***What Are You Smoking, February 2025?***

[JimInks]

Earlier, I smoked a bowl of KBV Pork Chops and Apple Sauce 2025 in an undated, unbranded straight lattice meerschaum military mount with a silver cap and tapered yellow acrylic stem.


I followed that up with a bowl of year 2008 Astley’s No. 109 Medium Flake in a straight black 1963 Dunhill LBS Shell 4S billiard with a tapered black vulcanite stem.


And I just finished smoking year 2014 HU Directors Cut in a very early Ascorti straight New Dear KS billiard with a carved shank and a black acrylic tapered stem. Been watching old western movies, and Dick Tracy versus Cueball, which was pretty dumb even for a b-movie.

 

[JimInks]

Passing the quarter mark of this bowl of year 2016 D&R Two Timer Gold in a straight, black sandblasted pre-1970 Comoy’s Sunrise Etched Grain straight Liverpool 309 with a tapered black vulcanite stem. Dunno if I'll end the day with this smoke, but I'm going to read for a while.

 

[Sigmund]

Makhuwa in a Damiano Rovera with morning coffee

 

[judcole]

Awake much too early. Capstan Original Flake from 2020 in a Pete tankard with ice water on the side.

 

[JimInks]

Near the last quarter of this bowl of year 2021 Watch City Queequeg’s Moby Dick Series in a slight bend smooth brown post WWII 1940s Sasieni Ivory 101 Westminster diplomat with a black vulcanite saddle stem. Fed Daisy the Feral Princess and Harry the Hairy. Dunno where the other two are. I'll end the day with this smoke.

 

[Roach1]

MB Classic Rollcake in a small DM Stanwell.

 

[JOHN72]

Before lunch. Smoking the second third of glp# Spark Plug, in a MM General bent. Accompanied by a few shots of scotch whisky. Today a rainy day, cloudy at 15º. (59 °F) You can't say it's cold, maybe a cool day. I wish you a happy Saturday. May God bless you.

 

[newbroom]

J-4 and Perique in my Benton Select 1/4 bent bulldog

 

[Zeri]

Baptism of the Hilson Fantasia with Stanwell Green & Indigo. Nice smooth smoker pipe.

 

[PaulRVA]

C&D Exclusive in a Nuttens Bing and Coffee ️ on the side.

 

[Sigmund]

Taking a break from some work. Smoking Directors Cut in a Paul Becker Dublin. Hot tea on the side. Its gray and rainy today.

 

[Mike N]

Gawith’s Cabbie’s Mixture in two Tim West long stem billiards with soft ebonite buttons.

Decades ago Tim was mentioned in Rick Newcombe‘s In Search of Pipe Dreams as one of the premier artisan carvers in America. At the Columbus show last year, Tim had a table across from mine, and I picked up these two new beautiful pipes. The price? Only $75 each, which might make them the best value of any pipes in my collection.

 

[PaulRVA]

Gawith’s Cabbie’s Mixture in two Tim West long stem billiards with soft ebonite buttons.

Decades ago Tim was mentioned in Rick Newcombe‘s In Search of Pipe Dreams as one of the premier artisan carvers in America. At the Columbus show last year, Tim had a table across from mine, and I picked up these two new beautiful pipes. The price? Only $75 each, which might make them the best value of any pipes in my collection.

View attachment 372794

Those look awesome!

 

[Roach1]

Estervals Nr.1 Flake in a Santambrogio.

 

[lika]

Condor in the falcon, apple bowl with a too early glass of cider and watching horse racing. My German Shepherd, Rosie curled up on the sofa next to me .
Mrs. Lika out shopping so no moaning about smoke .

 

[cosmicfolklore]

Making some Gouda grits with bacon and pork chops for the house. We have kids visiting us from Texas.
Some 2014 OGS in my Viprati bully. Not my favorite Virginia, but it’s light and friendly enough to start the day.

 

[tubbyninja1337]

Taking count removes plausible deniability. There are more of these sunglasses storage cases, several multi-tiered racks, leather stands, small stands, etc. Maybe once my new record cabinets are in place (no idea when that will be), I’ll set everything up on top of them and take some pics. I have more than some people and less than others.



Thank you, that’s very kind.

If we’re talking about artisan pipes, there are so many, but I don’t have examples from all of the ones I admire. I love a lot of Todd Johnson’s more inventive, less traditional pipes, and find a lot of them kinda ugly—for now, I only have one (I’d like a Phalanx Q one at some point if budget ever allows); the Todd Bannard BST pipes I have smoke wonderfully; I’d like to add more Michael Parks pipes, but at present, I only have one—the list goes on.

As far as branded marques, I love and focus on Savinelli in-depth—their history and much of their aesthetic appeals to me (that said, I think a lot of their Autograph pipes are very clunky and ugly—I lean towards the ones with more graceful curves); I collect Brebbia partially because of their history that is intertwined with Savinelli, but also because they make great pipes; I love 19th Century Ropp pipes from Bussang, France, but I also enjoy their 20th Century offerings, along with the newer pipes that are Ropp pipes in name only and made with vintage mid-20th Century stummels from the Chapuis-Comoy Saint-Claude factory (they’re not really Ropps, but kinda are, sorta like the new Barling pipes being made today); I love leather-wrapped Longchamp pipes and try to grab pipes by the parent company, F.B.C. when I come across them; I love the little Brulor pipes from the 1950s that Bruno Nuttens sells; I collect Colossus Pipe Factory pipes and by extension KB&B and Kaywoodie; Peterson, Comoy’s, GBD, Dunhill all have a presence; I find Oguz Simsek’s likenesses on his figural pipes hit or miss, but when they’re on, they’re great. Some of my favourite pipes are no name ones. In a nutshell, I collect what strikes my fancy. I enjoy the weird and unusual and the traditional. My taste in pipes is catholic (small C).

Thank you so much for the thoughtful response. I've noticed in your posts that you know a great deal about pipes and their history. As someone that's still pretty green in this hobby, do you have any recommendations for websites or books that I could look up to expand limited knowledge?

 

[telescopes]

Radice Rind With Black Maria.grabbed a coat and hat from my days right out of college.

 

[Ben.R.C]

Chenet’s cake in a Manz Also, one of my best girls, Ethel the cat.

 

[Lucro]

Enjoying Boswell’s chocolate cream in my MM Boone cob. I have an iced mocha to sip and my psycho fat cat next to me. Great start to a Saturday.