"Carl's Lounge" (Off-Topic Discussion, Traditional Knife "Tales & Vignettes")

pmew said:
That would be fantastic, Jack!
I'll make sure I'm seen using it in the station :)
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LOL! It'll make your Peanut look huge Paul! :D I'll try to get it in the post this week :)
 
When I smoke a pipe I more often than not reach for a Missouri Meerschaum Legend cop. Those in the know will tell you a cob smokes cooler than most any other pipe and are quickly broken in. I do sometimes get odd looks and/or comments when smoking a cob. I just chalk that up to them not having a clue (though I don't say so).

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I've now given away most of my briars, and am left with only four. Can't stand breaking in most briar pipes as the tannins still left after air curing is just nasty. I prefer oil cured for new briar pipes because oil curing removes much more of the tannins from the briar. Of the four briars I kept, it's no coincidence that two are Randy Wileys which were oil cured.

Pipes.JPG


So I'm down to four briars and two tobaks. Samuel Gawith's Squadron Leader and Esoterica's Penzance.
 
I don't know, cobs are okay, and give a very nice smoke for a moderate price. I'v had a few MM's, and my main complaint is that the cobs have a tendency to burn through. The absolute best smoke I've had was from well broken in meerschaums. I've got a couple that are over 50 years old, and a few that are as new as 10 years old. Once a nice cake is built up inside, they are a fabulous smoke. If I had to go into exile on some island and could only take one pipe with me, I'd make it a meerschaum.

For the absolute coolest smoke, a meerschaum lined calabash can't be beat. The two on the right were brought back from England just after WW2. I still smoke them now and then, and it's a fabulous experience.

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I've had meerschaum, but since like to take my pipes from the warm indoors to the freezing outdoors, I worry about cracking them. Also I was always taught to not let a cake develop in a meerschaum since a properly formed cake is harder than meerschaum and will expand when the chamber is heated particularly in meerschaums with thin walls. Plus since meerschaum doesn't burn it doesn't really need a cake.
 
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There's a lot of myth and outright mis-information on meerschaums out there. They are not near as delicate as people make them out to be. I've taken them out into the cold of winter and heat of summer and back indoors again with no cracking. It all depends on how the pipe is made. One of those meerschaums with a very thin walled bowel so that it looks more like porcelain or clay than meerschaum is delicate. I stay away from those. And I don't let a thick cake build up in the bowl, just alight one. A new or uncaked meerschaum is a bland smoke. And the meerschaum expands with the heat, it is not a rigid material.

The one below was used by Bill Moran for a period of decades, including on hunting trips out in Colorado where his friend Hanford Miller had place up near the Wyoming border. I've used it since, both outdoors and in, and there's nary a crack anywhere. Bill was a very prodigious pipe smoker, and experimented with meerschaums for years. Sometimes he'd pick ut a meerschaum and then subject it to his tst. This included smoking it everyday, smoke it while shoveling snow, and not even cleaning it well. He found that many of the myths about meerschaums were just that, myths, and that meerschaum was in many ways one of the most forgiving pipe materials. Yes, you do not ever want to knock out a meerschaum when it's still hot, or anytime for that matter. But as far as temperature changes, they are not that delicate at all.

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Nice pipes Carl, I think you may be right about Meerschaums not being as delicate as some people think, my father smoked one for 20-odd years, and he's one of the most careless people I've ever met, he can break everything but a sweat! :D
 
Jack Black said:
Nice pipes Carl, I think you may be right about Meerschaums not being as delicate as some people think, my father smoked one for 20-odd years, and he's one of the most careless people I've ever met, he can break everything but a sweat! :D
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I used to have a cracked one from my great uncle who smoked pipes for more than 50 years. He and Dad were the ones who warned me.
 
The last day of August was my parents Ruby wedding anniversary. How they managed 40 years with each other is amazing! This approaching weekend they will be having a celebration down in Englandshire, so today I put the dogs into the kennels for a week. I hate being without them, but it's easier on everyone (especially them) this way. We have packed the wagon and will leave at first light for the early ferry to the mainland. 30mph winds just, so it won't be a bad crossing really but what is normally one long drive will be two days because with a pregnant Claire it will be easier on her to stay with friends in Carlisle.

It's odd. I absolutely love travelling. But I hate this kind of trip. Why is that I wonder?
 
Because you are still their sweet little baby ,mate .Thats why.
I'm 50 this year and my Mum and Dad have only just recognised that I'm not an out of control tearaway anymore,that I have more children than them AND I'm a better parent along with Janette of course.
Hahah my Dad does anyway, not sure about Mum-she has zero diplomacy skills.
So take a deep breath of cool Grimshader air before you embark and prepare yourself for lots of out of date advice on what to do with babies. I'm betting the left one Claire will give you "that look" the one we get when they can't reach to kick us under the table -at some stage.
Safe Trip take it slow.:p
 
pmew said:
The last day of August was my parents Ruby wedding anniversary. How they managed 40 years with each other is amazing! This approaching weekend they will be having a celebration down in Englandshire, so today I put the dogs into the kennels for a week. I hate being without them, but it's easier on everyone (especially them) this way. We have packed the wagon and will leave at first light for the early ferry to the mainland. 30mph winds just, so it won't be a bad crossing really but what is normally one long drive will be two days because with a pregnant Claire it will be easier on her to stay with friends in Carlisle.

