It’s that time of year again. Another year older and time to share this year’s selection of birthday pipes. I’m going to do something of a boomerang approach and share these in an A, B, C, B, A themed order.
First up is a smooth Comoy’s 804 Extraordinaire Bent Billiard from the 1930s. It has some knocking dents on the rim, but overall, it’s in lovely condition and even has its original sock, which pleased me very much—most of you know that I love packaging and am always happy when more of the originally issued stuff is present. I’ve missed out on several of these oversized pipes in the last couple of years, but have finally gotten one and am thrilled. Getting it from the UK to the US was something of an ordeal. The first issue was avoiding getting it confiscated by eBay Global Shipping as “drug paraphernalia” and auctioned off at a later date. Thankfully, the seller agreed to ship via Royal Mail to avoid that fiasco. I spent a couple of uneasy days watching the tracking number update the status—that it was going from New York to Newark, New Jersey; then, that it was at the distribution center in North Carolina instead of Pennsylvania—WTF? Turns out the tracking sticker came off the plastic outer wrap of the box and got stuck to something on its way to NC.
As most of you are aware, I am something of a Savinelli enthusiast and have a great appreciation for their longevity and history. They have their share of ugly pipes like any marque and I don’t love everything that they produce, but when I do find something that appeals to me it makes me very happy. Every once in awhile, Savinelli will produce a small number of pipes with their Birdseye designation. I’ve seen at least one example from their four digit number period (pre-1970s). Last year, they released a few examples and my jaw dropped when I saw this 616 KS, their largest Bent Billiard:
This next pipe was made by a (now dormant) member here, @bienden or Black Sea Pipes. Hai Nguyen Tuan is a Vietnamese architect and lecturer by trade, and hobbyist pipemaker in his spare time. I got this from member @Valliantpiper (Lynn Shannahan) who may be handling Black Sea distribution in the USA (thank you, Lynn!). It is made with Zebrawood and has magnetic caps with interchangeable bowls, one Morta, one Briar. I love this design and how it sits upright on the accented spur. I don’t know if the bowls were drilled differently intentionally or not—one is dead center, and the other towards the rear. There are a number of imperfections (slight cracks or scratches) inherent in the Zebrawood that seem less than desirable in an artisan pipe; the internal finishing still feels homemade (i.e., graphite pencil marks heavily impressed on the underside of the interchangeable wood bowls, chamber still pretty rough), but the overall aesthetics win me over. I will be curious to see if this pipemaker ups his game with regard to the smaller details and look forward to seeing what he does in the future.
Bringing things back to the Italian realm. When Todd Bannard @sasquatch was making my Birdseye Large Curve that you see me often smoking when I watch UFC, he raved about how wonderfully Castello pipes smoked. I became more curious. I’m often put off by some of their shapes—the jutting Jay Leno jaw of the 55 doesn’t appeal to my sensibility or aesthetics. I do however, like a number of their more traditional shapes. The grain and white stem of this Castello Collection Fiammata Squat Bulldog were right up my alley. It is from 2005 and Carlo Scotti stamped.
And now we bring things back full circle with this NOS boxed set of Comoy’s Comet Churchwarden pipes in three different finishes:
Squat pipes appeal to me. The Smooth Red is stamped 1, the Smooth Brown 2, and the Sandblasted 3.
I might add some other pics if anyone is interested.
Anyway, these were this year’s selections as birthday pipes. Hopefully, I’ll get to them all this coming week.
First up is a smooth Comoy’s 804 Extraordinaire Bent Billiard from the 1930s. It has some knocking dents on the rim, but overall, it’s in lovely condition and even has its original sock, which pleased me very much—most of you know that I love packaging and am always happy when more of the originally issued stuff is present. I’ve missed out on several of these oversized pipes in the last couple of years, but have finally gotten one and am thrilled. Getting it from the UK to the US was something of an ordeal. The first issue was avoiding getting it confiscated by eBay Global Shipping as “drug paraphernalia” and auctioned off at a later date. Thankfully, the seller agreed to ship via Royal Mail to avoid that fiasco. I spent a couple of uneasy days watching the tracking number update the status—that it was going from New York to Newark, New Jersey; then, that it was at the distribution center in North Carolina instead of Pennsylvania—WTF? Turns out the tracking sticker came off the plastic outer wrap of the box and got stuck to something on its way to NC.
As most of you are aware, I am something of a Savinelli enthusiast and have a great appreciation for their longevity and history. They have their share of ugly pipes like any marque and I don’t love everything that they produce, but when I do find something that appeals to me it makes me very happy. Every once in awhile, Savinelli will produce a small number of pipes with their Birdseye designation. I’ve seen at least one example from their four digit number period (pre-1970s). Last year, they released a few examples and my jaw dropped when I saw this 616 KS, their largest Bent Billiard:
This next pipe was made by a (now dormant) member here, @bienden or Black Sea Pipes. Hai Nguyen Tuan is a Vietnamese architect and lecturer by trade, and hobbyist pipemaker in his spare time. I got this from member @Valliantpiper (Lynn Shannahan) who may be handling Black Sea distribution in the USA (thank you, Lynn!). It is made with Zebrawood and has magnetic caps with interchangeable bowls, one Morta, one Briar. I love this design and how it sits upright on the accented spur. I don’t know if the bowls were drilled differently intentionally or not—one is dead center, and the other towards the rear. There are a number of imperfections (slight cracks or scratches) inherent in the Zebrawood that seem less than desirable in an artisan pipe; the internal finishing still feels homemade (i.e., graphite pencil marks heavily impressed on the underside of the interchangeable wood bowls, chamber still pretty rough), but the overall aesthetics win me over. I will be curious to see if this pipemaker ups his game with regard to the smaller details and look forward to seeing what he does in the future.
Bringing things back to the Italian realm. When Todd Bannard @sasquatch was making my Birdseye Large Curve that you see me often smoking when I watch UFC, he raved about how wonderfully Castello pipes smoked. I became more curious. I’m often put off by some of their shapes—the jutting Jay Leno jaw of the 55 doesn’t appeal to my sensibility or aesthetics. I do however, like a number of their more traditional shapes. The grain and white stem of this Castello Collection Fiammata Squat Bulldog were right up my alley. It is from 2005 and Carlo Scotti stamped.
And now we bring things back full circle with this NOS boxed set of Comoy’s Comet Churchwarden pipes in three different finishes:
Squat pipes appeal to me. The Smooth Red is stamped 1, the Smooth Brown 2, and the Sandblasted 3.
I might add some other pics if anyone is interested.
Anyway, these were this year’s selections as birthday pipes. Hopefully, I’ll get to them all this coming week.
to you…looks like set. 
️
