A Smattering of Pipe Terminology
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Kevin Godbee - Sep 1, 2011
- 5 min read
By Russ Ouellette
As with most hobbies, we pipe smokers have our own lexicon. Most people believe that our terminology exists to allow us to express complex concepts in shorthand, but the truth is that we use this slang to exclude those who are not among the cognoscenti. For the sake of clarity, however, I’m going to throw out some definitions of terms that one might happen upon in these pages and elsewhere.
DGT or Delayed Gratification Technique- To achieve the DGT, pack a pipe, do the charring light and tamp and then set the pipe aside for enjoyment at a later time. I’ve used this method and have gotten a number of excellent smokes as a result. Although the origins of this technique are unclear, I’m willing to bet that it started with a pipester loading up a bowl, lighting it, getting distracted and forgetting what he did with the damned pipe.
Crumble Cake– 1) A pressed tobacco using cut tobacco rather than raw leaf. It is then sliced so it can be prepared however the smoker prefers- rubbing out, chopping, folding and stuffing, etc. 2) What happens on a pipe smoker’s birthday because there are too many candles on it.
Shank– The part of the stummel (see later) that goes from the bowl to the stem with the drafthole going down the center; or, a part of an animal that the doctor says we should no longer eat; or, what happens every time I take a 5 iron out of my golf bag.
Stummel– The part of the pipe consisting of the bowl and shank, as opposed to those little German figurines that Mom or Grandma used to collect.
Button– The very end of the stem which goes into the smoker’s mouth and is where the drafthole terminates; alt.- The thing that goes flying across the room after sitting on the couch following Thanksgiving dinner.
Calabash– A pipe made by fitting an oversized meerschaum bowl into the wide end of a curved, hollowed and dried gourd, or any pipe with a similar appearance. Also, the pipe that Sherlock Holmes NEVER OWNED…DAMNIT!!! Read all 56 short stories and four novels, and you’ll never see a reference to a calabash. In a future article, I’ll write about the Great Detective and his pipes, but a calabash WON’T BE one of them.
Dublin– A pipe which has a bowl that is wider at the crest than at the bottom; sort of the inverse of a volcano; or, another great city where you can’t light up a pipe in a pub.
Pipe cleaners– Twisted wires with fuzz trapped between them that are meant to be run down the stem and shank to remove tars and fluids from the inside of the pipe, but usually wind up being twisted into stick men by your children or grandchildren.
Latakia (lat·uh·KEE·uh)- A black tobacco made in Syria from the base tobacco Shek-el-Bint or in Cyprus by using Smyrna by hanging the leaf in barns with open, aromatic fires which blackens the tobacco and gives it a very smoky flavor and aroma. Also another word that Brits can’t pronounce properly.
Pressure– Physical force applied to Perique and cake and flake tobaccos to make them stick together tightly by using a hydraulic press, a screwjack or a column press. Alt.- What Kevin Godbee, publisher of Pipes Magazine.com exerts upon me right before my monthly deadline.
[Editor’s Note: Ironically, Russ is always the first one to turn in his articles.]
Corncob– What’s left after removing the kernels from an ear of corn. A very specific strain of corn is grown for the Missouri Meerschaum Company, and when the corn is shelled the cobs are used to make their world-famous pipes by finishing the exterior with plaster and fitting them with a wooden shank and plastic stem.
Smoking jacket– A loose fitting jacket (actually more of a cross between a robe and jacket) usually made of satin, velvet and or brocade, meant to protect the pipe smoker’s clothes from flying embers and to keep the clothes beneath it from picking up the smoky aroma; also what one winds up with while smoking a pipe in the car with the window open.
Woodstock– A shape also called a zulu, which has a slight (1/8th) bend and a Dublin-like bowl, with the bowl mildly canted forward. Another definition would be: an iconic American music festival held on a farm in New York State which every living person from the age of 59 to 70 claims to have attended.
Pipe nail– A very useful tool which looks somewhat similar to a nail, with a fairly large, flat head used for tamping lit tobacco, and the other end is usually shaped to allow it to be used as a scraping tool, but you can’t because you keep losing the freaking things.
Match– 1) A tobacco blend created to emulate another existing or extinct mixture. 2) A wooden or cardboard stick which is coated with incendiary chemicals at one end that can be struck to start it burning with the intention of using the flame to light other objects, but absolutely will not work in a wind above 1 mph.
Aging– Leaving tobacco in its tin for an extended period of time, or putting tobacco in a jar or similar container for use at a later time, to allow the flavor to improve; or, the natural process of growing older which makes us think that tobaccos we smoked when we were younger were so much better than what’s available today.
