Recent content by oldbear58

I made several crude DIY pipes from maple and poplar doweling. They smoke very well, but the bowls tend to burn through. Is there a treatment that can slow down or prevent burn-through in softer wood? Can you treat a bowl with mineral oil, olive oil or some other (safe) material to slow down...

I spent quite a lot of time searching for it on-line to no avail. I just stumbled across it by accident. Having read the book a bit I clearly recall the painting but could not remember the source. It may have appeared elsewhere; its a nice painting. Oldbear

I have been trying my hand at making perique style tobacco and the result is smoke-able and pleasant, but I would agree that, in the end it is more cost efficient to allow a master tobacco producer and blender make a great blend than to try yourself, probably spending years just to get it right...

It was in The Book of Pipes and Tobacco, by Carl Ehwa (1974).

Also posted elsewhere: I had asked on BofB about a painting I liked but could not locate.  I finally found it in The Book of Pipes and Tobacco, "Independence": Oldbear

I found a painting I had inquired about here.  The painter was Frank B. Mayer, the painting "Independence": This is my idealized self image while smoking.

Hmmm, The smoking temperature of burning glass might make for a hot tongue...

Ya, I was afraid I was "discovering" something everybody else already does. I have a small mixing bowl that I use to blend with and that catches anything left over from packing a pipe. One of the larger on-line companies has a shop sweepings mixture, but it contains stuff I definitely wouldn't...

I just started a "melange jar". Since I often mix or blend my favorites and there is usually a small amount left over after I pack my bowl I started keeping the "overflow" in a separate jar, to be mixed into a blend uniquely mine. It will be a mixture of VaPers, perique blends, occasional...

It may have once had a bent mouthpiece, but that is why it was on ebay for $5. I just wanted to try the experiment. I may eventually do something else, such as a regular churchwarden or even go back to its original intended shape. I will look up zulus. Oldbear

My crude, homemade poker still smokes better than most of my other pipes, it is cooler and draws well. So I tried adapting the wood stem to another pipe. I bought a bitless pipe off of ebay and cut a mouthpiece out of a soft poplar. It doesn't feel as nice in the hand as my poker, but it...

So WHY DON'T THE SELLERS SHOW THE DISASSEMBLED PIPE STEM?!!! Grouchybear

OK,"find" I meant how do you pick a filtered pipe out of the drifts of old estate pipes of various makes without major historic memorization of models, styles and manufacturing history and technique. Oldbear

I like filtered pipes and I like the shape of a square stem; so I found a Medico Apollo estate pipe at a decent price and it just arrived. Now I know what Brylon is. The bowl is a bit big, and the acrylic stem seems cheap but it smokes well and feels nice in the hand. The composition bowl...

My answer (to myself) is: Yes, it works fine. Cleaning a stem out with a pipe cleaner dipped in a booze/honey mixture works well to remove any stale tobacco taste and odor and to get the tars out a bit easier. It leaves a slight sweet taste that isn't objectionable. Oldbear