PipeTrader Blog Community

Salt Method of Pipe Cleaning

Tobacco Barn Crew — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 01:43:08 GMT

This method was recently shared by Tom T. over at Pondering from Piper's Paradise and I thought I'd help share the knowledge. If you aren't familiar with PFPP, you owe it to yourself to check out their blog. While it has only been up and running since the first of this year, Tom has a great way with words. I'm looking forward to stopping by his shop this spring when I make a trip back to Arkansas on family business. Anyway, here's his discussion about a pipe meeting where they discussed how best to do a pipe cleaning using the Salt Method.:

The discussion of pipe cleaning techniques planned for last night's meeting of The Ozark Pipe Smokers was better than expected, thanks to Vice President Jeff, who prepared a demonstration.

All eyes lit up when Jeff pulled out a (sadly deplenished) bottle of Everclear, but it was not, I repeat, NOT passed around the room for everyone to have a taste. Maybe next time.
The Everclear, which we learned was available in Washington County liquor stores and the Jane, Mo., Walmart, is the basis for the cleaning process. Jeff recommended the use of pipe cleaners, starting with bristled cleaners or bristle brushes, dipped in Everclear and run through the stem. He said he inserts from the tenon at first, because it is easier to get the cleaner back out if the draft hole is too tight.
That process continues in the shank, with a special emphasis on the mortis, where the bowl and the stem meet, which can accumulate large amounts of gunk, especially if the fit between the two pieces isn't exact.
Before adding anything to the bowl, Jeff plugs the shank with an ear plug, the kind at Walgreen's with a string attached. Actually, he said, he also used the string to set the pipe on, helping it stay upright.
Jeff recommended filling the pipe about one-third with Everclear (using an eyedropper to avoid getting alcohol on the outside of the bowl) and then adding sea salt, alternating as needed, until the pipe is full of both. He said he leaves the pipes with the salt/alcohol mixture sitting for at least 24 hours, at which point, he'll scoop out the salt. On rare occasion, he's needed a second treatment, but generally at this point, he is ready to wipe out the bowl with an alcohol-dampened paper towel. He leaves the bowl and stem separated for another 24 hours while they dry.
To polish the outside of the bowl, Jeff recommended Murphy's oil soap, mixed 50/50 with water. It should be applied gently, Jeff said, because it can remove some of the stain. He preferred Halcyon II wax over Paragon or carnauba for the final polish. For lighter jobs, he said he used the Stanwell polishing cloth.
For vulcanite stems, even or especially for heavily oxidized stems, Jeff uses Flitz Metal Cleaner. The blue solution can be worked into the stem, he said, and then the effects continue as it is buffed with a dry portion of terrycloth. Without using much pressure, Jeff returned an oxidized stem to a like-new shine. He said it could take 30 minutes for some stems. He said he has not seen it remove an emblem.
"If you've got faint scratches, it'll take most of your scratch marks off," Jeff said. It does not, however, remove bite marks. He also said it works as a polish and can prevent future oxidation.
For metal bands, he recommended a Sunshine Polishing Cloth after the wood and stem had been taped over using blue painters tape.
During next month's meeting, on Feb. 12, we have chosen to discuss cellaring methods. Bring your stories and suggestions and questions and, if you want to share, your aged tobacco.

Do you have any different ways to perform a salt pipe cleaning?

One side note, were this a meerschaum pipe you were cleaning, you would NOT pour the Everclear (or high alcohol content liquid) directly into the pipe. You would pack with salt and then apply the liquid to the salt. You don't ever want to apply liquid directly into the bowl of your fine meerschaum pipe.

Countdown to Spark of Love Toy Drive at Tobacco Barn

Tobacco Barn Crew — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 20:21:20 GMT

If you haven't head about our Spark of Love Toy Drive/Christmas Party, I'll let Richard and Adam tell you a little bit about it.

Isn't that great? In addition to helping out those less fortunate during this holiday season, we'll be giving you in return a Rocky Patel cigar, hot dog (or chili dog) and a beer (or Mike's Hard Apple Cider or soda or coffee) when you attend the event.

But keep your eyes peeled on your inbox because every day between now and the party, we'll be announcing a special promotion that is only available to our faithful customers who watch these videos. We won't be advertising these specials anywhere else so please watch the video to learn how to save big on some great products from the Tobacco Barn.

If you have any comments about this event, please feel free to leave a comment below and we look forward to seeing you on Thursday, December 17th, 2009!

Trick or Treat! West Coast Pipe Show is Halloween Weekend

Tobacco Barn Crew — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 12:35:27 GMT

Looking for a real wild time this Halloween? Then why not pack up your old kit bags, a few pipes and some tobacco and head for swinging Las Vegas, Nevada for the West Coast Pipe Show on October 31 and November 1, 2009.

For a mere $10 cover charge, you’ll get access to over 100 tables of vendors hawking pipes, pipe tobacco and pipe smoking accessories at the Palace Station Hotel and Casino. This pittance of a cover charge will get you show access on both days of the show! Looking to exhibit or sell off part of your pipe collection, at last word, there were still tables for exhibitors available at $75 each.

The Palace Station is ideally located just west of I-15 at Sahara Boulevard, the Palace Station is just far enough away from the hustle and bustle of the strip but only a short cab ride away if you are looking for more kicks.

While the events for Sunday are still to be announced, the show floor will be open from 10 am until 5 pm both days. On Saturday they will have a Pipe Making Workshop, a Tobacco Blending Workshop as well as conversations with a couple of authors as well as a silent auction. With any luck, perhaps Tom and I will see you there on Sunday! We hope to

For more details about the West Coast Pipe Show, see their website at http://WestCoastPipeShow.com.

L.A. Pipe Club Meeting at Tobacco Barn Coming

Tobacco Barn Crew — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 12:14:01 GMT

The L.A. Pipe Club will be holding their December meeting at the Tobacco Barn in Lake Forest, CA in our lounge on the afternoon of Sunday, December 13th.

All pipe aficianados are welcome. Please bring your favorite pipe(s) and tobacco (or pick up some fine pipe tobacco at our shop) and spend the afternoon talking with like-minded Brothers of the Leaf!

View Location On Google Map

Great Corn Cob Pipe Article

Tobacco Barn Crew — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 13:52:13 GMT

PipesMagazine.com has a great article on corn cob pipes from the Missouri Meerschaum pipe company. In addition to some great information about the formation of this legendary company. In addition, you’ll find a great number of updated images from those found in the Life Magazine article that we talked about last December.

The Corn Cob Pipe is an American icon and known the world over. They have been around for over 100 years and are still popular today.

This is the story of the Corn Cob Pipe with the history of it’s origin, the founding of Missouri Meerschaum, it’s manufacturer, and a step by step photographic guide showing how they are manufactured.

Washington, Missouri has long been known as the Corn Cob Pipe Capital of the World. It was the Missouri Meerschaum Company, still the largest manufacturer of corn cob pipes in the world, that began the tradition for which Washington became famous.

You can find the full article here.

If you are looking for the best-selling corn cob pipes, you can find the Missouri Meerschaum Country Gentleman Corncob Pipe, Missouri Meerschaum Legend Corncob Pipe or Missouri Meerschaum Mac Corncob Pipe at the Tobacco Barn.

Great Signature Image

Tobacco Barn Crew — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 08:07:07 GMT

We received an email today from a customer with a great animated image in his signature that I thought you pipe smokers would appreciate:

It is a bit more flattering than this:

Pipe as a Fashion Accessory?

Tobacco Barn Crew — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 14:49:35 GMT

With the exposure of pipes in retro-television shows like “Mad Men” and the current increase in pipe smokers, some wise-guy on Puff.com

Mister Moo suggested:

Tux = nothing in the pockets, please - no pipe
Styled Italian sharkskin suit = Porsche Design
Smooth-finish wool or silk (50% or more) suit, including herringbone = smooth billiard
Smooth finish wool or silk (token content) = any smooth or blasted billiard
Any Tweed sportcoat = bent dublin (smooth) or any rusticated pipe
Jodpurs, cape and/or a deerstalker cap = meer/gourd calabash
Pointer, Oshkosh, Dickie or other major brand bib overalls; soccer shorts and tee shirt = cob, Kaywoodie, Grabow or anything that's a little dinged up

What do you think? Are there certain pipes that you should only/never smoke at certain times/events? Use the comments section below to let us know what YOU think….

The Hot Bit Goes In the Back

Tobacco Barn Crew — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 07:39:26 GMT

Stumbled across this hilarious clip from Top Gear (great British show about all things automotive) where the boys are skewering Porsche Design Pipes.

Funniest part I found to be when Jeremy Clarkson, being his witty self, flips the pipe around places the bowl in his mouth proclaiming that it is a 911 pipe and the “hot bit goes in the back.” Kind of backfires on him if you’ll pardon the pun.

July OC Briars Meeting at the Barn

Tobacco Barn Crew — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 21:25:46 GMT

Please join us Wednesday Evening, July 29th from 7 until 9 for the July OC Briar Meeting

The Orange County Briar Pipe Club meeting will be capped by a special discussion led by our own mixmaster Tom Cottom on pipe tobacco ingredients and blending. It’s amazing how common it is for pipers to not fully understand what their favorite blends contain!

This will be educational for both veteran pipers and those relatively new to the brotherhood. Also, don’t forget to bring your own pipes and tobacco for swapping and sharing.

This meeting, to be held in the Tobacco Barn lounge is open to all pipe afficianados; membership is not required.

So, if you can make only one pipe club meeting this year, this is the one to attend. We look forward to seeing you then!

Jim Allison and the OC Briars

Tobacco Barn Crew — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 17:56:20 GMT

Jim Allison recently shared some of his favorite pipes with the OC Briars Pipe Club at the Tobacco Barn.

A small selection of JIm’s treasures (left). This oversized Peterson pipe (right) was
commissioned by Alfred Hitchock for a movie. Anyone know which one?

