Age of Enlightenment: A New Dawn of Pipes and Tobaccos
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Kevin Godbee - Jun 9, 2014
- 6 min read
Fred Brown
I just thought I was a pipe smoker. After returning from the amazing Chicagoland Pipes and Tobacciana Show in early May and reflecting on the event, I have decided that even after more than four decades of smoking a pipe, I am a neophyte.
I mean, there are some fellas who take this hobby very seriously. Me, I toss some tobacco into a bowl, light ‘er up and go on about my business. I don’t pay much attention to the tobacco being smoked, let alone the pipe!
Cleaning a pipe is not a ritual for me. It’s a simple Dill’s-Brigham’s-or-BJ Long’s-through-the-stem-and-a-quick-in- and-out-and-off-we-go-again. I realize this is sacrilege to most of the pipe smokers out there, but I’m a codger. What can I say?
Here is what I discovered at Chicago: there are men—and some women by the way—who know not only pipe styles and shapes, but years crafted, nomenclature, and what was produced by whom, and when. I’d be surprised if they didn’t know the tools used as well.
Some pipe smokers even can name the pipe artist, and in many cases, the manufacturer, before any major mergers of pipe making families or firms.
It is just amazing to me that this hobby that I love has so many sides and shades to it. Normally I just think of a pipe as a pipe: billiard, pot, Dublin, bent, meer, the usual suspects. They are instruments, some more intricate than others, that deliver my favorite tobaccos.
I say this out of respect to those of you who really take the time to understand the pipes you love. I mean no offense whatsoever. I am in shock and awe, actually.
In fact, I have some very old pipes—Dunhill, Barlings, Charatans, Petes, Lowe, etc., that I now look upon with newfound reverence and respect.
In Chicago, I ran into pipe smokers of the elite class (no snobbery intended about that, either. It is alright to be elite if you know what you are talking about).
I mean, some of the men and women with whom I chatted told me more about their pipes than seemed possible, unless they were present in the beginning when the pipe was first crafted.
OK. So you have gotten it by now that I’m not a pipe historian. Quite true. I love my pipes and have come to a newborn appreciation for the history. And I have now begun taking a little more time examining my pipes and their ages. Seems I have one or two really old ones. In fact, one of the meers that was given to me is probably from the 19th century. Who knew?
And, I discovered a brave new world of tobacco. Here again, I’m a codger. I smoked my first pipe tobacco in the late 1950s. It was Prince Albert, I think. Or something similar.
Later, in college, I moved on to Sir Walter Raleigh, since that’s what most of my professors smoked.
And then I ran into Dr. Neill Whitelaw, physics professor, unalloyed genius, friend of Einstein, pipe smoker and just plain brilliant.
In his physics lab about the only thing I learned was that the top shelf in the lab was lined with tins of codger blends: Barking Dog, Country Doctor, Revelation, Sir Walter Raleigh, Prince Albert, Granger, Half and Half, Carter Hall and several others I can no longer recall.
His pipes, which he smoked while trying to enlighten some of us on the rudiments of physics, looked like burned burls. Some were black they had been smoked so much. Dr. Whitelaw was never without his pipe, or his sharp wit.
He did not suffer fools, thus I soon departed with Dr. Whitelaw’s good wishes for whatever it was I was cut out to do in my college career. Luckily, I found the English Department, which allowed me to stick around long enough to graduate.
Of course, I had to emulate Dr. Whitelaw. I smoked all the codger blends at one time or another. And, I pretty much learned from the master how to treat your pipes—as a smoking instrument.
I’m sure most of his pipes were the drug store variety—Kaywoodie, Dr. Grabow, Medico, basket pipes of the era. I, too, smoked Grabow and Kaywoodie and still have them.
My interest in more expensive pipes changed over time as my salary inched up the pay scale. I purchased what I could afford along the way.
I treated tobacco in similar fashion. Codger blends sufficed until I discovered Edwards’ tobaccos, which I smoked for years, along with my steadfast codgers.
Now and again, I’d pick up a tin of something expensive ($5 being expensive back then). It seemed so exotic. The tobacco had this little wavy filter looking thing inside a tin. The tobacco itself was so different from any I had been accustomed.
