A little house-keeping

I tried an over-the-counter allergy pill this morning that I'd never tried before. Good thing I did it on a Sunday. I have been completely out of it all day.

However, I did manage to clean up some pipes today, which I had been putting off. I still have a few pipes in the truck that need cleaning, but today's work got the old Wellington back in smoking shape.

As you can see above, I also printed up some nice labels for all my tobacco jars. Not all of them contain tobacco yet, but I got them ready for when I open the tins. It looks like I could fit 5 of those half-pint jars in one stack in my cabinet. Lots of room for cellaring leaf with the Pump & Seal. I didn't buy the half-pints locally; my step-mother gave them to me. I did buy some very squat full pint jars from Ball's "Elite" line, but they don't stack well. I think I'll just give them to her and call it a trade, and meanwhile keep my eye open for more of these half-pint jars.

The white plastic dish at front right is my loading dish. I hold my pipe in it or over it when I'm loading it to catch the leaf that falls.


Here's another overhead shelf and as you can see, it isn't a very efficient use of space. But I did want to keep several of my most frequently used pipes near at hand. I think I will re-arrange it to put tobacco jars on the top shelf. The bale jar on top contains only a few dregs of something. The other jars on top are empty since they don't have any kind of air-tight(ish) seal. I just use them for pipe racks.


Here is the bookshelf to the right of my computer desk that I am planning on dedicating to pipes & accessories. Most of my Kaywoodies in the rack on the right, along with several pipes that I don't smoke very often and one pipe that I do smoke often but simply won't fit on any other rack, cleaning stuff on the bottom and some miscellaneous bits & pieces in the middle. Empty tins up on top.

Oh yes, and the owls. But the owls are not what they seem.

How am I ever going to fit this in my pipe rack?

Receiving a package today from my good friend Brer of Power Of Babel. The "bleeding heart" tomahawk pipe from atlantacutlery.com. At 22 inches long, this is definitely a two-fisted pipe. It only has a false edge, but I suppose I could sharpen it in case I ever need to split any white-eye's skulls.

Why a heart? Why, because it's full of mercy, of course.

S.M. Frank-era Kaywoodie Red Root straight rusticated apple

This is a pipe that I had previously categorized as for sale, but I have decided to add it to my collection.

This is a Kaywoodie Red Root. The Red Root is not a part of the original Kaywoodie line. It is a style of pipe that was introduced by S.M. Frank after that company purchased Kaywoodie. All the Red Roots I have seen have a similar reddish-brown rusticated finish and the fancy screw-in bit. Fortunately, the previous owner saw no need to mutilate this one and it still has its three-hole stinger intact.

When I decided to collect Kaywoodies, I had at first thought I would focus only on the "originals." But what the hey, I'll keep some representatives of the latter-day pipes in the collection, too.

I took this shot from the top to show what's left of the Frank-era cloverleaf logo. These pipes have only a white outline of the cloverleaf and it wears off very easily, as you can see.

There are some light tooth scuffs on the bit, but otherwise this is still a good old pipe.

Kaywoodie Campus Dublin

click to enlarge

The Campus was a Kaywoodie line of smaller-and-lighter-than-usual pipes, with a purpose. A purpose that, in my opinion, doubles as a gimmick.

The Campus pipes were supposedly intended to be used by college students and professors to get a quick smoke during breaks between classes. Small enough to fit handily in a pocket, and small bowl volume to produce a shorter smoke. This one is equipped with the usual screw stem and a 3-hole stinger.

In reality (in my opinion, of course) pipes made like this are usually too small. They don't have a lot of mass in the stummel, and have thin bowl walls, therefore they smoke hot. But, I should admit that I haven't actually smoked this one yet, so I may yet be proved wrong.

Someone had been smoking this one, but lightly. It had minimal cake and only light tooth scuffs on the bit. A small build-up of unburned leaves in the bottom suggests that the previous owner rarely finished the bowl. I would hazard a guess because it was uncomfortably warm by the time he got that far. It had barely any tar on the rim and the inside of the shank produced hardly any black stuff at all. I did give it a light reaming, since the upper part of the bowl had a disproportionately thicker cake than the bottom--more evidence that the previous owner had trouble finishing the bowl.

