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  1. rakovsky

    Cleaning Out an Estate Kirsten Bowl

    A friend gave me his Kirsten pipe that he used to smoke a lot of "1792 with Tonquin" or Coniston Plug. The pipe in the upper right below is my Grabow for comparison. The Kirsten was clean except that the bowl had a strong "old tobacco" smell. When I piped the inside of the bowl with a pipe...
  2. rakovsky

    How Do You Refill Clippers So That They Light Well?

    A friend gave me a classic-style blue Clipper, and a long-tailed yellow button-switch Clipper. I bought a "King" brand Butane fuel canister. I like to use the Clippers' bottoms as tampers, and this doesn't look like it affects the refill holes. When the Clippers' flames got low or stopped...
  3. rakovsky

    Which Are the Most Incenselike Blends? ⚗️⛪🪔🥢💭

    I love the smell of church incense. Lemony Frankincense and the oily pine sap smells of Myrrh and Styrax Benzoin are three of the most common ingredients in church incense. By comparison, the South and East Asian traditions often use Nag Champa and sandalwood. I smoked 9 blends out of about 30...
  4. rakovsky

    Your Most Challenging Blend

    A little challenge can be nice, fun, or entertaining. The challenge could be a difficult taste, or a quality of the blend. I have been interested in trying some of those that I've heard about. My most challenging blend has been Cherokee Blue, a light RYO. It tastes normal, with a slight fruit...
  5. rakovsky

    "Zolotoye Runo": "Golden Fleece" from Moscow

    My Canadian friend @JRPipeSmoker bought a set of pipes from the Canadian online market site Kijiji. The seller included a free box of Soviet "Zolotoye Runo," meaning Golden Fleece. JR wrote: "It was dry as dust when I opened it but rehydrated to a good level now... It's sort of nutty which makes...
  6. rakovsky

    Is a Light, Soft, Fluffy Pipe Smoke That Doubles as a Cigarette Blend Better?

    I am a novice and approach pipe blends as a connoisseur. Stalin had a habbit of putting Herzegovina Flor filterless cigarette tobacco in his pipes, so I wonder what that would be like. I don't want to get sidetracked about Stalin beyond his blend choice, please. What makes Herzegovina Flor...
  7. rakovsky

    Are Balkan Blends Actually Balkan?

    On my thread about Soviet Kapitanskiy blend, Nookers asked a good question: Dear Nookers, "Balkan blends" as a term in the pipe blend market are like "English blends" in that they technically refer to a mix type of leaf varieties rather than to a place of growing or processing. However, I have...
  8. rakovsky

    Have You Heard of Škija Ravnjak / Drina / Herzegovina Flor?

    "Škija" (pronounced Shkiya) is a type of Oriental blend brought from Java in Indonesia to the former Yugoslavian republics. "Ravnjak" means "plain." It is still grown in the former Yugoslav republics, where it is considered high grade toabcco, and people have been smoking it in pipes for...
  9. rakovsky

    Native American brands and their blends

    I love the Native American theme for pipe tobacco. The Native American companies making pipe tobacco that I know of are: Grandfather's Spirit, Minneapolis, MN Soaring Eagle Casino, MI Cherokee, VA Seneca, NY Ohserase Manufacturing, NY "Native" brand, NY Six Nations Manufacturing, Irving NY Out...
  10. rakovsky

    Kapitanskiy: Captain's rum from Leningrad

    A friend from a pipe-themed Discord server generously gifted me a box of Kapitanskiy with a sealed 50 gram tinfoil packet. He got it on a well known auction website from a seller in Estonia. I was excited to get it and liked it a lot. Kapitanskiy means "Captain's," or literally "Captainish" in...
  11. rakovsky

    Does Slow and Steady Win the Race for Rehydrating Old Blends.

    I have a beginner level question and respect your input very much. A friend gave me a vintage tinfoil wrapped 50 gram cube of super crispy dry Captain's blend from 1974-83 made in Leningrad as a curiosity. I smoked it dry as it came. It was overly warm in my nose, overheated my briar, and...
  12. rakovsky

    Religious discussion: Why there are so many denominations

    @cosmicfolklore wondered why there were so many Church denominations, and he suggested that I make a thread about why so many appeared. ( Picking on Brits a Bit :: General Discussion - https://pipesmagazine.com/forums/threads/picking-on-brits-a-bit.107465/post-37139254 ) The question basically...