News from the October Meeting
Our last meeting had 28 members in attendance as well as 8 guests. We are now up to 72 paid members. Our newest member is Mike Gluckler. Mike is the owner of Briar Blues, one of the premier internet sites for acquiring estate pipes.
GKCPC Pipe Show Update
The work on the upcoming pipe show continues. The switch to the DoubleTree Hotel in Overland Park is requiring us to redo and rethink things as we have done them in the past.
The DoubleTree is such a nice venue that we are going to be promoting it as a destination well worth the drive from the airport to Overland Park. The hotel is so conveniently located to shopping, dining and entertainment exhibitors an easily bring guests with them and have things for them to do.
It is a very nice hotel with excellent dining facilities as well as a fitness room, a business center, and an indoor heated pool.
Smoking is not permitted within the hotel, including the show room, we will be able to take advantage of a spectacular shaded outside courtyard that is surrounded by buildings and trees. The courtyard is 2400 square feet and has a wood floor. We will also have a tent covering a fourth to a third of this courtyard.
We had thought that we wouldn’t be able to offer our traditional Friday nigh BBQ buffet but John Cermak was able to work a deal with the DoubleTree to get the price down into the range we could afford. We are still working out the details of the events for Friday night. In additional to the buffet we hope to offer some form of demo like we did last year on bowl shaping, a table with a half-dozen or so vintage tobaccos, and maybe a cigar roller on-site for those who might want a stogie.
At the end of the newsletter you will see a copy of both the flyer on the 2012 Pipe Show and the flyer on the DoubleTree Hotel that we sent out to prospective exhibitors and carvers.
I just got word that our guest speaker will be Dr. Fred Hanna of Greeley, Colorado. Fred was asked by Mike McNiel at the 2011 Show if he would be able to be the guest speaker for 2012. Fred agreed with the proviso that his summer work schedule didn’t pose a conflict. Apparently it hasn’t and we couldn’t ask for a better man for the job. Fred is renowned collector, essayist, and raconteur of the pipe world. Fred’s one of the Who’s Who of the pipe world.
2012 CARVERS CONTEST
The rules for the 2012 Carvers Contest haven’t finalized yet, but a preliminary announcement would be:
“The 2012 Contest Shape is "Bulldog Family". Straight or bent, round or paneled, squat to stacked, square/diamond/round/oval shank. As long as your first thought on seeing is "that reminds me of a Bulldog", then your good. We are looking to make an interesting set based on a general theme, in this case the Bulldog and the variations on it.
Ring(s) - appreciated but may not be required.
Size - Try to keep it in the 5" to 7" range. Remember, the selected 7 pipes need to fit into the custom case we provide.
Color, Finish, Extensions, Etc, are up to the carver.”
The rules are preliminary (particularly about no rings). We will be posting the official rules on the website (gkcpipeclub.com). If you have any questions email Contest Chairman Quinton Wells at quinton@gkcpipeclub.com.
Next Meeting
Our next meeting will be Thursday, November 17, 2011 at Cigar & Tabac. The time will be 8PM. For our program Steve Butler will be doing a presentation on Barleywine as well as some samples for the members to taste. Steve has promised that he will show up!
We will also have our club tobaccos for sale as well as taking deposits on the 2012 Pipe of the Year.
A Three Pipe Problem
Dustin Babitzke
Whizzing down I-70 at 75 mph, wind blowing through my hair, the open road ahead of me; it all sounds so glamorous. That is until I try to hold a pipe in my right hand and pack the bowl with my left hand, while an open can of tobacco is precariously balanced on one knee. This of course requires me to steer with my other knee as I deftly maneuver that final tamp and my charring light. Any pipe smoker who enjoys a quiet puff in their car has faced this time-tested and quite frustrating dilemma since 1896 when Henry Ford sold his first “Quadricycle”.
While I have no facts to back it up, I’m sure there were a few good men in the early 1900’s that uttered the statement “Dash it all, I’ve burned another hole in my trousers whilst driving” or “Confound it, I’ve lit the car’s seat ablaze again”. Lighting a pipe in a moving vehicle can be tricky, nay; pipe smoking can be downright suicidal.