This pipe is so light, you might forget you have it in your mouth. At about 13cm in length, it weighs only 16 grams (about 1/2 ounce).

I'll be giving this one a trial run this week sometime, just so I can offer an honest opinion on how it smokes, but I can't see making this one part of my regular rotation.

UPDATE: Okay, I gave it a whirl. It did provide a very short smoke (20 minutes or so), and the bowl got so hot I had to hold it by the shank. Maybe it would perform better for someone who is not such an aggressive puffer as I. This one will go on the shelf as part of my Kaywoodie collection, but I doubt I'll be reaching for it very often.

Kaywoodie #13B Drinkless author

Another part of my small Kaywoodie collection, and the last pipe I ever took a picture of with my old scanner. From now on, I'll have to try and take decent photos of everything.

This one is at the lowest rung of the Kaywoodie ladder, the Drinkless. Another find from an eBay lot that I didn't smoke much at first because I wasn't used to the unusually wide bowl mouth, this has become one of my favorites and is part of my regular rotation. The stummel and stem line up perfectly and it still has its 3-hole stinger intact. I also think the author shape is just one of the sweetest pipe shapes ever created.

Since acquiring this pipe, I have been on the lookout for higher grades of Kaywoodies in the author shape, but so far, no luck.

And that just about finishes out my current collection. I'll be going through my boxes and picking out more pipes to work on, and I'll be getting some stems fitted to some stummels pretty soon. I'll also be watching eBay for promising items, ordering some new tobaccos and commenting on them. So stay tuned, and thank you to everyone who has been reading the blog.

William Demuth Co. Wellington

Here's a scannergraph of the old Wellington not long after I brought it back from the brink of oblivion. It was part of an eBay lot and I immediately decided it was a keeper, because I had no other pipe like it.

The Wellington is the WDC copy of the Peterson System pipe. Here's a cutaway diagram that I snagged from Pipe & Pouch to help explain this pipe's design.

The bit, rather than connecting directly to the bowl via the shank, fits into a sort of pocket or reservoir where the air sort of swirls around as it goes into the bowl. The upper air passage goes on into the bowl, and the bottom reservoir collects moisture. This looks like another odd gimmick, but in my opinion, this one works very well. Of course, it requires additional attention when cleaning. I use a cotton swab to clean out the reservoir, and pipe cleaners as usual to clean the air passage.


Another thing about the Wellington (and other Peterson copies) is the military bit. Rather than the traditional tenon/mortise arrangement, the bit simply tapers down slightly and wedges into the shank, remaining in place from the pressure of insertion. This design makes it safe to remove the bit while the pipe is still warm--something that is not a good thing with a tenon/mortise design.

A third thing that sets the Wellington/Peterson pipes apart is the button on the bit. Go back and look at the first photo as well as the cutaway graphic and pay attention to the end of the bit. This is a bit design created by Peterson and is called the P-lip. The hole is on top of the button rather than in the very end, and is angled upward to direct smoke toward the roof of the mouth rather than straight into the tongue. Also, the curved underside of the bottom helps to prevent the tongue from touching the opening of the air passage. The upward-pointing opening is supposed to help prevent tongue-bite, and the curved "tongue shield" helps keep saliva from getting into the stem by being touched with the tongue (something that is a troublesome unconscious reflex for some pipe smokers).

Some people hate the P-lip because it feels different. I have no special preference nor objection to it, at all. To me it's just another bit. The P-lip bit does have a more rounded shape than most bits, and it does feel somewhat different, but it's nothing that anyone shouldn't be able to get used to.

This old Wellington has become one of my favorite pipes. It's size and deep bend gives it an impressive appearance and a comfortably low center of gravity. As you can see in the second photo, I have managed to wear off some of the finish since it came into my hands, and I will eventually be refinishing this one. Meanwhile, this is one of my regular truck pipes and I often smoke it on the long commute home in the afternoon. If I manage to come across any more of these pipes in my eBay adventures, I will probably keep them all--at least until I build up a good week's worth of pipes for rotation.

