The Sultan Turkish Meerschaum

I looked out the back door at the letter box and sitting on top was probably the most anticipated parcel  ever.
I limped  down the stairs like an arthritic  51 year old on Christmas morning.

HAHAHA

I so love a case.
I was quite surprised by the size its huge.
Built like a guitar case.

Fits the case very nicely.

He's a good looking fella.
I like the hole between  his head and the sash on his turban   

What a profile.

If i trimmed my beard and had a turban.
At least we have the same color beard.

Nicely tapered bowl.
The last time it will be this white ever.

Great detail and its a sitter.

My first Lucite bit.

The first bowl gently packed and not to full.
Smoked  wonderfully.
Very cool. 

After 7 bowls.

I am going to smoke this pipe a lot.

I want to see some colour.

I have only handled it with cotton gloves.

Not sure if i can keep it up or not.

It would feel so good in the hand. 

Some say just have clean hands.

Now to become educated about waxing meerschaum pipes. 

Last but not least my thanks go to Hobo Hoot for this incredible gift.

It will be become a true friend.        

Coming soon the Sultan

This weeks new Tobacco

Eileen's Dream Irish cream & white chocolate truffles.
All i'm going to say is it was cheap and better then Borekum Ruff

Sounds better than it is.

Either way it's a weeks worth of nicotine. 

Carnauba wax first Pipe

Fired up the Hobo buff today running my drill at full speed and pressing hard i managed to transfer a little wax on to the wheel.
The wax is so hard the HH block is like a piece of plastic wow.

You can see the edge of the wax is rounded.
The wheel on top has the wax on it.  

I used the Barling as a test.
You really have to be careful now as producing enough friction to transfer the wax to pipe has its risks.
So full speed on the drill.
Press the pipe hard and hang on.
And keep the pipe moving
In the end i had a thin coating over the pipe hard to see it but you could feel it.

This is with out a doubt the next level of polishing. 

Dr Plumb is a bit out classed 

Then at slow speed i polished  the pipe.

In the flesh it looks like glass.

Carnauba wax experiment

I melted down some more carnauba wax yesterday. However, this time I placed it in the freezer to cool directly from the oven. Initially everything was fine, but then the wax cracked badly. No matter, back in the oven to remelt and then an hour or so cooling on the bench-top and everything was ok again.

As you can see the colour of the quick-cooled version is the same as the bench cooled version. The quick-cooled wax does have a slightly more consistent appearance. But I noticed that when I put the remelted wax on top of the cool (big) stove-top hotplate in my kitchen it cooled rapidly without cracking and also had a more consistent appearance.

I think the day that I did the original batch it was quite warm so the outer layers of wax had longer to cool and set before the middle layers started to cool and set. Not that it makes any difference I guess, but I am trying to make the highest quality product possible and every little thing may help. Let's see what HD can do with that initial block :)

Badly cracked but more consistent in colour. I'm quite impressed by how resilient carnauba seems to be, not even poor handling seems to change it's physical properties.

A perfect Meerschaum pipe

“A perfect Meerschaum pipe is decidedly 

one of the choicest and rarest gifts of 

the gods; but like all choice and rare 

gifts, it is a source of considerable 

anxiety to the owner. Like women, its, 

‘name is frailty.’ As originally taken in 

hand, and presented to the lips, nothing 

can exceed the loveliness of its looks—its 

delicious smoothness, its graceful 

rotundity of form, and apparent innocence 

from everything that can tarnish a 

reputation. But, alas! you take it as 

you take a wife, ‘for better and for 

worse;’ and again, alas! it does not fare 

better with the smoker and his Meerschaum 

than with man and wife.”

-The Smoker’s Guide, Philosopher and Friend 

A Veteran of Smokedom, 1876 

Wade Pipe stand

A very nice Wade made in England Pipe Rest

I think i might retire my Hobo 1/2 a Dunny roll stand.

Alexander Briar ebauchon - grain investigation

Well, I was keen to find out what the grain was like in the Alexander ebauchons, bring out the sander! After a few quick licks on my hobo sanding disc, and a wipe with some water, I was mightily impressed. Mr Zavvos, you have a quality product sir :)

Hobo sanding disc...check. Briar ebauchon...check.

Tentative light sanding...check. Possibility of nice grain...CHECK (getting very excited at this point, heart pounding).

Light wipe with water...check. Possibility of jumping around the yard screaming 'WAHOO!'  check check check CHECK CHECK!

WAHOO! Close-up, what can I say, got to be happy :)

Briar ebauchons from Alexander of Greece

Well, the day is finally here - I have briar! Below is the unboxing. Later this afternoon I'll sand back the sides of a block and look at the grain.