With a career as a traveling salesman and having a passion for pipes, I realized two things early on in my career: 1) the time with my family is precious and sacred; therefore, 2) I had better smoke while I am on the road. Window time (or in laymen’s terms, driving time) is both a blessing and a curse in my profession. I use this time to read audio books, listen to music, and ponder life’s little conundrums. All three of those activities are perfectly suited to a sweet puff of aged Boston 1776 Virginia or a creamy bowl of Syrian Star.
So it was about three weeks into my foray as a travelling salesman that I began bringing my pipe bag on the road. That same week I began to learn of all of the perils and dangers of smoking in the car. For example, the panic that occurs when hearing the grind of the rumble strips, dropping a pipe out of the window while trying to remove the dottle, feeling the hot ash on my leg as I accidentally cast off embers while singing along to my favorite songs… I’ve done it all. I knew there had to be a better way.
My adventures into pipe making with Ken Davis have taught me a few things. Primarily, have a goal and a plan. I knew I wanted to design a pipe that would travel well, would be comfortable to clench, wouldn’t smoke too hot with the wind from the open window hitting the bowl, would be easy to set down if needed, would be light-weight, and would be simple to pack. I went through all of the pipes in my collection, and not one of those met every requirement. I scoured the web for ideas, again falling short. So I dusted off my old drawing pad and set to work on a new design of something that would be effective.
I wrote to a dear friend of mind, a pipemaker by the name of Maigurs Knets, hoping for some guidance and inspiration. He and I have collaborated several times before on some custom pipes, and he was excited to begin another project for me. He has done several beautiful calabash style pipes with cooling chambers similar in concept but unique in style to what Tom Eltang, Misha Reviagin, and our own Anthony Harris have been making recently. Maigurs suggested that a calabash would be perfect, as the hot smoke would have time to cool before arriving at the stem.
And so the brainstorming began. I started with the idea of an Oom Paul or raindrop shape since I knew I wanted the pipe to hang from my mouth using my chin as an added support in case I needed to free my hands. It was suggested we add a taller bowl so that a variety of tobaccos could be burned fairly easily. I have three main tobaccos that I smoke about 90% of the time; McCranies Red Ribbon, McClelland’s Christmas Cheer, and our own club blend, Syrian Star, mixed with some of McClelland’s fine Blue Mountain leaf. Now I had a dilemma. Which one of these tobaccos would I dedicate for my new car pipe? I couldn’t pick one. As any good pipe smoker knows, we maintain a few different blends in our repertoire to suit the given mood. If I’m happy and relaxed, I want the sweetness of Christmas Cheer. If I’m falling asleep, I need the kick from my Latakia blends. What to choose? I need three pipes to make this work. And that’s when it hit me. I didn’t need three pipes. I needed three bowls. In the words of Mr. Sherlock Holmes, this was, indeed, “quite a three-pipe problem.”
I began ruthlessly drawing and erasing, drawing again, until my fingers were sore and my mind was exhausted. But there, in front of me, was the pipe. Maigurs will laugh when he reads this, as my drawing skills rival that of a three year old. Fortunately, we have developed a rapport over the years that allows him to read me like a book. He knew exactly what I wanted, and began to translate it into briar. An Oom Paul calabash with three interchangeable bowls began to form in his workshop. Soon we hit our first snag. Maigurs asked how we should attach the bowls to the pipe. Most calabash pipes are fitted with an o-ring to hold the bowl in place, but our design relied on keeping the weight down while still creating a tight seal on the pipe. He suggested threading the bowls, which would keep them from accidentally slipping when dumping the ash out of the pipe. Having had experience with one of Anthony Harris’ pipes, I knew threading was an excellent choice.
The second problem arose when we decided how we would make the bowls distinguishable from one another so that I could remember which tobacco goes in what bowl. I entertained an idea of creating a smooth bowl, a blasted bowl, and a rusticated bowl, but, Maigurs, in his infinite wisdom, realized that the non-smooth bowls would look truly foolish on a smooth pipe. All three would have to match the finish of the pipe. Maigurs had made a pipe earlier this year that reminded me of a U-joint that plumbers use. He also made a fun little pipe called “Joe the Plumber” that had a small bolt-shaped adornment made of an exotic wood. I fell in love with both of these designs, so I began sketching the idea of making a pipe where the bowls looked like a bolt fitted onto the end of a u-joint. I sent the sketch to Maigurs, and he ran with the idea. He turned three different bowls, and then used exotic woods to make Hexagonal bolts around the edges of the bowls. He used Amboyna, Walnut, and Afzelia Burl. Each bowl now had a distinct look while all matching the base pipe.
