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.

New photo for the fall

If you have been to the website in the past year, you will have seen a picture of Ken Brewster sitting on his fat rear end smoking a pipe. Ken has decided to go on an exercise kick and the new photo on the home page proves it!

There I am standing by the woodpile which provides both heat for me and storage for the squirrels (you can see some green walnuts sitting on top of the logs – those are for the critters, the wood is for Ken).  Okay, I know what you’re thinking. Standing next to a woodpile smoking a pipe is not actually proof of exercise. You are right, of course, but I have to start somewhere. At least I know what work looks like when I see people doing it. From a distance, it doesn’t look too hard. But I don’t want to look too hard, the residue of hard work might seep into my personal space and cause me a certain amount of discomfort.

I will just stand here by the woodpile, smoke my pipe and reflect on work and other troubling topics for a while.

Just a heads-up: we are working on redesigning some or all of the website to make it easier to find (and we hope buy) our pipes and accessories. If you have any thoughts on how we can make your shopping experience more enjoyable/easier/whatever, you can post a comment or send us an email (brewster@pipeshoppe.com).

Churchwarden experience

As naturally relaxing as pipe smoking can be, I have found that settling back with one of our new churchwardens is a particularly pleasurable experience. This is not a pipe that permits active involvement in anything more strenuous than thinking and reflecting on life, which, of course, in the absence of a pipe can cause enormous anxiety and frustration, but can never be confused with actual work.

At the close of business, I find myself streaming videos on the site that sends out DVDs in square red envelopes. I pop up a bowl of corn, pour myself a soothing beverage, settle back in my easy chair, light up my Italian churchwarden and enjoy another time-wasting grade C hollywood flick.  And you probably thought the boy needs to get a life, but now you know I don’t really need one. What would I do with one anyway?

Butane to clean clay pipes

Not the butane itself, but butane lighters!

We’ve discussed laying the clay pipe on hot coals, in a wood stove and using other heat based initiatives to clean clay pipes because pipe cleaners don’t fit the air holes. Another heat based option was sent to us by one of our customers and the method is simple. Using a standard butane lighter heat the bowl until the residue has burned off. Sounds like a good alternative if you don’t have a charcoal grill or wood stove handy.

Looking for a few good reeds!

Dear friends,

We have exhausted our seemingly inexhaustible supply of short cane reeds that fit so nicely in the Civil War style/ Pamplin/ Ackron Smoking Pipe Co. clay bowls. These reeds are hard native bamboo, from 4 to 6 inches long and 3/16″ to 1/4″ in diameter. We are appealing to our vast blog readership (I think we’re up to 4 now) to help us track down a source for these reeds.

Send us an email brewster@pipeshoppe.com if you can lead us to a good supplier.

Thanks,
Ken

August pipe discounts

Summer is expected to arrive in New York’s Southern Tier sometime around mid-August. So far we’ve had about 4 summer-like days since the beginning of May, so the August projection sounds about right.

Having given up on the possibility of outdoor living, I have learned to handle the cool, rainly days and evenings by settling into a comfortable chair with a nice pipe and a good book.  If your summer experience is less than perfect this year, we have a couple of sales in August that should put things back on the right track.

If your summer is exceptionally nice, so much the bettter, but buy now for fall is surely coming!

This month you can get 10% off the 7″ colonial tavern pipes and save $5.00 on two or more 16″ tavern pipes. Visit pipeshoppe.com for details.

We also have several handsome Italian made Comoys in stock and will be offering the Virgin Finish at a huge 20% off starting August 1st. Visit www.pipeshoppe.com/Comoys_virgin.htm for details.

Now we’re getting somewhere!

Hi friends,

Just want to let you know that Pipeshoppe.com has a new crop of Italian-made briar churchwardens at a very reasonable $25.99 a pipe. I don’t know how long we’ll be able to offer them, but I know they’ll be popular.

We have 11 different styles in stock (out of the original dozen). Our first batch is moving off the site as I write. So hurry up and get one before they disappear.

COMOYS are on the way. We have the Comoys Black Coral and Virgin finish pipes being prepared for the Web site. Look for them on or before the July 4th weeekend

Smoke in peace,

Ken

International Pipe Smoking Day – February 20

Yes, Friday, February 20th is International Pipe Smokng Day. If you missed it last year , now is the time to catch up.

For more information visit http://www.pipeclubs.com/index.php, the Web site of  COMITE INTERNATIONAL DES PIPE CLUBS CIPC.

Cleaning a clay pipe in a woodstove

I’ve read that a good way to clean a clay pipe is to put it on hot coals. The clay won’t be harmed, but the residue of tar and tobacco that may clog the stem will be burned away by the intense heat. I had never tried it until last night.

I generally let the clay pipe dry out on its own. My attempts to clean the stem with a pipe cleaner have more often than not resulted in a two piece pipe when only one will do. Most of my clays have smoked cleanly for many years, but occasionally one will become blocked so last night I took a pipe that was being stubborn and placed it inside my wood stove. The stove was probably 600 to 800 degrees Fahrenheit and I allowed the pipe to cook for 15 minutes. I could see through the glass window of my Dutch West that the inside of the bowl was smoking and flaring out small licks of flame.

After fifteen minutes I removed the pipe. I used insulated wood stove gloves and placed the superheated pipe on a rack to cool. Do not attempt to handle the pipe with bare hands!

The outcome was that, indeed, the pipe was cleared of inside residue and could be used for smoking once more. The downside: the once white clay is now a tarnished gray and basically ugly as sin.

If anyone else has experience with cleaning by fire, please share.

Vote for new products

This is your chance to help us decide what new products to introduce on our Web site in 2009.

How to smoke a tobacco pipe

Here’s what Wikipedia has to offer on the subject

http://www.wikihow.com/Smoke-a-Tobacco-Pipe

If you need a tobacco pipe to practice on you can buy a nice one here.