After a brief hiatus I've come back into my routine of downloading the Radio Show on Wednesday mornings and listening to the show on my commute. I finally caught up with all the shows from September forward with this week's broadcast. Thanks Brian, and Kevin, for continuing to inform and entertain. Brian, I'm not sure what you were hearing in your sound production that you didn't like, but you came through loud and clear on this end.
I am looking forward to your West Coast Pipe Show wrap up in next week's episode. I've been champing at the bit to get back to a pipe show since Chicago...
Radio Show Poll Answers
1. I started out impulse buying shapes that were interesting to me, with little thought to engineering or the guts of a pipe. These were aesthetic purchases. I am now purging most of that collection and focusing on four shapes; Canadians and Lumbermen, and Bulldogs and Rhodesians.
2. In college I smoked light aromatics. When I returned to pipe smoking I preferred tobaccos that were more robust and intense; so I quickly ramped up to Latakia forward blends especially those that included other Oriental leaf. In the last twelve months I've widened my flavour range considerably and have come to enjoy VA and VA/PER flakes, as well as the occasional VA/PER/BUR. Favourite blends today are HU Director's Cut, Haddo's Delight, Escudo, Tudor Castle and Peretti's Oriental #40.
3. I typically smoke a bowl per week.
4. After a couple years of cleaning up estate pipes, engineering and smoking quality have become really important to me. When I began upgrading my collection I was able to quickly discern the difference between well built pipes and the inferior pipes I had been smoking. In addition to the shapes mentioned above, I am working to collect a 7 day set of pre-WWII KB&B Drinkless pipes. I've also determined to commission two pipes per year from North American artisan carvers. Gotta keep those lads and ladies working!
-- Pat