Today s work consists of a special edition as its the 100 th edition!
I d like to start off featuring a pipe that was given to me as a gift by new pipe maker Skip Elliott, the owner of The Briary in Alabama. It s a beautiful bent ball, a shape I also make and enjoy smoking. The pipe smokes very well after two bowls and, as you can see, is technically very well done. I don t know if he selling pipes yet as he s very particular about his work but you may want to look into contacting him. Here s Skips pipe:
After receiving the pipe from Skip I decided to make a series of bent balls myself. One is already sold ( the dark coral). The others are available on the web catalog.
UB 261 CABERNET SIZE 4
UB 262 BENGAL SIZE 4
The last ball is my favorite, a virgin coral carve with no finish except some carnuba wax. This is available as:
CC 184
Another pipe that seems to go with this is a straight grain natural blast billiard made for a good customer:
For what ever reason a natural carved or blasted finish seems to be my personal favorite . I went looking thru my pipes and picked out pipes in this finish that I really enjoy. The first was made for my by my good friend Paul Bonaquisti, commemorating a special event in my life. I rarely get this way about a pipe as I am foremost a smoker; but this is just too beautiful to smoke ! One day in a couple years I will smoke this when we get together but for now I prefer just to admire it.
The next few pictures are ones I do smoke. The first is a very large DH 120 shape that was a reject. Curt blasted thru the shank and hit the airhole. In order to see what he s doing while blasting he singes the briar with flame. He stopped blasting when he hit the airhole so some of the singed spots remain. Also this pipe was the victim of some splattering stain. It is now SO UGLY , that when other fisherman see me coming with it in my mouth they immediately head elsewhere. So it has other uses and it is a good smoking pipe.
Christmas 96
I made this pipe but it was carved by Paul, one
of his earliest carves
The next groupings are some of my favorites. As with all pipes, most have stories. The Castello I bought from Rob Siegel ( of Marble Arch) when he was still a retail tobacconist in the Green Acres Shopping Plaza in Long Island in the early 80 s . Rob and his brother Pete were the first ones to bring in Castellos and other Italian brands that weren t marketed thru their American distributor and opened up the whole Italian pipe market.The pipe is as sweet as can be!
The Morretti I just got from Tarek and while not an expensive pipe is a good smoker. Another Bon from Paul which is good for a short smoke.
The last 4 are pipes I made . I just purchased another 97 smooth Christmas pipe off ebay.A medium size pipe that seems to smoke forever. The 1/4 bent BD is a coral finish. The 98 Christmas is very lite and comfortable and is smoked every week. The Canadian has a story behind it.The pipe started life as a smooth natural. I sold it back in 87 and received it back as the customer cracked the shank within a week of purchase and didn t want a band. I replaced the pipe, shortened the shank and smoked it myself. However, it smoked HOT ! The walls are a tad on the thin side and I tried for years to smoke it with it s use tapering off as it was so uncomfortable due to excessive heat.
Sometime after getting on ASP there was a discussion on sandblast s smoking cooler than smooths . I was skeptical of this but realized I had the perfect pipe to try it out on. I sent the pipe out to be blasted. After smoking it after the blasting, I was amazed! It smoked as cool as Katy Winters armpits after an application of Ice Blue Secret. The pipe has smoke wonderfully ever since, mainly as an after dinner pipe. There are certainly merits to the arguement that blasts smoke cooler.
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