Instead of cubes, the fancy tobacco was slim ribbons of various colors and smells. In comparison, my codger blends reeked of old movie theater cans filled with sand and foul cigarette butts.
Tobacco is not something I usually get all riled up about. I suppose that is due to the fact that I grew up in an era of codger blends and that seemed just fine to me. They smoked, which was all I required at the time. They were cheap and went well with my basket pipes.
Yes, I have advanced to more expensive pipes and tobaccos. But old habits are indeed hard to break. I pick up a pipe that I might have smoked the day before, fill it, and fire it up.
At the Chicago show I discovered smokers who rotate their smoking pipes on a daily basis, if not hourly.
There, one attorney from Munich, Germany, had already purchased his pipes before the official kickoff. He alternated between the S. Bang and another expensive Danish pipe, with a pound of Iwan Reis Virginia.
The attorney carefully loaded the pipe, taking his time to pinch-load, tamp, pinch-load, tamp. Next, he pulled out what looked to be a Dunhill lighter and lit the S. Bang, puffed, tamped, lit again, puffed and leaned back. His eyes glistened. It was that good.
Now, I have never quite had that sort of experience, but I think I’m beginning to understand: There are pipes and there is tobacco. And then, there are very fine pipes and very fine tobaccos.
Just as there are artisan pipe makers, there are artisan tobacco blenders. We are in the Age of Enlightenment in pipes and tobacco. More wonderful pipes are being created than ever before. The same is true with pipe tobacco.
Very talented blenders can even come quite close to re-creating the codger blends of old, despite the fact that agriculture, weather, and a host of other environmental conditions have changed.
Pipe smokers today are truly blessed to have the pipe and tobacco market that exists.
It is daunting to think that pipe smokers of, say, 50 years ago, could only dream of such pleasure available today. And, there were great brands in that time as well as earlier in another era.
But in one lifespan, a pipe smoker can get through only so many pipes and so much tobacco.
There is, after all, a "use by date," on every life.
I hope to make the best of what’s left now that I have seen what it means to own a wonderful vintage pipe and extraordinary tobacco to smoke.
It is a final coming of age, an emancipation of consciousness, in a New Dawn of pipes and tobacco.
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Written by Kevin Godbee
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Welcome to The Pipes Magazine Radio Show Episode 636. Our featured interview on tonight’s show is with Barry Kane. Barry started smoking a pipe in 1961 when he was 14-years old. Back then it seemed like everybody smoked, and you could buy pipes and tobacco just about anywhere. Barry is a true old-school pipe smoker, sticking to just one blend. See if you can guess which one before listening. At the top of the show Brian will give his take on Scandinavian Tobacco Group’s purchase of Mac Baren and Sutliff Tobacco and their announcement that they will be shut down.
There’s a pipe in my collection that I cannot bring myself to smoke, though I’ve had it for more years than I care to recall. It’s old, or shall I say, well experienced; that experience, that oldness came to it long before it was in my possession. The pipe is an old Comoy’s Grand Slam from the 1940s. The shape (#93), a slightly canted, stack billiard (sometimes referred to as a Belgian) is right up my alley, and it’s a beautiful example of it. It came to me with some wear and tear; nothing unusual for an old pipe, but more the signs of one that has been well loved, smoked a lot, treated as a favorite tool, cherished, in a sense, by frequent use. It’s the pipe equivalent of a vintage car that’s been driven a lot, enjoyed fully and maintained adequately, rather than one kept in a spotless garage, dusted and detailed weekly, brought out only for leisurely Sunday drives, or to be ogled behind the ropes at the next Concours d’Elegance. When it arrived, those uncounted years ago, it wanted a little restoration. Nothing dramatic needed to be done to it, but the stem was oxidized, the finish a little dingy. The cake was even and fairly thin, and the airway was relatively clean, both signs that its previous owner cared for it, but the bowl’s surface was a little drab and dull. It took little effort to reveal its beauty, to show the lovely contrasted stain and interesting grain beneath the old wax. I often think I should do before and after photos of pipes that I work on, but those thoughts always come after the work’s been done. This one would have been a great illustration of how years of handling that can sometimes make a pipe more beautiful, can other times make it just look grungy. Once I’d cleaned up the externals, it was time to address the inside bits. I approach this a little bassackwards, I realize. It would be more sensible to take care of the inside before addressing the outside, but it’s how I roll. If an old pipe isn’t pretty to look at, it’s unlikely that