Santa smokes a pipe #43 (1920)

The problem with the world today is that almost everyone who reads this is immediately going to think of making a dirty joke about it--that's how cynical we are, and it's our loss.

Santa smokes a pipe #42 (1919)

Another Santa from 1919. This time Santa has spent a little too much time taking a pipe break and is about to get caught!

Santa smokes a pipe #41 (1919)

Another Santa with a somewhat sly and off-putting grin. Possibly the same artist as the creepy Santa from several days ago? From 1919.

Santa smokes a pipe #40 (1916)

Santa smokes a pipe #39 (1915)

Santa smokes a pipe #38 (1915)

Santa smokes a pipe #37 (1913)

Santa smokes a pipe #36 (1911)

Santa smokes a pipe #35 (1909)

Santa smokes a pipe #34 (1908)

Santa smokes a pipe #33 (1914)

Santa smokes a pipe #32 (1912)

Santa smokes a pipe #31 (1911)

Santa smokes a pipe #30 (1910)

I've seen this one before, and skipped over it because this is one creepy-looking Santa. But now I'm sharing it with you. From 1910.

Santa smokes a pipe #29 (1910)

A rather grumpy-looking Santa from 1910.

Santa smokes a pipe #28 (1910)

Santa with a clay from 1910.

Santa smokes a pipe #27 (1910)

I am trying not to post any duplicates of images already posted. This one looks awfully familiar, but in looking through my old posts I don't think it's a duplicate. Santa with a porcelain-bowl pipe from 1910.

Santa smokes a pipe #26 (1908)

In keeping with a previous custom of posting vintage pictures of Santa Claus smoking a pipe, here is the first one of this year for your enjoyment.

The Bertram is back!

Although I am not currently able to take any new photos of this pipe, you can see my previous posts and some pictures of it here and here. This was a pipe that I rescued from an eBay lot of estate pipes and did some serious refurbishing/refinishing on. However, the previous owner had badly bitten through the stem and it needed a replacement stem. Quite some time ago, I took it to a local area shop to have the stem replaced.

And then I forgot about it. Today I was working in the neighborhood just behind where that shop is located, and I remembered it. So I looked through my glove compartment and found the old receipt still there and drove around to the shop to see what was up. I told him that I had left it there a long time ago and then forgotten about it, but they had never called me to let me know that it was ready either, and did they know what had become of it. It took the guy only a few seconds to step into the back room with my receipt and return with the pipe. He said there was no price recorded for it, nor any record they had ever called me about it, and since it had been such a long time he just let me take it for no charge.

The new stem is tapered a little differently from the original, but in this case, that's a good thing. The old stem had a very diagonal taper and holding it in the teeth caused it to slowly (or sometimes not so slowly) squeeze out of the mouth. The new stem has a more curved taper so that by the time it gets to the bit, it's almost flat and much easier to hold in the mouth.

This pipe is unusually large. It has the largest bowl volume of any pipe I have, not including the Oom Paul. It's also heavy and hard to smoke without hand support, but I am puffing on it right now and I think it's going to be a great pipe once it gets seasoned.

To see pictures of two other large Bertrams that I have yet to refurbish, just click on the Bertram label on the sidebar.

UPDATE: One hour and 15 minutes. One pipe. Yow.

I've gone green

Heh.

Got in some straight Perique for blending experiments today. I'm currently smoking a hybrid mixture that's roughly 60% Bayou Night and 40% Perique. I call it "Marie Laveau."