Jim discussing pipes with Rene C. and Jim V. at left. At right is his Dunhill
”Space Shuttle” pipe with gold “Barley” pattern band from 1982. Created in
honor of the first US Space Shuttle and how it was moved landing in California
piggyback on a 747 to it’s launch site in Florida. And yes, you can smoke that
little pipe.

Jim shows off a great example of a complete Kaywoodie 7 day set from the 30’s.
At left is an example of some beautiful silver spigot Petersons with cumberland
stems. Can you tell the photographer has a thing for Petersen pipes?

Jim had a willing and eager audience of fellow pipe enthusiasts. He held court
while puffing away on a beautiful Petersen meerschaum pipe.

In addition to displaying his pipe collection, he also brought along some 50 year-old Condor
pipe tobacco to share with those lucky attendees.

Jim mugs it up with Chad and Mike. Note
the small, smokable Dunhill pipe on a chain
hanging around Jim’s neck.

As Jim opened up his display cases like a Fuller Brush salesman, his fellow pipe smoking friends began to drool as he exposed one treasure after another.

While he had an extremely large selection of pipes to share, one can only wonder what treasures lay awaiting discovery in the depths of Jim's collection.

Special thanks go to Tom M. for the fantastic photos. You can find more of his pipe photos here.

Meerschaum As Defined By The Devil’s Dictionary

Tobacco Barn Crew — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 21:55:05 GMT

MEERSCHAUM, n. (Literally, seafoam, and by many erroneously supposed to be made of it.) A fine white clay, which for convenience in coloring it brown is made into tobacco pipes and smoked by the workmen engaged in that industry. The purpose of coloring it has not been disclosed by the manufacturers.

There was a youth (you've heard before,
This woeful tale, may be),
Who bought a meerschaum pipe and swore
That color it would he!
He shut himself from the world away,
Nor any soul he saw.
He smoke by night, he smoked by day,
As hard as he could draw.
His dog died moaning in the wrath
Of winds that blew aloof;
The weeds were in the gravel path,
The owl was on the roof.
"He's gone afar, he'll come no more,"
The neighbors sadly say.
And so they batter in the door
To take his goods away.
Dead, pipe in mouth, the youngster lay,
Nut-brown in face and limb.
"That pipe's a lovely white," they say,
"But it has colored him!"
The moral there's small need to sing –
'Tis plain as day to you:
Don't play your game on any thing
That is a gamester too.

Martin Bulstrode

We too have seen ones become too engrossed in the pursuit of coloring their beloved meerschaum pipe to pay attention to the more important things, like protecting our right to enjoy a fine bowl of tobacco now and again as a responsible member of society and not the criminal that so many would prefer we be!

Looking for fine meerschaum pipes? Try out the Tobacco Barn’s meerschaum pipes page. Looking for find out more about meerschaum pipes? Try MeerschaumPipes.com.

More New Pipe Tobaccos

Tobacco Barn Crew — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 23:53:26 GMT

Springing from the depths of “MixMaster” Tom’s mind come three new custom blend pipe tobaccos exclusive to the Tobacco Barn.

First up you’ll find Silverado pipe tobacco. Silverado is a replacement for the recently discontinued Arcadia and as such, has big shoes (or boots) to fill. This English-style tobacco has a flavor as big movie by the same name without succumbing to the “big budget” that caused the filmmakers so much grief.

The next new release is Balkan’s Best pipe tobacco. Balkan’s Best is another English-style pipe tobacco that follows in the footsteps of our traditional Balkan tobacco blend.

Last, but certainly not least, you’ll find our newest addition to our light aromatic lineup and that is the Cherry Ridge pipe tobacco. You’ll find that this is a delightful mixture of tobaccos that are infused with a cherry flavoring for a smooth, aromatic smoking experience. This is one tobacco that those around you will be clamoring for more as the pleasant cherry wafts around you.

But don’t take our word for it. Stop by the store anytime and give any of these new taste test. And if you forget to bring your pipe with you for tasting purposes, I’m sure Tom will gladly sell you another one right then and there!

Wall Street Journal Profiles Collegiate Pipe Smoking

Tobacco Barn Crew — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 20:11:11 GMT

While I’m not too terribly keen on the subheading of their article (“Despite Risks, More Young People Light Up; 'It Looked Like the Coolest Thing Ever'”) it is a pretty good piece overall. The timing of their article coincides with International Pipe Smoking Day so hopefully you’ll all break out your pipes and smoke a bowl or two!

Early on in the article they point out that:

Friday is International Pipe-Smoking Day, when a number of puffers will unite to protest tobacco taxes and smoking bans. They will also engage in slow-smoking competitions to see who can keep a pipe going the longest. Each contestant is given just two matches. Events, which will go on all weekend, are promoted by the International Premium Cigar & Pipe Retailers Association.

The resurgence of pipe smoking with young adults is something that we have long supported here at the Tobacco Barn. Tom has become a go-to source for young pipe smokers in the area; coming to the lounge to learn how to do this activity correctly and enjoyable. Howard, a long-time customer and new employee, has also been spotted teaching young pups about their new pipes and tools and tobaccos.

"They're eager to learn," says 71-year-old Vernon E. Vig, president of the New York Pipe Club and the United Pipe Clubs of America. Mr. Vig started smoking a pipe as an undergrad at Carleton College 53 years ago. "Back then, everyone smoked a pipe," Mr. Vig says. His group, which meets monthly in Manhattan, has seen a definite increase in college students and young professionals, he says.

They also point out that the increase in pipe tobacco sales, despite continued shrinkage in cigarette sales:

But sales of pipe tobacco are rising again after years of decline, and many think young smokers are the reason. U.S. sales of pipe tobacco plummeted to 4.9 million pounds in 2006, from 52 million pounds in 1970, says Norman Sharp, president of the Cigar Association of America. Sales climbed to 5.3 million pounds in 2008. Pipe tobacco and smokeless tobacco sales are on the rise, offsetting over a decade of decreases in cigarette sales.

Let’s just hope that the latest federal tax increases on tobacco products, courtesy of the SCHIPs program, won’t dampen this increase. Now is the time for pipe smokers to stock up on their favorite pipe tobacco as prices will be going up as of April 1st. Not only will tobacconists need to recoup the cost of the tax on newly purchased bulk and tin pipe tobacco, but the provisions of the bill will be collecting an as yet unspecified “floor tax” which is a retroactive tax applied to all taxes already sitting on tobacconist’s shelves. Keep an eye out for an upcoming sales on pipe tobacco to help “clear the floors” and reduce the impact of these tax increases in the coming weeks.

Check out the full article: The Latest Thing They're Smoking in Pipes on College Campuses: Tobacco

Become a Tobacco Barn Fan on FaceBook!

Tobacco Barn Crew — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 15:35:34 GMT

Yes, now you too have the opportunity to become one of the few, the proud, the fans of the Tobacco Barn on our newly launched FaceBook page. That’s right, the Tobacco Barn now has a presence one of the fastest growing and hottest social networking sites for adults. Yes, you must be at least 18 to become a fan but fans of all ages can come to this page and check out the latest pictures, comments, discussions and events all from the comfort of your own wall FaceBook.

Our hope is that this will become a virtual extension of our non-membership lounge where people of fine character (and a few low characters too) can network and share ideas any time of the day or night.

Not a FaceBook member yet? Not to worry, you can still visit our page and view the upcoming events and many of the other features of this page. However, you’ve got nothing to lose by joining FaceBook and “fanning” us. Who knows, you might be able find the next big business deal or reconnect with lost friends through this service.

So check us out at http://www.new.facebook.com/pages/Lake-Forest-CA/Tobacco-Barn/60402654768 and become our fan!

About a Beautiful Pipe…

Tobacco Barn Crew — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 19:59:58 GMT

From time to time we get people that ask us about the pipe they’ve found or that someone has handed down to them. When we get great example pipes, I’d like to share them with you all here. In this case, I’m not sure where they got it but it is a great example of a well colored pipe:

Wow Carol, I must say, this looks to be a great pipe you've got there.

This is an example of a pipe that most likely dates from the turn of the last century. It is a smooth bulldog with gold accents. Overall, it is a fairly short pipe; what we would call a "nose-warmer" today.

The meerschaum bowl and shank appear to be exceptionally well colored. It is a little hard to tell from the pictures but I'm guessing that the color or the bowl/shank are a deep, rich brown; perhaps with a slight reddish cast to it? This is the sign of a pipe that has been lovingly smoked and taken care of over a long period of time. This particular pipe started out life as white as a sheet of writing paper and took on this color over time as the meerschaum (actually the wax/oil coating on the surface of the pipe) absorbed the color from the process of smoking this great pipe.

Since it appears to still have the original stem on it and from the markings you indicated, the stem is most likely made of amber which is rare. I can see bite marks on the mouthpiece but it doesn't appear to have been adversely worn down.

Again, working from pictures, it appears that the exterior leather finish on the customer-fitted case has been worn off and is down to the wood. Is that true?

The logo on the case indicates that it is from the William Demuth Company (http://www.pipetrader.com/Wiki/Default.aspx?page=William%20Demuth%20Company), which helps date it.

Best guess is that you could probably get in excess of $2-300 for this pipe if you were able to find the right buyer on a direct sale. You might have better luck selling this via an antique auction house as it would probably have value to an antique collector than to a pipe smoker. As with many items like this, if this was handed down to you via a relative or friend, its sentimental value would far outweigh it's value to a collector.

If you were looking to sell it, your best bet would be through PipeTrader, eBay or any number of different pipe collecting forums on the web. This is the type of item that we COULD try and sell for you on consignment and Ron can give you more details on this if you'd like. Chances are good that your local tobacconist would not have the type of traffic through the store that would truly appreciate and spend top dollar for an item such as this.

Best of luck and thanks so much for sharing these images with us!