FYI, Kaywoodie also had a copy of the Peterson System pipe, called the Chesterfield. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to acquire one of those yet.

Kirsten

I think the most I ever paid for a pipe was for this Kirsten (click to enlarge). The above photo is a "scannergraph" from my old scanner. There was a lot of discussion going on at the time on alt.smokers.pipes, and I decided I needed to get one to see what all the fuss was about.

I don't smoke it often, but I find it very useful for a specific purpose. The aluminum barrel can't become seasoned, obviously. I like to use the Kirsten when trying out new tobaccos so I can get a more objective impression. If I use a briar pipe, the smoke will likely be biased by whatever I usually smoke in that pipe.


I couldn't get a good picture today because the barrel kept overexposing, but here's a picture of the Kirsten pipe disassembled. The cap and the bit fit snugly via rubber o-rings, and the cap has a hole that lines up on the hole in the barrel. You can twist the cap slightly to one side and seal the bowl off from the barrel so the condensed punk in there doesn't get a chance to run back into the bowl before you get a chance to clean it. To clean the barrel, you just fold up a small piece of tissue paper and ram it through with the rod on the bit.

Kirsten sells a wide variety of bowl finishes and sizes, so you can go to a larger or smaller bowl by simply screwing on a new bowl. They also sell meerschaum bowls, if that's your thing. No need to rest the Kirsten between smokes. Just wipe it out and keep going.

The Kirsten is perhaps the ultimate gimmick pipe. It is not the only pipe made with an aluminum "shank," but it is, perhaps, one of the best quality aluminum pipes you can get. The few Falcons I've seen seem quite flimsy by comparison.

I would not recommend a Kirsten for a new pipe smoker--get yourself a few decent briars first. But as I said, the Kirsten for me fills a valuable position as a "try-out pipe."

Yello-Bole Chinrester billiard

This is the last of the four pipes that I purchased together at an estate sale in the mid-90s. This is not a fantastic pipe, but it's serviceable. I bought it mostly because at the time I had never even heard of a Chinrester, and didn't know then that it had a special name. I just bought it because it was different. Yello-Bole was the seconds line for Kaywoodie, so Yello-Bole pipes are very similar in shapes and gimmicks to Kaywoodies.


This is also a Carburetor pipe. The Carburetor was another gimmick side-line that Kaywoodie used. They put a tiny aluminum pipe in the bottom center of the bowl. It extends a few millimeters up into the bowl so cleaning out the very bottom of the bowl is a little tricky because you have to clean around it. I also recommend running a pipe cleaner through the Carburetor to keep it from gunking up. The theory was that in addition to the "hot" air that came from drawing air down through the burning tobacco, a very small amount of "cool" air was also drawn in from the bottom through the Carburetor to "cool the smoke," you know, the usual.

I don't think the Carburetor makes any difference. I will say, however, that this is by far the most comfortable straight pipe I have--and yeah, it's more comfortable than some of my bents. If I had the wherewithal to make my own stems, I would put a chinrester stem on every straight pipe I have. The drawback, of course, is that it's impossible to slide a pipe cleaner down the stem into the shank to sop up excess moisture during a smoke. But still, as far as I'm concerned the comfortability makes up for that.

Another unusual thing about this pipe is that it was made in France. The vast majority of Kaywoodies and Yello-Boles were made in the United States. So this old pipe has three things going for it that will keep it in my collection: the chinrester stem, the carburetor, and being a vintage Yello-Bole that was not made in the U.S.

These four pipes together (the Tyrolean, the Ben Wade, the Longchamps, and this one) were what originally prompted me to begin attempting to actually refurbish pipes--going above and beyond mere cleaning. I never thought I'd begin a new hobby of actually trying to salvage old and abused pipes, but it has been a lot of fun and I've learned a lot about pipes just from handling so many different brands and shapes.

Longchamps Canadian

Purchased at the same time as the Ben Wade and the Tyrolean. The previous owner had quit pipe smoking to please his new bride, and this was one of his oldest pipes. It was originally purchased new in France in 1951.

Longchamps is a French pipe company that makes pipes that are covered with some sort of animal hide. This one is covered with pigskin. I've also seen some that were jacketed with horse-hide including the hair, which to me looked kind of strange.