The third and final problem was how to make the pipe and bowls readily accessible and usable on a long road trip. This is where Maigurs took on full creative control, and designed a most amazing invention. He went through two main prototypes. His first prototype sank the pipe into a walnut base that would fit into the car’s cup holder. The pipe was inserted into a hollow in the base that would hold the pipe securely. In experimenting with the prototype, Maigurs realized the pipe wobbled too much in this base design, which made screwing the bowls in trickier. He wanted me to be able to change bowls quickly, easily, and with one hand to make driving safer.
He returned to the drawing board, and developed his second prototype. Each bowl was already threaded to match the pipe. Therefore, he modified the base, to include a threaded hollow in which each bowl could be screwed. This design allows me to pack each bowl before I leave for my travels, and then simply unscrew and attach the bowl I want to the pipe. To resolve the wobbly pipe problem, Miagurs referenced the earlier idea of the bolt shape. He cut a small hexagonal indentation into the walnut base. Then he adhered a powerful rare-earth magnet to the underside of the base. He cut a completely new pipe base using the original shape but adding a small hexagonal nut to the bottom of the pipe. He hollowed out this small nut, inserted a rare-earth magnet into the hole, and covered the magnet with a thin piece of briar. The magnets attract each other, and lock the pipe base into the hole. With the pipe base securely in place, I simply screw in the bowl of my choice. There is no pipe wobble and no awkward fumbling. He presented the finished pipe to me shortly after my birthday along with all of our prototype pieces to keep as a memory of this amazing experiment. I have lovingly dubbed the pipe “The Three Pipe Problem” after the famous Holmes quote, and the trifecta of brilliant bowls of Maigurs’ creation.
Twitter
For all you tweeters out there you can now follow us on Twitter at @gkcpc. I will make occasional tweets when something newsworthy or of interest comes along.
What is a Balkan Blend?
Last month I linked to an article on pipesmagazine.com discussing the difference between a Latakia blend and an English blend. As the article explained, originally the term “English blend” was meant to refer to a tobacco blended in England according to the English purity laws. The blend did not have to contain any Latakia and could even be what we refer to today as a Virginia. As those laws were taken off the books we came to associate Latakia with the term “English blend” for non-Virginia tobaccos since most of these blends now contain Latakia.
Well this leads us to the question of what is the difference between the Latakia based English blends and a Balkan blend. This question arises because most of us think of Balkan blends as being very heavily laced with Latakia.
Once again I will turn to Bob Tate of pipesmagazine.com who discusses this very problem. At the end of the article is a wonderful Q&A between our own Mary McNiel (McClelland Tobacco), Greg Pease (G.L. Pease Tobacco), Russ Ouillette (pipesandcigars.com), and Craig Tarler (Cornell & Diehl Tobacco).
Click on the link below to enjoy this article.
http://pipesmagazine.com/python/pipe-tobacco/the-mystery-of-balkan-blends/
Recreating Comoy's 3-Part C
One of the pipe communities great collectors and bloggers is Neill Archer Roan. Most of you should remember Neil as our guest speaker at the 2010 GKCPC Pipe Show. He recently purchased a beautiful flame-grained Blue Riband Comoy pipe on eBay. Unfortunately he didn’t discover the pipe had a major problem until the first time he tried to smoke it. He turned to the amazing young carver Adam Davidson to repair the pipe.
Adam decided to go above and beyond the call of duty and not only create a new stem, but a new stem with the Comoy signature 3-part C logo. Click on the logo below and read about this amazing piece of pipe repair.
http://www.apassionforpipes.com/neills-blog/2011/10/22/recreating-comoys-3-part-c.html
A Night at the Opera
As most of you know I am something of an opera buff. Kansas City just opened the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts. The Lyric Opera, Kansas City’s prestigious opera production company, made its first presentation in the new facility on October 1, 2011. I cannot tell you what a wonderful night of music and drama this was.
With this magnificent new facility the Lyric pulled out all stops and presented a true grand opera, “Turandot”. They also brought in some top tier talent for the four lead roles and they did not disappoint.
Like all great opera the plot is absurd. Basically the daughter of the Chinese Emperor says she will marry the man who can answer three riddles. If they can’t she has them executed.
The body count is well over 25 when our hero, accompanied by his father and a slave girl who loves him, answers the three riddles. Then in a moment that can only be described as “whose idea was this” he gives the princess a way out. If she can discover his name by morning he will face the executioner’s ax.
