Pipes From Hell

Brothers of Briar

Help Support Brothers of Briar:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Fill it with Walnut, don't lite it, just let it sit overnight. Then empty it and sternly and in no uncertain terms tell the pipe that it will be refilled and lit if it's attitude doesn't change.

Natch
 
Two-thirds of the way through a bowl of old Escudo in one of the Veronas. Can't say that it tastes good (can't say that Escudo ever tasted good in any pipe -- must be body chemistry or something), but that isn't the point. The Escudo flavor's intense enough that it's largely overriding whatever's in the pipe. Am hoping it just needs that kind of whack upside the head to straighten it out. Everything else previous in it's been over-ridden by it. Ergo extreme measures are in order.

It's a cheapass pipe that has a cracked lucite shank cap with a gumband around it (to squeeze it tight enough that the stem stays in). No better reason for smoking it than that I just like it & am determined to smoke it.

Textbook example of "Everybody seems normal until you get to know them."

:face:

 
Yakst:

After establishing that Latweed likes the Caminetto Bulldog (and vice versa), I've moved on to Turkweed.

In this case, it's C&D's #166 Turkish, which is described as "a mixture of Turkish varietals". This particular stuff is about 8 years old, not that it matters. It tastes the same as it did 8 years ago—salt & pepper spice, with a strong foundation of full, rich tobacco flavor. Up near the top of the bowl, it's every bit as zingy on the tongue as it has ever been, but no more so for having been smoked in this pipe, and certainly not unpleasantly so. Typically, the smoke mellows as the burn progresses, and there's no exception here; the zingy sensation is gone after the first third of the bowl.

I have two or three other Turkweeds in the cellar, one of which (a Turkish ribbon) I'm not inclined to smoke straight. As I recall, its NicoBuzz potential is somewhere in the red zone. :shock: I think I'll pass on that one.

I have another C&D blender called "Mild Turkish", but I'm not sure it's the same one that currently shows on C&D's Blending Tobaccos page, which is called "#165 – 1/2 Turkish, 1/2 mild Cavendish". There's no "#165" on the stuff I have, and my tasting notes give no clues as to whether it contains any Cavendish. They do indicate, however, that it's a tobacco that has a mostly nondescript flavor—one that's best used for adding body to a blend. I'll burn a bowl of that stuff next.

Meanwhile, this bowl of #166 is behaving itself splendidly. Mind you, I don't normally smoke pure Turkish; this is just for the purpose of determining whether the pipe goes ornery with it. (It doesn't.) This is a tasty smoke, with a nice flavor of roasted nuts, and a bit of natural sweetness. The room note is gloriously fragrant. The pipe is only slightly warm. Down into the bottom third of the bowl, the sweetness—while still on the light side—has ramped up a bit.
________________

As usual, the pipe got pretty warm near the bottom, so I set it down to keep from burning the wood. After it cooled, I finished it off to make certain the burn deposited cakeage all the way to the bottom. There was no harshness or hotness in the smoke on the relight—a thoroughly enjoyable smoke, top to bottom.

Verdict: No problem with this blend of Orientals. I wouldn't hesitate to smoke any seriously Turkified blend in this pipe. So far, Latweed and Turkweed are winners. The field of possibilities is widening.

:joker:
 
Hmmm. Knowing the pipes owner and listening to Dr. Vitonious Monk's observations on the pipe's groovology, I'm thinking you need to fill that bad boy with Robusto 8)
 
Puff Daddy":90mpkmgb said:
...I'm thinking you need to fill that bad boy with Robusto 8)
Hah!

Great minds think alike, PD. That's exactly where I'm headed with this. :twisted:

:joker:
 
Interesting and revelatory both. But seeing as you've had the only two non-traumatic smokes it's ever (to my personal knowledge) delivered, I'm thinking it must like either you or California (or both). Omens, IMO. And since the half-pounder of Robusto (2007) here won't be opened for another seven years yet (intrigued by GLP's conjectural equation of it with BSVa10, given adequate age), there's yet another suggestive indication that, like when a non-attached puppy or a kitten singles you out for attention/affection, it's destiny.

:face:
 
But what about all the good Robusto smokes you be missin' in between? And what if thy aged half-pounder doesn't show up as a dead ringer for BSVa10? Will the momeraths outgraben sie? And what of the quest for Bulldogulo-Weedic knowledge? Shall it be forsaken?

Hell no.