This one took significant cleaning and a couple of salt treatments. Even now, it is not a pipe I smoke very often, but then I don't usually select straight pipes and I haven't really gotten this one re-seasoned in the last several years since I've owned it. It will remain part of my collection as an example of a leather-covered Longchamps pipe.

Ben Wade Chesham bent billiard

Ben Wade was another English pipe maker that was at some point bought by Charatan. After the Charatan takeover, Ben Wade was used as a Charatan seconds line. I don't know if this Ben Wade is an original or a Charatan second, but either way, it's a great pipe.

This pipe was another that I purchased at the same estate sale where I acquired the Tyrolean. Actually, this pipe was free. I had already purchased an antique pipe rack. Very nice pipe rack, by the way. It has two six-pipe racks on top with a brass humidor in between, and two small drawers underneath. I had also selected the Tyrolean and two other pipes, so the seller told me to pick out any other pipe I wanted for free, and I took this one. All the pipes were dirty and fairly caked up, but this one really turned out well and has become one of my favorite pipes. It was one of the pipes I spent a good deal of time on this morning, because I had allowed the cake to build up so much that the bowl volume was probably cut in half. I do want to replace the stem eventually because I'm a pretty heavy biter and I've managed to bite a small hole in the top of the bit, but there's no nomenclature on the bit so I'm not going to feel bad about it.

I'm running a bowl of C&D's Bayou Night through it right now and this morning's reaming has returned it to fine smoking form.

Velani Octagon

The last, but not the least, of the batch of Velanis that I purchased together by mail-order several years ago. I got these back when I was still occasionally smoking a couple of aromatics, and for a while I used this one only for such tobaccos. It has long since been salt-treated to remove any candyish flavors and converted to smoking natural blends. Some glaring fills are visible beneath the finish, but it will smokes quite well and is often used for Perique blends, like most of my primary rotation.

It's called an "Octagon" because the shank is octagonal, although the corners are rounded so it isn't obvious. I don't know what to call the shape of this bowl.

A couple of more nondescript pipes

Tomorrow morning I intend to post the last Velani, and following that will go into some more interesting estate pipes that I have. I thought I'd go ahead and get these two out of the way.

This was a cheap basket pipe that I purchased at The Humidor back in the early days. It had a very heavy finish. Not just a stain. I think it was actually varnished or something. It's one of those unnamed Italian pipes, and it was easy to see why it had such a heavy finish. As most cheap pipes do, it has some quite hideous fills. This was also my first time at doing something to a pipe. I used some fine-grit sandpaper to remove the entire finish and return it to its original naked state. It helped the briar to breathe better and it does smoke better now, but it's just an ugly pipe and nothing will ever change that. I still have some very fine (2000 grit) sandpaper that I purchased for another project. I'll probably give this pipe a once-over with it to remove the wax from its last polishing and then stain it to make it more presentable.

Everyone should have at least one corncob pipe. I don't use this one often, and I have a some specific gripes about it. I don't like the way the shank extends into the bowl so that the bowl doesn't have a smooth bottom. I also don't like the cheap nylon bit they put on these, and I hate the filter pipes. The air passage is so huge that you have to use a filter or you'll suck ash. As you can see, I put a fresh filter in this one the last time I cleaned it, and that's my last filter. If I ever smoke this one again I'll have to buy more. This is the pipe I used for the Half & Half Incident. I thought about just throwing it away after that, after all it was only a cheap 'cob, but I later tried it with some real tobacco and it wasn't permanently contaminated.

Missouri Meerschaum does make some better-quality 'cobs, but unfortunately I've never seen any of the better ones at any tobacconist's around here.

A quick perusal of the Missouri Meerschaum website yields some interesting information. While the corn industry manipulated corn to produce more and more kernels with smaller and smaller cobs, the corncob pipe industry did just the opposite: engineering corn to produce larger and larger cobs suitable for smoking pipes. They also have to use vintage equipment to remove the kernels because modern equipment is designed to break apart the cobs. They own 150 acres of farmland which they use to produce corn for pipes, and they sometimes contract additional land from area farmers. The factory in Washington, Missouri operates 5 days per week, producing 5,000 pipes per day. That's a whole lotta pipes.

