Ok, so sometimes I miss the mark in picking out gifts for my wife, and this was one of those times. About 20 years ago I bought this pipe for my wife for her birthday. I thought it was a cool pipe for a woman, and that she would like it. Yeah, not so much, as first of all I assumed that women like dainty feminine looking pipes, even though my wife didn't have any pipes that looked like this. Second of all, she informed me that if I had been paying attention, I would have noticed that she always smokes bent pipes. Well she didn't put it exactly like that, and she was very nice and thankful, but she also never smoked it. Lesson learned. Everyone likes what they like, so don't assume that just because a pipe smoker is a woman, she wants everything to be girly. But I couldn't ask for a better wife, and we've been best friends for 40 years, and she been smoking a pipe with me for over 30 of those years. True love...
Now to get to the current situation. I forgot about the pipe, and came across it a few days ago, and decided it was a nice little pipe, so I figured I would clean it up and smoke it to see what I think. It's nice long panel shape stamped Wally Frank Ltd. on one side, and Imported Briar on the other. It's 7 1/4" long with a small bowl that has a 1" deep bore that is 3/4" wide. It doesn't look to have been smoked much at all, wasn't too much work to clean up. I have no idea where it was made, as apparently Wally Frank had pipes made by just about every manufacturer around. I can't find any info about this pipe shape, but I sort of figured it was made to attract female smokers at some point in time. Maybe 1950s/1960s? Who knows.
I usually use small pipes to smoke my stronger blends that I like the flavor of but may have too much nicotine for me. So I've been smoking plug and rope tobaccos in it, but my wife thinks I look funny smoking such a long delicate pipe. Shoot, I'm smoking plugs and ropes in it! Isn't that manly enough? Well no one else can see me, and I like the way it smokes so I guess I'll just continue to give her something to chuckle about. :laughat:
Now to get to the current situation. I forgot about the pipe, and came across it a few days ago, and decided it was a nice little pipe, so I figured I would clean it up and smoke it to see what I think. It's nice long panel shape stamped Wally Frank Ltd. on one side, and Imported Briar on the other. It's 7 1/4" long with a small bowl that has a 1" deep bore that is 3/4" wide. It doesn't look to have been smoked much at all, wasn't too much work to clean up. I have no idea where it was made, as apparently Wally Frank had pipes made by just about every manufacturer around. I can't find any info about this pipe shape, but I sort of figured it was made to attract female smokers at some point in time. Maybe 1950s/1960s? Who knows.
I usually use small pipes to smoke my stronger blends that I like the flavor of but may have too much nicotine for me. So I've been smoking plug and rope tobaccos in it, but my wife thinks I look funny smoking such a long delicate pipe. Shoot, I'm smoking plugs and ropes in it! Isn't that manly enough? Well no one else can see me, and I like the way it smokes so I guess I'll just continue to give her something to chuckle about. :laughat: