2025 Vegas Pipe Show Recap
-
James Foster - Nov 3, 2025
- 11 min read
The 2025 Vegas Pipe Show was a whirlwind of handshakes, conversations, friends new and old, in what has come to be a very social event of the year, and of course, the obligatory pictures of Nate King getting two double-doubles from In-N-Out on the daily. See previous years‘ posts about that ongoing joke. The show really kicks off early every year with many folks arriving Thursday and Friday to head to the 14th floor, which is an all-smoking floor, room-hopping, enjoying the smoking lounge, and then the registration/check-in table opens Friday evening. This year, I arrived at the back of the line just in time to snag my tickets, and then our small group was off to Cleaver, which is a hidden secret in a Vegas strip mall.
With more attendees, the show did look a bit more crowded down the aisles, and there was rarely a spare seat in the smoking lounge area.
I chatted with Brian after the show, talking about this year’s changes, challenges, and numbers. The geopolitical environment (tariffs) affected a decent number of the international crowd, so we had a handful fewer tables this year, but the delta was made up by more attendees than last year. Domestically as well, some of the tariff costs were impacting folks who bought fewer tables than before, as they had to absorb those additional costs.
Without some sponsorship this year from MacBaren and Sutliff, the show barely made it financially, just breaking even. The show had around 455 attendees and vendors, adding around 50 more than previous years. Additionally, there were fewer hotel nights booked where folks opted for 1-2 night stays compared to 3-4 night stays in years past.
Next year, the show will be on Oct 23-25, 2026, and registration will open early on November 17th of this year so that you can reserve your spot! Preliminary prices may include some discounts for early registration as well.
At this year’s Vegas Pipe Show round-up, I’ve got a handful of things to share in no particular order: a new carver interview, a new product, an old product, an insane carver, and things set on fire… I guess, really, the usual. So strap in!
New Carver Spotlight: Dan Butler
I met up with Dan, by suggestion of Neal Osborn, and chatted with him as the pipe community’s newest pipe carver.
James: You’ve been carving for a little over a year and sold out this year at the show. How did you get into pipe carving?
Dan: Well, I’ve been a pipe smoker for about 10 years or so, and I’ve always wanted to give it a shot for myself. You know, I always wanted to do it for myself, but there were always things that got in the way — until my wife, on my 30th birthday, got me a pipe-carving kit, and I carved it up. But I wasn’t happy. I couldn’t stand having the pre-formed stem on it once I carved the stummel. So at that point, I wanted to do it for years. I had researched it many times. I finally just bit the bullet, got the lathe, and then everything snowballed.
James: Did you do any of the Chicago, like the workshop or seminar, or anything?
Dan: No, haven’t done that yet. I hadn’t done any workshops. The thing that made the most significant difference for me is that I haven’t worked with anybody in person, but I did start talking with Jeff Gracik. He has a fantastic way of talking to you or getting feedback, where he’ll tell you what’s wrong without making you feel bad. You want to be better for him, you know. So, yeah, I think his critiques and help are responsible for a lot of the growth I’ve seen over the past year. Just having the right critiques and then digesting them with his help has made a massive difference for me.
James: What has been the pipe shape that you feel you’ve nailed and you focus on?
Dan: I got a kind of a weird answer, because I think it’s honestly the Fugu to say that I nailed the Fugu shape. I mean, that’s not what I’m trying to get at, but I had one at this show that I was actually pretty pleased with, and I thought it represented my own budding design language, so to speak. It was different. It wasn’t based on somebody else’s fugu. It was the byproduct of, like, the 30 to 40 failed fugus that I’ve put in the scrap in over the past four or five months. And so, you know, when you’re starting out, a lot of people are like, “It’s work on the classics —work on the classics, like billiards.”
But see, the thing with me is I never smoked billiards. They never really were the most significant appeal to me, and so every time I went to make them, I didn’t have the passion for it. It felt like a mechanical exercise. My heart wasn’t in it, and I wasn’t being present with the shape, so I wasn’t learning very much, but playing with lines, with the Fugu, and learning how to do that, even though it was absolutely terrible, too. Yeah, it was a lot of fun, and that’s what kept me going. And so that’s maybe why I would say the fugu was good: because of all the failed iterations, finally leading to the two here at the show —the first two I’ve sold. And even though they’re not perfect, it was still so satisfying to go through that process and then share.