Velani #67 bent Dublin

Another of the group of Velanis that I purchased all at once. This one is a nice big Dublin with very thick bowl walls. I've smoked just about everything in it and it's one of my favorite pipes.

I've been sick this week, with one of those colds that goes straight for my sinuses, so I've been forsaking the briar for the past few days. Here's hoping I'm over it by the weekend. Writing up a long, thoughtful post about pipe smoking is no fun without a pipe to smoke.

Velani #69 bent acorn

Working my way through the Velanis, here's a bent with what I call an acorn-shaped bowl. As with the others, this pipe is one of the five that I purchased at the same time. One of the others, as well as the Canadian that I sold, have this same kind of transparent lucite stem. I think it looks really sharp.

I've always smoked a variety of natural blends (non-aromatic) in this pipe. It's one of my most frequently-used pipes and is part of my regular rotation.

Velani Fumata #75 bent billiard

Back in those early years, my collection was still quite small and I desperately needed a larger rotation. Word spread on alt.smokers.pipes that the Aldo Velani company of Italy was having some kind of "clearance" sale on pipes. I remember there being some controversy about this, but I don't remember any details. All I knew at the time was: good pipes, cheap. I ordered five pipes for about $65. One of them, a Canadian, I later sold because I was smoking it so rarely. The other four are bents of various styles and I still have them. They are all still part of my regular rotation.

The above pipe was one of the most frequently smoked. I used it so often that I wore off some of the finish. It doesn't look like that anymore. Before I use it again, I will have to perform a complete refurbishing. Also, I managed to break the tenon, so this is another pipe that I will need to send away for stem repair. I doubt that I will be able to accurately reproduce the shaded, two-tone finish, but I'm sure it will look just as well with a single color stain. Before I begin work on it, I will post a current photo so I can document my "before" and "after."

Since my favorite smokes tend to be quite robust and heavy in Perique, this pipe is used for robust Perique blends, and will remain part of my permanent collection.

Kaywoodie #90 Standard lovat

click to enlarge

Back when I was more concerned with turning a profit than with simply collecting every Kaywoodie shape I could find, I acquired a beautiful Prime Grain Kaywoodie in the same lovat shape as above. If I recall correctly, I sold it for $20, which pretty much paid for the whole lot that it came in. As time went by, I came to regret that sale, and determined that I would try to find a replacement for it. Eventually this one came up on eBay.

Oh, it was in sad shape, and I shelled out $10 for it. When I first received it I thought I had snookered myself, but with diligent cleaning, reaming, and a couple of salt treatments, it began to sparkle like the fine old pipe it is.

As hard as it is to accurately date Kaywoodie pipes, this one has proved to be especially hard for me. It is generally considered that the more holes the stinger has, the older it is, and 4-hole stingers are generally more desirable to Kaywoodie collectors than 2- or 3-hole. Going by the stinger, I would estimate this pipe to have come from the 1940s, but I'm not sure they had yet begun using the term "Standard" grain until the 1960s. So I'm just not sure.

click to enlarge

This pipe has a 4-hole stinger. You can see only two of the holes in this photo, but if I were to display a reverse shot, you would see the other two. If you enlarge it, you may also be able to discern the word "DRINKLESS" stamped on the stinger itself. This is because Kaywoodie used the term "Drinkless" as a generic term to refer to their trademark stinger design in the earlier years. Later, "Drinkless" became an actual grade (the lowest) of Kaywoodie pipes. This is the only Kaywoodie I have personally seen that has "DRINKLESS" stamped on the stinger itself.

Nomenclature on this pipe is "KAYWOODIE" over "Standard" (in script) on the left shank, with the number "90" on the right shank. 90 means Kaywoodie designated this shape as a medium Canadian. Kaywoodie regarded all shapes of the Canadian family as "Canadian" regardless of the shank and bit shapes.

Someday, if I manage to find another Prime Grain in this shape, I might consider selling this one. But until then, this one remains part of my collection and is part of my semi-regular rotation.

