May 2009

Club Info & Events

Details of the April Meeting
The April meeting was very reminiscent of the days back at the Holiday Inn in Mansfield. We had a couple of full tables and the whole room was abuzz with new excitement and enthusiasm about pipes and tobaccos. I really believe our hobby is taking a turn in a positive direction. Maybe all this talk about tobacco regulations is backfiring and people are becoming curious to find out what this buzz is really all about. They will soon realize that there are lots of people in the world who are taking great pleasure in a much safer form of tobacco. Not one that is associated with addiction but rather with a reduction is stress, a close kinship to like minded friends and even complete strangers, a celebration of history, art and the quality of craftsmanship. We're young and old, rich and not so rich. We're doctors, lawyers, blue collar workers, professors, fireman, entrepreneurs, accountants, IT guys, college students and retired folks. Tobacco can be interesting, enjoyable and beneficial without being deadly. It's worth some investigation.

Kahn's Korner

A special note to our newbies:

All I wanted to do was to smoke a pipe. I just wanted to find a great tobacco, fill my pipe, light it and smoke my pipe. Then my friend told me that I'd need a few pipes, because, "You need to rotate them. To give them a rest." So I added a few more pipes. Then he said, "You gotta try this tobacco. It's sooo smoothe. No bite. Packs easy. Tastes great." So I did. Two days later my tongue was healed enough for me to go back to my regular tobac. Of course another friend told me about another tobacco that was sweet to the tongue and was a woman pleaser. So I had to try that. And it was off to the races.

Ten pipes, twenty, forty... Now pushing 200. Tobaccos? Well let's just say, if I stopped buying now at age 58, I would have enough to last me until my demise, assuming I only live until I'm 90. Tins, bags and pouches. Pinches and pounds of the stuff. Some I found the other day that I haven't looked at for three years, at least.

So let me tell you, newbies, what I have learned.
1) You don't HAVE to have 200 pipes. You'll want them. Show me a pipe smoker, and I'll show you a collector. Yes, if you smoke more than two bowls a day, you will need to have a pipe rotation, unless you smoke meers or clays. I like to think a rotation of at least 5 or 7, works pretty well.

2) Just because someone else loves the tobacco, doesn't mean you have to buy six tins, two pounds (To let it age.), or seventy pouches of each tobacco. If the one you love is no longer available, trust me, there will be another you'll find.

3) You don't have to have $500 pipes. The range beneath $250, has a plethera of pipes that will please your smoking pleasure. Will you eventually splurge for a fine pipe, handmade with fantastic grain? Yeah, probably, just don't go without food or gas to get it.

4) Don't be afraid of used pipes. So long as the pipes have been cared for, loved and treated well, they will still smoke like new. In some cases, better, because you won't have to break them in.

5) Support your local pipemaker. Yes, Tim Hynick is our local and goodness knows his stuff is fine. Encourage him because he deserves it. But there are other local pipemakers. Search them out and see how they improve. I have a couple of pipes that Bob Keiss made when he started out. He sold them at $25 each. They smoked well, and looked, well...... But he was learning, and he needed the encouragement. I now own two that I would consider wonderful smokers and real good lookers. Someone at the NY gathering borrowed the duckbill he made for me to check out the measurements. He was really pleased and asked for Bob's number.

6) OK, I'm a Condor nut. There aren't many of us in the U.S. but we're loyal as hell. Can't get it here. I have to have it brought in for me from the UK. Yes, I have some packed away. I also like Dark Flake Aromatic, so I have about 10 pounds packed away, and plan on getting a little more. But I'm also finding some new tobaccos because who knows what the do-gooders and our government are going to think of next to interfere with our hobby enjoyment.

7) I'm cutting down on the number of pipes that I plan on buying. I only plan to buy the club pipe and my Christmas Pipe (Make that Channukah.) Maybe a birthday pipe and anniversary pipe that the wife sometimes buys me. Then there will be the pipe that I get when I'm at Peekskill and Kaywoodie. Then I've been eyeing a couple of Skoda pipes, I hope he makes it there this year. Yeah, he's a little on the high side, but maybe I can get him down below $600, for that pipe I saw. I wonder if he'll have a buy on some of those handmades? And of course I'll take advantage of the second handers that so many sell there. Some of them go for as little as $25.

Oh, my god.... What am I saying???!! Listen..... Newbies...er... just... do as I say, not as I do.... I'm hooked... argghhghghg!