It's odd. I absolutely love travelling. But I hate this kind of trip. Why is that I wonder?
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Hope the three of you have a safe trip Paul, I hope your family are well, and good luck my friend, I know just how you feel! :D :thumbup:

Jack
 
jackknife said:
There's a lot of myth and outright mis-information on meerschaums out there. They are not near as delicate as people make them out to be. I've taken them out into the cold of winter and heat of summer and back indoors again with no cracking. It all depends on how the pipe is made. One of those meerschaums with a very thin walled bowel so that it looks more like porcelain or clay than meerschaum is delicate. I stay away from those. And I don't let a thick cake build up in the bowl, just alight one. A new or uncaked meerschaum is a bland smoke. And the meerschaum expands with the heat, it is not a rigid material.

The one below was used by Bill Moran for a period of decades, including on hunting trips out in Colorado where his friend Hanford Miller had place up near the Wyoming border. I've used it since, both outdoors and in, and there's nary a crack anywhere. Bill was a very prodigious pipe smoker, and experimented with meerschaums for years. Sometimes he'd pick ut a meerschaum and then subject it to his tst. This included smoking it everyday, smoke it while shoveling snow, and not even cleaning it well. He found that many of the myths about meerschaums were just that, myths, and that meerschaum was in many ways one of the most forgiving pipe materials. Yes, you do not ever want to knock out a meerschaum when it's still hot, or anytime for that matter. But as far as temperature changes, they are not that delicate at all.

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Pipe's are OK, used to smoke but not for 15 years, couldn't get Balkan Sobranie Flake anymore...:mad:

But that knife!!! Great mellow Stag on that Hen & R, wonderful looker. Who needs any old pipes?? :D Pan maybe....:D:D:thumbup:

Regards, Will
 
The Balkan Sobranie you are talking about... I found some mixture on the other side of the river in Austria last year. But there was none this year. Eventually it has left the planet forever. I doubt it was the original recepture, but it tasted quite great. :D

As well as the original Erinmore flake ... and many other great old pipe tobaccos are not longer here.
 
That's one reason I packed it in Andi, it was getting so difficult to find what I liked. Balkan Sobranie Flake used to come in flat green tins (why didn't I keep even one???) and somehow it had this unique smell and flavour like rich cake! As for Erinmore...well er...I never took to thay, it had this very distnct odd soapy taste! But, that's what WAS so great about pipe tobacco so many varieties to suit many tastes. Cigarettes never had that much variation, although I did like French and Russian types sometimes.' Les vrais paradise sont les paradise qu'on a perdus' as I think the French would have said, or something like it:D:eek:
 
willgoy said:
That's one reason I packed it in Andi, it was getting so difficult to find what I liked. Balkan Sobranie Flake used to come in flat green tins (why didn't I keep even one???) and somehow it had this unique smell and flavour like rich cake! As for Erinmore...well er...I never took to thay, it had this very distnct odd soapy taste! But, that's what WAS so great about pipe tobacco so many varieties to suit many tastes. Cigarettes never had that much variation, although I did like French and Russian types sometimes.' Les vrais paradise sont les paradise qu'on a perdus' as I think the French would have said, or something like it:D:eek:
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100 % agreed. I was not able to tast the "old" tobaccos due to my age but the great thing about pipe tobacco in general is the great variety. I stopped smoking cigarettes more than a year ago and I just feel great not be addicted to those coffin nails (as we say in Germany). Smoking pipe is just great to celebrate a good day with a beverage and an hour of silence :)

About the "old" tobaccos, I was able to get a can of the Escudo rope cut tobacco when I started smoking pipe. Later I got the Dunhill Deluxe Navy Rolls (that tasted nearly the same) and I heavily enjoyed it as my Every Day Smoke. Man, I loved that tobacco. Now it is hard to get but I still have about ten cans still stored for special occasion. I opened one on February this year when my son was born and celebrate that with my best friend and a good bottle of 18 years old Glenlivet Single Malt. :D

Now I use to smoke roundabout one pipe per week and I really enjoy this.
 
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Heya, folks.

Just wanted to say "Hi" again, after a little bit of an absence. Since pretty much the beginning of summer, I've had little chance to spend any time around these parts, nor have I had much opportunity to focus on this hobby that we share. My work has had me traveling all over the place -- up to NY and ME, down to SC, GA and FL, around the Gulf to LA and TX -- and most recently I just returned from a personal vacation trip to the desert in NV where I had absolutely no cell signal (much less a computer to tap into the web). Never fear, I haven't been neglecting my cutlery... (!!!) A good knife or three have accompanied me on my travels, of course -- essential gear, don'cha know? :D

Anyway, I'm looking forward to getting back into the community here, rejoining you gentle folk for some chats and some laughs, and catching up on all that I must have missed.

Nice to be back! Now, to go catch up on some reading...... ;) :thumbup:

Alex
 
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