Welcome to The Pipes Magazine Radio Show Episode 598. Our featured interview tonight is with Steve “PipeStud” Fallon. Steve has one of the most popular consignment-auction businesses for estate pipes and vintage tobaccos that he’s been running since 2006. If you know Steve, you know he’s a big fan of the original Dunhill blend, Royal Yacht. The last time Steve was on the show was in 2020, so we’ll see what’s new with him, and the estate pipes and vintage tobaccos business. At the top of the show, Brian will discuss what to do with the tiny bits of tobacco at the bottom of the tin.
Brian Levine
Episode 598. Steve Fallon Interview.
Brian LevineBrian Levine
Episode 598. Steve Fallon Interview.Episode 598. Steve Fallon Interview.
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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.
Publisher & Founder of PipesMagazine.com
Certified Master Tobacconist (CMT) #1858 from TobacconistUniversity.org
My grandfather didn't smoke a pipe, but my uncle and some of my elementary school teachers did. In 1998, my neighbor Sam invited me out, and we ended up back at his place where there was a cigar humidor, and pipe rack on the coffee table. I had my first cigar, and then decided to try pipes too. I love the elegance and relaxation of smoking a pipe. In 2002, I started learning how to make websites, do SEO, and create content. I had a cigar content site and forums from 2005-2008 when it was bought out. In 2009, I launched PipesMagazine.com, which is now the largest, busiest community forums, and article content site for pipe and tobacco enthusiasts. We have one of the longest running pipe and tobacco focused podcasts since 2012 with lifetime industry veteran, Brian Levine.
Some good ideas on repurposing the remaining tobacco in a tin.
Nice to catch up with our friend Steve. That was an engaging conversation you guys had about pipes, tobacco, and the future of our community. I was particularly impressed by Steve’s view that the relationship between pipe smoker and pipe carver will add to a heightened satisfaction with that pipe.
Nickel Creek’s “Hollywood Ending” was a wonderfully complex, yet lyrical, tune. Good choice!
Your new home woes remind me of what Roseanne Roseannadanna used to say, “It’s always something.” I hope for the best.
Thanks for another always entertaining show.
Dino
Always enjoy listening to Steve on your show. I have a “Frankenstein jar” that collects all the odds and ends and last bits of tins and pouches. I call it “poor mans tobacco” Sometimes I’ll smoke it just for something different. I did an experiment and pressed some of it for a few months. Shameless plug to my youtube channel, I put together a little video on it. Good luck on all your house projects we’ll miss you at Muletown, but looking forward to sharing a bowl in Chicago!
A really wonderful show!! Dealing with the dottle doesn’t present much of a problem for me. I usually have only two tins open at a time and their both VaPers. So, if I have a little left over in one tin, I just dump it in with the other blend.
Steve is just a marvelous interview. He always has a story to tell about everything. I really enjoyed his remarks that you always have your best smokes out of a pipe that you bought directly from the carver. I wholeheartedly agree with him on that. His stories that he told about the undrilled pipe and the opened tin of 759 were hilarious. In the first the buyer did nothing wrong and in the second it was a howl!! “There isn’t anything wrong with that is there?” I have also noticed the decline in value of estate pipe prices. I will be one of those who will lose money on the changing habits of estate buyers. C’est la vie.
Didn’t like the music. It seems like ever since Chris Thile left the group, they have steadily moved their music to the far right of progressive.
I know what you mean about buying a used house. I can recall the dishwasher shooting craps after we were in the house a few days. I got filleted alive over that. After 19 years in the house, I am staring at needing a new roof, a new water heater, and a new furnace. It’s great being me.
Welcome to The Pipes Magazine Radio Show Episode 662. 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 their experiences and Jon David’s purchases at the Chicago pipe show. There is also news on the Country Squire’s bulk tobacco / custom blends program that was impacted by the closure of Sutliff Tobacco Co. In our opening Pipe Parts segment we will get caught up on a mailbag backlog with four great questions from listeners.
