Blog Posts

Before we get to the PPN 10^th Anniversary POY & Lighter, I want to share something important about the role of pipes in our lives from our own D. H. Billings, whose family had to evacuate to South Carolina when Hurricane Helene hit. The world is in a worse state of crisis than it’s been for a long time now, with multiple eco-disasters here in the US, wars in the Middle East and eastern Europe, and would-be dictators and billionaires threatening the foundations of American democracy and the rule of law.  Like Charles Peterson, J.R.R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis and many, many others, I believe pipe smoking is a contemplative act that helps us to find the equilibrium, equanimity, and the clarity of heart and mind we need to act with compassion. But Billings made it very real for me in his email Friday—

Two weeks after Helene, the clean up and recovery are just getting started.

 Wednesday, October 2, 2024. It had been five days since the hurricane decimated Asheville and the surrounding areas. Some towns even (like Chimney Rock) had even been completely wiped off the face of the earth. Thankfully my family and I came out safe and unharmed – but even then, my wife and daughter had to evacuate to South Carolina while I continued to work at the hospital. Still… we were lucky; many people had watched their homes be crushed or washed away in the flooding, and bodies were still being pulled from the river, trees, and the mud.

I sat on my porch, grateful for the fact that we were all okay and that power had just been restored where we live. On top of that, the hospital had just brought in water tankers to supply the facility with water so that patients and staff alike could shower. This was huge.

Knowing that I would be able to clean up and not smell of smoke during my shift the next day (I do, after all work with kids), I decided to pack my 2024 Christmas XL02 with some Low Country Cooper. It was hot outside, but still… it felt like Christmas and, quite honestly, I needed this. It was a bit of normalcy in a completely abnormal situation – Zen in the midst of chaos. It was one of those moments where it finally felt like things would be okay.

Five days later, I was getting into my car to head down into South Carolina at 4:30 AM. It was going to be a long drive, but I’d be able to spend the next few days with my family. Ready to travel with me was a rusticated Pub Pipe packed with G.L. Pease Gaslight and a B42 filled with Two Friends’ Deacon’s Downfall. Once again, in the midst of all this destruction and craziness, peace was brought to me through my pipes.

It took a little time after arriving at my father in law’s house – time where I had power, water, internet, family, etc. – but it hit me how these pipes helped ground me when pretty much every modern convenience and distraction was absent. The whole thing reminded me of Mark’s prompt for System Day this year, about reaching a moment of Zen by way of the pipe. It also reminded me of how, sometimes in life, the most obsolete and seemingly useless things prove to be the most important.

At the time of this writing, I am back in North Carolina. We still do not have internet, school is still out, water is running (but is not potable), and my family is still displaced. But, even with all that, I still have my pipe and my porch. For the moment, at least, that will have to be enough.If you want to help the people of Western North Carolina during our recovery, my recommendation is to donate either to the United Way of Asheville and Buncombe County or to BeLoved Asheville. Both of these organizations are rooted in the community, already have in place programs that help meet the needs of this area (housing, food, water, shelter, community assistance, etc.), and will continue to be here long after FEMA, the National Guard, the United Cajun Navy, etc. have all moved on.

https://www.unitedwayabc.org/

https://www.belovedasheville.com/

“Hope … even when the creek rises.”

 

THE 2024 PPN PIPE OF THE YEAR

I’d long been dreaming of something special for the blog’s 10^th anniversary pipe. When I talked to Sykes Wilford, CEO of Kapp & Peterson, about what I had in mind at the Chicago Pipe Show in May, as usual he handed me a fresh espresso and called up inventory on his laptop.  What I wanted just couldn’t be done, he sighed, not with existing inventory and what they could get in time.  “But,” he added with a twinkle in his eye, “why not leave it with me for a week or two and I’ll get back to you?”

The serialization number will appear in place of “AP1” and “AP2,” otherwise this is how the shank stamps will be configured.

True to his word, a few weeks later he emailed me and said, “How about if we do a 309 System Spigot?” Well, it was a good thing I was sitting down or I might have fallen down.  I hadn’t even dreamed of asking for this shape because I didn’t think it was even in the realm of possibility. Not too many weeks passed before I received another email from him: “Would you like a condenser on the 309 System Spigot?”  The medical term for how I felt is, I think, gob-smacked.  It just couldn’t get any better than this!

Fast forward a few months to the time when Josh Burgess, Managing Director, wrote to begin discussing finishes and colors.  I really, really wanted some smooth pipes this time out. Looking for a stain color that wouldn’t be normally seen on the System pipes, Josh suggested the bourbon whiskey used on the 2024 Christmas pipes.  It looked for a bit like the smooth might not happen, but in the end, 40 have been made available, with the bulk of the PPNs to be done up in black sandblast. This was great with me for three reasons:  I wanted to make the pipe a little more accessible price-wise, I wanted the gnarly touch of the sandblast, but I also wanted something to show off just what K&P can do.

