Wet Shaving, Pipes, and Gentlemanly Pursuits
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James Foster - Feb 5, 2015
- 10 min read
James Foster
In the past year, PipesMagazine.com has broadened it’s horizons by reaching out past just pipes and tobaccos to include other topic areas of interest for the pipe smoker lifestyle. We have Steve Morrisette’s column,
the Gentleman Smoker, and Ethan Brandt’s column, The Speakeasy for example. While participating in our little pipe smoking and collecting hobby, we’ve noticed that some of you also have a hobby of growing big, large beards. Well, this article isn’t for you … unless you want to do some wet shaving. For further proof that wet shaving and pipe smoking go together, read this forum post from 2008.
WetShaveClub.com was nice enough to send me a box to sample and asked if I would write an article about it. Since old school wet shaving and the pastime of pipe smoking both have an air of nostalgia to them, we thought we’d give it a go. Also, there is a story here that involves a pipe smoker. So naturally we’re going to cover the box I received but I’m also going to talk about one of the products that a fellow pipe smoker (and cigar smoker) happens to peddle.
Wetshaveclub.com is like some of the other companies out there that is a monthly “box” type of club which is all the rage nowadays. What sets them apart is they spend time looking for great products to include in their boxes for shavers that are niche, and outside of the normal purview. When you sign up for the club at $29 a month for 1 month or $24 a month for 3 months or as little as $19 a month for an entire year, you receive first a box with a razor, soap, brush, after shave, and blades. Then each additional box contains other shaving products to bolster your shaving needs and introduce you to new products that you might decide to make your daily shaving product.
Much like the many pipe-smoker starter kits out there that weigh quality, value, and price in the selection of the items I think wetshaveclub.com is a great way to introduce you to wet shaving or re-introduce the time-old tradition of wet shaving. The price point on this really is great to be able to sample products across a longer time period.
The box I was sent was the “January” box and it included a wetshaveclub razor, boar brush, some aftershave from Local Gent Shaving Co. and Ellington’s Soap — where the inside of the cover states “A Gentleman thinks before speaking, dresses for the occasion, and loves his mother.”
Ellington’s is the brainchild of Obie Hughes who is a tattoo artist by day, saxophone player by night, and purveyor of fine shaving and skin products everywhere in between. Oh, and lets not forget: A Pipe Smoker.
For his day job, Obie is a tattoo artist extraordinaire and cut his teeth working early on with Corey Miller (Better known on the TV show LA Ink) for about 10 years before opening his own art studio and parlor Speakeasy Tattoo.
“It is a private, appointment only type studio located in an industrial complex off the beaten path so you won’t see any neon tattoo signs or anything. It’s decor mimics the styles of the early 1930s and has the feel of the old underground drinking establishments during the prohibition era in America… like an old “speakeasy” complete with velvet curtains, vintage wallpaper and rich mahogany trim .. hence the name of the studio,” Says Obie.
See if I wanted to get a tattoo, that sounds like just the right place for me to get one. And I suspect the music I would hear would also hearken back to the same era. Much like Obie’s nighttime gig playing Baritone Sax for the group Rumble King (www.rumbleking.com)
“We have performed at all the major festivals that feature roots rock n roll over the years and have had a steady gig at Disneyland for about 10 years now. You can also catch us at nightclubs regularly on the west coast.”
Not only that, they have 4 full length albums out, a couple singles, and a short music video and they have been doing this for over 18 years!
Obie’s story is unique and what had started out as merely a product review for wetshaveclub.com turned into a full on interview so I’ll share with you what I found out:
You’re a throwback type of guy, how did you grow up?
As a child and through high school, I had always been drawn to the culture and music of the past. My first car was a 1955 Chevy Bel Air and have since owned a dozen or so classic cars and Harley Davidson’s in my day. The first time I ever greased my hair back (Murray’s and Tres Flores Pomade for decades before switching to water based) was at 10 years old but truly started living the lifestyle as a freshman in high school. Musically my earliest influence was Elvis Presley via my Mom who is still a huge fan and from there I just dug deeper. Researching the musical influences of Elvis lead me to all the rhythm and blues artists of the 1940s and then to all the jazz musicians of the 20s and 30s.
How did you develop your line of aftercare products?
With my background you can understand a little about where the marketing influences are drawn when it came to establishing my ideas for Ellington’s All Natural Gentleman’s Aftercare. This was not a marketing scheme trying to capitalize on a growing trend. With my background in the art, music and culture, I design by hand or computer everything from logos, labels, t shirts, shop towels, containers to websites for the company. And Like the artwork, all of our products are also hand made. About 5 or so years ago I was exposed to the art of making handmade all natural organic soap and lotion through a company called Gypsy Soul Organics, owned by Yoga instructor and Aroma therapist Amy Mullin, who also happens to be my “better half” and the brains behind the Ellington’s Recipes.