Dunhill– One of the most famous names in the pipe world. The company has made some of the most iconic tobaccos in pipe smoking, as well as some of the most collectible pipes ever, as well as lighters, clothing and men’s accessories. Today, the pipes are made by a company separate from the tobaccos and the lighters are made by … I can’t remember, and now I’m so confused, I need a nap. Go away.
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Russ Ouellette is the blender/creator of the Hearth & Home series of tobaccos for Habana Premium Cigar Shoppe and www.pipesandcigars.com in Albany, NY. He has been a pipe smoker and blender for over 30 years, and enjoys feedback from the pipe smoking public. You can reach Russ at russo@pipesandcigars.com or by calling 1-800-494-9144 on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday from 9 am to 5 pm and Friday from 1 pm to 5 pm. |
Written by Kevin Godbee
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Welcome to The Pipes Magazine Radio Show Episode 516! Our featured interview tonight is with Dr. Charles “Matt” Watson. Matt holds a Ph.D in Quantitative Biology, an M.S. in Biology, and a B.S. in Wildlife Science with a minor in Forestry. He is an Associate Professor at Texas A&M University-San Antonio. In our opening Pipe Parts segment, Brian will offer advice on what to look for when buying old / estate tins of tobacco to tell if the seal has been compromised. Sit back, relax with your pipe, and enjoy The Pipes Magazine Radio Show!
I do not like hot weather. When the mercury pushes close to body temperature, my icy heart begins to melt, and when it reaches the point where I break out in a sweat as a result of the strenuous act of sitting upright, I consider calling around to see if I can book time in one of the refrigerated drawers at a local morgue. Heat and I just don’t get along well. We never have. Indulge my rambling, if you will; this really is about pipes and tobaccos. During the cooler months, I’m most often drawn towards fuller mixtures, rich with latakia, redolent of those wonderful aromas of campfires and leather and the smells of classic British sport cars and motorbikes that occupied so much of my youth. Seriously. It’s not the spice of orientals alone that brings comfort, but the warm blanket of latakia itself. These fuller mixtures recall some of my fondest smoking memories. I’m reminded of walks in the woods on cool, misty days, when the smoke would hang in the air, chilled by the moisture, its perfumed clouds delighting my senses, or evenings by the fire, accompanied by a wee dram of a fine malt, a comfortable chair and a good book. When the weather is all “hotting up,” though, I find latakia, in more than gentle seasoning proportions, to be too much of a good thing, almost overwhelming, so I turn to lighter mixtures and especially virginia blends, with or without perique. It’s something I’ve always found interesting, if occasionally vexing. Is it the temperature? The humidity? The pressure of the air molecules as they dance around, mingling with the tobacco’s smoke? Cosmic rays? Is it a subtle change in body chemistry that results from seasonal changes in diet? Set and setting? Or, is it some confluence of all these factors, and others not noted, that has such a profound influence on my smoking pleasure? I know I’m not completely alone; over the years, I’ve had conversations with pipe smokers who experience similar changes in tastes as the weather shifts. Interestingly, others insist that I’m delusional, that climate has no influence at all upon their choice of tobacco, and that they smoke the same tobaccos year round. Perhaps they live in relatively constant climates, or choose tobaccos with smoking characteristics that are less influenced by climate. Sometimes, I’m a little jealous of them; having my choices limited by something as intractable as the weather can be challenging to my inner control freak. But, the influence of climate on smoking can be subtle or alarming, and no amount of note-taking has led me to anything resembling actual understanding. Hold that thought. I first became aware of this phenomenon one cool autumn evening while waiting with some friends for a table at a popular restaurant. I had with me a lovely smooth Drucquer/LaCroix apple, one of my finest smokers at the time, and a tin of my recently discovered Benson & Hedges Finest Smoking Mixture[fn]The B&H was a beautiful mixture, produced by Gallaher, Ltd, and it came in a beautiful red and gold tin. Virginias, with a bit of latakia and perique, and it was this blend that inspired my own Piccadilly. Tonight, as I scribbled my final paragraphs, the weather was cool, breezy, and felt like rain might be coming; rumor has it there’s a storm developing off the coast. I’m enjoying that very combination that I enjoyed so much that evening so long ago. We’re all quite a few years older, tobacco, pipe and smoker, but the experience is no less superb, and the memories kindled, equally so.[/fn]. Knowing that we’d have at least a 45 minute wait, I had time for a bowl. That smoke was one of those memorable ones that always brings a smile when recalled. (How many remember when you could smoke a pipe in public without a torch and pitchfork brigade instantly forming a circle, insisting you are killing babies not yet conceived and chanting demands for your head? How far we’ve fallen in so few years.) It wasn’t the first time I’d smoked that tobacco in that pipe, but it was somehow different. It led me down a path of wonder just how much environmental factors can influence the enjoyment we take from burning a bowl of shredded leaves. One of the most dramatic examples of this that I can recall happened in August of 2002, while visiting friends in Denmark. There is a certain tabac, a Virginia flake loved by many, but one that I generally find tortuous; smoking it has always seemed to me to be the pipe smoking equivalent to sucking on the business