I’ll care much about it, and cleaning is usually the hardest part, or at least the most boring part of any restoration for me. Alcohol and pipe cleaners. Lots of pipe cleaners. That’s why I leave it for last. Sometimes, I’ll even give a pipe a test smoke before a deep cleaning, just for a point of reference. I gave it a sniff to get an idea of what I was up against, and it stopped me cold. There in that bowl was an aroma that I had not smelled in decades. My head was instantly filled with memories of being in the back room of a fabled Berkeley tobacconist’s shop where I stumbled upon a few jars of long discontinued blends. One of them, a blend called Forty and Eight, had the most engaging and unusual scent of any tobacco I’d stuck my schnoz into. It was sweet, but not in a candy store way. There were none of the usual vanilla, cherry, berry or anise notes of typical aromatics, nothing that could be compared to aftershave or deodorant soap, but something almost musky, a little earthy, something exotic. The shop’s owner couldn’t tell me what was in it, how, or where it had been produced. The old blend had been retired before he’d bought the place. The printed catalogue gave no clues, either, other than being overprinted with the word “DISCONTINUED” in bold, rubber-stamp type. (And, I don’t recall it as being “highly aromatic” as the description indicates.) There was still quite a bit in the jar. Being, at that point, an intrepid explorer of all kinds of tobaccos, whether I thought I’d like them or not, I had to give it a try. It was burly based, but also comprised a good measure of virginia leaf, and maybe some other varieties; I didn’t have enough experience at the time to really pick it apart. But, that aroma was unlike anything I’d experienced before or since. It was something now completely lost to time. Until it wasn’t. Memories are powerful things, and there is no sense more tightly bound to memory than our sense of smell. One whiff was all it took to carry me back in time, conjuring a vivid recollection of something long submerged in the inky depths of a subconscious mind. Look, I know as well as anyone that pipes are meant to be smoked, and that many feel it almost sacrilegious to have a pipe and not set it to its intended task. In this case, I simply can’t. I won’t. Ever. Rationally, I am fairly certain this pipe would probably be a great smoke. It was too well loved by its previous caretaker to be anything less than that. My choice not to smoke it is an emotional one, not something rational. Of the thousands of pipes that have passed through my hands over the years, this is the only one to create such a singular and vivid, almost Proustian recollection of temps perdu, of lost time. It revivified a long dormant memory that is mine, and mine alone, and that’s enough. I keep it in a drawer with other old English pipes. In some ways, it’s nothing special, just a nice old pipe. I don’t lavish it with any particular care that arguably befits the hidden treasure that it holds. It’s not in a special box, or displayed preciously in a glass cabinet. Every once in a while, I take it out, point my nose bowlwards, and every time, those memories return just as powerfully as they did the first time. I have no idea how long it’s been since its last owner smoked it, but in the years I’ve had it, there seems to have been very little degradation of the aroma, and that’s […]
Welcome to The Pipes Magazine Radio Show Episode 635. Our featured interview on tonight’s show is with James Ravenwood. James is the boutique tobacco blender of Ravenwood Blends. His blending started out as a fun hobby, and he now has professionally packaged commercially available products with some great tin art. Part of his interest in pipe smoking goes back to fond memories of a retired Navy Veteran that lived on his street while he was growing up that would sit in his driveway smoking a pipe all day. Later, in 2011 he began smoking pipes and soon after started experimenting with mixing different tobaccos. His other hobby, that he has been doing for 30 years, is photography. He takes wonderful photos of outdoor spaces, and still life pictures of pipes and tobacco. You can see them on his Instagram @thebriarfellowship. At the top of the show we’ll have an Ask the Pipemaker segment with renowned pipe artisan Jeff Gracik.
Welcome to The Pipes Magazine Radio Show Episode 634! Our featured interview on tonight’s show is with Warren Ertle. Warren is an extremely accomplished musician with a PhD in music. He started early as a percussionist in sixth grade. Later his grandmother got him a cheap Casio keyboard which he taught himself to play. He started playing in blues bands in high school, and has been a pianist with jazz big bands for years. Even though he was already a professional musician, he took his first real piano lesson when he enrolled in college with his studies in classical music. He is of course a pipe smoker. At the top of the show we will have an Ask the Tobacco Blender segment with Jeremy Reeves. Jeremy is the Head Blender at Cornell & Diehl, which is one of the most popular boutique pipe tobacco companies in the USA.