Toward that end, I am here to report that C&D Mild Turkish gave a smoke so mild as to make the cows come home early. I suppose it IS "mild", in the sense that it's a dog with no bite—I mean none, nada, zero, zip—but it's got plenty of nico-punch. Flavorwise, it's as non-descript as my notes say it is, but there's a ton of it. If I had to tie it down to something, I'd say it's "cigar-like, but without the ammonia". And there's LOTS of it...flavor, I mean. It's just meat-and-potatoes tobacco flavor—no hints of this or nuances of that. Just tobacco...like Paladin's cigars must have been.

Which points even more clearly toward Robusto. But not quite yet. I want to see whether this pipe will beg for some Ginnyweed—a Bulldog horny for a bowl of FVF. At this point it's only fluttering its eyelashes at the idea. All things in their own good time...

Methinks it's time for a trip down Burleyweed Lane. :twisted:

:joker:
 
Esteemed Mentor in All Matters Weedular and Pipeulous --

You think women have never staged accidents that result in them receiving attention from handsome +/or wealthy guy bystanders ?

Pipes being female (as they are), I'm suspecting that something along those lines might be going on here. With me, it's been teeth, claws and snarling. Every friggin' time. With you, it's the proverbial pussycat.

Hmmmmm . . . :headscratch:

:face:



 
You didn't woo it properly Yak :lol: You were supposed to talk purty to it, shower it with complements, compose an ode to it, then lay it on a pile of $20's for a while before smoking it. C'mon, you know this is done! ;)

An aside commentary from Dr. Vito's scientificatory workins:

I think Vito's alluding to something worth contemplating here my friend. Find a decent smoke that the pipe and you both like and then roll with it. Seven years is worth waiting for a 1/2 pound tin to mature for scientific and prosaic purposes, but it's too long to unduly deprive yourself of some good smoking. Robusto is a fine thing fresh from the tin, one of the few Peaseweeds that you can buy fresh and expect a great smoke from immediately. [that isn't to say that you can't from the others, but the standard ideology on Peaseweed is that it's simply smarter to rest it a couple of years because the benefits are dramatically substantial. With Robusto and Barbary Coast, there really isn't any need, fire up.] If the end result is that it does in fact shy away from ginnyweed, that's as good a reason as any to smoke something else in it now and enjoy the tobacco and pipe for what it is, not for what it might possibly become.

That, or we can work a Jedi mind trick on you and turn you to the Lakeland darkside. :twisted:
 
I naturally had to try it when it first came out. With only a couple weeks' time in the tin, the components were so assertive (in sequence) that by the time I reached the midpoint where they started (conjectural) to meld together, my tongue was so fatigued from high-octane hits of each component (as it dominated at that particular moment) that it was too worn out to work properly.

I wanted to turn around and say, "You kids settle down back there !"

Kind of reminded me of Accountant's Mixture and Black Mallory, back in the day, except they'd been tinned long enough en route from Scotland that they were just industrial grade flavorsomefull.

Still, you've got me thinking about it now . . . and that's a slippery slope :cry:

:face:
 
Puff Daddy":uwpz3iq9 said:
...we can work a Jedi mind trick on you and turn you to the Lakeland darkside. :twisted:
Hmmm...I dunno 'bout that, PD. I thought that Jedi stuff only worked on the weak-minded. This is Yak we're talkin' to here. ;)

Yak":uwpz3iq9 said:
Pipes being female (as they are)...
Jeez, Yak—I hadn't considered that. But maybe you're right. After all, it's "la pipe" en Français, n'est-ce pas? They should know…er, I guess.

Nevertheless, I figure there's about as much chance of this pipe manifesting a volitional preference for yours truly as there is of the Jedi mind trick persuading you to smoke, say, Bosun Cut Plug. (heh)

:joker:
 
Well, I'm judging the tree by its fruits here . . . kind of.

Of course, I'm sure any number of winnin have had crushes on you that weren't reciprocated.

Maybe it's one of those.

:face:
 
I figured if we kept lauding it's merits (certain Lakeland delicacies) he'd succumb through the power of suggestion and the desire to want to like it. Sometimes ya gotta talk yourself into allowing yourself to like something.

Yak liking Coniston Cut plug unscented: Jedi mind trick.

Yak liking Grousemoor: God himself would say "Nah, can't be done" :lol:
 
Yak":soc8m1sq said:
...I'm sure any number of wimmin have had crushes on you that weren't reciprocated...
That's true enough, Yak-o-mine, but you know what Proverbs has to say about the strange woman...

Anyhow, I can't say there's no reciprocation here, but I suspect it's the other way around. It started with my not believing the worst of the pipe, and giving it a chance to prove itself. It's got nothing to do with matters of the heart; rather, it's the philosophical basis of genuine science—no prejudices.

