Having recently bought a NOS Butz Choquin hand made 'fat' bulldog and falling in love with it I decided to bid for this calabash shaped BC from the same seller. It was listed as "LARGE HAND CARVED BUTZ CHOQUIN MAITRE PIPIER DE LUXE SP" and I fell in love with both the shape and the beautiful bird's eye grain...I had to have it!
Indeed I did have it and it arrived yesterday. It is more beautiful in person than the pictures suggested and I'm pretty delighted. It is the first pipe I have ever seen with a brass military mount which only needed a light polish with Brasso and a few moments on the buffing wheel to make it gleam.
One thing that spoiled the party was the first smoke (FVF) started off rather well but pretty soon developed a pretty nasty taste, almost like that of burning wood. I have smoked a few 'virgin' pipes and never experienced that taste. The bowl by the way is pretty deep and conical in shape. I suffered this for half an hour or so then left the pipe to go out. In so doing I had sacrificed a fair bit of baccy but I was expecting this, I just wanted to see if the wood was indeed burning...it was not, it was as clean as a whistle so I'm pretty puzzled by that. I am about to light up my second bowl and fingers crossed it won't taste nasty. There is no bowl coating by the way.
One query for the Butz Choquin experts (if they indeed exist) is what do the letters 'SP' relate to? I wonder if it might be the initials of the carver but am open to any other suggestions.
Regards,
Jay.
Indeed I did have it and it arrived yesterday. It is more beautiful in person than the pictures suggested and I'm pretty delighted. It is the first pipe I have ever seen with a brass military mount which only needed a light polish with Brasso and a few moments on the buffing wheel to make it gleam.
One thing that spoiled the party was the first smoke (FVF) started off rather well but pretty soon developed a pretty nasty taste, almost like that of burning wood. I have smoked a few 'virgin' pipes and never experienced that taste. The bowl by the way is pretty deep and conical in shape. I suffered this for half an hour or so then left the pipe to go out. In so doing I had sacrificed a fair bit of baccy but I was expecting this, I just wanted to see if the wood was indeed burning...it was not, it was as clean as a whistle so I'm pretty puzzled by that. I am about to light up my second bowl and fingers crossed it won't taste nasty. There is no bowl coating by the way.
One query for the Butz Choquin experts (if they indeed exist) is what do the letters 'SP' relate to? I wonder if it might be the initials of the carver but am open to any other suggestions.
Regards,
Jay.
