Seven Centuries

Several months ago, when I was writing the piece on Jeff Gracik that appears in the current issue of Pipes and Tobaccos Magazine, Chuck Stanion asked if I had taken any photographs that might be appropriate for Parting Shots – the verso half of the last spread in the magazine that appears right inside the cover. I looked through my image library and concluded I had nothing that I thought was good enough, so I started thinking about the kind of image I might want to create.

When I was thinking about the image I might make, the news was full of the tragic devastation wrought upon Japan by the March 11th tsunami. Not a day would go by that the nuclear plant situation spiraled further out of control while Japanese disaster workers and nuclear engineers made heroic personal sacrifices to try and bring the reactors under control.

On my office wall opposite my desk hangs part of my mask collection. In that collection are two Japanese masks from Noh theatre: a Hannya demon mask, and an antique Waka-onna mask that belonged to my best friend’s late mother. She was a prominent voice and opera coach who worked in Japan during some summers. Her Japanese students presented the mask to her as a gift. When she passed away, my friend - her son - gave the mask to me for my collection.

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The inimitable, incredible Ilsted

A very disturbing event occurred while I was at the Chicago show last month. Poul Ilsted collapsed in the tent and was evacuated by ambulance to the hospital.

A recovering Poul on Sunday at the 2011 Chicago ShowI had already left the tent when it happened, having repaired to Robert Lawing’s room for a smoke and some Pappy Van Winkle. So I didn’t hear of it until the next morning. For reasons I understand, nobody with facts – even his close friend, Manduela – would say much about Poul’s condition. As you might imagine, rumors flew around like snowballs after a blizzard. Most people intimated he’d had some cardiac event, though that was not the case as things turned out.

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Finding your favorite shape.

When one considers the diversity of pipe shapes available to the pipe smoker, it’s a bit overwhelming. There are well over a hundred classic pipe shapes, alone. And there are seemingly endless variations on and interpretations of classic shapes that, in some cases, have supplanted the original versions; they are so popular.

Consider the simple billiard. There are chubby billiards, long-stemmed billiards, nosewarmer billiards, classic LB billiards, eighth-bent billiards, quarter-bent billiards, full-bent billiards, long-shanked billiards, bamboo versions of many of the above, saddle-stemmed billiards, tapered stem billiards, stacked billiards, bamboo-stacked billiards, Bing billiards, group 2 billiards, magnum billiards, and on and on and on.

Then, there are the signature shapes, finishes, bowl shapes, varying stem materials, decorative treatments, shank rings, etc., that various makers use to put their personal aesthetic stamp on the shape.

Even factories design and produce idiosyncratically singular versions of a shape. A Comoy zulu differs from its Dunhill, GBD, BBB, Peterson, and Kaywoodie cousins in shank length, bowl cant, stem taper, size, bowl flare, and chamber dimensions. These are all differences that make a difference.

It makes the head swim. So, given the profusion of shape choices and variation available, how do we find what suits us best? How do we choose? How do we find that shape that delights us?

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The Nosewarmer Phenomenon

What makes nosewarmers so compelling to so many pipe collectors and smokers? Over the last three to four years, the popularity of nosewarmers has sustained, though the “brucianoso” phenomenon appears less trendy than it once was.

Stacked Belge by Chris AskwithWhat is, and is not, a nosewarmer? The most distinctive nosewarmer trait is its size. Nosewarmers are short pipes. Though there is no hard and fast length convention, most collectors agree that a nosewarmer is four and a half inches or less long. The distance from button to bowl is compressed, usually significantly. However, the abbreviated overall length of a pipe alone is insufficient to classify it as a nosewarmer. There is a difference between a small pipe and a nosewarmer.

The proportions of a nosewarmer are distorted. The diameter of the shank, the bowl diameter, and bowl capacity are similar, if not larger, than a standard size pipe. The dimensions are compressed on the longitudinal axis of the pipe. The effect of this compression results in somewhat cartoonish and caricaturistic proportions. One hears such words as “stubby, chubby, and hefty” applied to nosewarmers.

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Love at first smoke.

It takes a big briar supply to get started. These blocks were quckly all gone.I’ve been regularly smoking my Jack Howell 283 since I received it. I just love it. There is something very special about these classic shapes. Personally, I place hand-feel pretty high on my list of considerations when I buy a pipe. A pipe can be stunningly beautiful, but if I’m not comfortable with it in my teeth or in my hands, it doesn’t get smoked much.

To ensure shape continuity, a template was created.Each block is precisely cut to capture the 283 dimensions and proportions.I’ve sent individual reminders out to the Passion for Pipes membership, and I want to let all you readers know that the order deadline approaches. There are only five more days left to make your order for the Passion for Pipes Pipe of the Year. The order date cutoff is May 30th. No more orders will be accepted after that date.

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