end of a plasma cutter. I figured it was just a body chemistry thing. But when a friend offered a fill of this hell-spawned leaf, his regular smoke, I graciously accepted, rubbed out a flake, tamped it into the smallest pipe I had with me, and was astonished by the experience of a cool and enjoyable smoke. What? Figuring there must be some difference between the “home trade” tobacco sold in Denmark, and what was exported to the US, I bought a couple tins for further exploration. During my visit, I smoked through most of the first tin, enjoying every bowl, but when I returned to California, that very same tobacco, in the very same pipes, reignited my fear and loathing of the stuff. The temperatures at home and in Copenhagen at the time were not much different, so clearly something else was at play. If I were to throw a dart at the guess board, it would be that humidity was a factor. Another, albeit somewhat embarrassing anecdote might put a bit of meat to the bones of this hypothesis. One morning, some years ago, while still brain-fogged by insufficient sleep following a late night gig, I found myself coming to barely-waking consciousness whilst in the shower. Nothing odd there. But, the pipe clenched between my teeth at the time […]
Ah, the dog days of summer. Just think of your poor family dog who must endure the heat and humidity in a fur coat. The Pundit’s beautiful Golden Retriever just plops down on the floor exhausted and sleeps. A lot. And speaking of heat and humidity, a frightful thought on the global front, it is time to think of good summer tobaccos. Nothing too heavy, just a light little tap on the shoulder, so to speak. Maybe a Virginia-burley blend with a touch of Perique. I like the ribbon cuts for summertime smoking when the “livin’ is easy and the fish are jumpin’ and the cotton is high,” with thanks to George Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess opera. And, yes, back in the day, Pundit was quite the fly-tying, pipe-smoking, chest-wading, trout-hunting, crazy rod-toting, fly-fisherman. Corn cob pipes were for smoking when fat, high-flying trout were jumpin.’ Never one of those beautifully designed and lovingly hand-crafted pieces of old wood briar. No sir. No risks are taken when excited and shouting for joy with a large trout on the other end of the fly line. Only to note in the splashy chaos the magnificent briar leaped from mouth to the fast-moving stream and sped off downstream. But now back to dog days and pipe tobacco. Virginia-burley flakes are also a fav in the blistering days of summer. And let’s not bypass our light English blends. Or the noticeably light aromatics. Nothing drenched in dressing. A wee dram of topping will do. A few of the heavier Virginia-Burley blends, say from Cornell & Diehl, require patient puffing. Nothing rolling down the tracks at full steam sort of thing. Slow and easy with some of the heavier VaBurs. Especially if you are a nicotine wimp like the Pundit. A moderate nic hit is fine. But I have occasionally gone so far over the dark nic abyss with strong tobaccos loaded with nicotine so as to experience the onset of that most disconcerting sensation of falling, spiraling into the dark unknown, with cold sweats, hazy thinking, and hallucinations. “Quoth the Raven ‘Nevermore.’ Poe’s “The Raven!” would then be the exquisitely apt verbal utterance we squeak out involuntarily when suffering the turbid depths of that awful green gills feeling. Okay, light up the Virginias with perhaps a little touch of perique and a dab of burley. Slow and easy on puffing, like hot evenings in the South. This next thought from the Pundit might be too much of an existential question, but here goes. Is it possible to own too many pipes? Have you successfully reached the end of pipe collecting and stuffing the cellar with more tobacco than you will ever consume? And do you then find this quiet realization quickly subsumed by a sudden and viral case of PAD, compelling one to add even more to the seemingly ever-expanding herd? Which then sends PAD sub-variants of TAD into whirls of ignition. Thus adding more pipes and tobacco to a sagging pipe shelf and a bloated tobacco cellar. How does one curtail the lifelong pleasure of collecting beautiful handmade pipes and artfully created tobacco blends? Cull and sell much of the overgrown collection, did I hear someone say! Nay, nay, replies Pundit. This is just not going to happen on Pundit’s watch. So, what to do? That’s a reasonable question. With perplexing problems that arise in every life, I fill a briar bowl with an aged blend of Virginia and puff away until a light goes on somewhere within the deep folds of the mind. No lights yet, but I’m working on it. Maybe a museum! Mayhaps my daughters will decide to keep them instead of tossing them (oh, the horror, the horror!). 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Just the memory of “Psycho” gives Pundit the heebie-jeebies after all these years. A quote or two from the master of suspense: There is no terror in the bang, only in the anticipation of it A glimpse into the world proves that horror is nothing other than reality. And yes, boys and girls, Sir Alfred did indeed smoke pipes, despite his fearsome film noir. No less authority than guru tobacco reviewer Jiminks says the wizard of the thriller smoked Dunhill pipe blends. Amen to that. And one more notable consummate pipe smoker, former President Gerald R. Ford, who served our great nation from August 1974 to January 1977. The 38th President stepped up his vice presidential duties and guided the nation through its “long nightmare,” after Watergate took down his predecessor, President Richard M. Nixon. Again, Jiminks, says Ford reportedly smoked Field & Stream, Walnut, and also noted in a book publication he also puffed Edgeworth Ready Rubbed. 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I feel so much more superior than I did 5 minutes ago. Great article, Russ!