A mad search begins to find someone who knows the young man’s name. This gives the tenor playing the hero his chance to shine by singing one of the great tenor solos in the entire opera repertoire, “Nessun Dorma”. He had been pretty nondescript to this point but he really nailed this wonderful piece.
When the man’s father and the slave girl are cornered by the mob. The slave girl then sings this absolutely beautiful aria (a solo song) convincing the throng that only she knows the name of the young man and to avoid telling them she commits suicide. Then the father (world class bass-baritone Samuel Ramey) sings a lament to the girl who gave her life to safe his son. There weren’t many dry eyes in the house when he was done.
Then our hero confronts the princess and professes his love for her. To prove his love for her he tells her his name.
And then as she prepares to have him sent to the block she recants and decides she loves him after all. One great final number by the entire cast and we were done.
These pictures look a lot better if you up the magnification to 150%.
This was grand opera at its highest and would have been well received by any opera audience in the world. The costumes and sets were magnificent. The acoustics were breathtaking. And the performers were simply wonderful. Of special note was the great work done by the KC Chorus, the KC Children’s Chorus, and the Lyric Orchestra.
On the Road to Richmond
Members Bill Miller and Anthony Harris made the car journey from KC to Richmond for the CoRPS Pipe Show in early October. Even though these boys are as humorous as Bob and Bing they found the 20-hour drive to Richmond anything but amusing.
Both of the guys said the Richmond show is slightly larger than ours is. Anthony sold quite a few tampers and some of his single pipe magnetic holders. Also spent a good bit of time talking to other carvers. He was able to sell one of his double chambered pipes. By the way Pipes & Tobacco magazine will be running a feature on Anthony and his double chambered pipes in the next issue. You will want to look for it. It is another reason why, if you haven’t done so already, that you get a subscription to this magazine.
Bill said the venue was very nice and the attendees were allowed to smoke inside. He did receive a lot of positive feedback about our show from a number of the exhibitors who were at the CoRPS show.
Bill bought a couple meerschaums from Best Meerschaums out of Longwood, Florida, which is just north of Orlando. Very nice looking pipes.
Our last meeting had 28 members in attendance as well as 8 guests. We are now up to 72 paid members. Our newest member is Mike Gluckler. Mike is the owner of Briar Blues, one of the premier internet sites for acquiring estate pipes.
GKCPC Pipe Show Update
The work on the upcoming pipe show continues. The switch to the DoubleTree Hotel in Overland Park is requiring us to redo and rethink things as we have done them in the past.
The DoubleTree is such a nice venue that we are going to be promoting it as a destination well worth the drive from the airport to Overland Park. The hotel is so conveniently located to shopping, dining and entertainment exhibitors an easily bring guests with them and have things for them to do.
It is a very nice hotel with excellent dining facilities as well as a fitness room, a business center, and an indoor heated pool.
Smoking is not permitted within the hotel, including the show room, we will be able to take advantage of a spectacular shaded outside courtyard that is surrounded by buildings and trees. The courtyard is 2400 square feet and has a wood floor. We will also have a tent covering a fourth to a third of this courtyard.
We had thought that we wouldn’t be able to offer our traditional Friday nigh BBQ buffet but John Cermak was able to work a deal with the DoubleTree to get the price down into the range we could afford. We are still working out the details of the events for Friday night. In additional to the buffet we hope to offer some form of demo like we did last year on bowl shaping, a table with a half-dozen or so vintage tobaccos, and maybe a cigar roller on-site for those who might want a stogie.
At the end of the newsletter you will see a copy of both the flyer on the 2012 Pipe Show and the flyer on the DoubleTree Hotel that we sent out to prospective exhibitors and carvers.
I just got word that our guest speaker will be Dr. Fred Hanna of Greeley, Colorado. Fred was asked by Mike McNiel at the 2011 Show if he would be able to be the guest speaker for 2012. Fred agreed with the proviso that his summer work schedule didn’t pose a conflict. Apparently it hasn’t and we couldn’t ask for a better man for the job. Fred is renowned collector, essayist, and raconteur of the pipe world. Fred’s one of the Who’s Who of the pipe world.
