The Pipes Magazine Radio Show – Episode 111
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Kevin Godbee
- Oct 28, 2014
- 1 min read
Kevin Godbee
Thank you for joining us for The Pipes Magazine Radio Show—the only radio talk show for pipe smokers and collectors. We broadcast weekly, every Tuesday at 8 pm eastern USA time and are available on nearly all podcast sites and apps. Listen on your computer, tablet, phone and even in the car! Our Featured Interview tonight is with Glynn Quelch. Glynn is a retail tobacconist, and tobacco blender in Nottingham England. He creates some quite interesting and unique tobaccos that are unlike any others. He also mostly keeps to the old British Tobacco Purity Laws. In “Pipe Parts”, Brian will talk about different ways to pack flake tobaccos. Sit back, relax with your pipe, and enjoy The Pipes Magazine Radio Show!
Tonight’s show is sponsored by Sutliff-Tobacco.com, CupOJoes.com, SmokingPipes.com, Missouri Meerschaum, 4noggins.com, MeerschaumStore.com, Cornell & Diehl, and Savinelli Pipes and Tobaccos. Please give them some consideration when making your next pipe or tobacco purchase.
We hope you enjoy our 1-hour show produced just for you—the pipe smoker and collector. The following link will launch a pop-up player. Alternatively, you can download the show in iTunes and other podcast sites and apps after the initial broadcast is complete here.
Tobacco Blender Glynn Quelch
GQTobaccos.com
Written by Kevin Godbee

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Ahh, Spring has sprung! Cherry blossoms are sprouting into bloom, the weather is giving some of us a bit of relief (looking at you, allergies). But there is also the other side—the, uh, spring cleaning side. I’m talking pipe herd spring cleaning, of course. Over the years, the herd has become unruly and very inconsiderate. Pipes seem to arrive and begin elbowing for a spot in the numerous pipe rack stalls. So, I began a long journey this current spring to shoo away the unwanted, weed out the ugly growths, and start afresh. Dear friends, there are hundreds in the herd! See, Pundit began his pipe smoking journey and pursuit of happy hobby hunting in college. I admired my pipe-puffing erudite English Lit professors, the fuzzy history profs, and pomp and circumstance philosopher profs, one of whom entered the classroom, smoking a pipe and reciting “ Sic Parvis Magna,” or another of his favorite Latin phrases. I always loved hearing that prof walking in from the back of the classroom and spouting over his clenched pipe, that Latin phrase “greatness from small beginnings.” What wasn’t so much fun arrived at the end of a year-long study of Shakespeare. The Shakespearean scholar teaching the class penned a note at the end of the single exam we had all year, “Deus vobiscum,” God be with you. English Lit majors had to make a B or higher on the exam in order not to repeat the year-long study of The Bard. I was in my senior year, as were most of the Lit majors. Repeating the year was not the best of outcomes. I digress. Back to the herd. In all my searching, I always wanted to find an estate pipe carved and created (ahem, like me, of course) in my birth year. Now, we won’t go into the actual birth date itself, but let’s just say it ranges around World War II. I never found that estate pipe, but the herd is full of old and dated versions around that birth year. Some very new herd additions help ease that search. There are so many old memories and stories surrounding the ancients, though. One quick one for you. This happened on a beautiful catch-and-release Ozark Mountain river stream along the Missouri and Arkansas border. The stream was one of those mystical waters. Mists floating off the morning current whets the imagination in anticipation of mayflies or caddisflies emerging from larvae to pupae, rising to the surface, drying its wings and taking flight in a new form, promising me greatness from their small beginnings. I was enjoying my pipe, casting for wild trout when I heard a shout behind me. It originated from a rock-dimpled canoe. A large bearded fellow slapped the paddle beside me as the entourage of two bearded guys and two bathing suit clad ladies floated by. The loud smack on the water scattered the trout, ending fly fishing on that stretch. Time to retreat. As I slowly backed upstream, keeping an eye on the dented canoe, it crunched ashore on a nearby sandy stretch. The bearded guy in front got out and as one of the ladies was emerging, he snatched off the top of her bathing suit. I sped up my retreat as the shouting began. In the melee, I dropped my pipe into the stream, but quickly retrieved it with my fishing net. Pipes always produce the best memories and stories. Pipe Smokers of the Past: Albert Einstein, Mr. E=mc2 was born March 14, 1879, and died April 18, 1955. He was a celebrated theoretical physicist and pipe smoker, and seldom seen without his pipe and puffy plumes of Revelation tobacco floating above his bristly bushy head of hair. I never think of the future. It comes soon enough—Albert Einstein Albert King, Mississippi blues man, and guitar master, was born in Indianola, Miss., April 25, 1923, and died Dec. 21, 1992, in Memphis, Tenn. He was known as “King of the Blues Guitar,” and sometimes, “King of the Pipe,” since he often smoked his pipe while playing a blues gig. Rose Kiser has an excellent biography of King and his love of pipes in a Nov. 10, 2023, Pipe Line column at SmokingPipes.com. A quote from one of his blues songs: All your loneliness I’ll try to soothe, I’ll play the blues for you—Albert King, “I’ll Play the Blues for You”. A parting shot: Pipes provide us with fond farewells in our memory. They have been friends and family, there for all the happy times as well as the difficult days, as we all experience. It’s sad to see some leave the fold, but there are fresh rose-tipped horizons to be seen with a new kid joining the beloved herd.
