EMP smoked

I stuffed my pipe using the "Frank" method (for the first time, it was interesting - and good) with Dunhill Early Morning Pipe. Had a brisk walk outdoors while smoking it. Far from optimal circumstances to judge a new tobacco I gather... First charring, tamping, recharring, retamping, and then the tobacco was lit and stayed lit all the way down. First impression was a leathery, almost oily smoke but this soon disappearred as I provoked the pipe with some fast puffs. It burnt easy enough(which was one of my concerns about the "Frank" method) and gave a cool dry smoke. The taste was acidic almost a bit sour, all the way through but at the same time sweet and remarcably dry almost woolen.
"Like sucking slightly sweetened lemonade powder through a woolen blanket sitting by the fireplace in an elegant leather chair".
But dont take my word for it. Check out what others have said on TobaccoReviews

Dunhill EMP - first impression!

I broke the taxation seal and put a 5-SEK-coin under the rim of the lid and twisted it slightly. The vacuum popped and a smell akin to the one you might feel when opening up the hatch to your tile stove streamed out to greet me. I peeled of the top paper to check out the mixture and the worst smokiness slowly disappeared, but it still smells like an Ardbeg or Lagavullin cask strength!
How someone would wanna want it in the early morning is beyond me, but its after work here so I'll pack the only pipe I have available right now (a chacom neat prince) even though I've been smoking aromatics in it earlier... It will have to put up with it.

No sign of PIMO delivery

I still haven´t gotten my parcel from PIMO which I ordered over three weeks ago. If it doesn't turn up tpoday I'm gonna write an angry email to Ginny and complain. Even if it's not her fault I'm at a loss over what else to do... *Sulking*

Herbs delivery from Cph

A colleague went to Copenhagen Denmark over the weekend. In the last second I threw him a list of tins I wanted him to buy for me. Monday morning eased up considerably when I found this pile on my desk! ;D

Clockwise top left (round tins)
MacBarens Dark Twist 100 g
McConnells Pure Latakia 50 g
Dunhills Early Morning Pipe 50 g
Middle (Square tin)
Peterson University flake 50 g

Another DogTurd view

From this angle you can see the squatting samurai (with a little imagination of course) now adorned with a sword(stem) peeking out of his head.

DogTurd finished!

Here's how it came ... out. I am pleased with the shape, tint and finish, but as usual I am not satisfied with the stem and tenon part. Gotta get me some better tools. Maybe I should invest in that PIMO drill bit after all...
BUT my latest order with them hasn't arrived yet though it's two looong weeks tomorrow since I put the order. They thought it would be from 4 to 7 days with air mail from the US. BS.
Maybe I should by that 6-in-1 lathe/drill/grinder thingy but then K would get so mad at me. Better wait till we move somewhere I can put up a real workshop... With shop vac and lathe and a comfy sitter and stereo and bar and broadband and ... ah, well.

Calici

Had a touch of Calici virus Sunday-Monday. around lunch Monday I felt better and didn´t have to run to the loo every five minutes :P

Took the opportunity to finish off the DogTurd (which I have come to lovingly call my Cornucopia type Olifant pipe). I drilled and sanded and buffed and stained it in a period of four hours, and still didn´t get it ready in time for K and E to return back from the swimming hall. Had a cup of hot scowl poured over me, but it was worth it.

I used Bacardi Black to soak some specially sought-out black flakes of different tobacco mixtures and achieved a deeper almost walnutty brown tint on this one. The sugary residues from the aromatics created a more sluggish stain which gave a darker result both on the craggy areas and the smooth ones. I rotated the pipe slowly and put on four layers before I let it dry, rotating slowly all the time. It took about an hour.

I then buffed it with a clean buff to remove some of the sugary stickiness and the I changed to another Carnauba-loaded buff and gave it a run-down. After that I changed back to a clean buff. The result was great! I spent the rest of the afternoon rubbing the pipe with one of my old nylon socks. I need to finish it off with a 20 denier sock before I'll take a picture of it.

Cornucopia or DogTurd

Got some inspiration this weekend and finished of the B-block by creating a pipe which is inspired by nature's geometry and the myths around Cornucopia (the horn of the goat that suckled Zeus, which broke off and became filled with fruit).

I started out by sawing of all the obviously extruding edges, and then i drilled the smoking chamber just to get some center of the pipe. It was really, really difficult to align the draft hole with the center bottom of the chamber and I did it freehand.
Sure enough it is a bit squinted but at least it is located inside the bottom of the bowl...

Spent most of the weekend drilling, filing and sanding away on the pipe much to K:s dismay. Posed on its raw craggy collar in a certain angle it resembles a crouching samurai, or an old lady perhaps...

New Lectura

Brobergs replacedit without asking any questions. Cool. Only problem is the new pipe had some pasting to fill up flaws ... what the heck the pipe smokes fine! Happy again!