Filed under “Dictionary”!
Awesome article. But what is this thing you call a “pipe”?
And pipe smokers stole DGT from the Kama Sutra.
I’m glad Pipe reamer was left out. lol
“I’m willing to bet that it started with a pipester loading up a bowl, lighting it, getting distracted and forgetting what he did with the damned pipe.”
Hey! I resemble that remark… 🙂
Russ, I believe the Calabash v. Sherlock thing is the result of the movie “The Secret Life of Sherlock Holmes”. A spoof and of course instantly into the realm of Urban Legend. Sad….
Great read!
Now if we could just get together on the secret hand shake!!!! Fun article
I’ll address the reason for Holmes’ association with the calabash in my next article (October). It’s a neat little story that makes perfect sense when you read it.
Russ
Great article Russ! Thanks for making me laugh!
Good list of terms to know. I’ll be sure to whip out a few of them to impress people at parties. 🙂 What’s the Brit pronunciation of “latakia”?
Simon
The pipesters across the pond say la-TAC-ee-ah, but the transliteral spelling of the port city in Syria puts an apostrophe before the q in Lata ‘Qiyah, so the American pronunciation would be the more correct one.
Russ
“…so the American pronunciation would be the more correct one.”
That’s a first! It took over 200 years, but by gum, y’all did it! 😀
Actually, I must have been introduced to the word by a Brit, because my first instinct is to say la TAK ee ah, but I know that the other pronunciation is correct and I have been corrected by my tobacconist (Canadian) in the past.
Simon
Great article russ Yet i cannot even pronounce latakia that way! must be my colonial heritage, ar the fact that we kiwis speek funnee
I’ve read that the calabash became associated with Sherlock Holmes because stage actors who played the sleuth found it easier to speak with a bent pipe in their mouth than with a straight pipe, which makes sense to me. But who knows…
I heard the same as Frank… I can’t remember now where I read it though.
Good read, Russ!
A fun read, Russ. It’s good to know we pipesters don’t have to take ourselves too seriously! 🙂
I always wondered how latakia was supposed to be be pronounced. Being from Texas, though, it’s gonna be hard not to call it lAH-TAKE’-ee-ya. Just swat me upside the head if we ever meet and you hear me say that. Also, in re. what cortez said, smack me if you catch me taking myself seriously.
I’m still not sure of the pronunciation of Latakia. Recently, when the city was under attack in Syria, the American news reporters pronounced it la-TAC-ee-ah.
I wouldn’t take as gospel anything said by a reporter.
First, thanks for the article- I enjoyed it. The real reason I’m commenting is to say THANK YOU for pointing out that Sherlock Holmes didn’t use a calabash! I have in fact read all of Holmes stories, and it makes me crazy when people show an image of the guy smoking some great huge twisted calabash… because apparently without caricature no one would know its a pipe! Bravo!
Great read Russ, real fun and of course I was at Woodstock, don’t remember it, too much pipe smoking, but still got the tickets.
Great fun as always. I think that the DGT thing started with someone like me with ADHD. But i have it under con…………………….OH LOOK A CHICKEN!
Loved the article,..plenty of humor. Hope more are forthcoming…See you in Richmond.
Funn
awesome russ, thx
How to pronounce Latakia? I first read the name and then assumed it was la-TA-kee-ah, and was corrected the first time I said it in a tobacco shop. I then learned it was the British habit to say it this way (which is actually more common English language pronunciation, emphasis on the second syllable). I figured Britain actually had lots of experience in that part of the world for quite some time, so maybe they know better.
And now I have pretty definitive proof that it is indeed la-TA-kee-ah, (and not the acquired American convention of LA-ta-KEE-ah). Here is a podcast interview with a native of the Syrian city of Latakia, the real place where the tobacco is actually produced. The man has learned English, but clearly says the name of his own city as la-TA-kee-ah. That’s good enough for me, though I’ll sound like the fussy pronunciation from now on. Oh well. Here’s the podcast audio recording. Jump ball…
http://www.ulivewhere.com/downloads/download-latakia.html
Hey great article! I look forward to your article on Sherlock Holmes’ pipes. He’s by far my favorite literary character.