A couple of weeks ago my mother and father in-law were visiting and we took them to a local lookout. Down the side of the mountain was a discarded bakers tray...yes I climbed down to retrieve it...yes I snuck it into my boot so that my wife would not know...yes my father in-law was privy to my escapades...yes my wife found out (after I got it home hehehe)...yes I had an idea for it as soon as I saw it, read on!

E-day has arrived, after all those years of thinking about it I almost can't believe it's actually here!

I wonder how many will end up as pipes and how many will have fatal flaws, or how many I'll not drill correctly... time will tell I guess.

Ah, baker's tray - don't you love it when simple ideas work out perfectly?

Well ventilated, dry, heat source (roof) and away from potential wood-eating insects...the best I can do at this point. This will also allow me to tip the tray forwards to select pieces of briar - without having to take the whole thing down.

Carnauba Wax: Making Blocks

Today I made a 400g block of pure carnauba wax. My wife lost a cake tin, I gained experience with this new beast!

First, I measured 400g into a cake tin and placed it in an oven preheated to 180 degrees Celsius. As soon as it formed a pool (i.e. some wax melted but not all) I reduced the oven to 100 degrees. After half an hour the remaining wax still hadn't melted, I think the oven just wasn't hot enough. It's an old analogue oven, the thermostat may not have been reading accurately.

I bumped the temperature up to 130 degrees and everything melted inside 10 minutes  I didn't want to overheat the wax as I wasn't certain if it would change it's chemical properties. Once everything had turned liquid I removed the pan from the oven and let the wax cool down to room temperature. Once again, I'll experiment with this as I'm not sure if slow or quick cooling is desirable. In one of the photo's you can see that the area above a hotplate (not on, just where I put the pan) that the tin was sitting on cooled faster. In the finished block this area is slightly lighter in color, closer to the original flake color  Next time I'll put the pan in the fridge straight from the oven and see what happens!

Whilst in flake form, during cooking and once cooled the wax had quite a nice odor. My eyes did become slightly irritated though when I was crouched in front of the oven looking through the door. Air from inside the oven was being blown out the front and into my face. Still, I don't think it is terribly nasty in any way...although you never know.

when all was said and done I was happy with the result. I had originally intended to use a muffin try to make little pucks, but each puck would only have been around 30g (I measured it). I decided that it would be easier just to make one big block and then to cut chunks off of that as required.

Enjoy the pics :)

No sissy blocks around here mate...let's rock.

Hmmm...time to up the temperature, oven must have cooled too much...

Melt already, dammit...

Fuzzy yes, but you can see how the area in the bottom of the tin cooled quicker where it was touching the cold  hot-plate underneath.

Liquid gold, I was tempted to dunk a pipe in there...next time perhaps...

If you rotate this 90 degrees clockwise I swear you can see a man smoking a pipe...Jesus in a muffin eat your heart out!

Smooth...and you can see the area that cooled quicker...hmmm...

Hmmm..lost a gram somewhere, with the tin on there as well it wavered between 1 and 2 grams under...

Pipe Spotting

Alfred Hitchcock Presents  s4e21 Relative Value 1959

THEY WHO DARE 1953

Tobacco's i have smoked so far

Hoots black Flake mid to strong nicotine Good taste ****

A small sample from Italy HH gave me mid nicotine Great taste ***

Peterson's Sunset breeze. mild nicotine Good taste ***

Borkum Riff Cherry Urinal cake. low nicotine No stars

Borkum Riff Bourbon Whiskey tongue bite low nicotine No Stars

Borkum Riff Vanilla Cavendish smokable if desprate Low nicotine No Stars

Mac Baren Plumcake never again tongue bite bad flavor No Stars

Erinmore Flake mid to strong nicotine ok taste ***

Gallagher's irish cake hard plug very strong nicotine strong flavor ***

Samuel Gawith Chocolate Flake mid to strong nicotine great flavor *****

Peterson's 3P plug mid nicotine ok flavor ***

Wessex Gold Brick plug mid to strong nicotine pure tobacco taste ***

Rattray's Black Mallory mid nicotine nice flavor ****

Blakeney"s Best Latakia Flake strong nicotine strong flavor ****

MacBaren Honey & Chocolate mid to strong nicotine good flavor ****

CAO Eileen's Dream  2008 Mild Mild Mild **

MacBaren 7 Seas 2010 good taste good nicotine ****

McClelland No 22 2008 Vintage Ok taste good nicotine ***