Soon now, supposedly, our neighborhoods will shift from grinning pumpkins, skeletons in various assortments, and zombies dashing about to pretty reindeer, angels, and flashing lights illuminating homes with sparkling stars and laughing, scurrying Santas. But, lest we forget, there is the turkey season, fancy pie aromas wafting from kitchens, and a national pardon of a big Tom Turkey. Remember, now, that only one of these holiday personalities is a pipe smoker. And that is the hefty, bearded fellow in a bright red suit sitting in a sleigh with a herd of deer hitched up and ready to streak across the globe, bringing tidings of joy and many presents. Ok, the scene is set for the next couple of months, right? So, before we get too far off the beaten path, let’s just take a deep breath of fresh autumn air, shall we? Ahh. That’s better, isn’t it? What’s got the Pundit in a snit is not all the Halloween spooks who came a-jostling for candy. Or the wild turkeys gobbling in the backwoods or all the fuss and feathers over the big one—Christmas. No, it is that we might need to take note of all the little things that mean so much to us. Like a good sunrise (seriously, Pundit has not gone all Pollyanna.) Mayhaps we need to appreciate more of what we have than what we have not. Or something like that. Like, a good pipe in the morning with coffee as the dawn brings us coolish weather now that we have flipped the calendar to autumn. But it also brings beautiful leaves that have become a spectacle of technicolor in the wind. It is the little things. The rereading of an enjoyable book and finding something you did not see or learn in the first go-round. Or a stunning phrase you commit to memory with the re-read, while smoking that favorite pipe. And you notice a superior puff that just seems to be different. It’s in the air and the seasons of meaningful little things. It’s aromatic! Or perhaps it is that sense of satisfaction knowing and appreciating you made it to another day. With the world in a kind of rinse-and-repeat history, reminiscent of a Shakespearean play, it is perhaps a good moment to remember some of Pipedom’s philosophers whose cogent thoughts brought light to clear a path in the mists of confusion and confounding opinions. Ok. No gloom and doom. Just some down-home thoughts. Think of times in the past when history was running off the rails. It took our pipe-smoking thinkers (the mind workers of the world) to speak of better pathways to more light. Think for a moment, with a pipe in hand, these wizards of the world and word: Albert Einstein, J. R.R. Tolkien, Mark Twain, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Edwin Hubble, Bertrand Russell, C. S. Lewis, and Jean-Paul Sartre. All learned and enlightened. They offered wisdom instead of storms of meaningless roads to nowhere. All while smoking their pipes! Maybe especially with the help of their pipes in the art of thinking and philosophy. Recall the words of Mr. E=MC2 when he said, “I believe that pipe smoking contributes to a somewhat calm and objective judgment in all human affairs.” Amen and amen! Dealing with world-rattling events takes a calm and objective view of things, to the Pundit’s way of summing it up. You just don’t go messing around with quantum physics without a calm and objective approach, methinks. Or as the extraordinary physicist Robert Oppenheimer said after he and a team in the Manhattan Project at Los Alamos Labs developed a way to split atoms into bombs during World War II. “I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds,” said Oppenheimer referring to the development of the first nuclear bombs dropped on Japan. It must be pointed out that Oppenheimer was more of a cigarette smoker than a pipe smoker. Nonetheless, pipes were part of his personality. Now, if you have read some of the great authors of the past and present, their pipes were always nearby. Reading Sir Arthur Conan Doyle can be a three-pipe problem at times. S. Lewis and Jean-Paul Sartre require time with your pipes to reflect on the existential problems and solutions these authors provide in learned novels and other narratives. Or take Edwin Hubble and Bertrand Russell, philosophers of another world. Pipes are required for reading. The quantum lode of ideas Pundit is attempting to sort out is that our pipes are relaxing and stimulate our thoughts and creativity. Especially in these last months of the year. Many times Pundit has had that light bulb flick on while smoking my beloved pipes. And friends in Pipedom, it ain’t easy to turn on the lights in Pundit’s rock pit head. Now it’s time for a quote from a Pipe Smoker of the Past. Shelby Foote was born Nov. 17, 1916, in Greenville, Miss., and died June 27, 2005, in Memphis, Tenn. A fact is not a truth until you love it—Shelby Foote. A parting thought: It is said that famed Southern author William Faulkner carried a packed pipe in a coat pocket wherever he went. That’s one effective way to deal with workday conflicts and confusion. A calm and objective judgment in our everyday human affairs, as the quantum man said.
