Many thanks to all who participated in this year’s Pete Geek Pipe of the Year event. The time spent developing an idea then seeing it pass through the stages of development and come to fruition is considerable and I hope you’ll join me in thanking pretty much everyone at Kapp & Peterson for the spectacular job they’ve done.
I’m always so impressed with the photograph skills of our community, and as always, delighted to share with everyone what has been sent. There’s still plenty of time, of course, to submit a photo of your CPG pipe for this year’s merit badge.
If you’re on the WAIT LIST–
drop codes will be sent out Monday or Tuesday for the remaining pipes
at both SPC and SPE!
JOE MARTI
RAPHAËL FOESSER
DIXON SMITH
Congratulations, old boy! Despite the leprechauns who rendered “Pipe Notes” as “Pipenotes” and insisted on labelling the XL5BC an XL5S, Mr. Holmes’ legendary pipe is properly stamped and its history fully documented. I received my copy, No. 68, today, and I’m almost as delighted with A Chat with the Smoker as I am with the pipe itself. I’m so glad you included “The Case of Sherlock Holmes and the XL5BC” in the leaflet. When the next revision of the Bibliography of the Writings About the Writings is published, one important essay will be missing, but you and I and a few others know where to find proof that the historic meeting between the Great Detective and the “famous Russian of Dublin” did indeed take place.* And when the translation of the Latvian biography of Charles Peterson is published, I fear that there will be no mention of that meeting, but all we have to do is to reach for our copy of A Chat with the Smoker, for there it will be, hidden in plain sight.
JEFF ULRICH
STUART WHELAN
Well my PPN POY arrived yesterday on Halloween (our time Down Under) and it was a bit “gnarlier” than I expected so I have called it “The Beastie”.
SCOTT LLOYD
JASON CANADY
#114 has a nice craggy blast and I love it. It’s like an ancient tree full of wisdom and stories to tell. The finish on this pipe is great and I especially love it’s a System.
ROLAND DOLL
MARK HUNT (aka NEVADITUDE)
DENNIS RICHARDS
Here is my PPN pipe 2023. I think they did a great job on this pipe. Going to dedicate this pipe to my grandpa James Sullivan who gave me my appreciation of Peterson Pipes through his stories of Ireland and the wee people. Big adventures to a six year old!
MIKE AUSTIN
GARY HANSEN
CHRIS LAUER
WALT MOULTRIE
My CPG PoY 2023 (10/130) has arrived and I’m happy to report it is both a terrific smoker and has some quite nice looking grain. I think your choice of stain was quite a success, it is certainly reminiscent of tree bark and adds a pleasant rustic-ness to the pipe. I also discovered that the stem is practically identical to those used on this year’s 9B revival release (which to my knowledge was not offered with the option of a filter) and can be used interchangeably. A little extra utility for those of us that enjoy filters but not exclusively; four pipes for the price of two.
TOM CUFFE
JAMES BOURGAULT
LEE SKIVER
JON UMPHERVILLE
She made her way to the (now) frozen North yesterday and I immediately rubbed out and dried some of my home stoved Luxury Bullseye Flake for her maiden voyage. I love it, it is amazing and the blast is gorgeous when looked at up close, seeing the little swirls of what is now sandblasted Birdseye. I got 84 of 130, one digit off my birth year. Absolutely love the pipe, this is one Pete Geek who won’t be letting it sit on a shelf for a year to flip for a profit on eBay that is for sure.
MARK IRWIN
MICHAEL MIKROPOULOS
ERIK RYNDERS
Banner by Jason Canady
Background painting for Mark Irwin photo
“Easter Morning–Gethsemane–Ground Zero”
painting by Leslie Irwin (collection of Mark Irwin)
* While the “Chat” article wasn’t meant to confuse, I realized afterwards that there are scores of SH fans who don’t know about the “Writings About the Writings,” which must have left them scratching their heads. To make a long story short, “The adventures of Sherlock Holmes have inspired a vast body of literature dedicated to the proposition that the Great Detective was not a mere work of fiction, but an actual historical person. Since the 1920s these “writings about The Writings” have contributed fascinating new insights into the stories, enhancing the pleasure of reading them. You can get a good start on this by a quick glance at the Gasogene Books website, then pick up any number of additional volumes, as there are lots of famous (and not so famous) writers who’ve contributed, from Christopher Morley to the Baring-Gould and Klinger Annotated SH sets to books like Zach Dundas’s compelling The Great Detective. As this is exactly the kind of thing we encounter in postmodern novelist Thomas Pynchon’s work (I wrote my dissertation on him) and you’ll encounter in my novel The X Pipe when it debuts, I hope you’ll delve into it a bit. “The game,” as Holmes said to Watson, “is afoot!”
You might
want to take a look
at this:
RUA DELUXE
(a fellow Pete Geek tells me Tuesday is the drop)
Pete Geek Zippo?
Jon Umpherville is looking for a Pete Geek Zippo. If you’ve got a spare & are interested in parting with it, please contact him at iconoclast85@gmail.com
Great looking pipes! I will run through them again, there are some real beauties shown.