MJG

Pipe Tobacco Cigars Have Arrived…

Tobacco Barn Crew — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 01:16:13 GMT

The Tobacco Barn is proud to announce the arrival of Tobacconist’s Choice Pipe Tobacco Cigars from Battleground Cigars. We’ve searched high and low to find the best Pipe Tobacco Cigars and decided that these great sticks are perfect.

These hand-made cigars are the brainchild of Michael Tarnowicz and are truly a family tradition. At any time you’ll find many members of the Tarnowicz clan working to turn out the best cigars from Connecticut shade and broad leaf tobaccos. But not just any Connecticut tobacco; their products are turned out from product certified to have been grown in Connecticut in the US!

We are currently carrying 3 flavors of their Pipe Tobacco Cigars: Smuggler’s Rum Sweet Vanilla and Triple Cherry. Tom and I sampled these at the IPCPR trade shown this last August and have been anxiously awaiting their arrival ever since. You’ll find those around you will enjoy you smoking these cigars as much as you do with their traditional pipe aroma.

Give them a try today and you’ll too be convinced that these aromatic cigars are perfect for those times when a pipe is just too impractical.

http://www.tobacco-barn.com/p-8283-tobacconist-choice-pipe-tobacco-cigars.aspx

Picture of rollers above courtesy of Battleground Cigars via CigarCyclopedia)

Spotted Meerschaum

Tobacco Barn Crew — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 08:19:00 GMT

We recently received an email through MeerschaumPipes.com website with a question from a pipe smoker about some problem he was having with coloring his meerschaum pipe. He wrote:

Subject=spotting on my pipe
I bought a new meerschaum and I started to smoke it and as i smoked it i noticed that spots were forming here and there. Is it because the stone is absorbing the wax or is the wax moving around. Its my first meerschaum and I don't want to ruin the look it will get.

Here is the answer that we provided back:

The spots can be caused by a number of different things.

Realize that meerschaum stone is a natural product and that impurities or differing densities of the stone may cause uneven coloring. This can be part of the fun/challenge of owning a meerschaum pipe.

Are the spots appearing where you've touched the pipe while it was hot? Normally, touching your pipe while it is hot is not an issue provided your hands are relatively clean. In other words, don't touch your bowl (warm or otherwise) after reading the newspaper or after changing the oil in your car.

Uneven coloring COULD be the result of uneven wax coating. This could be could be the result of "smudging" the wax with your hand while it is hot (not likely), by smoking your pipe too hot and driving the wax off (would normally result in a blackening of the shank/bottom of your pipe while the top part stays white) or by an inconsistent piece of stone (see first point above)

Our suggestion is to smoke it a while longer and see if the rest of the pipe catches up with the spots to the point that it no longer bothers you.

If after a reasonable amount of time (depends on how often you smoke it) the pipes appearance is still annoying you, you could remove the existing wax coating (which should remove almost all the color) and rewax it from scratch. This is NOT recommended unless you are fully willing to accept the consequences of your action. Many folks have tried this and ruined their pipe's appearance. There is probably little you can do (other than perhaps getting wax INSIDE the bowl) that would physically hurt your pipe but it may end up looking worse than when you started.

Can any of you others out there think of any other causes of spotting like this? Or potential cures to his problem? If so, speak up in the comments section below!

The Wholesome Image of the Pipe Smoking Man

Jerry "B.P." Riggs — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 15:55:20 GMT

Our two-story yellow house on Sunnyside Avenue, Lansing Michigan, where I grew up in the 1950s through the mid 60s: was our home sweet home. Its big front window looking out onto the quiet street, from our kitchen dinette table, was our reviewing stand of the parade of the few other early risers walking or driving by while we ate our bacon and eggs and cold cereal, listened to ‘Eric-O’ spin out easy-listening music over the radio, and chatted together before starting our day.

There was never a need to hurry with our breakfasts. 6 a.m. was wake up time in the Riggs household, seven days a week. Dad saw to that. Of the six of us in our family, he was the only real morning person. But it just takes the one. That notwithstanding, the benefit was sitting together at table, fully dressed and enjoying a leisurely morning meal without having to gobble something in a hurry on the way out the door.

Our milkman, Jerry (who must not have had a last name), arrived in his milk wagon, pulled by Tom, a large chestnut gelding. This was the last horse drawn milk wagon in the city of Lansing. Dad’s pop used to drive horse drawn dairy wagons, owned his own dairy, too.

While mom took the quart bottles from Jerry at the side door, Tom took his regular dump on the street. My brothers Gary and Phil, and I, looked up from our breakfasts to point at the steaming heap on the pavement and have a joke at our older brother Tom’s expense.

“Uh-oh! Tom left his grunty on the street, again!”

Our big brother glowered across the table at us with a threatening look. Mom, who had returned to her place at table moaned and demanded we not use ‘that word’ while she was trying to eat.

“Mind your manners and turn around,” dad said. “Finish your breakfasts while they’re still hot.”

We obeyed. Our backs were to the window, but mom and dad’s places faced it; mom focused on her food, but dad looked at the manure in the center of the street while he finished his coffee. The lady who lived kitty-corner from our house, right on schedule, came out in her robe with her coal shovel, and began to scrape up the precious brown gold to take back to her prizewinning roses. Dad nudged mom, who looked up at the neighbor with her smelly plunder, and chuckled and shook her head. Dad’s face broke into that dangerous grin of his.

“Just to see the look on her face,” he laughed, “I’d like to run out there with my own shovel and scoop it up before she gets to it.”

“Don’t you dare!” mom laughed back, her disapproving, threatening laugh.

Our dad was possessed of a mischievous imp who devised little schemes to get the rise out of friends, neighbors, and perfect strangers. But he was mostly content to speak them out in our presence, just to get the rise out of mom. He had inherited the trait from his pop, who on his part took ‘Don’t you dare’ as the signal to go ahead. He had always lived for danger.

Turning to look out the window at the neighbor lady with her load, I saw her pause as old Mr. Buck, our neighbor up the block from us appeared at curbside. His pipe in one hand, and a beach pail and scoop in the other, he appeared to be asking for her to share the wealth with him. With a grudging nod of assent, she watched anxiously as he ladled his small allotment into his pail, as if he might take the whole pile and pack it away in his tiny vessel.

“It’s little enough fertilizer for those roses he grows next to his house,” mom said. “She doesn’t need to worry that Mr. Buck will show up her blooms at any garden show.”

“Maybe he’s not going to use them for his roses at all,” dad said with a grin. “Remember what Uncle Will told us about what he used horse manure for.”

Mom looked forlornly at her half-eaten breakfast. “I think I’d like to be excused,” she said.

“What did he use horse manure for?” We had to know. Mom didn’t, and gave her plate to Mitzi, our scavenging dachshund. She went to work on the skillet at the sink, while we ‘men’ leaned in at the table to hear that new page added to our family history. And who knew? It might be something we could share at ‘show and tell’ in school.

“When Uncle Will was just a young man in England,” dad explained, “he had a job mucking out horse stables. Well, he’d saved a little money for a pipe, but didn’t make enough yet to buy tobacco. So he packed it with dried horse manure as a tobacco substitute. This seemed to be the next best thing to the real article, and he even got compliments from people about how nice it smelled when he lit it up. Finally after a few years he started making good money as a house painter. He could afford a nicer pipe and some good, real English tobacco. Only he found out it tasted about the same as his old dried horse manure. He was too proud to go back to that, but still too frugal to spend money on good tobacco he didn’t enjoy any more than the manure he could get for free, so he gave it up.”

“Did he throw away his pipe?” I asked. As one of the middle children in the family, I lived off of hand-me-downs. I had hoped Great Uncle Will might let me have his pipe, since he’d had no use for it now for nearly fifty years, even though I was only eight, and growing up in a non-smoking family.

Mom paused from her scouring the skillet at the sink with a dreamy look on her face. “My dad smoked a pipe,” she said. “He liked Rum and Maple, I remember. It smelled so nice, like seasoned wood and toasted sweet rolls.”

“Horse manure smells nice,” my little brother Phil maintained. He liked everything about horses, and at five years of age, reveled in the knowledge that his name meant ‘lover of horses’.

“I heard that English tobacco is actually seasoned over a slow fire of smoldering horse manure,” dad went on.

“Really, Seymour!” mom protested. “Using…ugh…to roast something % This subject over breakfast is going on a bit too far.”

It was, and it didn’t show signs of stopping.

“You like watching ‘Wagon Train’ on TV, mom,” big brother Tom began making a point. He was good at this. I always imagined him using his incisive wit to become a trial lawyer. “Well, where did the women get fuel for their cooking fires out there on the prairie? They didn’t have any trees to get firewood, but with all their horses and oxen, the women had to use what they left behind. It was their job to follow behind the wagons with their kids and pick up the manure and let them dry out in the back of the wagons. And there were plenty of already dried buffalo chips—“

“Buffalo chips, mmm!” Phil added, smacking his lips, and my twin brother Gary snorted.

That was enough. Mercifully for mom, it was time for us to get ready to go off for school and dad for work.

Mr. Buck’s interest in the manure had really just been for the roses he and his wife grew along the side of their house beside their driveway. I knew he was a Sir Walter Raleigh man. I recognized the striped pouch from the TV commercials. Guys in plaid flannels brandishing their pipes, singing about how grand it smelled, how right it packed, how sweet it tasted, and how it couldn’t bite, as their bird dog’s tail beat time to the music. I wanted to ask him if it really tasted as sweet as the commercials said. I knew it smelled grand. All pipe tobaccos smelled grand, though I wasn’t so sure about the English stuff dad told us about.

But I was still recovering from my rebuff from our next-door neighbor Mr. Burgess, a cigarette smoker, when in regard to the promises of so many cigarette commercials, I wanted to know what a cigarette tasted like (Did it really taste good like a cigarette should? Did he remember how great cigarettes used to taste? Was he smoking more now and enjoying it less? If so, was he going to switch to______? Or would he rather fight than switch? If so, and I suggested he switch to _______, would he really fight me, a little kid?)

