Today s work comes out of a visit by Phil Dente and his cousin Chip, from El Humidor pipe shop In Wilkes Barre, Pa. Having sold the shop an assortment of pipes over the last month he wanted to come down and check things out. They re only 30 minutes away and is the closest pipe shop to me. They re also near some nice Bass water on the Susquehenna so I ll be up there shortly if it ever stops raining and the river comes down...
Phil had a pipe in mind for himself. He brought a picture of a pipe he downloaded off Al Pascia's site A danish pipe titled Bogart Ambra 007.(www.alpascia.com/bogart7.htm) Wouldn t you know it, a bamboo! Very nice but a lot of work to make. WIth a sigh, a looked for a short fat block, found one with good grain and went to work. I don t think Phil expected me to do it right then but knew if I didn t start it I d just put it off. Well it turned out pretty well and after a lot of eaking away at the shank to match the briar and bamboo it worked. I apologized to him for the long time it took to make, as exciting as watching paint dry but he seemed to think it was interesting. Here s the pipe:
Dave Nestor, in a never ending search to help me improve my operation, stumbled across a new packaging idea which I d like to run before you. He found at a flea market a plastic case lined with foam that makes an excellent pipe carryiing case. After seeing it, my idea was to get a mylar label with the American logo to place on the top and to send pipes out in this box rather than the traditional pipe bag. It s tough and the pipe stem could even be shipped in the pipe. The foam is thick enough that the pipe doesn t rattle either. The downside is that it s plastic and hardly conjures up an image of fine wood boxes such as cigars are sold in. Beelow is a picture of the box. I d be curious as to your opinions of it. Thanx MT
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