Welcome to The Pipes Magazine Radio Show Episode 633. 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 what’s new at the store and in the business in general. At the top of the show, Brian will discuss tobacco growing, what happens to the leaf, and provide updated information on where tobacco is being gown today. Tobacco production originated in the United States and we were once the #1 producer. It’s quite different now.
This story reminds me a good deal of the phenomenons going on today with craft beers and coffees. Personally, I’ll take my Old Rasputin Russian Imperial Stout and double-shot of espresso from the Profeta in Westwood…but I think I’ll stop there. I can’t see myself surpassing the “pipe/tobacco sophistication” of the author. I enjoy heavy latakia blends, particularly Balkan, but so far (as long as it ain’t Dunhill and can give C&D a run for their money) it doesn’t seem to matter who crafted them. And, although I look upon the beautiful pipes posted here with admiration, I don’t think I have to spend over $100 on a pretty pipe that smokes well. But, I am just starting out. Maybe this will change…
As one who started out in what now must be considered the dark ages of pipe smoking, I too marvel at the increase in sophistication and diversity that abounds. Call it what you will, renaissance, golden age, or the enlightenment, I revel in it and marvel.
Wonderful piece! I am fairly new to this entire hobby, but I realized fairly quickly that the artisan tobacco blenders of today are really a treat for pipe smokers, historically speaking. Because of all these wonderful pipes and tobaccos (and internet pipe magazines with tons of info at our finger tips), there is no way in hell I would buy a drug store codger pipe and a pouch of half and half and go to town starting out. Instead, and thanks to the above mentioned, I was fortunate enough to start with a nice briar and a tin of Pease. Indeed a new dawn, and of pipe smokers as well!
This sounds so close to my piping experience. I’m now in my 5th decade of pipe smoking but only came to appreciate and understand why good blends are good and many blends are not so good. The internet pays a huge role in our updated education of the hobby.
Back in the day I had no idea what the components of a blend were nor was there anyone to tell me. It was trial by fire (excuse the poor pun). I smoked it and either liked it enough for any pouch/tin or I moved on to the next thing. Always in search of “The Blend” but, alas, always elusive.
Thank you for reigniting (ouch!) our passion for what we do.
Great read, and thoughtful commentary. I seem to have gone the other way, in other words regressed in my long history (some 55+ years) of pipe smoking. Apart from my initial purchase of drugstore pipe and tobacco, I immediately became a fanatical aficionado of the hobby, carefully choosing the best pipes and tobaccos I could afford, spending hours reading everything I could get my hands on, devouring pipe shop catalogs, and spending WAY too much time filling, tamping, cleaning, polishing and inspecting my treasured pipes.
Now I just reach for the nearest pipe at hand (although I do rotate), stuff it carelessly with whatever tobacco appeals to me at the moment (mostly Latakias) and puffing away contentedly but very un-methodically. I don’t think I’ve spent over $150 on a pipe in the last 20 years.
All the above doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy pipe smoking as much as ever — I’m just much more casual about it.
Thanks for the insights, Fred.
Great job, Fred. This is a hobby by the people, for the people and of the people. Whatever your preferences, there are choices for you that will satisfy. Like what you smoke, smoke what you like. God save the Queen.
Russ
I really enjoyed this article. Not only does the author reminisce about days-gone-by, he also relishes today’s offerings and anticipates tommorow’s. A wonderful job of interlacing his pipe-life.
A very nice read. I feel like I have been spoiled, like a kid in a candy store when it comes to tobacco. Of course I started out with old and dry Bork um riff and had no idea what I was doing. And I would buy a different pouch, still scorch my tongue on occasion, but that was just how I thought it was.