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As the Battle of the Briar competition happens, Adam and Nick spend time showing some of the action with faster shaky cam movement and interweave more of the pipe carvers interview in – describing what they were doing at a specific moment helping to craft a better understanding of what you may have thought they consider when making a pipe, especially when making one in a time crunch. Now if you’re up for spoilers you can […]
HI Brian,
There are numerous ways to smoke flake tobacco. I use a ‘spice (or other substance)’ grinder with two twists and fill the pipe. Flakes are a treat.
Glynn Quelch is working in a disappearing part of our hobby (if the tax crazy people continue down their path). I’ve seen the Utube videos of the Nottingham pipe club. They look like they have a great time. It’s got to be the best of jobs to earn your keeping through blending boutique tobaccos. AS I like mature Virginia tobaccos, I will keep an eye on Glynn to when he masters the VA blends. Will he become the British Greg Pease? Time will tell. Interesting interview.
Boris Karloff was a great pipe smoking actor. Never kick a black cat! Never kick a black cat, especially if you are going to be on a catwalk!
Rant – Yes, political correctness to the max. I think I would cancel my opera membership, If I had one. I’m not that highbrow.
By the way, will you be doing anything special for election day? I am glad that the opera goes on, but the threatened cancelation should not have happened.
Good show, keep up the good work at the new location.
I was very pleased with your interview, Brian, and I also thank you for the credit you gave me during your broadcast. Glynn is an interesting fellow who makes terrific blends, and you brought out the best in him as a good interviewer should. Lots of good information always makes for a worthwhile listen. As a fan of Glynn’s blends, I hope the podcast will bring him lots of business. I know the tobaccos will make the smokers happy they bought his products.
Too bad you’re not dressing up for Halloween. You could go to the snobby sections of LA dressed as a smoking pipe, and watch the home owners faint. Don’t worry, there’s enough people on this site to post your bail!!
I have always liked to roll two Escudo coins together and then jam them into my pipe. Not too deep, of course. Them I tear off the excess sticking out the top of the bowl. I will have to try your method on other flakes.
The interview with Glynn Quelch was quite enjoyable. Probably because the topic of emphasis was something different. Good discussion of blending. Shame it is such a pain in the keister to order tobacco from the UK. In looking at his website he seems to have a lot of aromatics.
Loved the Boris Karloff reading. Probably his most well known reading was his narration of “The Grinch that Stole Christmas”. Never cared for horror movies so my favorite movie of his is “Charlie Chan at the Opera”.
I, too, have given up dressing for Halloween. We don’t get enough trick-or-treaters to make it worth while. I have reached an age where most people would tell you my non-costumed look is far scarier than any costume.
Carmen is a wonderful opera. Elina Garanca’s performance as Carmen a few years ago at the MET was incredible. Her rendition of “La Habanera” would be a wonderful musical interlude. The West Australian Opera Company can eat kangaroo dung and die for all I care.
I agree that vendors should stay for the whole show but sometimes it is not always practical.
I loved the “All Tobacco” show! Your conversation with Glynn was both entertaining and informative. And, the other Englishman, Boris Karloff, supplied the perfect aural intro for Hallowe’en.
You know, doing the show in your basement will have a truly echt podcast feel to it.
It seems “Down Under” has a real problem with Carmen. Back in the 1990s the Auckland Opera Company got complaints for an advertising poster showing Carmen with cleavage. Philosophy professor and arts critic, the late Denis Dutton, responded with a synopsis for a “Smoke-Free Carmen” on his arts blog. Those who are familiar with the opera’s story (and even those who aren’t) will enjoy this politically correct satire: http://denisdutton.com/smoke.htm
Dino
The tried and true “Mac Baren Fold”! I first saw this on the Mac Baren website. If you use this method, be prepared for a long smoke. And according to Per this is how the flakes and coins are supposed to be enjoyed. But I find that if I don’t have the time for a 2 hour smoke, I have to rub it out.
I loved the interview with Glynn. I have been watching his videos for quite some time on You Tube and enjoyed every one. He is definitely passionate about his craft. I will certainly be trying some of his blends.
The Boris clip brought me back to my childhood watching the old Creature Feature movies. Loved it.
The PC community is as pervasive as a virus. I am glad to hear that the WAOC back pedaled on their decision. Although it took the Australian PM’s influence to do it.
Great show.
Another Fantastic show, being in the UK I’m saddens to say I haven’t heard about Glynn or his tobacco’s sooner. My next stop after this is his website. Next time I have some Flakes I’ll try and remember the new method, I usually just shred them.
The black cat was too scary for me, I’ll try it again when I’m not alone outside in the dark and I agree with the rant, it’s just daft to edit something like that using our “Modern Sensibilities” (Which are stupid enough on their own) all in all another fantastic show, can’t wait for next weeks. Hope the studio move goes smoothly.
Great show Brian and Kevin!! Really, great show. Love to learn more about tobacco!! I gotta try this flake folding method, I usually only use a grinder and can’t complain about the results. What a great interview. I want to hear more! Hope I can get some of his blends down here in Brazil. Rant – some people have nothing better to do in their lives! Complaining about a great opera because it contains a smoking scene!! Watch Bobby McFeerin singing Don’t worry – Be happy in utube and suck it up (30 million views by the way!!)He is even smoking a pipe in the beginning of the video!!! Can’t miss a single show guys. Is that good!