2012 CARVERS CONTEST
The rules for the 2012 Carvers Contest haven’t finalized yet, but a preliminary announcement would be:
“The 2012 Contest Shape is "Bulldog Family". Straight or bent, round or paneled, squat to stacked, square/diamond/round/oval shank. As long as your first thought on seeing is "that reminds me of a Bulldog", then your good. We are looking to make an interesting set based on a general theme, in this case the Bulldog and the variations on it.
Ring(s) - appreciated but may not be required.
Size - Try to keep it in the 5" to 7" range. Remember, the selected 7 pipes need to fit into the custom case we provide.
Color, Finish, Extensions, Etc, are up to the carver.”
The rules are preliminary (particularly about no rings). We will be posting the official rules on the website (gkcpipeclub.com). If you have any questions email Contest Chairman Quinton Wells at quinton@gkcpipeclub.com.
Next Meeting
Our next meeting will be Thursday, November 17, 2011 at Cigar & Tabac. The time will be 8PM. For our program Steve Butler will be doing a presentation on Barleywine as well as some samples for the members to taste. Steve has promised that he will show up!
We will also have our club tobaccos for sale as well as taking deposits on the 2012 Pipe of the Year.
A Three Pipe Problem
Dustin Babitzke
Whizzing down I-70 at 75 mph, wind blowing through my hair, the open road ahead of me; it all sounds so glamorous. That is until I try to hold a pipe in my right hand and pack the bowl with my left hand, while an open can of tobacco is precariously balanced on one knee. This of course requires me to steer with my other knee as I deftly maneuver that final tamp and my charring light. Any pipe smoker who enjoys a quiet puff in their car has faced this time-tested and quite frustrating dilemma since 1896 when Henry Ford sold his first “Quadricycle”.
While I have no facts to back it up, I’m sure there were a few good men in the early 1900’s that uttered the statement “Dash it all, I’ve burned another hole in my trousers whilst driving” or “Confound it, I’ve lit the car’s seat ablaze again”. Lighting a pipe in a moving vehicle can be tricky, nay; pipe smoking can be downright suicidal.
With a career as a traveling salesman and having a passion for pipes, I realized two things early on in my career: 1) the time with my family is precious and sacred; therefore, 2) I had better smoke while I am on the road. Window time (or in laymen’s terms, driving time) is both a blessing and a curse in my profession. I use this time to read audio books, listen to music, and ponder life’s little conundrums. All three of those activities are perfectly suited to a sweet puff of aged Boston 1776 Virginia or a creamy bowl of Syrian Star.
So it was about three weeks into my foray as a travelling salesman that I began bringing my pipe bag on the road. That same week I began to learn of all of the perils and dangers of smoking in the car. For example, the panic that occurs when hearing the grind of the rumble strips, dropping a pipe out of the window while trying to remove the dottle, feeling the hot ash on my leg as I accidentally cast off embers while singing along to my favorite songs… I’ve done it all. I knew there had to be a better way.
My adventures into pipe making with Ken Davis have taught me a few things. Primarily, have a goal and a plan. I knew I wanted to design a pipe that would travel well, would be comfortable to clench, wouldn’t smoke too hot with the wind from the open window hitting the bowl, would be easy to set down if needed, would be light-weight, and would be simple to pack. I went through all of the pipes in my collection, and not one of those met every requirement. I scoured the web for ideas, again falling short. So I dusted off my old drawing pad and set to work on a new design of something that would be effective.
I wrote to a dear friend of mind, a pipemaker by the name of Maigurs Knets, hoping for some guidance and inspiration. He and I have collaborated several times before on some custom pipes, and he was excited to begin another project for me. He has done several beautiful calabash style pipes with cooling chambers similar in concept but unique in style to what Tom Eltang, Misha Reviagin, and our own Anthony Harris have been making recently. Maigurs suggested that a calabash would be perfect, as the hot smoke would have time to cool before arriving at the stem.
And so the brainstorming began. I started with the idea of an Oom Paul or raindrop shape since I knew I wanted the pipe to hang from my mouth using my chin as an added support in case I needed to free my hands. It was suggested we add a taller bowl so that a variety of tobaccos could be burned fairly easily. I have three main tobaccos that I smoke about 90% of the time; McCranies Red Ribbon, McClelland’s Christmas Cheer, and our own club blend, Syrian Star, mixed with some of McClelland’s fine Blue Mountain leaf. Now I had a dilemma. Which one of these tobaccos would I dedicate for my new car pipe? I couldn’t pick one. As any good pipe smoker knows, we maintain a few different blends in our repertoire to suit the given mood. If I’m happy and relaxed, I want the sweetness of Christmas Cheer. If I’m falling asleep, I need the kick from my Latakia blends. What to choose? I need three pipes to make this work. And that’s when it hit me. I didn’t need three pipes. I needed three bowls. In the words of Mr. Sherlock Holmes, this was, indeed, “quite a three-pipe problem.”