In answer to just the first question, he snapped, “It doesn’t taste good, and don’t let me catch you smoking a cigarette!”

Well who said I was going to anyhow? You’d think I’d done something wrong the way he talked to me. But he was probably just sore because he was doing it all the wrong way. After all, in the commercials, all the cigarette smokers were happy because they had found the right cigarette, and the pretty who shared his cigarettes thought so too. You saw a lot of pretty s in cigarette commercials. Seemed they couldn’t sell cigarettes without a pretty . But they sure could sell pipe tobacco without one. A dog with a good sense of rhythm was optional. Though I never saw Mr. Buck singing about how much he loved his pipe tobacco, he sure looked like he was enjoying it more than Mr. Burgess enjoyed his cigarettes.

I knew even then that all commercials promised more than their products could deliver. But still at that early age, I had begun to cultivate my powers of deduction of certain clues that linked the illusion of TV ads to real life. The actors portrayed smoking cigarettes seemed always to be good looking, image conscious, and especially, young. The pipe guys appeared more interested in their contentment with their pipes than anything else, and while they seemed to be all ages, they were more usually older and more mature. In real life, you didn’t seem to see a lot of old cigarette smokers, not as much as you saw old pipe smokers. Even my non-smoking parents cast a benevolent eye towards somebody with a pipe than the very idea of cigarette smoking.

My folks were very careful about the kind of literature that came into our house. And as a veteran Scoutmaster, my dad gave his wholehearted stamp of approval to the Boys’ Life Magazine, whose pages championed the wholesomeness of values for American boys. It was a big, thick monthly publication, full of profusely illustrated articles, stories, and activities. And despite the disparaging view generally held by grownups of the corrupting effects of comic book reading, their color comic section had our parents’ unqualified seal of acceptance. Two of the regularly featured comics’ characters consistently appeared every month, smoking their pipes: as much a part of them as their roles they played for their grandsons or their young friends. Various other appearances of dads or leaders depicted the pipe as the presence of maturity or wisdom for their young people to look up to as well. It was never met with any hand-wringing objections by even the most straight laced of the older set of that day. No one read, in these depictions, any compromising of the morality or well being of America’s youth. Even American Scouting’s most notable interpreter in oils on canvas, Norman Rockwell, was as well known for his pipe as for his artist’s brush. There seemed a sort of rightness with the world about these men with their pipes. Who could find fault with that? I mean, besides the censorious neurotics of this day’s ‘age of tolerance’?

Late fall of the year 1962, our Scout troop had its monthly weekend campout at the edge of a pasture. Across the road from our encampment was a cornfield where stalks of corn stood unharvested as a winter food supply for the wildlife. It was too much of a temptation for all of us boys to forage the materials to fashion our own corncob pipes. Some were even bold enough to load their cobs with corn silk and experiment with their first smoke. But I had only gotten so far as hollowing out a cob and inserting a length of stalk for the stem. We returned to light our fires to cook our lunches: hamburger patties, onions, sliced carrots and potatoes, wrapped in aluminum foil. When the fires got going really well, we placed our foil packets with care into the fire, fifteen to twenty minutes on each side. The stand of trees along the pasture provided all the wood we needed for our weekend campfires. But the more adventurous among us gathered a supplementary fuel supply of the dried manure from the pasture. That story my brother Tom had shared years before at our family breakfast table came back to me, and I was eager to touch with the roots of our frontier forebears and the means they used for cooking their meals. Tossing a couple dried cowpies into the flames produced an instantaneous and pleasing result. They ignited quickly into flame, like the paraffin and paper-roll firebugs we carried in our packs for rainy days, and lasted for as long as a well-seasoned wood log would do. Not so pleased were some of the more delicate campers, upon whose foil bundles our cowpies had landed. They preferred to eat their food raw instead of living with the idea of having a meal cooked with cowflop.

One of our requirements for advancement we were supposed to work on that weekend was to construct a handy gadget from natural materials, showing our resourcefulness and our use of our knives. Then we were to demonstrate their usefulness to one of the Senior Scouts or the Scoutmaster. Mostly these gadgets were simple and unoriginal; fire tongs being the most common tool, made of a stout green stick with its middle whittled down halfway so it could be doubled over as a hinge and could be used to retrieve the foil packets out of the fire. The more industrious fellows constructed a sort of frying pan with a long green stick bent in a loop with a handle, and stretched their foil over the loop. Laying their food onto the foil pan, they held it over the flames to fry their meat, and with the fat, fried their taters and onions and carrots, too. Our Scoutmaster—my dad—oversaw these demonstrations at our cooking fire. Meanwhile, as I waited for my lunch to finish cooking, I unconsciously produced my makeshift corncob pipe and hollowed the bowl a little more with my jackknife.

“That your camp gadget?” my dad asked sarcastically, looking at the pipe in my hand.

“Yeah,” I replied, not looking at him. I was keeping my eye on my lunch on the fire. “I wanted to do something more than just fire tongs.”

“Yeah, wise guy,” he said, beginning to fume just a little at my failure to register the subtle reproach in his tone of voice. “You didn’t mean to demonstrate its use to me?”

“Oh, yeah!” I said enthusiastically. “I even tried some of that with it to get it going.” I pointed to the pile of dried manure lying beside the fire. “It lights real well.”

“Now, look here—!” he began.

Not thinking what I was doing, I put the pipe in my mouth to free my hand. I took out my fork and turned the hamburger and vegetables in my green stick and foil frying pan, and tested to see if they were ready to eat.

“Done to a T,” I crowed.

My dad’s face flushed with a wave of mirth at his pudd’n-headed number two son. “All right, General MacArthur, spit that corncob into the fire and eat your lunch.”

I’ve had a lot of corncob pipes since then that have lasted longer than that one did. Time enough for me to get choosier about what goes into it. Something wholesome.

--------------------------------

Jerry “B.P.” Riggs is an author who’s latest work “Sherlock Holmes, Return to the Musgrave Ritual” is available currently. You can order this, or any of his books for $15.95 + $5.00 s&h (96 cents tax for MI residents) by sending a check or money order to: 303 S. Norton St. Corunna MI 48817. Please use the Contact Form on this blog to contact the author.

Composition for the Pipe

Tobacco Barn Crew — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 02:52:38 GMT

I found a reference to this piece by Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) that he wrote when he was about 40. I thought that sharing this here would be most appropriate. This type of information should be shared far and wide with Brothers of the Briar (or meerschaum or clay or corn cob)…

Edifying Thoughts of a Tobacco Smoker (Die 'erbauliche Gedanken eines Tabakrauchers)

When e'er I take my pipe and stuff it
And smoke to pass the time away
My thoughts, as I sit there and puff it,
Dwell on a picture sad and grey:
It teaches me that very like
Am I myself unto my pipe.

Like me this pipe, so fragrant burning,
Is made of naught but earthen clay;
To earth I too shall be returning,
And cannot halt my slow decay.
My well used pipe, now cracked and broken,
Of mortal life is but a token.

No stain, the pipe's hue yet doth darken;
It remains white. Thus do I know
That when to death's call I must harken
My body, too, all pale will grow.
To black beneath the sod 'twill turn,
Likewise the pipe, if oft it burn.

Or when the pipe is fairly glowing,
Behold then instantaneously,
The smoke off into thin air going,
'Til naught but ash is left to see.
Man's fame likewise away will burn
And unto dust his body turn.

How oft it happens when one's smoking,
The tamper's missing from it's shelf,
And one goes with one's finger poking
Into the bowl and burns oneself.
If in the pipe such pain doth dwell
How hot must be the pains of Hell!

Thus o'er my pipe in contemplation
Of such things - I can constantly
Indulge in fruitful meditation,
And so, puffing contentedly,
On land, at sea, at home, abroad,
I smoke my pipe and worship God.

From: The Second Little Clavier Book For Anna Magdalena Bach

Perhaps a wee bit morbid but a great piece of pipe lore as well as an insight into the more introspective nature of pipe smoking.

Stop SCHIPS Expansion – A Smoker’s Call To Action!

Tobacco Barn Crew — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 20:53:16 GMT

Don’t be fooled, this isn’t just about cigarette smokers no matter what the popular press will tell you. It isn’t “about the children” as the sound bites might indicate. What it is about is the unfair taxation of a small portion of the population to fund a program that affects ALL of the citizens of the US.

The following is a press release from the National Association of Tobacco Outlets advising all responsible consumers of tobacco products to make their voices heard on this subject. It is imperative that we all band together and speak out against this unfair taxation of a small segment (less than 10%) of society for a program that has universal concerns. Why put this on our back?

A Call to ACTION on SCHIP Tax Increases!

If Congress passes a bill early in 2009 to expand the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) by significantly increasing the federal cigarette and tobacco taxes, the fallout from this expansion of government subsidized health care will likely include major cigarette and tobacco sales reductions, large increases in the number of store robberies because the value of tobacco products would be so high, a floor stocks tax on cigarette and tobacco inventory adding up to an estimated $5,000 per store, employee layoffs and even store closings.

The SCHIP program is a top priority for Democrats and may result in the single largest tax increase on one industry’s products in the history of the country. With President-Elect Obama a supporter of SCHIP, the possibility of a tobacco tax increase to fund the expansion looms large even though Obama made campaign promises not to increase taxes on any one who earns less than $250,000. The 2007 SCHIP bills proposed the following increases in the federal tobacco excise tax rates:

Tobacco Product

Current Tax Rates

SCHIP Bill Tax Rates

Percentage Tax Increase

Cigarettes

39¢ per pack

$1.00 per pack

156.4%

Large Cigars

20.719% of manufacturer’s price; cap of 4.875¢/cigar

53% of manufacturer’s price; cap of $3.00/cigar

6,000%

Little Cigars

4¢ per pack

$1.00 per pack

2,197%

Pipe Tobacco

$1.0969 per pound

$2.8126 per pound

156.4%

Chewing Tobacco

19.5¢ per pound

50¢ per pound

156.4%

Snuff

58.5¢ per pound

$1.50 per pound

156.4%

RYO Tobacco

$1.0969 per pound

$8.8889 per pound

710.36%

The Time to Act is NOW!!!