Then I had my own personal enlightenment. I started buying the crafted tobaccos. And that’s where the kid in the candy store part comes in. Don’t get me wrong; I still enjoy some captain black white and Granger now and then, but I don’t think I could smoke those everyday. And my dad just gave me a pouch of velvet because that’s what his dad smoked.
I still have some cheap pipes. I’ve got a few expensive ones too, but nothing over $100. For me it’s more about the tobacco. I still take great care of my pipes, probably better than the author. But for me, the tobacco is the main player. The pipe merely plays a supporting role, albeit an important one. That being said, I think there is no such thing as a really bad pipe but improper technique with a lesser quality pipe. You need to learn how to smoke pack tamp each pipe as an individual to make it perform its best
Great read. I enjoyed every thought and makes me wonder if I will ever get to that level of appreciation.
We all start somewhere, and those who begin at the top of the ladder will lack the appreciation those of us who began on lower rungs have.
I began pipe smoking in earnest shortly after getting hired in a smoke shop- where no one smoked a pipe. The internet was in its infancy, and I wasn’t there yet anyway- so I taught myself nearly everything with the help of a magazine or two and the very occasional pipe smoker who happened by. Cigars lured me over considerably- we ordered little pipe tobacco as there was virtually no demand, and this was in the days of the great cigar boom. There I was in a smoke shop, and I had to leave the place and get re-interested in pipe smoking via online exploration. But I had learned about Latakia and Perique via the Peter Stokkebye tobacco we carried, and bought my first briars with a nice employee discount.
To this day, I still don’t own a pipe which retailed for over $100. The ultra-fancy designer pipes make for great eye candy, and I’m sure they smoke wonderfully; I just don’t have that kind of money to devote and I don’t feel at a loss on that account either. I’ve got many no-names, seconds, basket-pipes, a few meers and cobs, and the local chain “smoke shops” (mostly convenience stores for cigarette smokers) where I live now carry some very affordable meerschaums.
I just miss the opportunity to have worked in a smoke shop when pipe smoking was a more mainstream thing. I also miss being able to walk into a brick-and-mortar and find affordable products aimed at cigar and pipe smokers. This part of the tobacco experience is lying in the dustbin, so to speak.
Our experiences differ a bit but it’s safe to say that if you started smoking a pipe in the late fifties or early sixties you probably started with the “basket pipe” and one of several off the shelf brands. And you’re quite right, a pipe was a smoke delivery tool back them. I grew up within an hour’s drive from Boston and quickly discovered L.J. Peretti’s and the “codger” brands were of the past forever. Mr. Peretti steered me to good English blends and I have been hooked ever since. His shop was and still is full of blends that are truly a treat. I guess in that respect I was spoiled. There were always pipe collectors that understood what pipes were made by the best manufacturers and had the resources to make an investment in a pipe not just because it smoked well but for the beautiful craftsmanship it reflected. But today we have so very many more collectors and an equally broad number of manufactures. Over the years I have acquired a number for just those reasons. But in the end I must confess to being a sixties pipe man. I want a pipe that delivers a full easy draw and is comfortable to hand and teeth. The pipes I smoke most often display those qualities even when some are almost an embarrassment to look at. But as I look back, the “old timers” didn’t seem to care what the pipe look like as long as it smoked well. In my opinion, they might have had something in that view. I dare say they might well have questioned your sanity had you admitted to having purchased a pipe for several hundred dollars! That was then and today is now. Good tobacco was around as long as I can remember and so were good pipes. Today we have the benefit of connectability which has expanded the hobby enormously. I will most likely not embrace it like some others do but I can’t say I don’t like what pipe smoking has become. Gloucesterman
Good to hear your experiences, Gloucesterman. What I like now is the amount of choice in the tobacco world, although the sheer volume is a little intimidating. As per pipes, it seems the trend is towards increasingly large bowl sizes, which has had me turning to cobs such as the Pony Express, Eaton, and Mark Twain. Also, via ebay I’ve bought some great little vintage deals around the $20 range, and they’ve been excellent- flaws and all. With all these smaller pipes I can smoke smaller bowls, which I prefer in the morning, and also flakes in a more efficient way. I find that with a smaller pipe there is far less waste in general.
If you need reviews on tobacco, there’s no shortage of those and that has been most fruitful for me- maybe more than anything else. That alone helps me deal with the amount of variety!