I began ruthlessly drawing and erasing, drawing again, until my fingers were sore and my mind was exhausted. But there, in front of me, was the pipe. Maigurs will laugh when he reads this, as my drawing skills rival that of a three year old. Fortunately, we have developed a rapport over the years that allows him to read me like a book. He knew exactly what I wanted, and began to translate it into briar. An Oom Paul calabash with three interchangeable bowls began to form in his workshop. Soon we hit our first snag. Maigurs asked how we should attach the bowls to the pipe. Most calabash pipes are fitted with an o-ring to hold the bowl in place, but our design relied on keeping the weight down while still creating a tight seal on the pipe. He suggested threading the bowls, which would keep them from accidentally slipping when dumping the ash out of the pipe. Having had experience with one of Anthony Harris’ pipes, I knew threading was an excellent choice.
The second problem arose when we decided how we would make the bowls distinguishable from one another so that I could remember which tobacco goes in what bowl. I entertained an idea of creating a smooth bowl, a blasted bowl, and a rusticated bowl, but, Maigurs, in his infinite wisdom, realized that the non-smooth bowls would look truly foolish on a smooth pipe. All three would have to match the finish of the pipe. Maigurs had made a pipe earlier this year that reminded me of a U-joint that plumbers use. He also made a fun little pipe called “Joe the Plumber” that had a small bolt-shaped adornment made of an exotic wood. I fell in love with both of these designs, so I began sketching the idea of making a pipe where the bowls looked like a bolt fitted onto the end of a u-joint. I sent the sketch to Maigurs, and he ran with the idea. He turned three different bowls, and then used exotic woods to make Hexagonal bolts around the edges of the bowls. He used Amboyna, Walnut, and Afzelia Burl. Each bowl now had a distinct look while all matching the base pipe.
The third and final problem was how to make the pipe and bowls readily accessible and usable on a long road trip. This is where Maigurs took on full creative control, and designed a most amazing invention. He went through two main prototypes. His first prototype sank the pipe into a walnut base that would fit into the car’s cup holder. The pipe was inserted into a hollow in the base that would hold the pipe securely. In experimenting with the prototype, Maigurs realized the pipe wobbled too much in this base design, which made screwing the bowls in trickier. He wanted me to be able to change bowls quickly, easily, and with one hand to make driving safer.
He returned to the drawing board, and developed his second prototype. Each bowl was already threaded to match the pipe. Therefore, he modified the base, to include a threaded hollow in which each bowl could be screwed. This design allows me to pack each bowl before I leave for my travels, and then simply unscrew and attach the bowl I want to the pipe. To resolve the wobbly pipe problem, Miagurs referenced the earlier idea of the bolt shape. He cut a small hexagonal indentation into the walnut base. Then he adhered a powerful rare-earth magnet to the underside of the base. He cut a completely new pipe base using the original shape but adding a small hexagonal nut to the bottom of the pipe. He hollowed out this small nut, inserted a rare-earth magnet into the hole, and covered the magnet with a thin piece of briar. The magnets attract each other, and lock the pipe base into the hole. With the pipe base securely in place, I simply screw in the bowl of my choice. There is no pipe wobble and no awkward fumbling. He presented the finished pipe to me shortly after my birthday along with all of our prototype pieces to keep as a memory of this amazing experiment. I have lovingly dubbed the pipe “The Three Pipe Problem” after the famous Holmes quote, and the trifecta of brilliant bowls of Maigurs’ creation.
For all you tweeters out there you can now follow us on Twitter at @gkcpc. I will make occasional tweets when something newsworthy or of interest comes along.
What is a Balkan Blend?
Last month I linked to an article on pipesmagazine.com discussing the difference between a Latakia blend and an English blend. As the article explained, originally the term “English blend” was meant to refer to a tobacco blended in England according to the English purity laws. The blend did not have to contain any Latakia and could even be what we refer to today as a Virginia. As those laws were taken off the books we came to associate Latakia with the term “English blend” for non-Virginia tobaccos since most of these blends now contain Latakia.