NATO’s legislative staff members are sending out to association members customer alert sheets to place on store counters and personalized letters addressed to each retailer and wholesaler’s particular U.S. Senators and Representatives. NATO members need to call their Congressional representatives, urge their employees and customers to do the same and fax the personalized letters to Washington, DC. All the names, phone and fax numbers of the particular Congressional representatives are being provided. NATO members need only dial the phone and fax the letters. Your voice and the voice of your customers need to be heard.

Turbulent Time for Tobacco Requires Grassroots Efforts

No one can say with 100% certainty how the SCHIP legislation will finally be resolved by Congress in 2009. What can be said is that the SCHIP bill is just the beginning of what will be a turbulent year for the tobacco industry. With some in Congress supporting federal cigarette and tobacco tax increases to expand SCHIP and more than 30 states with large budget deficits some of which will also propose higher tobacco taxes as well, NATO wants to remind its members that they must continue to contact their elected officials to be heard on tobacco issues. Maintaining that dialogue and urging customers to make phone calls continues to be an important part of opposing unfair tobacco legislation.

So don’t sit by idly and watch your pipe tobaccos get taxed by an increase of 156.4%, write, or better yet, call your local congress person or senator and let them know that this is just plain WRONG!

Corn Cob Pipe Story from Life Magazine

Tobacco Barn Crew — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 17:18:36 GMT

While prowling through the Life magazine archive on Google Images, I discovered a series of images taken by Wallace Kirkland about the Missouri Meerschaum Company in Washington, MO. The pictures from this story all dated April, 1945. The Missouri Meerschaum Company is still the premier manufacturer of Corn Cob pipes to this day.

A man smokes a corn cob pipe while unloading bags of corn cobs to be used in the production of Corn Cob pipes.

A worker making corn cob pipes. Interestingly enough, this image is available as a poster through AllPosters.com.

Another worker drills out corn cobs to fashion the bowls of the pipes.

A view of the a storage bin for the materials used in making corn cob pipes.

Some of the different styles of corn cob pipes that Missouri Meerschaum Company made back in 1945.

A portrait of various stages of corn cob pipe production.

You’ll find all of these and many more pictures from this store by going to Google Images and searching on “Washington, MO, US source:life.” If all this pipe goodness leads you to

Wallace Kirkland was a general assignment photographer for Life Magazine during times of war and peace. You can find more examples of his artwork, including images of the women baseball players during WWII as profiled in A League of Their Own. You can find more about Wallace Kirkland at the University of Illinois at Chicago’s Special Collections website.

Pipe Smoking Images From Life…

Tobacco Barn Crew — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 06:46:01 GMT

Life Magazine that is. I don’t know if you’ve noticed it, but Google has entered recently into arrangement with Life Magazine to make their picture archives available online. Here are some of the images that you’ll find when doing a search for “pipe”:

This is a great insight into how common pipe smoking was in the days past. You’ll find everything from portraits of the famous to those not-so-much.

New Pipe Smoking Resource

Tobacco Barn Crew — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 04:35:17 GMT

I recently stumbled across http://smokingpipetobacco.com/ and thought it worth a mention. It is so rare to find a quality pipe smoking resource so it was great to find this site. They seem to have some really astute pipe tobacco reviews here. Sure, they may not have the quantity of reviews that you’ll find on TobaccoReviews.com but Given enough time, I think this site may live up to my hopes.

They have also jumped on the Twitter bandwagon so you can sign up to follow them or to get alerts of their site activity sent directly to your mobile phone. Check them out!

How Bizarro…

Tobacco Barn Crew — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 21:11:26 GMT

I stumbled across the Blog of Dan Piraro, the creator of the syndicated carton “Bizarro” and though perhaps our fellow pipe smokers out there would get a kick out of this.

If you don’t get “Bizarro” in your local newspaper, you should send a letter to the editor to get it added. As the title suggests, the humor in his single-panel strips could be best considered skewed and a bit out there but who else would come up with idea of a pug trying to legitimize their owner’s bad taste by adding an ascot and a pipe to complete the look.

It appears that Mr. Piraro is a fellow brother of the leaf as his header shows him mugging for the camera, cigar in hand. Now if we can only get him to take up the pipe so he could be a brother of the briar or meerschaum as well.

Thoughts? Don’t forget to leave a comment below and let us know what you think of his work!

SCHIP Bill Continues to be Priority of New Administration

Tobacco Barn Crew — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 23:03:04 GMT

Industry Lobbyists' Consensus Sees Compromise Holding For Next Round of SCHIP Deliberations

November 21, 2008 - As rumors continue circulating about SCHIP in 2009, CAA's and IPCPR's lobbyists, along with several industry consultants, met to share new information and prognostications regarding legislation to renew and expand the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP).

While tempered with a bit of caution, all parties participating on the conference call remain confident the compromise that was reached and agreed to by Congressional leaders will be incorporated into yet-to-be reintroduced SCHIP legislation.

General consensus among industry lobbyists and consultants holds that despite campaign rhetoric, the reality of governing, particularly in the economic circumstances faced by all segments of the economy, will prove difficult for the new Administration's legislative priorities to be quickly approved.

With those caveats in mind, there were three consensus views that emerged:
While there are credible scenarios that would delay SCHIP, there was much agreement that SCHIP will likely be an early priority of the new administration.
House leadership has signaled it will likely be among the top three priorities of the Congress/Administration. SCHIP has passed the Congress twice in 2007, so passing the "old" bill with the "compromise" language would be an easy step.
The make-up of the new House and Senate is even more favorable than before and the new President will eagerly sign the bill. Under this scenario, SCHIP would provide a high profile legislative victory and a down payment on the health care agenda.

The International Premium Cigar & Pipe Retailers Association (IPCPR) is a not-for-profit trade association organized as the advocate for the independent retail tobacconist and recognized as the "Voice of Authority and Reason" on premium tobacco related issues.

From a ICPCPR Press release

Dems Pushing for SCHIP Expansion!

Tobacco Barn Crew — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 23:53:19 GMT

Now that there isn’t a Republican in the white house to kill it, Congressional Democrats claim to be making SCHIP a Top Priority. CQ Politcs reported on Friday, November 6th that Democrats in the US Congress plant to move quickly in the New Year to pass a major expansion of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was interviewed on National Public Radio the day after the election and stated that the expansion of SCHIP “will probably be one of the first bills we would put on President Obama’s desk.”

For those who recall recent events, the US Senate and House both passed a $35 billion dollar SCHIP expansion bill TWICE but it was vetoed both times by President Bush and the legislative branch was unable to swing enough votes to over-ride the veto both times.

What Does This Mean To You?

Why is this important to pipe and cigar smokers you may ask? Well, because this bill would be funded almost exclusively on the backs (and out of the pocketbooks) of smokers of ALL types.

Tobacco Prouct	Current Tax Rates	SCHIP Tax Rates	Percentage Tax Increase
Cigars	20.719% of manufacturer’s price; capped at 4.875 cents per cigar	33% of manufacturer’s price; cap of $3.00/cigar	6,000%
Little Cigars	4 cents per pack	$1.00 per pack	2,197%
Pipe Tobacco	$1.0969 per pound	$2.8126 per pound	156.4%

But that isn’t all, the CQ Politics article points out that the tax increase shown above won’t even cover the cost of the expansion of this program. In fact, the congressional Budget Office issued a report in August of this year which found that a five year expansion of the SCHIP program as envisioned by the House and the Senate will cost close to $45 billion, not the $35 billion they are hoping to raise.

The current SCHIP program is set to expire on March 30, 2009 so they are going to move fast on this. We responsible smokers need to speak out loud and clear that this funding proposal is not only unfair, it is UNSOUND!. Not only will it not fund what they want it to do, thereby continuing to grow our budget deficit even further but it also unfairly targets a small percentage (less than 10%) of the US population to pay for something that they claim is a universal need.

Not only will this hit YOU directly in the wallet in these trying times, but it will likely cause for the closure of many tobacconists around the country that are barely hanging on as it is. This, in turn, will dramatically affect the volume of cigars purchased yearly, decreasing the amount of money raised by this tax increase as demand drops; widening the difference between the funds committed to fund SCHIP and the funds available to pay for it.

And if we look out beyond our own selfish needs, IPCPR and many other organizations predict dire results for the economies of the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua and Honduras as a result of this flawed legislation.

What Can I Do To Help?

Well, we all need to band together and show our elected officials the errors of their thinking in this flawed bill.

Let your US Senator and representative in the House know how the negative impact of this legislation will affect you, affect small businesses in your community and how you feel it will affect our neighbors in cigar producing countries. Make sure that you reference SCHIP in your conversation and how you are rallying your neighbors and fellow business owners to defeat unfair taxation. You should also remind them that as a voting block in their state/district, you WILL remember those that fall prey to the “but it’s for the children” sound-bite mentality behind those supporting this bill.

Helpful Links:

A listing of all the current Senators

How to find your local Representative

Your IMMEDIATE action is the only thing that will keep this proposal from becoming a LAW! Please respond today!

As always, we encourage your responses in the comments section below.

