28
25 MAHANEY Stacen 0:17:20
26 TAUSIG Jotham 0:12:05
27 RIGER-KUSK Manduala 0:02:28
28 WATNESS Craig 0:01:00

Doctor and Master of Pipes Dinner

The Awards Dinner this year was well organized, and you could feel that the Chicago Pipe Club was re-focused on honoring those few who have been named Doctors and Masters of pipes.  You can watch the awards here from a video Craig Hairrell took. 

Brian Levine and Steve Fallon MC’d the event and took time reading through the previous honorees, as well as having those in attendance stand and be recognized.  Dave Shain represented the Masters and handed out awards for that, and Linwood Hines handed out the Doctors of Pipes awards.

This year’s inductees:

Masters of Pipes (10 years in industry and hobby)

Tom Kuhn
Peter Prevost

Doctors of Pipes (20 years)

David Peterson
Jeremy Reeves

New Book by Mark Irwin

Mark Irwin gave an illustrated presentation on the impact of Peterson’s historic 1906 catalog, the most important in their history, as they celebrate their 160th anniversary this year.

He discussed how the catalog’s two-part mission statement undergirds the evolution of Peterson’s subsequent design language, fuels the tensioned dialectic between the craftsmen’s workday execution and inspired direction, and the critical role it played after the company’s 1975 centenary. A reproduction of the catalog with commentary by Mark was released at the show and will be available in the next few weeks from Smokingpipes.com.

Digitally restored from the original letterpress halftones, the new book retains the full 1 : 1 scale images of the original catalog, making it possible for those who companion or collect vintage and new Peterson pipes to compare them for size and stem bend to those from 1906. It also features Patent era pipe photographs by Ken Sigel and a shape index. Mark has previously released The X Pipe, a philosophical novel on the meaning of pipe smoking, as well as two previous books on Peterson and books on pipe smoking in Tolkien’s Middle Earth and in the Sherlock Holmes films of Basil Rathbone. He blogs weekly at Petersonpipenotes.org.

For those of you who are interested, I asked Mark if he’d have another run of the Original Peterson Book – he said in a couple of years.  And for those of you wondering, yes, I let him write this part because.. its Mark. 

Interesting Pipes and Things

The strange, interesting, and weird things spotted at the show caught my eye.

Now many of you have seen Werners Lego pipes before – but what I didn’t know was that he’s so precise on these that the bottoms are correct and you can stack these like real legos. 

Adam, the mad scientist that he is, is experimenting with an “inner plateau” pipe with resin poured over the plateau on the side and polished to a high shine showing this “cosmic” look.  

At the Arango Table, we came across the Erik Stokkebye Pipe Tobacco Humidor.  There are only 75 made worldwide.  It contains two hand-blown glass jars for blending tobacco, two very limited tins, 1855 and 1822. The humidor body is made out of rosewood veneer with a gloss finish. Chambers in the back for humidity patches and comes in the size: 33x23x11cm.  The picture at the top is a depiction of Erik’s grandfather’s factory in Denmark. 

If memory serves the metal protruding at the bottom is a mini-lighter. 

Smallest and Biggest Contest.

Continuing the tradition of finding the smallest and largest pipes at the show this years contenders are:

Summary

Wrapping up, it was another great year that expanded not only the vendors and carvers but also the number of attendees.  It was a pleasure meeting so many new folks this year, including a handful of new pipe smokers and first-time Chicago Pipe Show attendees.    Stay tuned to the socials and Pipesmagazine as there are some big announcements for 2026, and I’ll see you there! 

Hat tip to Pipetart, Per Jensen, and Ronnie Pecorini for a couple pictures I borrowed. 

Pipe Shows
May 8, 2025
James Foster
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2025 Chicago Pipe Show, Chicago Pipe Show, Pipe Show, Pipe Shows

Written by James Foster

Master of Pipes , Certified Salesforce Tobacconist #2145 from tobacconistuniversity.org , President of the Austin Pipe Club, and Author at Pipesmagazine, James is also the owner of thepipetool.com. James has written numerous articles on the industry and interviewed some of the greats over the years.

View all posts by: James Foster

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