Pipes

[Mike N]

I thought I might share a few interesting briars and pipe shapes in my collection. The Classic Fly Rod Forum has a thread with over 100,000 views on the topic of pipe collecting.

The small apple on the far left is marked as made on the Isle of Man. The “tulip” (some call it an “egg” for obvious reasons) is a nice Danish pipe, but I don’t recognize the mark. The other two on the right were both made in Denmark by Nording. The tin of Officer’s Club tobacco is a great aromatic from the East India Trading Company, and the 2 oz.can of Steamworks is a small batch limited edition issued last week by Cornell & Diehl. It is a blend of Old Belt Red Virginia twice steamed, along with St. James Perique, 2005 Black Sea Stokhouse and some Orientals. I got two tins at The Country Squire within an hour of its release and plan on cellaring both cans for now.

[Mike N]

I sanded down an old pipe today and restained it first with a yellow but then added 2 coats of black and three coats of carnauba wax. Pipes are traditionally stained with leather dye, believe it or not.



By the way, in the photo below that’s the sanded pipe at the top left, not my head… although they look similar.

[Mike N]

A few new arrivals from Italy:

[Mike N]

A couple of ORCA members who smoke a pipe have emailed me about this thread, but until I picked up the two Peder Jeppesen (Neerup’’s) “Salmon Silver” pipes shown below, there hasn’t been much else germane to report. The Danes are great pipe designers, and love their salmon. Note the “spinning reel” on the pipe stem near the shank. It’s really a fly reel, and that is a typo in the website description. This style of pipe is known as a “tomato.”

[Mike N]

I found and purchased a third pipe from the “Silver Salmon” series on a site based in Denmark. It’s a style called a “Bent Brady.” I also was able to pick up three Jeppesen pipe wallets to take these pipes to the stream with me. Note the silver fly reel on the shank.

[Mike N]

Here is a current look at part of my pipe collection, which are mostly Italian makers. The quality of the craftsmanship of the hundreds of various makers and of the wood briar keep it interesting.

[john elder]

Beautiful collection, Mike! I can almost smell the unburnt tobacco!

[RonG]

Hey Mike, It'd be nice to see you strike a pose with one of these beauties.

[Mike N]

Hey Mike, It'd be nice to see you strike a pose with one of these beauties.

Sorry Ron, you’ll have to settle for these. I don’t want my dashing good looks to distract from the briar.

[Mike N]

I favor Italian pipe makers. Below are my Ser Jacopo pipes, which are near the top of the pipe food chain, but behind Castello and Dunhill in collector interest.






And here are my two Castello’s. These are mid-grade for that maker, but you can fell the difference a Castello makes from the very first draw. It’s like casting a Talbot.

[Mike N]

I’m a member of the North American Pipe Collectors Club which holds it annual show in Columbus, Ohio, in August. There are also large annual pipe shows in Richmond VA, Las Vegas, Tennessee and Chicago every year. The Las Vegas show is very happy to sell 100 tables, which is dwarfed by an NFLCC or FATC show. Nonetheless pipes have such a large presence on YouTube and Instagram. The industry is huge, especially artisan pipe makers.

Pipe shows have table trading, room hopping, and many similarities to vintage tackle shows. They even had a show at Pheasant Run resort, like the NFLCC. There are still some retailers that mail pipe catalogs. There are still pipe clubs in several cities, although the heyday of brick and mortar pipe shops was in the 1960s.

When I attend the Canton/Akron NFLCC show next week I am making plans to visit The Pipe Rack, a pipe shop there that’s been going strong since 1968. It coincidentally also sells fishing tackle.

Link: https://www.thepiperackohio.com/

[Mike N]

Well, the three Jeppesen salmon pipes have all arrived along with two Neerup leather carrying cases. Two of the pipes came from a distributor in South Carolina and the third came from the Danish Pipe Shop in Denmark. I’ve smoked a good bowl of tobacco in 2 of the 3 and they were great. The two small antique trout match holders in the last photo are from my personal collection

[Mike N]

The pipe from the Danish Pipe Shop in Copenhagen came with a candy licorice pipe. The Danes have a thing for licorice. I’ve liked licorice since the Little League concession stand in the late 1960s when it came in red strings and in Good and Plenty candy.