Mark, speaking of beautiful, I love the powerful background pic. I am so glad so many shared the pipes, I don’t see a dud in the entire group! I say well done Peterson of Dublin AND thank you for doing what you all do so well. Pete Geeks love that about y’all.
I’ll pass the compliment on to my sister the artist. She probably won’t like it that I’ve turned the painting sideways, but hey, the possibility of bodily Resurrection kind of does knock people sideways, doesn’t it?
Don’t it though? ??
I second what Nevaditude said!! A huge thanks to Mark, K&P and Laudisi for making this PPN a huge success.
Nice Pictures Indeed.
I am waiting for my pipe, which is on it’s way to me. And seeing all these wonderful photos is not really a solice 😉
Wonderful Pipes of The Year…I was tempted but went for the Christmas pipe this year. Somehow that gap on the stem…is not my thing…I like smooth connected curves…on many things…?? I’ll look for the Rua Deluxe anyway..?
I completely get it. I’m in the same camp, as I cannot visually get past the “disconnect” in the flowing lines between shank and stem when you get to the dreaded “gap”. Probably a good thing for me or I’d have way more pipes in the rack than I do. They are still very nice pipes though, just not my cup of tea.
Good lookin’ run of pipes, congrats to the owners
Very nice pictures indeed !!
Congrats to all CPG:s and a big thanks to Mark for all efforts.
Sorry to say my PPN XL5BC gone MIA… not seen since UPS made their pickup in Dublin almost two weeks ago.
Meanwhile I managed to pick up three excellent Kapets, two pre-republic (02 and 69) and one early republic 417. Karma maybe.
Be encouraged in that the same thing has happened to me a few times. Most recently was the Jekyll / Hyde. It took a long time and was MIA in Ireland for 2 weeks, when suddenly it appeared arriving in NYC the same day after I emailed Federica in Dublin. She said most likely ‘delayed’ and then it started moving again. It was stationary somewhere in Eire for a while, then was westward bound. It has always arrived, now having sent pipes bak the other way…well, they languished in customs for 6 weeks until sent back. Peterson never even saw… Read more »
FYSA I’ve learned the hard way that when sending from the US to Ireland your shipment will be held pending payment of customs charges (you will not always be notified of this) and returned if not paid. If you are returning an item purchased in Ireland (for example from SPE) you can have the import fees waived by contacting An Post and providing them a copy of the original receipt.
Many thanks!
Thanks, keep my fingers crossed.
Yeah UPS in Europe are random, usually my SPE parcels go Dublin-France-Germany-Sweden… many times faster to order through SPC and USPS even that it has to go over the pond. This time UPS lost track of it.
Logistics mysteries.
Great looking pipes. Thank you Mark and all involved.
Beautiful pipes fellow Geeks! And a big round of applause to Mark & Peterson for creating this wonderful addition to the System line!
Can we please know how many POTYs are left? Pretty please? Just as a teaser.
Also, Rua won’t be the only finish offered right? Not sure I like the tomato red hue personally ?
Chuck, I honestly don’t know. I’ve got emails in to find out. As far as the final releases for 2023, all I know is that there will be an Ebony DeLuxe and a Rua DeLuxe.
What a wonderful choice y’all made in choosing this shape for this year’s CPG POY. Peterson surely did a bang up job of sandblasting each and every one and the stem is such a perfect match. Thanks for everyone sharing their photos, it’s a delight to see the many faces and great pipes. And Mark, the chapeau is really stylin’. My Dad wore a Borsalino daily which looks a lot like the one you are sporting. Cheers to all.
Yessir. Stetson Open Road 6x. One of the presidents wore one until JFK outlawed hats on American men.
How is this different than a XL315?
Warren, if you go back to the original post #360 you can read all about it. The “BC” short taper stem and this blast and stain combination are its unique qualities. Hence “XL5BC.” The XL315 is a Standard nickel mount. ?
The XL5 is the Deluxe version of the XL305/XL315. As such it comes with a wear-gap stem (in this case the short tapered BC) with chimney/tenon extension, and silver band. The stain and finish used on this XL5BC are not available on any other System pipe. There may also be a difference in bowl grading, but I’m not sure about that.
Is the Rua Deluxe mentioned above the same “Deluxe Anniversary” pipe you teased at the end of post #367?
I don’t think so, except that they are limited and numbered. Probably a “CP” release.
Great post and great pictures – thanks all for sharing! Mark, dig the yellow tint on the lenses. Around here, that is for night skiing. ?
Ha! Night is right. They’re computer glasses as I’m awake too much in the wee hours and they deflect the blue light so I can finally get to sleep.
Mark A big thank you is owed to you and the people involved in making this happen, from the design team to the factory workers to folks involved in shipping the pipes out and everyone in between. I keep thinking I should smoke my beloved English blends in this pipe, but I am unsure so for now Virginias it is… for now. I’ll always regret missing out on the first CPG pipe but this one is a beauty and smokes like a dream, it is never going anywhere. And Mark, an extra thank you for posting up that I am… Read more »
All excellent looking pipes. Many thanks to Mark and to the folks at K&P for making this possible, it is very much appreciated.