Changeup Day. Breaking the pattern. All smallish-medium bowls that'll give me an hour if I want. On the left is my Ropp J16, dedicated to Mad Fiddler. Looking forward to a great morning smoke.
In the middle is my meer miniature, which is fully broken in. Afternoon aromatic as a changeup. Soft meer, cheapest pipe I've ever bought. 16 bucks on Evilbay. Smokes great. It's cherry biased, and I'll be stuffing it with Borkum and Riff Cherry Cavendish, about the only cherry on the market imho with balls. Others can be improved by adding some perique or balkan, which I have done and will continue to do.
Ending the day with a favourite pi[pe, my ashwood McQueen Russet. Perfectly broken in - have to be very careful with ashwood. Beautiful but fragile - will scorch and have to be pitched if you do so in break in. Found out by ruining two in the past. The three I now have are carefully broken in and smoke great. I really can't tell the difference between it and briar, and I know others have said the same thing. However, I've been accused of having no discriminating tastebuds, and my accusers could well be right.
This beautiful pipe will be stuffed with Tobacco Barn "Rockwell", a worthy stand in to my favoured Black Frigate, but I have even less of this Navy than I do of BF so both are being rationed. Auditioning another couple of Navies available from the cheapest Canadian Sources. McBaren's Navy Flake is the front runner. Looking forward to its arrival soon. Really andticipating a Navy this evening. That's a real change of pace for me. Buddy Mike is arriving to set up my new overhead screen so we can watch some opera or off the wall sci-fi or monster movies, all of which I have a slight addiction to. Cheers.