What was your first product?
The first product we decided to develop out of more necessity than desire was what is now our Ellington’s SuperNatural Salve. This took the longest to research and develop. Originally, this was created to help heal recently tattooed skin. I had grown weary of recommending petrolatum based healing agents to my clients and wanted to create a more natural and organic healing agent. Something with simple ingredients that I could in good conscious recommend for my tattoo clients. I also wanted it to be affordable. There are a few other all natural healing agents but most are double the price of more commonly used petrolatum based skin products. So I wanted something that was organic as well as affordable. After a good year of research, development and personal use, we finally came up with a product that we love, believe in, and use daily. And in the process of creating what was meant to be catered to the tattoo community, we realized that the salve had many other uses. Through personal use and feedback from friends and family, we discovered that not only did the salve work great for tattoos, it worked for just about any minor skin irritation such as bug bites, diaper rash, cuts, scrapes, minor burns, chapped lips, dry skin, eczema, and most recently as a beard balm.
Ok, so how did you migrate to shaving soap?
An annual birthday tradition for me personally, is the classic hot towel shave. Which has always been another intriguing art form often glorified in classic Hollywood gangster films. So the Ellington’s Gentleman’s Shaving Soap seemed like a great idea for the second product. With Amy’s experience in making organic soap with Gypsy Soul Organics, we were able to figure out a beautiful recipe that gives Ellington’s that nice rich lather. For convenience we decided to offer the soap in a classic gold can with room to lather without the need of a shave mug. And for fun, each can includes a hand drawn instruction sheet and hidden trinket at the bottom. The shaving soap is off to a great start and as you know was featured in the January Wet Shave Club. We followed up the Shaving Soap with our “Wide Eyed Whiskey Cider Aftershave. An all natural apple cider vinegar base with woodsy spice aroma and a splash of bourbon. In the very near future we will be offering the soap and aftershave with a second aroma. On the opposite end of the spectrum, we are almost finished with our new minty tropical citrus aroma. And we use the term aroma not to sound fancy but because we only use all natural essential oils as opposed to synthetic chemical fragrances.
How did wetshaveclub.com approach you to include your soap in their box did they say “Hey, we need a metric poop-ton of soap from you,”?
Pretty much. I’m guessing that they just did a search for shaving soaps on etsy and liked the look and concept of Ellington’s. I’m not sure if it was the logo or the fact that it was all natural or both. At any rate we sent them some samples. They loved the lather and scent and decided to use us for the January wet shave club. Our original gold tin can was a bit heavy for their usual box so we decided to use the plastic container for the order. We had already been experimenting with the disposable plastic container idea for a travel version of Ellington’s and for single use shaves for our barber shops clientele. The wet shave club contacted us in early November so it was good we had a little time to fill the order. All of our products are handmade so it was good to have some advance notice.
How long have you been a pipe smoker?
Just a couple years. Still a bit of a rookie at the art of packing a pipe and overall etiquette. I have some very close friends that are avid pipe smokers that help me along the way. Like I said I’m quite a bit more experienced with cigars. What I do like about a pipe is that the smoker has the option of packing a 10, 20, or full hour worth of tobacco “on the fly” as opposed to a predetermined cigar size. My favorite pipe is my Vauen pipe I picked up in Germany.
What type of tobacco do you like?
I don’t necessarily lean toward English Tobacco, it’s just what Santa Claus brought me this year. I tend to like a more bold flavorful complex smoke whatever the brand or where it is grown. Anything that changes it’s flavor as the smoke continues is a plus. I’ve never been a cigarette smoker and don’t care for that at all. So the further away from the taste of a cigarette, the better. I am not big on the flavored tobaccos. Earthy, Spicy with a hint of sweet is perfect. Any recommendations ?
And that sums it up. Feel free to drop Obie a line on your recomendations for him and you can learn more about Obie’s shave soap at www.ellingtonsaftercare.com. For those who follow instagram you can also check out his instagram account here. And more about wetshaveclub by going to www.wetshaveclub.com. A special thanks to forum member msandoval for his expert photography.
 James Foster goes by the online handle of Pylorns in the forums, and he is the creator of an app for keeping track of your tobacco cellar inventory called The Pipe Tool and serves as the President of the Austin Pipe Club. |
Written by James Foster
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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, […]
Welcome to The Pipes Magazine Radio Show Episode 631. Our featured interview on tonight’s show is with pipe maker Dan Keller from Good Made Better. Dan is from South Dakota. Growing up working in the family hardware store where he was always finding solutions to fixing things, he ended up always wanting to make things. He now makes elegant handmade pens, pen holders, portable desks, blotters, blotting paper, book carry cases, and of course artisan pipes. At the top of the show we are continuing the virtual tour of Brian’s pipes with his “f#@k you pipes”.