Well this leads us to the question of what is the difference between the Latakia based English blends and a Balkan blend. This question arises because most of us think of Balkan blends as being very heavily laced with Latakia.
Once again I will turn to Bob Tate of pipesmagazine.com who discusses this very problem. At the end of the article is a wonderful Q&A between our own Mary McNiel (McClelland Tobacco), Greg Pease (G.L. Pease Tobacco), Russ Ouillette (pipesandcigars.com), and Craig Tarler (Cornell & Diehl Tobacco).
Click on the link below to enjoy this article.
http://pipesmagazine.com/python/pipe-tobacco/the-mystery-of-balkan-blends/
Recreating Comoy's 3-Part C
One of the pipe communities great collectors and bloggers is Neill Archer Roan. Most of you should remember Neil as our guest speaker at the 2010 GKCPC Pipe Show. He recently purchased a beautiful flame-grained Blue Riband Comoy pipe on eBay. Unfortunately he didn’t discover the pipe had a major problem until the first time he tried to smoke it. He turned to the amazing young carver Adam Davidson to repair the pipe.
Adam decided to go above and beyond the call of duty and not only create a new stem, but a new stem with the Comoy signature 3-part C logo. Click on the logo below and read about this amazing piece of pipe repair.
http://www.apassionforpipes.com/neills-blog/2011/10/22/recreating-comoys-3-part-c.html
A Night at the Opera
As most of you know I am something of an opera buff. Kansas City just opened the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts. The Lyric Opera, Kansas City’s prestigious opera production company, made its first presentation in the new facility on October 1, 2011. I cannot tell you what a wonderful night of music and drama this was.
With this magnificent new facility the Lyric pulled out all stops and presented a true grand opera, “Turandot”. They also brought in some top tier talent for the four lead roles and they did not disappoint.
Like all great opera the plot is absurd. Basically the daughter of the Chinese Emperor says she will marry the man who can answer three riddles. If they can’t she has them executed.
The body count is well over 25 when our hero, accompanied by his father and a slave girl who loves him, answers the three riddles. Then in a moment that can only be described as “whose idea was this” he gives the princess a way out. If she can discover his name by morning he will face the executioner’s ax.
A mad search begins to find someone who knows the young man’s name. This gives the tenor playing the hero his chance to shine by singing one of the great tenor solos in the entire opera repertoire, “Nessun Dorma”. He had been pretty nondescript to this point but he really nailed this wonderful piece.
When the man’s father and the slave girl are cornered by the mob. The slave girl then sings this absolutely beautiful aria (a solo song) convincing the throng that only she knows the name of the young man and to avoid telling them she commits suicide. Then the father (world class bass-baritone Samuel Ramey) sings a lament to the girl who gave her life to safe his son. There weren’t many dry eyes in the house when he was done.
Then our hero confronts the princess and professes his love for her. To prove his love for her he tells her his name.
And then as she prepares to have him sent to the block she recants and decides she loves him after all. One great final number by the entire cast and we were done.
These pictures look a lot better if you up the magnification to 150%.
This was grand opera at its highest and would have been well received by any opera audience in the world. The costumes and sets were magnificent. The acoustics were breathtaking. And the performers were simply wonderful. Of special note was the great work done by the KC Chorus, the KC Children’s Chorus, and the Lyric Orchestra.
On the Road to Richmond
Members Bill Miller and Anthony Harris made the car journey from KC to Richmond for the CoRPS Pipe Show in early October. Even though these boys are as humorous as Bob and Bing they found the 20-hour drive to Richmond anything but amusing.
Both of the guys said the Richmond show is slightly larger than ours is. Anthony sold quite a few tampers and some of his single pipe magnetic holders. Also spent a good bit of time talking to other carvers. He was able to sell one of his double chambered pipes. By the way Pipes & Tobacco magazine will be running a feature on Anthony and his double chambered pipes in the next issue. You will want to look for it. It is another reason why, if you haven’t done so already, that you get a subscription to this magazine.
Bill said the venue was very nice and the attendees were allowed to smoke inside. He did receive a lot of positive feedback about our show from a number of the exhibitors who were at the CoRPS show.
Bill bought a couple meerschaums from Best Meerschaums out of Longwood, Florida, which is just north of Orlando. Very nice looking pipes.