Tobacco Barn Blog

Zippo Manufacturing Video

2008-06-19T22:31:35-07:00:00

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

2008-05-01T22:04:58-07:00:00

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?

2008-05-01T14:27:50-07:00:00

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...

2008-04-30T17:25:47-07:00:00

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...

2008-04-15T18:42:14-07:00:00

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...

2008-04-13T20:15:25-07:00:00

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...

2008-03-19T22:41:30-07:00:00

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.

Breaking News: Anarchy in the U.K.

2008-02-24T11:05:09-08:00:00

Newsbiscuit.com is reporting in this posting that a recent British statistical survey has shown that for the first time in the history of these studies, the usage of Crack Pipes is not outpacing the usage of Tobacco Pipes!

The end of the civilized world is near! Of course the survey resorts to rash generalizations about the type of person who smokes a tobacco pipe:

Old fashioned pipes are still popular with certain types of older bearded men; model railway enthusiasts, canal barge restorers and the like, but curiously these tend to be among the least likely people to head into the inner cities to score crack cocaine off their dealer.

We've actually been finding at the Barn that more and more younger, college age men (and women) are not succumbing to the lure of the glass pipe but are coming in and learning the finer points of Briar and Meerschaum!

Ann Widdecombe, a Minister of Parliment, has used this to decry something that we've been passionate about all along. This is just another example of political correctness run amuk: government is too busy cracking down LEGAL smoking of tobacco products like pipes and cigars when they should be working harder to address issues revolving around the sale, acquisition and use of crack and other illegal drugs. Finally a politician that "gets it!"

Even College Papers Are Getting It...

2008-02-06T20:55:58-08:00:00

This article in Arizona State University's Web Devil (the online version of their campus newspaper) is carrying an article that extols the virtues of eschewing cigars and cigarettes for puffing on a pipe.

Aside from a few mistakes (it is Ford & Haig, the tobacconist not Ford and Hagel) it is a fairly balanced piece. While not a particularly imaginative piece, at least it isn't the usual PC or hyper-liberal propaganda you find in many school publications.

Pity the couldn't picked a more dashing character than the goober they used to illustrate the story. The "school" blazer, bow tie and beard makes him look quite pretentious while most of the young smokers we see coming into the Barn these days...

Sevket Gezer

2008-02-01T15:24:27-08:00:00

Ever since we launched the MeerschaumPipes.com website a few weeks ago, we've been receiving a great deal of email from people about the meerschaum pipes that they have received, mostly by inheritance. The following inquiry prodded my admittedly sorry memory to realize that I never posted about our visit to Sevket during our trip to Eskisehir last spring.

From: Gary P.
Sent: Friday, February 01, 2008 12:54 PM
To: mjg@tobacco-barn.com
Subject: Question from MeerschaumPipes.com Website
I acquired a nice little Sevket pipe and I gather that is the name of the carver, and is he contemporary ? What can you tell me about this make of pipe ?

Yes, Sevket Gezer is one of the master carvers and is certainly a contemporary carver. You'll find more information about him on his page at the PipeTrader Wiki. Of course, if you have information about a carver, or you are a carver yourself, please feel free to create a new entry on the Wiki. This is a great way to get/give some love (and search engine juice) to your favorite carver.

At left is a picture of him from our last trip to Turkey. He was kind enough to allow us to visit him in his home in Eskisehir...

He is holding a pipe we had commissioned him to make on behalf of a customer of ours to give as a gift. It was a beautiful floral saxophone pipe with the dental insignia on the front and "excellence in dentistry" carved in Latin around the lip of the bowl.

Truly an exceptional gentleman and and even more talented carver!