Get 'em while they're hot!

I’m thrilled to announce that the 2013 Passion for Pipes Pipe of the Year is based on Comoy’s classic, compact bent Rhodesian: the 284. As Jack Howell said when he finished the prototype, “I took one look at it and said, it’s just like the 283, only better. I really just wanted to keep this pipe and smoke it myself.”

That was my take when I plucked the pipe from its bubble-wrapped enclosure: “I want to smoke this pipe right now.”

Carpe Pipem

Rear and Button ViewIf you have ever tried to purchase a classic, chubby-shanked Rhodesian on eBay or at a pipe show, you know just how difficult it can be. As classic shapes go, they are among the hardest to find. And when you do find one, the condition, grain, or engineering almost always leave something to be desired. While it’s possible to reburbish, there are some problems that can’t be fixed without making the pipe no longer original: over-reamed chambers, scorched and banged up rims, buffed off buttons. We’ve all been there.

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Lessons from a Park Bench

It was a beautiful Sunday morning here – as bright and crisp as anyone could wish for on a December morning. I decided to don my sheepskin coat, wool scarf, and fedora to take a walk in the park across the street. I took my small two-pipe and pouch carrier in my pocket, hoping to find a bench in the sun where I could sit down and enjoy a pipe.

There is a bench not far beyond the Arlington Boulevard overpass overlooking a creek there. I had my sights on sitting there as I figured I’d get plenty of sun since it’s out in the open and away from the trees.

As the bench came into view, my heart sank. Someone was sitting there already. I avoid smoking around anyone else, mainly because I hate the predictable dirty looks or lecturing that may come my way when I do.

As I walked closer up the path imagine my surprise when I discovered that the person perched on the bench was smoking a pipe! I couldn’t believe it. This never happens to me.

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Steve Liskey: "Bamboo First"

Two bamboo pipes commissioned from Steve Liskey“Why would anyone want to put bamboo with briar?”

I’ve heard these words more than once – sometimes from prominent collectors. I’ve even heard them in my mind’s ear as I wondered the same thing, myself.

Ever since Sixten Ivarsson married briar to bamboo during World -War-Two while trying to make use of in-short-supply briar blocks, many have posed the same question: “Why bamboo?”

I’m not sure when I had a change of heart. I do know that bamboos are now among my favorite pipes to smoke and admire.

Bamboo – a material I used to consider tawdry and cheap – is now as character-filled and fascinating to me as briar. The range of colors, textures, and characters one can encounter in the approximately 1,450 species of bamboo is astonishing. Bamboo can be as quiet, distinguished, and elegant as ivory or ebony. It can also be as gnarly, gritty, and funky as a Newark railroad bridge. While I love both extremes, I find myself increasingly drawn to bamboo with distinctively gritty and gnarly character. I enjoy the contrast that exists when dissimilar materials exist in counterpoint.

To create a seamless shank extension using bamboo is not easy nor without its painstaking moments as any artisan who uses bamboo will tell you. This is why one sees some beautifully grained or exquisitely sandblasted briar in bamboo pipes. Mediocre blocks are not worth the trouble.

Bamboo Apple by Michael LindnerPerhaps because bamboo was initially used as a way to extend a pipe shank, bamboo can often look like a crude interloper in an otherwise elegant composition. Used poorly, there is no relationship between the bowl height or width, the foreshortened shank length, and the distance between knuckles. Used artfully, the distance between the bowl shank transition and the first knuckle will mirror one another, setting up a visual rhythm that is often terminated with a final vulcanite knuckle. The best saddle stems continue the visual repetition by being as long as the distance between knuckles. In summary, in the best bamboo pipes, the bamboo dictates the overall composition, or it is a reflection of the existing proportions of the stummel.

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No Nonsense.

I recently received the above-depicted bamboo 283 shape from Jack Howell – a pipe I asked Jack to make for me some fifteen months ago when he was working on last year’s Passion for Pipes 283 project. I fell in love with the chubby Rhodesian shape, and being a devotée of bamboo pipes, I could easily imagine that I would appreciate a bamboo version. I was correct; I love it.

It should come as no surprise to anyone that the best possible products in any category - pipes included - result from long-term, trusting relationships where the buyer and the seller come to really know each others’ skills, tastes, and preferences. The esteemed loyalty guru, Fred Reichheld, asserts that superior value creation happens when long-term customers and long-term employees conspire together.

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An artisanal case for artisanal pipes.

Updated on Saturday, March 3, 2012 at 9:00AM by Neill Archer Roan

As AutoCAD illustration of the 283 case in closed position.many pipes as I’ve collected over the years, until late last summer, I’ve never owned a 7-day set. While I suppose I could have created a set according to some organizing principle, I am a bit of a purist in how I think about 7-day sets.

To me, they were created toward the end of being together. They belong together. They should stay together.

7-Day set of 283 Jack Howell pipes with the original Comoy 283 (top left)It Artisan Jack Howellis especially meaningful to me that my first, and perhaps only, 7-day set is comprised of pipes made for the Passion for Pipes 283 project by Jack Howell. I love this smallish, chubby Rhodesian shape. Aesthetically, it brings a smile to my face. As a smoker, I find it perfect in capacity, proportions, weight, balance, draw, and flavor.

These pipes also remind me of those fifty or so pipe friends who also bought the pipe and who share my enthusiasm for its wonderful smoking properties. Finally, the pipes were made by Jack Howell, an artisan who I respect and admire for more reasons that I can enumerate here. He is not only a terrific pipe maker, he is a good man and a good friend.

Because I believe that a 7-day set is completed by a case that keeps the pipes together, I commissioned my case from my designer-friend, Scott Stultz. Like Jack – who is not only a pipe maker, but a bamboo fly rod maker, a rebuilder of vintage lathes, and a classical musician – Scott is a Renaissance man: a kitchen and furniture designer, an artist, and a fine writer, too.

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