Now smoking a bowl from a freshly opened tin of F&T Blackjack in a 1980s White Pipe straight lattice apple meerschaum with an acrylic yellow cream colored saddle stem. Wish I had some of the recent Wessex Campaign Dark Flake as I have heard it was changed, too.
Just finished the Saturday ZOOM with my fellow pipers, many of whom I spent time with at the Chicago Show last week. We all agreed it was a terrific show and a good start at the new venue. I smoked my Sixten Ivarsson Stanwell 07 filled with my friend Fred Hanna's Wilderness tobacco.
Had to run an errand this evening and brought the Erica System second (Peterson) lightly packed with Smokers Pride Cherry cavendish which i am trying to use up. It smoked better than the Savinelli Erica Fiamma 128 but that may be because I have been smoking Northwest Trek and Whatever in the Savinelli and it may be a bit ghosted. I don't know what the Erica would have been but it looks like a 312 but is house pipe size with a chamber of 20mm x 42mm. The flaw was a fill inside the bowl just at the rim above tobacco level and the left side of the shank is a bit flat where it would have been stamped as it appears they hit some debris when stamping and had to scored it and flatten it and smooth it out. But that area really shows the veins in the grain. Smokes perfectly like a far more expensive pipe. I think it would have been a Deluxe in that mahogany brown. The pipe made the mundane errand quite enjoyable.
GH Scotch Mixture -- black Cavendish, burley, Latakia, and Virginia -- in a Johs blast bent diplomat with a polished briar band. This bulk blend has improved with time, still has edge, but also a sturdy snappy flavor, with an edge here and there. Has a nice even burn.