You can catch Dan next at the 2026 Chicago Show sporting some more pipes.
Adam Davidson Torch Pipe
James: How did this new “torch” pipe come about?
Adam: The inspiration actually came from me smoking meat a couple of weeks before the show. I had a partially burned piece of oak in my smoker, and thought the charred crackle was so pretty, I wanted to try it with a pipe. So the inspiration is from barbecue! And ties together with my smoked Billiards.
When Neal was in my room and saw it, he went nuts. I was actually more excited and fixated on having that pipe for the show, so I opted not to finish two other smooth pipes because I was so excited about it.
Funny thing is, I was apparently the only one who didn’t know about the Japanese technique of charring and oiling wood. This isn’t quite the same.
James: Why the billiard shape?
Adam: I also knew I had to do it on a classic shape, not a freehand, because I had to show control with the charring.
It was just like sandblasting the briar, where I need to do the surface evenly and go longer on certain spots to even the blast. With this piece, I used a blowtorch and charred the wood, looking closely until it began to crackle, and had to immediately spray it with water to put it out. Over and over again. So the photos where it is gray are actually what the charred wood looks like. The finish penetrates a few millimeters deep to get that crackle, then it has to be stabilized to essentially lock in the charcoal, but not fill in the crackle.
James: I take it we will see more of these in the future?
Adam: Absolutely, there will be more.
Pete Geek Meet Up
At their first official LVIPS “Pete Geek Meet,” PSOI (Pipe Smokers of Ireland Facebook group) and the Peterson Pipenotes community gathered lovers of the Irish pipe from as far afield as India to share their passion for Petes.
Lance Dahl, James Walsh, and Dan Chasin, three of the world’s foremost Peterson collectors, brought around twelve dozen Petersons spanning every period of the company’s history, from the Patent to the Dublin eras (1890 – present).
They opened festivities at McMullan’s Irish Pub on Thursday night. Marks’ photos and recaps of the meet will be available soon at PSOI on Facebook and Petersonpipenotes.org. (Contributed by Mark Irwin)
I spent some time chatting with Dan (reddevil2579 on Instagram) about his Squire Collection, particularly admiring the Meerschaum version of this pipe, which, as someone who has an empty Sherlock Holmes pipe rack that’s just ready to be filled, I continually ponder if I should go chase after all those next to impossible to get meer versions.
Also at the show – a limited number of Peterson 160th Anniversary lighters.
These are made by the same company that’s always made them, and who also makes the Kiribi lighters – Tsubota. These are still available on smokingpipes, but there were not many produced, so be quick if you want one.
Seattle Pipe Club Blends
Reformulated and re-released soon by C&D the Seattle Pipe Club blends are headed your way with Mississippi Mud and HoggsHead arriving first in November and then the Barrel Aged blends arriving in December. We should see the blends at Pipes and Cigars first, interestingly enough.
Briar Works New Stems/Churchwardens
Pete Prevost at Briarworks has some new churchwarden pipes and varying colored stems this year at the show, and they will be available everywhere soon if not already. Pete asked me to remind everyone of the Muletown pipe show in 2026, March 6-8.
Jody Davis Back At It
Here is someone we haven’t seen in a hot minute: Jody Davis. He’s taking a hiatus from his gigs to do some pipes, and he brought some real beauties to the show. We can expect to see him more often at shows in 2026.
Meerschuam Moisture Discs (Circle) Absorbers
While not exactly new new – it was my first time seeing these and you might immediately think of the Nording rocks system but this is a little different as you just drop the meerschuam disc in the bottom of your pipe bowl, works in all types of pipes and helps keep the smoke drier and cooler as well as raises the bottom of your bowl (chamber) up a bit. These discs can be reused as long as you rest them and let them dry back out.
New Books/Publisher
Adam and Nick (Get Piped and Producer Guy) were at the show with blue rays of the battle of the briar, a new book, “Tales of Fire and Briar.” They shared a table with their book publisher, Veritas Entertainment, and representative/co-owner Nathanael Hummel, who also had a handful of short story books available. In addition, Nathanael brought some of the Timber and Smoke magazines to the show to sell. It’s great to see more print in the pipe world for sure.