Part Three of Interview with Gordon Beecher

Jerry "B.P." Riggs — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 01:58:00 GMT

Note: What follows is the third part of an interview conducted by Gordon Beecher with Jerry B.P. Riggs about the upcoming release of Sherlock Holmes: Return to the Musgrave Ritual. But first, a quick correction:

In my previous interview installment #2, I had mentioned The Boys’ Sherlock Holmes had first come out in an 1892 edition. But I had wrongly deduced, casting back with a faulty memory on that year in the 1936 edition’s copyright page, that 1892 was evidence of an earlier edition of The Boys’ Sherlock Holmes by Harper & Brothers. Mr Randall Stock very kindly wrote to me, asking whether such an edition actually existed, or that perhaps the year 1892 referred to the publication date of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. A quick follow-up of his suggestion proved him right. Thanks for setting the record straight, Randall!

G.B. I have read and enjoyed your draft you’ve given me of your upcoming Sherlock Holmes book. It’s my opinion that Sherlock fans, or anyone who likes a good detective story, will enjoy it at least as much as The Unusual Sherlock Holmes—your presently published book. But tell us about your sequel in your own words.

Riggs Its title is Sherlock Holmes: Return to the Musgrave Ritual. It had about three different working titles, but after going through the usual metamorphoses a book takes, this became the final title. And instead of being another collection of novellas, this contains a single novel. The setting for the story is in Holmes’s retirement years to the South Downs of East Sussex. But it begins with a brief entrée, confiding to the reader a secret betrayal against its narrator: crucial to the investigation that will follow, known to none of the characters in the unfolding of the plot. Then the lead in to the story is a sort of autobiographical prologue, of my meeting in 1964 with a suspiciously Holmesian-looking old English gentleman who senses a personal crisis in my life, and offers direction to me in the form of the tale that follows. This tale begins with Holmes receiving a sort of peace offering from Mark Twain—a corncob pipe—for his poking fun at Holmes in his Double Barreled Detective Story. The corncob pipe becomes a third favorite pipe, along with Holmes’s disputatious cherry wood and his consoling black clay, and causes him to think more and more about making a home in the country. Not really to retire from active detective work, but to appear to retire, while actually only removing his base of operations from London (which, he says, has become a singularly uninteresting place for him since the death of his late arch-enemy, Professor Moriarty). Holmes has realized that more and more of his cases, since his return from his hiatus in the aftermath of Moriarty’s death, have taken him away from London to rural settings. In Doyle’s Adventure of the Copper Beeches, Holmes had noted to Dr. Watson that there is a greater potential for sin and vice to go undetected and unchecked in the smiling and beautiful countryside than in the vilest alleys of London. This then becomes his new theatre of operations, and Holmes and Watson (who has at this point gotten married again) go their separate ways. —— Holmes no sooner settles down into his villa overlooking the Channel, when he’s recruited by a handful of boys from the nearby village of Fulworth to be the referee for their playing a series of games described in Colonel Baden-Powell’s army manual, Aids to Scouting for NCOs and Men. The games in that manual had originally been meant to serve as exercises for cavalry troopers training in scouting and intelligence work. The skills in it included some backwoods skills, but most especially the methods for training in observation and deduction. Baden-Powell called the latter of these skills ‘Sherlocking’ or ‘Sherlock Holmesism’. But that army handbook became a craze-sensation among the British civilian population. Clubs of s and boys sprung up all over Britain to play the games in the book and take the challenge to attain the same caliber of expertise as elite trained scouts. But while at first these amateur enthusiasts were content to do it for the fun of it, as they got good at the skills described in the manual, they felt they were deserving of a badge similar to the one the soldier scouts wore: a fleur-di-lis badge, specially designed by Baden-Powell. Few soldiers in the British army could earn the privilege to wear the badge. No deserving civilian would be allowed to wear that regulation badge. So each Scout club would design a makeshift fleur-di-lis of their own, or order one from the jewelers’. Either way, it would have been more than a club of boy enthusiasts could afford. So in recruiting an to referee them, they had tricked him into sponsoring them, as well, at the very least for the cost of having some crude sheet metal fleur-di-lis badge cut out by a tinsmith.

G.B. Was this something that actually occurred at that time—this grassroots movement of English scout-clubbers?

Riggs Oh yes. And beginning just a little before the time Doyle had written Holmes into retirement, until B-P officially started the Boy Scout movement. Some of these clubs were comprised of s in a sort of sporting social club. Others were made up of boys, and some s, too. The craze was so widespread; there would have been at least one club within hail of Holmes’s cottage. And one of the assignments in the Aids to Scouting manual was that Scouts should seek instruction from detectives in the investigation of clues. Not only would it have been perfectly logical that such a club of local boys would have approached Holmes to referee them; it would have been impossible if they hadn’t.

G.B. Very interesting. So, in your Return to the Musgrave Ritual, this local club of boys tricks Sherlock Holmes into sponsoring them for a badge?

Riggs Certainly not! Instead, Holmes takes a look at their copy of the army manual, just to see what he’s getting into. He notices that the principal skill in the book is tracking, observation, and deduction–nicknamed ‘Sherlocking’ by Baden-Powell. Then and there, Holmes not only consents to be their referee, he insists on designing the fleur-di-lis for them to earn, which has his own likeness framed inside the outline of the badge, and bears a scroll underneath it with the acronym: S.H.E.R.L.O.C.K. (standing for See, Hear, Examine, Read, Learn, Observe, Conclude, and Know—and central to all these are ‘Read and Learn’). As it turns out, the trick is turned back onto the boys, when he renames their club from The Fulworth Boys’ Scouting Club, to The Fulworth Boys’ Sherlockian Scouts—turning them into his Sussex irregular detective force: to serve him as his eyes and ears in the country, as his Baker Street Irregulars had done for him in the city.

G.B I am honored to be wearing one of your Sherlockian Scout pins at this time. You have taken the design for that Sherlockian Scout badge described in your book, which Holmes is said to have conceived for this club of local boys. Not only that, this pin will figure repeatedly as an object of some interest in the unfolding plot of your upcoming book. Personally, it gives me a thrill after reading the story, to see and hold onto one of the actual badges, as it were. And the legend card that accompanies it is a nice touch.

Riggs I like to think people enjoy a sort of twin hold on the abstract and the tangible. It serves as a point of contact with the story—engrafting imagination to the roots of history. Imaginative thinking is the domain of a reasoning detective like Sherlock Holmes, who thrills at the tales that tangible little clues can tell. I hope that for readers of Sherlock Holmes: Return to the Musgrave Ritual–when it comes out, soon–will enjoy a kind of virtual reality experience: with the book to excite their imaginations, along with this pin to add a physical sensation of being transported to that place and time with the characters in the story. But the Sherlockian Scout badge is a tangible tribute to the hundreds of those other makeshift fleur-di-lis badges of actual clubs that had existed then, and that had answered the demand for a Scouting program, for years before it ever became a reality in the movement we know it as today. This is just part of what the Sherlockian Scout badge commemorates. It’s also a reminder that from the start, Sherlocking was as fundamental an institution to the Scout training program as backwoodsmanship; that at heart, a true Sherlockian is really at least half a Scout, and a truly complete Scout should be a Sherlockian.

G.B. What would the Sherlockian scholar/critics think about that—or come to think of it, Scouts and Scouters?

Riggs I would hope they’d take it as a compliment, just as much as for the readers of all ages and all levels of intelligence who’ve enjoyed what I’ve written, whether they had ever been Scouts or not. But there can’t be any getting around the ties Sherlock Holmes and his creator, Doyle, had to Scouting, or Sherlocking’s value as at least a life enriching hobby, if not an essential skill. The skills of observation and deduction as Holmes had first begun to practice them, had been considered by him to be the merest hobby before he ever saw in them a way to make a living for himself, as we read in his ‘Gloria Scott’ story. At the time that story took place, he was believed to be no more than twenty. So how long before that had he begun to dabble in that ‘hobby’ that was destined to be named for him: at the age of twelve, perhaps, or younger, maybe? That would have been just about the same time the founder of Boy Scouts was hiding out in the woods from his schoolmasters, training himself in his Scout skills as well. Like Holmes, Baden-Powell had little foreseen where those forays into the woods would take him in a career as an army Scout, and the training of men and boys. But Sherlocking as a course of instruction, as with all the other Scout skills, had originally been meant to train soldiers. And years later, after B-P’s adaptation of the Scout training program for boys, he recommended the Boy Scout handbook he’d written to army instructors, as being more fully detailed in tracking, observation, deduction, and related subjects (Sherlocking) than the program he’d first written for the army! See how far that hobby can take you? My program to re-implement Sherlocking—first as campfire yarns, then into print—had been adapted from both the programs B-P had made: both of them applicable to not only men and boys, but to women, too.

G.B. Yes. I remember reading in your Return to the Musgrave Ritual manuscript that Baden-Powell’s Aids to Scouting army manual was a textbook in an English school for governesses.

Riggs Charlotte Mason’s Training College in Ambleside.

G.B. And it’s to this remote locale in the North Country that a love interest for Sherlock Holmes, in your book, makes her exit in the aftermath of their first meeting.

Riggs Maud Bellamy, that’s right.

G.B. Why her, and not Irene Adler?

Riggs It was Carolyn Senter of Classic Specialties in Cincinnati who got me thinking about that. Her perspectives about the women in the Holmes canon, and how they were affected by the situations in the stories in the time they lived, have always made me give a second look to what I’d read there before. At her suggestion, I looked into the case for Maud Bellamy, and haven’t been able to think of anyone else for Holmes, since. And I could easily see why Holmes wouldn’t think of anybody else, either. Sure, Holmes had some glowing words for Irene Adler. But it was Watson (the romantic) who wrote his impressions of what he thought he saw in that encounter in A Scandal in Bohemia. It was Holmes who described in his own words, his reaction to Maud Bellamy in The Lion’s Mane, betraying his feelings for her, and when he’d observed that no young man could have crossed her path unscathed, he may have been identifying an emotion within him, which no other woman had stirred in him in his younger days. And that may have been the reason he had been by his own admission, ‘culpably slow’ in his solving of that case, surrounding the cause of the death of Maud’s fiancé. On his visit to her at her father’s house in the course of his investigation, Holmes remarked that Miss Bellamy seemed to already know him on sight, though they had never apparently seen one another before (or had she taken notice of him before that?). Then her composed concentration on hearing the details of her fiancé’s death mirrored a rare strength of character she shared with Holmes, and in her offer of her sympathy and help to him in his solving of that tragedy, without asking any sympathy or help for herself, there may have been potential for a partnership of soul mates in the discovery of future mysteries. But she still needed some time to sort out her own feelings and to arrive at a strategy to win him over, and in her absence from the scene, wished to see whether Holmes would miss her.