Smokemaster rusticated bent billiard

Here is the third pipe that I purchased from the Blue Ridge place mentioned in the previous post. They had several Smokemasters in their catalog; I've also seen a few on eBay now and then. Smokemasters come in a variety of shapes and finishes. In my regular postings of vintage pipe ads on my other blog I often talk about what I call "gimmick pipes." By which I mean pipes that have some sort of odd gimmick that's supposed to improve flavor, reduce tongue-bite, cool the smoke, etc., etc. The Smokemaster has a gimmick stem. The stem on this pipe is not original.

The stem of the Smokemaster has an special aluminum insert. The gimmick is that you take a standard-length pipe cleaner, bend it exactly in the center, and stick the ends up into the aluminum insert so that the pipe is using a pipe cleaner for a filter. Sounds good in theory, at least to a novice, but perhaps someone more experienced (such as myself, I add humbly) will tell you that this sounds like a really good moisture trap and will actually make the smoke wetter and more likely to bite.

I did smoke this pipe as it was intended until I decided that it was just a waste of good pipe cleaners, then I just smoked it without. Until one day I accidentally sat on it and broke the stem. So I had it replaced with a plain old traditional stem. The original stem was a taper; as you can see, this one is a saddle bit. I think it looks better this way.

I began smoking this pipe with aromatics many years ago, but when I dropped aromatics I gave this one the salt treatment and switched it to latakia blends. Since then I have used it for both latakia and Perique blends without any qualms. It's just a good pipe. I keep this one in my truck most of the time and it's part of my regular rotation, but it's about time to give it a good stem bleach and buff & wax, because it's starting to look a little dingy. The above scanner photo was taken a few years ago after such a cleaning.

Unnamed Italian bent billiard sandblast

I'll see if I can keep posting one pipe per day from my "keeper" collection until I run out. After that, we'll see how things go. This particular 'blast was the only other pipe besides the Irish Second that I purchased at a store instead of online or mail-order. It was also purchased at The Humidor, and it was on the day my son was born.

I didn't start out that morning planning to buy a pipe. But after all the excitement was more or less over, my wife suggested (rather strongly) that I get out "for a few hours and get something to eat or go to the mall or something." I guess she was tired of my hanging around the hospital room and being a nuisance. So I did get something to eat, but still had plenty of time to kill. I ended up at The Humidor poring over their cheap pipe rack for a long time. I finally decided on this $15 unmarked sandblast. The only nomenclature is the word "ITALY," much like any number of other unnamed pipes.

It had a problem that I noticed during the first couple of bowls. There was a tiny pinhole in the briar which apparently went all the way through the bowl wall. I only discovered it because I noticed a tiny droplet of moisture bubbling out during the smoke. But after a few bowls worth of cake got built up, that problem vanished and has never recurred.

Anyway, unlike the time a few years before when I had bought the Irish Second, this time they offered me a free bowl of tobacco with my new pipe. So I had them load me up with some of their Balkan Texas Style (a fairly robust latakia blend) and enjoyed my new pipe on the drive back across town to the hospital.

I generally avoid Perique blends with this pipe, since I have more or less dedicated it to latakia blends. It is the only sandblast in my collection, and is one of my most frequently-used pipes.

Charatan Canadian Selected

Sometimes you just get lucky. (Click to enlarge for both photos).


Found in an eBay lot of otherwise serviceable but unremarkable pipes was this bitless Charatan in the Canadian shape. I cleaned it up inside and out, but have not yet bothered to give it a buff and wax. I might give the rim a little more attention and see if I can make it sparkle.

Nomenclature on the top of the shank is "CHARATAN'S MAKE" over "LONDON, ENGLAND" and "SELECTED" just beneath that.

According to this article by Ivy Ryan, the Selected grade was second from the top, eclipsed only by the Supreme. Unfortunately this one no longer had the original bit, which may have had further nomenclature on it. Even without the bit, this is probably the most valuable pipe in my collection, and is yet another one that I am looking forward to getting fitted for a new bit.

NOTE: I first read the linked article on Charatan pipes some time ago and saved it to my computer. I don't recall where I originally saw it, but found this newer link just now. I did not know there was a Pipedia.

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.