Pipe dreams continue

Got a very kind answer from Trever Talbert today, and it turns out he is also running a pipe-related blog ;) Also got a message from Kurt Huhn, another respected pipemaker who welcomed me to the forum mentioned below. I'm starting to make a name in the pipemaking world ;D

Oh, the Peterson University Flake tobacco mentioned below was SUPERB in the tiny Lectura I bought. Something quite different from the aromatic melanges and stuff I compromise-willingly have been smoking around the house due to their 5 points in "room note".

I decided to smoke it unrubbed and rolled up into a roll-cake. I only needed half a flake to fill the pipe half-full for the pristine smoke. I had resorted to my little sports cabin where I was turning off the water for the winter and stuff, so I didn't have to think about women or children and their sensitively olfactive noses.

The tobacco lit up after a charring light and tamping, and didn't need another re-light, and I smoked VERY slowly for an hour straight! I even started to get a little nervous when the pipe just didn't seem to wanna go out, as I had promised to buy something for lunch on my way back (it's only fifteen minutes drive).

At first it was just a deep mellow smoke and i felt like I was drinking it. After a while a sweetish flavour appeared followed by a "nutty" taste. The smoke pouring out was massive!

If the melanges I'd been smoking so far could be described as Czech lager (the good ones) or Pripps Blå (the international reader is excused for not knowing this indigenous sickly sweet excuse for a lager), this tobacco is more like a red wine or perhaps really, really dark chocolate with a tang of bitterness and very little sugar.

Towards the end the bitterness increased but never to the point of nausea or anything, just a marked bitterness. I accredit this to the pipe being brand new and am already looking forward to my next bowl of flake!

Still no sign of Hermann's delivery though. Since I paid him Thursday 24th it's been three full working days. And counting...

Pipemaking design tips...

... are hard to come by. I've been trawling the Net for many good hours now trying to find a basic how-to (not counting the one I have read fortyfive times by now at amsmoke(http://www.amsmoke.com/Services/PipeKit.html - Scroll down a bit)).
It just aint that easy! I finally found the wonderful pipes of www.talbertpipes.com and a bit wearily sent the pipemaker himself (Trever Talbert I think is his name) a plea for his tips.

Later I DID find a pipemaker How-To on the (http://www.pipemakersforum.com/)forum he linked to from his site.

Sigh. Well maybe it could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship, anyway...

Hermann got paid in full

Managed to sneak down to the bank yesterday before closingtime. They supplied me with the stuff I needed to make Internet banking :/
Paid Hermanns pipe bill.

I don't think I will get the stuff until next week and the pipe hunger in me could not be staisfied unless I got a new pipe and tobacco. Look below. This little beauty I will use primarily for smoking my newly bought Peterson University Flake in. If I like Flake. Which I don't really know yet. We'll see.

Bought a new BigBen Lectura today.  

Herman my Danish supplier

Found a Danish web site P.E.Hermann that sells everything I need!
Ordere two Medium Giants Briar Plateux E (no idea what the E stands for, but it was the most Expensive;) and some stems, rings, wax etc.

It all cost some 560 Danish krone(some 600SEK or 65€) and will hopefully be delivered as a package by mail next week. I can hardly wait.

Been googling for pipe making tools and found a few new sources of knowledge. I'm anxious to start with El Volcanito!

Disappointment at Greece briar

Hunted briar around all of Athens, even in the fancy Kolonaki district, but was told it was actually impossible to buy briar in Athens?! "You should go to Peloponessos, 250 km to the south". Met two very friendly gentlemen each in their own impressive pipe shops. Both said the same and both gave me the phone number of their respective briar supplyer! Nice!!

However I was to short of time to actually make the trip to the south, and came home with little pipe-related, more than a bag of Skandinavian Vanilla tobacco. Imported from Denmark from what I could gather of the Cyrillic letters.

All the less exclusive pipe shops in Omonia and thereabout had imported cheap Italian pipes or the odd pipe from Peloponessos, often in weird camo colours or blunt un-elegant shapes.