G.B. Meanwhile, Holmes accepts an invitation to Brownsea Island to observe the experimental camp Baden-Powell held there to see whether his scheme for Boy Scouting as a national movement would take hold.

Riggs Yes. This would have been a rare honor, seeing that B-P had invited no other outsiders to the camp, other than an agent for his publisher who was to show up at the end of the camp to learn how it had succeeded, and decide whether to put the Scouting for Boys handbook into print. Brownsea was a privately owned island, and for that reason had been B-P’s choice of a site to conduct this social experiment, mixing different classes of boys to see how they got along with each other: away from the prying eyes of press reporters. For Holmes, it looked like a chance for a vacation, mere days after his investigation in the mystery of The Lion’s Mane, and to have some time for himself to sort out the more disturbing problem of a woman creeping into his life (and to decide whether he wanted her there). There on the island a very old man, who seems to have been too stubborn to die when he was supposed to, latches onto Holmes, and charges him with not having closed the case of The Musgrave Ritual, nearly thirty years before. Holmes regards what looks like the old man’s series of flights of fancy, as mildly amusing, then tiresome. He gives him an ultimatum to prove his claims, or leave him alone. When Holmes rings up his old friend Musgrave at Hurlstone, thinking to share a laugh with him over the old man’s antics, he discovers there was at least an element of truth to what he’d had to say. There are still four missing pieces to the Stuart’s crown, hidden somewhere on Brownsea Island, and they are not the only ones looking for them. Along the way there is an old murder to solve, a would-be murderer lurking in the woods, and unexplained cries in the night.

G.B. That seems a fair synopsis of the story, which should whet the appetites of readers, and send them clamoring for their copy of your book when it comes out. Its twists and turns carry you along from one surprise to another, even when the story seems to be just at an end. And with the main mystery concluded, there returns the mystery of what happens between Holmes and Maud Bellamy. But you plant enough clues to suggest that something does.

Riggs Something does, but I’m not going to have them get all soppy with each other. Holmes is something different to Maud from the warm admirers, more her age, who’ve always hung around her before this. And she’s a cleverer sort of woman than to think she can fan passion’s flame in him, or that he’d respond to her falling into his arms. She’d hope he would, but she’s not going to hold her breath. The young men suitors of her family’s class that her father would have had her go with don’t suit her. The kind of man she had hoped to marry, the late Fitzroy McPherson, was more her type: a man of learning. But it was as much out of fear for her father as for being disinherited by his uncle, that Fitzroy had not dared to court her openly. Holmes was a man she could appreciate even more: cultured and learned, and unafraid to look her father in the eye. And it’s these same qualities he has already seen in her, so that he may see in her a rare kindred spirit over time. What she’d first set out to do in the story in my book, to establish herself as an institution in his life, has been achieved in the end, when in her four months’ absence from Fulworth, Holmes lays aside his country pipe for his disputatious cherry wood, and on her return, he returns to his companionable country pipe and looks forward to her frequent visits in the pretense of only assisting his housekeeper. But at the end of his birthday dinner, with the gift of a grand, new pipe with the Sherlockian badge mounted on its front, he accepts Maud’s re-rendering of the meaning of the letters on its scroll: it’s his acceptance of her new role in his life. His surprise to her a little before in giving her one of these badges, and her vow to wear it forever, may have been the nearest thing to a betrothal made between them, regardless of his objections against any such thing. And when she brings the tobacco slipper to the table and sets it at his place, she has established herself as the lady of the house.

G.B. Not to mention her motherliness towards the Fulworth Sherlockian Scouts seated around them at the table. Do I hear wedding bells?

Riggs It would be a very closed-door affair. I’ll see if I can wangle a couple invitations.

G.B. All right. I enjoyed your use of symbolism in the fleurs-di-lis and pipes, and other things, to tell their own story of the ideals and feelings of the characters in your book, and their relationships to each other and the conflicts going on around them. Are they the extension of the Sherlockian use of observing signs and deducing their meanings that Holmes and B-P’s Scouts were instructed in?

Riggs Oh, good! I’m glad you noticed that!

G.B. I’ll take that as a ‘yes’. Then what about any negativity in your use of pipe smoking in your books, particularly from parents or Scout leaders of young people who might read them?

Riggs The pipe as a symbol has always been an extremely positive thing, and still is. That’s not to say there haven’t always been its negative critics who’ll only look at it and think ‘smoking’, and wrongly attribute to it a weakness of character and lack of moral fiber. But there’s generally always been a difference in people’s minds between a man or woman sucking down a pack or two a day of cigarettes, and the man who puffs serenely at his pipe. In Doyle’s canon of stories, Holmes smoked a pipe, and just as often he smoked cigarettes, too. But the universal image of Holmes is of him holding some kind of pipe. Mention the name ‘Sherlock Holmes’, and everyone automatically pictures him in profile with a pipe, not with a cigarette hanging from his mouth. It is a more easily accepted image of him, even in the mind of the non-smoker or that of the cigarette smoker. Baden-Powell had smoked a pipe a couple of times in his life: once as a young subaltern in the army; but he had given it up when he couldn’t afford his tobacco. Later, his colonel ordered him to take it up again in the jungle campaign in the Gold Coast. It was believed then that smoking a mixture of tobacco and eucalyptus leaves warded off malaria. But the combination of the eucalyptus, and the humidity causing his tobacco to turn moldy, made him so sick that he gave it up and never smoked again. Thereafter his stand on smoking was not so strong against it, except that he said it was better for the sense of smell for a Scout not to smoke. But he also cited some advantages for an army Scout to keep a pipe handy with his secret papers packed inside the bowl with a fill of tobacco for him to light, in case the enemy should stop and search him. But he roundly condemned cigarette smoking, which he regarded as ‘effeminate’, as well as being a filthy habit; and at the same time sought the return of Britain’s reputation of its stolid, pipe-sucking manhood. Several of his illustrations of outdoorsmen, and even of Scout leaders, depicted them smoking a pipe. Even through the 1960’s in American Scouting, the presence of pipe smoking men in their official publications portrayed a positive image for boys to look up to. In contrast to Freud’s saying that ‘Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar’—a pipe is never just a pipe. From the first it had been meant to represent peaceful council with oneself and others, relaxation by the hearth or the campfire, and focus of the mind and spirit: positive qualities not often found anywhere else in the world today.

G.B. Well said! Thank you, Jerry, for having me over to talk with you again. A lot of people, I know, are waiting anxiously for your new book to come out. That is Sherlock Holmes: Return to the Musgrave Ritual, Infinity Publishing.com. When, about, will it be released?

Riggs Either around time for Christmas, or early next year [2009].

G.B. But shoppers can order your first book, The Unusual Sherlock Holmes now, either through most bookstores, or Amazon.com, or direct from your publisher online: www.buybooksontheweb.com (or call toll free: 877-BUY-BOOK). They can also get their autographed copy from you by check or money order?

Riggs Yes, for $18.95 + $5.00 S&H. Michigan residents need to include $1.14 tax; made out to Jerry Riggs, here at 303 S. Norton St., Corunna, MI 48817.

G.B. And don’t forget about the Sherlockian Scout badge.

Riggs That’s right, available only through me. They’re $4.95 each + $2.25 S&H, and Michigan residents add 30¢ tax.

G.B. And the Sherlock Holmes: Return to the Musgrave Ritual book, when that comes out, will be available from these same locations?

Riggs It will. And if you order more than one book from me, it’s for the total cost of the books, with the onetime $5.00 S&H fee.

G.B. And what do you expect will be the cost of the Return to the Musgrave Ritual book?

Riggs That could be subject to change. $15.95 was the projected price. But as soon as it’s released, I’ll have a more definite figure.

Random Pipe Tips

Tobacco Barn Crew — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 19:47:21 GMT

I found these pipe tips on the Bucharest Pipe Club's blog. I found them interesting and figured why not re-purpose them. Warning, much of the site is NOT in English so be forewarned if that type of thing bothers you...

Keeping Your Pipe Stems Shining Like New
First, we have to give credit where credit is due. This tip comes from the video "Total Pipe Care and Maintenance". We've all had our vulcanite rubber stems turn that nasty brown/green that happens over time. This is oxidization. Oxidization comes from the chemical reaction from the saliva in our mouths reacting with the vulcanite and from sunlight. This unsightly process can be slowed with a simple product that you most likely already have in your kitchen ... olive oil. This process is best done with a brand new stem or a stem that has been thoroughly cleaned. First, take the stem from the bowl. With your finger take a very small amount of olive oil and coat the outside surface of the stem. Allow the olive oil to penetrate for about 5 - 10 minutes. Now take a clean cotton rag and wipe off the excess. It's that simple! Here's why it works ......... If you look at a vulcanite stem under magnification you'd see that there are thousands, if not millions, of tiny pits in the surface, similar to an english muffin. This is normal. By applying the olive oil to the stem the microscopic pits get filled by the oil leaving less surface area on the stem for the oxidation to get a foot hold. You'll also want to keep your pipe out of sunlight, direct or otherwise, for any extended period of time.

