Hi Ladies and gents,
I found the BoB forum while searching for another source and browsed around a bit and learning a lot in the process. Before that, I'd just joined the PipesMagazine.com forum. I smoked a pipe for nearly fifteen years then gave it up for the next thirty! But, I'm back in the saddle, again. By way of introduction, I'll steal from what I wrote on the Pipes Mag forum:
I'm a new member and pleased to be joining you here. I grew up (roundly debatable) in San Diego, California but have been living in Israel for about 40 years and in Jerusalem - "The Big Holy", in contrast to "Apple" - for 35 of them. I began smoking a pipe at 17 when my folks gifted me a pipe on a trip to Victoria Island, B.C. That was back in '64. The pipe, which appears to have gone missing when I was in the Navy, was not too expensive and might have been a Dunhill Shell Briar, but I don't remember much more than that.
I left off the pleasures of pipe smoking about 30 years ago. This all changed when I found a long lost mason jar stuffed with 30 year old, unopened zip-locked bags of Georgetown Tobacco Co. blends, along with an unopened tin of Rattray's Red Rapparee (and an empty tin of Accountant's Mixture). The Georgetown blends I found were a no-longer produced Byzantium, Special "D", 1269, Shenandoah, aromatic Reveries and Night Owl. They were all still moist and somewhat cavendish'd. When I opened this sealed jar, the most amazing fragrance wafted out and immediately banished any thought of not smoking a pipe.
I just purchased an L. Viprati bent rustic POY (I think.) It's stamped but not numbered. My pipes from back in the day are a calabash meerschaum which always smoked great, a George Jension DANIA 641 bent bulldog and another George Jensen MIRA standard, an English made Falcon aluminum job, which I got to withstand the rigors of army life and my dad's 65 year old Amphora standard. I'm breaking in the Viprati, but it do smoke well… very well. Cool and the tobacco tastes great. In the meantime, I'm planning to invest in some corncob pipes.
I'm now getting acquainted with tobaccos produced by blenders new to me and having a blast (my wife and daughters, not so much) starting off with McClelland since they are available here: Arcadia, Old Dog, No. 22 Matured and some Stave-aged Virginia Ribbon - all of which I'm enjoying tremendously. I sampled some Samuel Gawith's Skiff and liked that as well. That's pretty much it.
A healthy winter and good smoking to all and
All the best,
David
I found the BoB forum while searching for another source and browsed around a bit and learning a lot in the process. Before that, I'd just joined the PipesMagazine.com forum. I smoked a pipe for nearly fifteen years then gave it up for the next thirty! But, I'm back in the saddle, again. By way of introduction, I'll steal from what I wrote on the Pipes Mag forum:
I'm a new member and pleased to be joining you here. I grew up (roundly debatable) in San Diego, California but have been living in Israel for about 40 years and in Jerusalem - "The Big Holy", in contrast to "Apple" - for 35 of them. I began smoking a pipe at 17 when my folks gifted me a pipe on a trip to Victoria Island, B.C. That was back in '64. The pipe, which appears to have gone missing when I was in the Navy, was not too expensive and might have been a Dunhill Shell Briar, but I don't remember much more than that.
I left off the pleasures of pipe smoking about 30 years ago. This all changed when I found a long lost mason jar stuffed with 30 year old, unopened zip-locked bags of Georgetown Tobacco Co. blends, along with an unopened tin of Rattray's Red Rapparee (and an empty tin of Accountant's Mixture). The Georgetown blends I found were a no-longer produced Byzantium, Special "D", 1269, Shenandoah, aromatic Reveries and Night Owl. They were all still moist and somewhat cavendish'd. When I opened this sealed jar, the most amazing fragrance wafted out and immediately banished any thought of not smoking a pipe.
I just purchased an L. Viprati bent rustic POY (I think.) It's stamped but not numbered. My pipes from back in the day are a calabash meerschaum which always smoked great, a George Jension DANIA 641 bent bulldog and another George Jensen MIRA standard, an English made Falcon aluminum job, which I got to withstand the rigors of army life and my dad's 65 year old Amphora standard. I'm breaking in the Viprati, but it do smoke well… very well. Cool and the tobacco tastes great. In the meantime, I'm planning to invest in some corncob pipes.
I'm now getting acquainted with tobaccos produced by blenders new to me and having a blast (my wife and daughters, not so much) starting off with McClelland since they are available here: Arcadia, Old Dog, No. 22 Matured and some Stave-aged Virginia Ribbon - all of which I'm enjoying tremendously. I sampled some Samuel Gawith's Skiff and liked that as well. That's pretty much it.
A healthy winter and good smoking to all and
All the best,
David
