Pipes Magazine Radio Show Episode 399
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Kevin Godbee - May 5, 2020
- 1 min read
Welcome to The Pipes Magazine Radio Show Episode 399! Our featured interview tonight is with Sasieni Pipe Collector Brian Silverman. He started off like most pipe collectors – acquiring a ton of pipes that had no theme, and nothing special about them, but then fell in love with Sasieni Pipes. He is one of the most prominent collectors of this brand, and has displayed his collection at pipes shows. He is a dentist for his regular job. In Pipe Parts, we will have “Ask the Pipe Maker” with Jeff Gracik. Sit back, relax with your pipe, and enjoy The Pipes Magazine Radio Show!
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The Pipes Magazine Radio Show features interviews with pipe makers, tobacco blenders, pipe and tobacco aficionados, collectors, and more. Episodes air every Tuesday.
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We hope you enjoy our 1-hour show produced just for you—the pipe smoker and collector.
Sasieni Pipe Collector Brian Silverman Interview
Written by Kevin Godbee
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Great show, Brian, I enjoyed it very much. I was smoking a bowl of Cornell and Diehl Night Train with a pinch of extra Perique while I listened. I’m a VaPer guy through, I just adore the stuff, I like making Perique sandwiches with Peter Stokkebye Luxury Bullseye Flake, rolling them up and stuffing them into my pipe! I also love a good Latakia blend occasionally as well.
I enjoying this Pipe Parts with pipe maker Jeff Gracik, and I’m in the ‘clean your pipes regularly camp’. I run a pipe cleaner through after every smoke, and I disassemble my pipes and clean them with denatured alcohol after every 6 or 7 smokes. I also wax my pipes with carnauba wax when needed. I’m pretty picky about my pipes, I have a large collection, with around 70 of them made from briar. They represent a significant investment, and I enjoy keeping them looking sharp.
I also enjoyed the interview with Brian Silverman. It was very interesting and informative. It sounds like he has an impressive collection of Sasieni pipes. While I don’t have any Sasieni pipes, Brian has sparked some interest in the brand for me.
Thanks so much, Wade. Glad you enjoyed it.
@bsilverman, I do have an interesting Canadian Sandblast stamped : HOUSE OF LORDS MADE IN ENGLAND X77. I bought this as a very (extremely) lightly smoked estate pipe about 20 years ago. I never gave much thought about it, other than that it is one of those ‘magic’ pipes that everything tastes phenomenally well in. It’s a smallish sized smoking chamber (group 2 or 3), and I had always reserved it for Va and VaPer, until recently I tried White Knight in it with incredible results. I decided to research the pipe, and came up with some startling results. It appears that the pipe was made between 1910 and 1919 by Samuel Gordon Pipes, which became Sasini in 1920. I got the information from pipephil.eu as well as a blog about the restoration of a HOUSE OF LORDS pipe. I did find a third reference that (pipedia.com) read “maybe a a Sasini second”. Regardless, it is a brilliantly smoking pipe with at least one or another connection to Sasieni Pipes. My gut tells me that it is the first, or Samuel Gordon, connection due to the very deep oxidation of the Vulcanite bit, and the fact that it has the “Crown of England” engraving on the bit (which the Crown engraving would identify it with Samuel Gordon’s HOUSE OF LORDS, 100+ years old! Apparently Samuel Gordon sold his operation to Joel Sasieni in 1920 (though I can’t verify that 100%).
I am so happy to hear you and Jeff discuss this constant question of disassembly. I get tired of the myths. And thank you! Pipes shipped with the stem on. Hundreds and hundreds of pipes shipped assembled without a single problem. The only issue I have ever seen was from shipping disassembled, not by me. (Seem to have forgotten to submit this before…)