Irish Second bent billiard

This is one of the few pipes I have that I purchased in an actual brick & mortar store (The Humidor on San Pedro). The Irish Second is the brand given to the seconds line of Peterson pipes. Irish Seconds are in general very good pipes, although less expensive than Petersons.

It's too bad I didn't get a picture of this pipe when it was new, because it had a virgin finish. That is, it had a wax polish but nothing else. No stain or anything, and was as blond as the ebauchon I blogged about recently. The dark coloration of this pipe is due solely to the absorption of tobacco oils.

This was one of the first pipes I purchased, back when I was still smoking aromatics (artificially flavored tobaccos). The first few bowls were a plain vanilla burley that the Humidor sold back then. After that I was converted and gave up aromatics. Starting with the fourth or fifth bowl, this pipe was dedicated to a single blend: Yale Mixture from Cornell & Diehl. Yale is a Virginia/latakia blend and for a long time it was my favorite smoke. I still keep this pipe dedicated to latakia blends. Since Yale is still my favorite latakia, this pipe is still used to smoke almost nothing but Yale Mixture. But I will use it for any blend that is primarily Virginia and latakia.

If you are looking for an inexpensive but very good quality pipe, you can't go wrong with an Irish Second (in my opinion). But this one is a treasured part of my own collection.