I know that of which I speak only too well, having been the victim of my own prejudices more often than I'm proud to admit. But the benefit of having made such blunders is that I'm perhaps a bit less likely to repeat them.

In any case, I see this as a case of treating the pipe more as a potential friend, wherein the applicable maxim is, "In order to have a friend, you must be a friend." All I did was take a good look at the pipe (which, by the way, seems more like a kindly old-time doctor...white mustache, and all), and ask myself, "What would I wanna smoke if I were this pipe?" The answer came back, "Latweed!"

That was a start. I gave it some friendly weed, and the pipe reciprocated with a friendly smoke. Now, I'm just letting the pipe "tell" me what it likes. I hear and I obey.

...er, well, I guess in that respect, the pipe does bear a resemblance to certain other genders that need not be mentioned.

:joker:
 
Puff Daddy":9t18hey7 said:
...Yak liking Coniston Cut plug unscented: Jedi mind trick.
...or maybe a case of, "The scales are lifted from his eyes."

Hey...it could happen. :shock:

:joker:
 
Well, guess what—de debbil done showed up!

I was going to try a pure Burleyweed next, but I spotted my smoking stash jar of PS41, so I figured, "What the hell..."

Hell is indeed the operative word. I'm not sure what the proportions of Burley and Virginia are in PS41, but it's obvious that there's a fair amount of Red Virginia in there. Here's what happened.

On light-up, I got the oleum taste—a creosote-like, burnt organics and sulfur kind of taste, accompanied by a noticeable sensation of Stinging Needles of Hot Tongue Death<img class="emojione" alt="™️" title=":tm:" title=":tm:" src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/emojione/assets/png/2122.png?v=2.2.7"/>. I was careful to use a couple of charring lights — light, tamp, light, tamp — and then the full-blown, full-bore light-up. That's when it hit. I immediately set the pipe down.

Why? Because DGT is the first line of defense against the Dark Art of Zorch-o-Tongue syndrome. I let the pipe go out and cool completely. Relight. Better this time, but still not what I would call pleasant. Set the pipe down again. I went through that drill at least a half-dozen times. Each time the smoke was better than the last, and I could smoke it longer before tongue fire set in...at which time I immediately set the pipe down.

By mid-bowl, I was able to light up and keep smoking, but only with the gentlest sips. Puffing like a futhermucker (as Yak sez) does not work — at least not with PS41 — in this pipe. After that, it was a delightful smoke, with PS41's lovely room note perfuming the air.

Now, this is a Burley-Virginia blend. I don't think the Burley has anything to do with the tongue fire. I have never experienced such a sensation from any straight Burleyweed in any pipe. On the other hand, I have often experienced precisely that same sensation with any number of Ginnyweedages in more than a few pipes. So, it's looking like Ginnyweed is the culprit here.

I hasten to add that I am not concluding that this pipe will forever be the devil incarnate when Virginia tobacco is burned therein. It did calm down, and smoked just fine all the way to the bottom after that little fol-de-rol at the beginning. But it's not ready for a blend that's mostly Ginnyweed — let alone pure Ginnyweed — not yet, anyway. More disciplinary action is required. :twisted:

:joker:
 
I have a Savinelli Autograph 4 that is curse. I use it for a Virginia pipe, and everything is hot and nasty out of this pipe. I've sent it to WBW to have it ozoned. That did not help. I preheated it to 200* and loaded it with active carbon, and held it a that temp for 3hrs. While this has remove ghosts in the past, it did nothing for this pipe. It's airways are opened. Since it likes to burn hot n' nasty, I'm thinking of tossing it in the bbq one of these nights!
 
fishnrust":ruic1801 said:
...I use it for a Virginia pipe, and everything is hot and nasty out of this pipe...
fishnrust:

I have made the same classic mistake, which is how I learned to recognize it. Smoker makes arbitrary decision—"This shall be a Virginia pipe!"—despite pipe's persistent message, "No I'm not!"

I would respectfully suggest that you might do well to generalize from the previous content of this thread. If all you've ever smoked in the pipe is Virginia, you can hardly say that everything is hot and nasty when burned therein.

I see that you list Penzance among your favored tobaccos. You might try burning some of that in your Savinelli. Pack it loosely, and smoke it sloooowwwly. You might find that after a couple of bowls of that, the pipe behaves very differently.

:joker:
 
Quick update.

Yak's Caminetto Bulldog took quite a shine to Robusto. No tongue fire whatsoever. :cheers:

:joker:
 
Top