Hello pipe smokers!

Welcome to Brewing Smoke, Ken Brewster’s Just Another Blog on WordPress.

I will be offering tid-bits of information and answers to your (word)pressing concerns about who-knows-what.

Just a note of warning – bring a large pinch of salt along, this may not be the dry, serious stuff you’ve come to expect from the Brewster.  I will try my best to share useful knowledge, but it may not all be true.

Italian Churchwarden Update

Now in!
More 11″ Italian Churchwarden pipes in stock.
Also coming this weekend the ever popular mini churchwardens will be hitting the website.
Stay tuned.

The anti-smoking attack extends to cigars (and soon, no doubt to pipe tobacco)

I once saw a movie in which an actor was smoking a cigar. After the movie I went home and the next morning I woke up with lung cancer.

It’s getting to the point in this country where a good thing is being taken to a very bad extreme. I know the risks associated with smoking, especially long-term, habitual cigarette smoking. My mother smoked as long as I knew her and longer (a Marlboro woman) and she died of emphysema at the age of 69. It wasn’t her only problem, but it was the one that finally killed her. I hate the fact that one of my sons has been smoking for 10 years and hasn’t figured out how to stop. So I’m not making light of a serious health issue. I’m just making the point that things are getting out of control.

I like my pipe and I would like to know that I will be able to purchase pipe tobacco in the future without having to register with the ATF as a hazard to society. I don’t hold a lot of hope that the future will be bright for pipe smokers. Cigar smokers are already a threatened species with bills before Congress that would virtually wipe out an industry. I very much enjoy smoking a cigar once in a while and support the efforts of the group Cigar Rights of America (http://www.cigarrights.org/aboutus). If you want to preserve your right to smoke a cigar and a pipe, you might want to sign the Cigar Rights of America petition.

Looking for a few good reeds

It’s that time of year again. We’re running low on switch cane reeds for our Pamplin (Civil War era) clay pipe bowls. Because we live too far north to grow this in our back yard, we are appealing to our customers and visitors to contact us if you have a source for these great reeds. This native bamboo species has the right diameter to fit the pipe bowl and it’s hard enough to last a really long time in its capacity as a pipe stem.

So if you are in an area where this reed grows and can get some for us let us know. We will compensate you for your efforts.

Thanks in advance,
Ken

The flood of 2011

The Village of Owego was pretty nearly washed away earlier this month when Tropical Storm Lee came through and dumped over 10 inches of rain on the area. Pipeshoppe.com was not flooded out, but our Internet was down and our phone service out for seven days. If you tried to reach us and couldn’t between September 7 and 14, that’s the reason.

The era of cheap clay pipes

Long gone, but still remembered. We got this letter from Mark B. who recalls the good old days.

Hi

Every now and then I look up something I have not seen or
done for a while and am shocked by how much has changed.

When at school I used to buy clay pipes for 2p each
(about 4c) and smoke one on the way to school. Arriving at the gate I would
smash it up and kick the remains down a drain outside. No point getting into
trouble with a pipe on me. This was in 1974 which is more or less yesterday.

Now clay pipes which should be single use disposable go
for 20->30USD or the GBP equivalent. What a crazy world.   Many once valuable items are as cheap as
chips (french fries) now. I expected clay pipes to be a pack of five for about
£1. Seems not.

I used to live in old houses circa  250 years old. Digging in the back yards
would produce victorian blue pottery (rubbish really), old medicine bottles, go
deeper some medieval pottery and very occasionally a small roman coin. All the
time though tons of pieces of clay pipe. The equivalent of discarded cigarette
ends.

I am glad that you are still making them its just a pity
that such a simple item is not still disposable.

Regards

Mark

Thanks Mark. We don’t actually make the pipes – we leave that task to the craftmen of whom there are far too few. Let’s hope the tradition continues for a long time to come.

IE Yikes!!

Wow, we had a browser meltdown last week for a few days – or was it longer than that? For those using the Internet Explorer browser a large number of the pages on the pipeshoppe.com website did not render correctly and we don’t exactly when that started, but the fix was put on the affected pages on Saturday. Very freaky, indeed.

Good thing we had a pipe primed and ready, otherwise the incident would have made Ken lose even more hair!

OOOPS!!!!

We forgot to update our PayPal button on the 16″ clay tavern pipes so PayPal was still showing the item to be out of stock. The button has been updated. If you were unable to order the tavern pipe, let us know. sales@pipeshoppe.com

We have a small supply of 16″ colonial tavern pipes available

Good news! If you have been waiting for the 16″ clay taven pipes, we now have a few on hand. We can’t guarantee a steady supply this summer, but things are looking pretty good. Buy one now, though, in case we run out.

Corn Cob Hoedown

Calling all farmers (and gardeners and city folk with garden tools)!

Get tune up yer fiddles and put down yer hoes. July is closing in and we’re breakin’ out the corn cob pipes.

This won’t be the typical fast-paced hoedown, instead we’ll slow down the tempo and have a leisurely hoedown celebration with the lighting of our world-famous Missouri Meerschaum corn cob pipes.

Feel free to join us from the comfort of your own back yard starting Friday July 1 until harvest time.

Briar pipes for dad

Starting now on the Memorial Day weekend we will be offering discounts on select briar pipes through Father’s Day. We will vary the selections as pipes are sold or when we have time to update the specials page. Don’t forget our money svaing clay pipe combinations – they also make great Father’s Day gifts.