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
12 Responses
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I do not like hot weather. When the mercury pushes close to body temperature, my icy heart begins to melt, and when it reaches the point where I break out in a sweat as a result of the strenuous act of sitting upright, I consider calling around to see if I can book time in one of the refrigerated drawers at a local morgue. Heat and I just don’t get along well. We never have. Indulge my rambling, if you will; this really is about pipes and tobaccos. During the cooler months, I’m most often drawn towards fuller mixtures, rich with latakia, redolent of those wonderful aromas of campfires and leather and the smells of classic British sport cars and motorbikes that occupied so much of my youth. Seriously. It’s not the spice of orientals alone that brings comfort, but the warm blanket of latakia itself. These fuller mixtures recall some of my fondest smoking memories. I’m reminded of walks in the woods on cool, misty days, when the smoke would hang in the air, chilled by the moisture, its perfumed clouds delighting my senses, or evenings by the fire, accompanied by a wee dram of a fine malt, a comfortable chair and a good book. When the weather is all “hotting up,” though, I find latakia, in more than gentle seasoning proportions, to be too much of a good thing, almost overwhelming, so I turn to lighter mixtures and especially virginia blends, with or without perique. It’s something I’ve always found interesting, if occasionally vexing. Is it the temperature? The humidity? The pressure of the air molecules as they dance around, mingling with the tobacco’s smoke? Cosmic rays? Is it a subtle change in body chemistry that results from seasonal changes in diet? Set and setting? Or, is it some confluence of all these factors, and others not noted, that has such a profound influence on my smoking pleasure? I know I’m not completely alone; over the years, I’ve had conversations with pipe smokers who experience similar changes in tastes as the weather shifts. Interestingly, others insist that I’m delusional, that climate has no influence at all upon their choice of tobacco, and that they smoke the same tobaccos year round. Perhaps they live in relatively constant climates, or choose tobaccos with smoking characteristics that are less influenced by climate. Sometimes, I’m a little jealous of them; having my choices limited by something as intractable as the weather can be challenging to my inner control freak. But, the influence of climate on smoking can be subtle or alarming, and no amount of note-taking has led me to anything resembling actual understanding. Hold that thought. I first became aware of this phenomenon one cool autumn evening while waiting with some friends for a table at a popular restaurant. I had with me a lovely smooth Drucquer/LaCroix apple, one of my finest smokers at the time, and a tin of my recently discovered Benson & Hedges Finest Smoking Mixture[fn]The B&H was a beautiful mixture, produced by Gallaher, Ltd, and it came in a beautiful red and gold tin. Virginias, with a bit of latakia and perique, and it was this blend that inspired my own Piccadilly. Tonight, as I scribbled my final paragraphs, the weather was cool, breezy, and felt like rain might be coming; rumor has it there’s a storm developing off the coast. I’m enjoying that very combination that I enjoyed so much that evening so long ago. We’re all quite a few years older, tobacco, pipe and smoker, but the experience is no less superb, and the memories kindled, equally so.[/fn]. Knowing that we’d have at least a 45 minute wait, I had time for a bowl. That smoke was one of those memorable ones that always brings a smile when recalled. (How many remember when you could smoke a pipe in public without a torch and pitchfork brigade instantly forming a circle, insisting you are killing babies not yet conceived and chanting demands for your head? How far we’ve fallen in so few years.) It wasn’t the first time I’d smoked that tobacco in that pipe, but it was somehow different. It led me down a path of wonder just how much environmental factors can influence the enjoyment we take from burning a bowl of shredded leaves. One of the most dramatic examples of this that I can recall happened in August of 2002, while visiting friends in Denmark. There is a certain tabac, a Virginia flake loved by many, but one that I generally find tortuous; smoking it has always seemed to me to be the pipe smoking equivalent to sucking on the business end of a plasma cutter. I figured it was just a body chemistry thing. But when a friend offered a fill of this hell-spawned leaf, his regular smoke, I graciously accepted, rubbed out a flake, tamped it into the smallest pipe I had with me, and was astonished by the experience of a cool and enjoyable smoke. What? Figuring there must be some difference between the “home trade” tobacco sold in Denmark, and what was exported to the US, I bought a couple tins for further exploration. During my visit, I smoked through most of the first tin, enjoying every bowl, but when I returned to California, that very same tobacco, in the very same pipes, reignited my fear and loathing of the stuff. The temperatures at home and in Copenhagen at the time were not much different, so clearly something else was at play. If I were to throw a dart at the guess board, it would be that humidity was a factor. Another, albeit somewhat embarrassing anecdote might put a bit of meat to the bones of this hypothesis. One morning, some years ago, while still brain-fogged by insufficient sleep following a late night gig, I found myself coming to barely-waking consciousness whilst in the shower. Nothing odd there. But, the pipe clenched between my teeth at the time […]
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No risks are taken when excited and shouting for joy with a large trout on the other end of the fly line. Only to note in the splashy chaos the magnificent briar leaped from mouth to the fast-moving stream and sped off downstream. But now back to dog days and pipe tobacco. Virginia-burley flakes are also a fav in the blistering days of summer. And let’s not bypass our light English blends. Or the noticeably light aromatics. Nothing drenched in dressing. A wee dram of topping will do. A few of the heavier Virginia-Burley blends, say from Cornell & Diehl, require patient puffing. Nothing rolling down the tracks at full steam sort of thing. Slow and easy with some of the heavier VaBurs. Especially if you are a nicotine wimp like the Pundit. A moderate nic hit is fine. But I have occasionally gone so far over the dark nic abyss with strong tobaccos loaded with nicotine so as to experience the onset of that most disconcerting sensation of falling, spiraling into the dark unknown, with cold sweats, hazy thinking, and hallucinations. “Quoth the Raven ‘Nevermore.’ Poe’s “The Raven!” would then be the exquisitely apt verbal utterance we squeak out involuntarily when suffering the turbid depths of that awful green gills feeling. Okay, light up the Virginias with perhaps a little touch of perique and a dab of burley. Slow and easy on puffing, like hot evenings in the South. This next thought from the Pundit might be too much of an existential question, but here goes. Is it possible to own too many pipes? Have you successfully reached the end of pipe collecting and stuffing the cellar with more tobacco than you will ever consume? 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Welcome to The Pipes Magazine Radio Show Episode 514! Our featured interview tonight is the fourth and final episode with Fred Janusek. He is a Doctor of Pipes, and professor of mathematics. Fred is in his early 80s, and he has been smoking a pipe since college in 1957. His first pipe was a very shellac-covered Yello Bole. These are some great stories of back in the day when pipes were everywhere. In our opening Pipe Parts segment, Brian will provide a refresher on English pipe brands that you might want to buy as estate pipes. Sit back, relax with your pipe, and enjoy The Pipes Magazine Radio Show!
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!