Hello everyone, I'm a Chicagoan born and raised, though I moved around a good amount during my time in the Navy, settling back in Chicago to take over the family business. I started smoking cigars as a teen with my Father socially, but when I discovered my love for the Padron 1964 Anniversary series, I found my passion for tobacco.
My father smoked pipes when I was younger and started again about 7-8 months ago. One day while he was smoking, the amazing scent of black cherry got me asking questions, and upon learning how much less expensive pipe smoking is than my cherished Padron's, I decided to give it a shot and 6 months ago I bought my first pipe, a La Rocca bent apple.
Due to a variety of factors, not least of which being my lack of knowledge, a filled crack on the shank separated after about a month- I believe mostly due to me smoking too fast and hot- and I got my first meerschaum pipe, an SRV lattice bent billiard, which has been my go to at home since. About a month ago I purchased a Peterson Irish Harp that I've been enjoying every few days. I have loved every minute of my pipe journey so far. I'm now contemplating having a new stem made for my meer because I fell in love with the cumberland stem on my peterson, but I don't want to have to ship it out for weeks without something in rotation with the peterson.
For Tobacco, I fell in love with Rattray's exotic passion, and also enjoy Balkan Sasieni, 4th Generation 1982, Peterson Sherlock Holmes, and I'm just trying out as many as brands and mixtures as I can to find more that I love.
I'm here mostly to learn as much as I can and I greatly appreciate the wealth of knowledge I've seen here so far.