Welcome to The Pipes Magazine Radio Show Episode 661. Our featured interview on tonight’s show is with Fernando Keops. Fernando is a renowned sleight-of-hand magician, particularly known for his work with cards and gambling effects. He is celebrated for his performances that blend magic, sleight of hand, and a poetic style. He is of course, also a pipe smoker and he attended the Las Vegas International Pipe Show in 2024. Already a full time magician, he started smoking a pipe when he was 22-years old. Another magician that he was working with that was a pipe smoker, and 82-years old at the time, bought him his first pipe. At the top of the show in our Pipe Parts segment, Brian will have a tobacco review of Cornell & Diehl’s Opening Night.
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 […]
Welcome to The Pipes Magazine Radio Show Episode 660. Our featured interview on tonight’s show is with Kevin Godbee. Kevin is the owner and founder of PipesMagazine.com, which launched in 2009 as a resource site for pipe smokers and pipe and tobacco collectors. The site has numerous articles from well-known pipe authorities as well as the largest and most active community discussion forums, and of course this podcast. This is an extended interview where Brian and Kevin will talk about the Chicago pipe shows from the past as well as the current show that just took place this past weekend.
Welcome to The Pipes Magazine Radio Show Episode 659. Our featured interview on tonight’s show is with Rick Newcombe. Rick is a well-known author of several pipe books, and he is a prominent collector of Danish pipes, and vintage tobaccos. We catch up with him and see what he’s looking forward to at the Chicago pipe show this coming weekend. Rick was in Chicago when the show was first conceived of, and provides quite an interesting early days look at the show. Later, he chats with us about alternative sources of nicotine. At the top of the show in our Pipe Parts segment, Brian relays a quite interesting and nostalgic history and background on small batch and/or limited edition tobaccos.
Welcome to The Pipes Magazine Radio Show Episode 658. Our featured interview on tonight’s show is with Bo Parker. Bo is the new co-host of the Pipe and Tamper Podcast, which is the second longest running pipe podcast after this one. Bo started as the co-host in January 2025, and he is also a member of the Heretics Pipe Club. He is a professional coffee roaster and has the best “first time I smoked a pipe story” ever. At the top of the show, we will have another edition of the virtual tour of Brian’s pipe collection with four more Smio Satou pipes.
Some good ideas on repurposing the remaining tobacco in a tin.
Nice to catch up with our friend Steve. That was an engaging conversation you guys had about pipes, tobacco, and the future of our community. I was particularly impressed by Steve’s view that the relationship between pipe smoker and pipe carver will add to a heightened satisfaction with that pipe.
Nickel Creek’s “Hollywood Ending” was a wonderfully complex, yet lyrical, tune. Good choice!
Your new home woes remind me of what Roseanne Roseannadanna used to say, “It’s always something.” I hope for the best.
Thanks for another always entertaining show.
Dino
Always enjoy listening to Steve on your show. I have a “Frankenstein jar” that collects all the odds and ends and last bits of tins and pouches. I call it “poor mans tobacco” Sometimes I’ll smoke it just for something different. I did an experiment and pressed some of it for a few months. Shameless plug to my youtube channel, I put together a little video on it. Good luck on all your house projects we’ll miss you at Muletown, but looking forward to sharing a bowl in Chicago!
A really wonderful show!! Dealing with the dottle doesn’t present much of a problem for me. I usually have only two tins open at a time and their both VaPers. So, if I have a little left over in one tin, I just dump it in with the other blend.
Steve is just a marvelous interview. He always has a story to tell about everything. I really enjoyed his remarks that you always have your best smokes out of a pipe that you bought directly from the carver. I wholeheartedly agree with him on that. His stories that he told about the undrilled pipe and the opened tin of 759 were hilarious. In the first the buyer did nothing wrong and in the second it was a howl!! “There isn’t anything wrong with that is there?” I have also noticed the decline in value of estate pipe prices. I will be one of those who will lose money on the changing habits of estate buyers. C’est la vie.
Didn’t like the music. It seems like ever since Chris Thile left the group, they have steadily moved their music to the far right of progressive.
I know what you mean about buying a used house. I can recall the dishwasher shooting craps after we were in the house a few days. I got filleted alive over that. After 19 years in the house, I am staring at needing a new roof, a new water heater, and a new furnace. It’s great being me.