Pipes Magazine Radio Show Episode 663
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Kevin Godbee - May 27, 2025
- 1 min read
Welcome to The Pipes Magazine Radio Show Episode 663. Our featured guest tonight is Austin Bourdo of Pathfinder Pipes. He is an Army Veteran having the highly specialized role of Pathfinder. (Find out what that is on the show. It’s super badass cool.) Austin is a father and husband living in his native Wisconsin. He does social work full time and makes pipes part time. It all started when he found his grandfather’s pipes, started smoking, and he already had a lathe for bowl turning, so making pipes was a natural progression. At the top of the show in the Pipe Parts segment, we will continue the virtual tour of Brian’s pipe collection with two estate Comoy’s pipes that have a great background story.
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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.
Written by Kevin Godbee
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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 […]
Top of the show, nice pipes, nice stories.
Thank you for your service, Austin.
I enjoyed listening to Austin’s interesting backstory in both his military career and his introduction to the pipe community and pipe making. The pipes on his site are quite lovely. I’m sure he will have much success as a pipe maker.
Dan Locklair’s “Memorial Day” section from his Symphony No. 2 “America” is profoundly moving, a fitting piece for this show’s theme.
Thanks for another consistently entertaining show.
Dino