The above tip is a great idea. However, I found the results of the following experiment quite interesting:

Leave It In or Pull It Out ?
Your pipe cleaner that is. One year ago someone emailed and asked whether or not it was a good idea to leave a pipe cleaner in the stem when you're through smoking. I answered according to what I had been taught ... NO. I've always listened to the pros and cons on the subject and formulated my own conclusion. After thinking about I came a the conclusion that I shouldn't be jumping to that conclusion. I decided to perform a somewhat controlled test. Here is how I did it.
-Two identical, new Savinelli Model 114 pipes were used. Both croos grained.
-Each was smoked three times a week for 1 year (3/03)
-Each rested 2 days between smoking.
-Each was cleaned with 4 pipe cleaners after smoking was complete.
-Each was thoroughly cleaned every 4 weeks.
-The same tobacco, Five Star Deluxe, was smoked exclusively.
-One was left to rest with a pipe cleaner in the stem and shank and one was not.
-Standard size and fluff pipe cleaners were used.
Here are my observations at the conclusion of the test. The pipe in which the cleaner was left in will be referred to as Pipe A. Pipe B is the pipe without.
-The shank of Pipe A is slightly darker than Pipe B leaving a slightly two toned appearance.
-Pipe A developed a slight gap between the shank and stem.
-Pipe A's shank expanded slightly larger than the stem.
-Pipe A had more pipe cleaner residue (stray fuzz) in it when thoroughly cleaned.
-Pipe B took longer to break in. I'm not sure if that had anything to do with the test.
-Pipe A took a few more cleaners for the once a month cleaning.
-After 1 year Pipe A is a little more ... well for lack of a better term, stinky.
So there you have it.
Pipe B, without the cleaner, faired better than Pipe A with. I am only going to guess why but I suspect that the pipe cleaner left in does more to keep the moisture trapped than it does to wick it out...Happy Smoking

Zippo Manufacturing Video

Tobacco Barn Crew — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 20:31:35 GMT

Every wonder how the most successful and most reliable lighters of all time are made? Check out this video?

How They Are Made: Clay Pipes

Tobacco Barn Crew — Thu, 01 May 2008 20:04:58 GMT

Every wonder how clay pipes are made? Check out this video of an interview with someone claiming to be the last clay pipe maker in Gouda, Holland at his retirement:

Even though this is a Youtube video, I first found this on the excellent Marcin's pipes and tobaccos blog. Of course, we carry clay pipes too at the barn. http://www.tobacco-barn.com/p-8167-goedewaagen-clay-churchwarden.aspx

Why Build When You Can Buy?

Tobacco Barn Crew — Thu, 01 May 2008 12:27:50 GMT

Mother Earth News has published an article on their web site called How About a Corncob Pipe. This particular article is really nothing new; it is a reprint of an article that originally appeared in a Peace Corp Volunteer Publication. The spin on the article is that if you can't stop smoking, then save money and smoke a pipe. However, their approach to making a corncob is not for the faint of heart or the clumsy of knife.

If you like to do things the hard way, you can use the small blade of your knife for this job . . . though it'll take you a while to dig through the corncob wall like that, and you're quite likely to end up with a hole in the wrong place when the knife snaps shut on your finger.

If all this seems to be too much work for you, check out our corncob pipes. We carry the best from Missouri Meerschaum. Right now, it appears the only ones we have on the site are the top of the line, Country Gentleman (shown at left). Hopefully tonight I'll get some more up on the site. We've got a couple of other different grades of corncob pipes including the Mac, General McArthur style!

As for taking up a pipe to help you stop smoking those nasty cigarettes... I can't think of anything better! And don't worry about the negatives they say about store-bought pipes. They don't use those nasty metal filters any more. Most, if not all, the Missouri Meerschaum pipes use industry standard Medico pipe filters for cool clean smokes!

Anyway, let us know how you feel about this. Leave us a comment down below!

Horsing Around...

Tobacco Barn Crew — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 15:25:47 GMT

One of the nice things about running MeershcaumPipes.com website has to be all the questions that come in about people's meerchaum pipes. I thought it would be worthwhile to start documenting some of these, if nothing else, because we get some cool pictures of pipes to evaluate. Take this one for example (yes, she gave us permission to repost this thread):

-----Original Message-----
From: Susan C
Sent: Monday, April 28, 2008 6:44 PM
Subject: Question from MeerschaumPipes.com Website

I have an old Meerschaum pipe carved with a horse running across a few
logs and branches. The pipe is richly colored but not just in shades,
the back of the horse has a spotted area which has remained white.
And there are a few other "spots" of white clearly intentionally
placed. The surface shows no signs of inlay...so ...where these areas
treated with something to prevent them from coloring???

Our reply was:

Wow,
What a great old piece that is!

As for your questions on the coloration, yes, it is very natural for a heavily used meerschaum pipe to turn this color over time. Other examples and an explanation of the process can be found at http://meerschaumpipes.com/ColorYourMeerschaum.aspx

The variations that you see in the pipe itself (what you are referring to as brindle coloration) is caused by the stone itself as well as whatever was used to seal it at the time. For the last half of the 20th century, bees wax mixed with paraffin has been the preferred sealant. I'm guessing at the age of your piece that perhaps they were still using sperm whale oil for this but it is hard to tell from the photos.

The sealant acts to protect the exterior of the pipe and also to help "draw" the liquids and toxins out through the stone depositing color on the outer layer of the pipe. What is particularly interesting about this example is the "mottled" look on the horse's back. The lighter color on the nose and ears is probably the result of extended rubbing on the inside of the case; the back appears to be a different story. It is almost like the carver had placed a blocking sealant of some sort on portions of its back to give it the effect of an Appaloosa with a small blanket on it. The blocking sealant would prevent the color of the tobacco from seeping through those areas. From the looks of it, I would guess this was intentional rather than a happy accident.

If this was a pipe that you wished to keep for it's sentimental and artistic values, it could most likely be cleaned up to get rid of much (but not all) of the tobacco smell. After a really good cleaning and allowing it to sit out for a period of time, the majority of the objectionable aroma should be gone. At that point, you could probably mount it inside a sealed shadow box and have a great decorative piece for a horse lover.

If you were looking to sell it, I would suggest that you place it online on PipeTrader.com as well as Ebay to find a buyer. We could also sell this on consignment for you in our Estate Pipes section of the Tobacco-Barn.com website.Antique meerschaum pipes rarely get high dollar values from anyone but one who collects them for artistic purposes rather than for smoking them.

We wish you the best of luck with your pipe and want to thank you for sharing these photos with us.

Pipe Smoker's Travelogue...

Tobacco Barn Crew — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 16:42:14 GMT

I stumbled upon this piece titled "How I Spent My Summer Vacation" by Steve Johnson of the Southwest Pipe & Cigar League just the other day while working on plans for their next meeting there at the Barn.

Reading it brought back some great memories of the various trips to London that I'd had with one of my previous employers. His words brought back mental images of many of the locations he mentions.

The only downside for me was that I wasn't a pipe smoker then AND I didn't have such a great roadmap of tobacconists in London. I frequented the Seegar and Snuff shop in Covent Gardens most of the time I was there. I never got down to the Dunhill shop he mentions during business hours.

Oh well, perhaps if the Dollar ever goes back up against the Pound or the Euro, I'll be able to afford another trip back... If I do, I'll have this as a guide.

Links mentioned in Steve's article:

The Pipe Club of London - http://www.pcol.co.uk/
J.J. Fox - http://www.jjfox.co.uk/static/
Davidoff of London - http://www.davidoffoflondon.com/
Map and info for George Smith & Sons - http://www.londontown.com/LondonInformation/Shopping/G_Smith__Sons/703f/

An Argument for Coloring Bowls...

Tobacco Barn Crew — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 18:15:25 GMT

Interesting thread about meerschaum pipes on a non-pipe forum over at the Straight Razor Place.

The posting by mparker762 showing off a couple of his best colored pipes includes the darkened claw shown at right.

In a subsequent posting, he extols the virtues of using a coloring bowl:

As for coloring, a coloring bowl like the one shown with the Cavalier is really the secret. I've got three coloring bowls, a smooth meer, a pebbled meer (shown w/ Cavalier), and an XL briar coloring bowl made for me by Mike Butera after much hounding. AFAIK it's the only one in existence, and I use it for smoking my english tobaccos in my meerschaums.

With results like these, it is hard to argue with the man. One thing that I found particularly interesting was that the claws darkened up so much more so than the bowl. I would have imagined this to be the case with the shank but seems odd to me that the talons on the claw would be so dark given the path coloring must travel to reach that portion of the stone.

Anyone else have any great coloration samples to share? You've seen, mine, now show me yours!

Interesting New Wax...

Tobacco Barn Crew — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 20:41:30 GMT

This blog posting on JackTales blog brought this new pipe wax to my attention. I've never heard of Paragon Wax for the Pipe before but his tales of using this product to rehabilitate meerschaum as well as briar pipes really caught my attention.

I’ve applied numerous coats to my meerschaum and the finish has improved each time. And I might be wrong, but the coloration process looks like it’s accelerated a little. Maybe in drying, the glaze pulled the nicotine outwards. I don’t know, but like I said, knowing the complete disaster I had started with, I’ve been amazed with the results.

I've ordered a "combo set" to see how this works. I'll let drop a note here when I've had a chance to try this on a few different pipes. If I'm happy with the results, we'll see about getting this product available to sell at the Barn.

Tobacco Product	Current Tax Rates	SCHIP Bill Tax Rates	Percentage Tax Increase
Cigarettes	39¢ per pack	$1.00 per pack	156.4%
Large Cigars	20.719% of manufacturer’s price; cap of 4.875¢/cigar	53% of manufacturer’s price; cap of $3.00/cigar	6,000%
Little Cigars	4¢ per pack	$1.00 per pack	2,197%
Pipe Tobacco	$1.0969 per pound	$2.8126 per pound	156.4%
Chewing Tobacco	19.5¢ per pound	50¢ per pound	156.4%
Snuff	58.5¢ per pound	$1.50 per pound	156.4%
RYO Tobacco	$1.0969 per pound	$8.8889 per pound	710.36%