Show Awards
Best Hobbiest Display: Johnny and Grey
Best Commercial Display: Cpipes
Best Pipe at the Show: Jeff Gracik
Non-Pipe Vegas Fun
For those who have some extra time, you might check out the Golden Tiki, one of the handful of really cool Tiki bars— and since the show is in October, it is very Halloween-decorated.
Wrapping Up
We hope to see you next year at the Vegas Pipe Show – and remember, registration for next year’s show opens this November. Many thanks go to Neal Osborn (npod) for the use of some of his pictures at the show. It was great to see him back at it, snapping pics as the community’s “official-unofficial” photographer.
I would also be remiss if I didn’t remind you that the last pipe show of the year, which yours truly helps put on, is Nov 14-15 in Midlothian, Texas, at the Texas Pipe Show.
Several photos credit to: Neal Osborn npod101 on IG
Written by James Foster
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The 2025 Vegas Pipe Show was a whirlwind of handshakes, conversations, friends new and old, in what has come to be a very social event of the year, and of course, the obligatory pictures of Nate King getting two double-doubles from In-N-Out on the daily. See previous years’ posts about that ongoing joke. The show really kicks off early every year with many folks arriving Thursday and Friday to head to the 14th floor, which is an all-smoking floor, room-hopping, enjoying the smoking lounge, and then the registration/check-in table opens Friday evening. This year, I arrived at the back of the line just in time to snag my tickets, and then our small group was off to Cleaver, which is a hidden secret in a Vegas strip mall. With more attendees, the show did look a bit more crowded down the aisles, and there was rarely a spare seat in the smoking lounge area. I chatted with Brian after the show, talking about this year’s changes, challenges, and numbers. The geopolitical environment (tariffs) affected a decent number of the international crowd, so we had a handful fewer tables this year, but the delta was made up by more attendees than last year. Domestically as well, some of the tariff costs were impacting folks who bought fewer tables than before, as they had to absorb those additional costs. Without some sponsorship this year from MacBaren and Sutliff, the show barely made it financially, just breaking even. The show had around 455 attendees and vendors, adding around 50 more than previous years. Additionally, there were fewer hotel nights booked where folks opted for 1-2 night stays compared to 3-4 night stays in years past. Next year, the show will be on Oct 23-25, 2026, and registration will open early on November 17th of this year so that you can reserve your spot! Preliminary prices may include some discounts for early registration as well. At this year’s Vegas Pipe Show round-up, I’ve got a handful of things to share in no particular order: a new carver interview, a new product, an old product, an insane carver, and things set on fire… I guess, really, the usual. So strap in! New Carver Spotlight: Dan Butler I met up with Dan, by suggestion of Neal Osborn, and chatted with him as the pipe community’s newest pipe carver. James: You’ve been carving for a little over a year and sold out this year at the show. How did you get into pipe carving? Dan: Well, I’ve been a pipe smoker for about 10 years or so, and I’ve always wanted to give it a shot for myself. You know, I always wanted to do it for myself, but there were always things that got in the way — until my wife, on my 30th birthday, got me a pipe-carving kit, and I carved it up. But I wasn’t happy. I couldn’t stand having the pre-formed stem on it once I carved the stummel. So at that point, I wanted to do it for years. I had researched it many times. I finally just bit the bullet, got the lathe, and then everything snowballed. James: Did you do any of the Chicago, like the workshop or seminar, or anything? Dan: No, haven’t done that yet. I hadn’t done any workshops. The thing that made the most significant difference for me is that I haven’t worked with anybody in person, but I did start talking with Jeff Gracik. He has a fantastic way of talking to you or getting feedback, where he’ll tell you what’s wrong without making you feel bad. You want to be better for him, you know. So, yeah, I think his critiques and help are responsible for a lot of the growth I’ve seen over the past year. Just having the right critiques and then digesting them with his help has made a massive difference for me. James: What has been the pipe shape that you feel you’ve nailed and you focus on? Dan: I got a kind of a weird answer, because I think it’s honestly the Fugu to say that I nailed the Fugu shape. 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