New pipe, old piper

[donjgiles]

I have not bought a pipe in 15 years. My last was a 2003 Boswell, a faithful friend. Now that I am back to enjoying this fine hobby again, I wanted to try something different. British. No, not a Dunhill, I just can't seem to cross that line, even more so now.
I bought a humble Hardcastle. A simple Hardcastle Featherweight Select Smooth Lovat, new. Yes there are a few fills on the shank but for $60, I can live with that. First half bowl was some old Telegraph Hill, it was good, burned clean. Next was a full bowl of PS Navy Flake and it too, burned wonderfully. The pipe is super light, nice feeling comfy bit, a joy to smoke.
I just finished a full bowl of 2015, I already love this little pipe. I found an unsmoked pair from the Jack O London era. Pictures when the arrive, if you are interested.
Don

 

[jpmcwjr]

Yes, photos, always!
Once your photos are on a photo hosting site (such as Imgur.com; Postimage; Dropbox, etc. Photobucket), or on virtually any site, (including this site's album) such as eBay, Amazon, you-name-it, select the full sized image, then Control-click (Mac) or Right-click (Windows) on the image itself, then choose "copy image location" or similar words. Now paste that URL (the full web address, which should end in .jpg or .png) into the IMG box in the reply window of the thread you're posting to.
The site's album is also a good choice for displaying photos, and the same method works for obtaining the image's URL for copying into the IMG box.

 

[mso489]

I bought a Britannia off the pipe wall at the local Tinder Box, now closed. It was one of my few "love at first sight" purchases, a smooth bent Dublin, and I somehow failed to notice that the stem was a double barrel airway, to my distress when I got it home. But it has been a fine pipe for years now. Both airways pass a pipe cleaner to the bowl, and it is a refined cool smoker for sure. As I recall, the sales person gave me some blarney about how it "might be" a Dunhill second, and by then, I knew better, but I really liked the pipe. I have a Parker cherrywood shape (briar), a compact little pipe that I also like a lot. It had some finish in the shank for a while, but I finally worked that out. The lowly English pipes, that is not Dunhills, are often good ones. The Britannia especially continues to impress me, about sixty bucks new. Now I think they can be had new for $80 to $100, or much less as estates.