 

The 309 and the Spigot: Together at Last

L to R: Patent 4, 1980 4 and Penzo 4

What’s so magical about this year’s shape to me is that it brings us a second chance to enjoy and smoke the Penzo 4, released as the “4AB” for the 2019 K&P Pipe of the Year.  If you look at the silhouettes above, you can see the Patent 4 (aka 309) on the left, the 1980 shape 4 in the middle and the Giacomo Penzo 4 on the right. When Kapp & Peterson decided to issue the 4AB, they went to a great deal of trouble to get it right—even involving your humble author. They didn’t go to the shape 4 I’ve known since I bought my first in 1978, but the original Patent shape. You can see the difference if you look at the more masculine, flat heel of the 1980 in the middle at the Patent and the Penzo at either end.  For my part, I’ve come to like Penzo’s better than the ones I grew up with. There’s more grace and lilt to it, as well of course as more of Charles Peterson’s spirit in it.

Speaking of Charles Peterson and his shapes, if you have the 1896 catalog, you’ll see an interesting progression in his thought as a designer.  The straight-sided or “dutch billiard” as we’ve come to call it is on pages 30-31. It encompassed not just the 4, but the very first eight shapes of the catalog. It’s also featured as the Oversize shapes O1 and O3.  For Charles Peterson, at least, this truly was “the Thinking Man’s” shape, so that it’s no wonder it was used in the famous icon and has been on the printed advertising of the company for decades. Note also the difference between the shaping of the bottom of all these bowls and that of the 4/309 most of us are familiar with and the one Penzo has graced us with in his recreation.

Detail from the 1988 Hollco-Rohr catalog

So where does the spigot come in?  No System pipe was made as a true spigot until 2018 (see Post # 100), and if you companion one of these, I’m sure you consider yourself blessed in doing so. I’ve got a few among my companions and love them all. But having said that, let me quickly add that there has never been a 309 System Spigot in K&P’s history. Before now. The PPN commemorative will be the first–but we hope not the last.

Beveled rims have not always been featured even on the 4S De Luxe.

Pete Geeks with a long memory may recall that a System Spigot was touted way, way back in a 1988 Hollco-Rohr catalog. But if you look carefully at the photo of the gold and silver spigots, you can see they had a fishtail, not a P-Lip, so that even if they had reservoirs, they lacked the crucial graduated bore P-Lip stem and would’ve smoked like wet socks over a trash fire at the dump.

It’s fun to note that, for whatever mysterious reason up in Dublin castle at the Assay Office,
the spigot itself bears Hibernia Seated and the purity mark, but no year mark!

 

 

The Condenser

“So why the fuss about the condenser if the System Spigots issued since 2018 are great smokers?”  Good question.  Here’s my opinion: I’ve smoked Systems since high school and was given my first DeLuxe in the late 1970s. Like so many others, not knowing what that screw-in thing was all about, I screwed it out at some point and threw it away.  By that time, K&P’s education outreach had all but vanished. I didn’t know what that thing was.  And by the 1990s the the flagship of Peterson’s production would become a dead monument to their past.  After Charles Peterson’s death the company never again lavished the same degree of care over teaching those who bought their pipes how to smoke them and care for them, and with a huge worldwide fan base probably didn’t need to do much, which over time atrophied into nothing at all.  While the System has been restored to its flagship status since 2018, the education piece is still undernourished, despite the growing number of pipemen and women who are eager to understand how to get the best out of their Systems and to understand the intricacies of its tiers.  Which brings us to the condenser.

The condenser is, quite simply, the Major Upgrade that delivers. Or to borrow an analogy from the world of automotive engineering, it’s the reduction pulley wheel or supercharger under the hood: it makes the System work more effectively and delivers the best experience that can be had from an engineering standpoint.

You notice I said “from an engineering standpoint,” because there’s so many other factors involved that to say just owning a De Luxe System—or a Premier (like our PPN 309 System Spigot) guarantees a winning ticket.  No, there’s a lot more to the Good Smoke than that. There’s the state of the smoker’s palate, what he’s just had to eat, what he’s drinking while he smokes, whether he has a cold, whether he’s smoking indoors or outdoors.  There’s the tobacco he’s smoking and its pH, whether it’s too dry or too wet or too hot.  There’s the thickness of the carbon cake, there’s how clean or dirty the pipe’s internals and button are. Then there’s the briar itself: was it sufficiently cured? Is there calcified resin hidden inside the wood? Was this a piece of briar that lay in a root ball under the place where the digger’s donkeys routinely relieved themselves?

I’ve got more Standard Systems than De Luxe or Premier, and I smoke my Standards frequently because they’re fantastic smokers. Do they smoke as well as the ones with condensers?  Hmm. Depends.  Most of them, maybe not.  Some of them, assuredly.

While nearly all DeLuxe and Premiers have Patent-spec condensers, you can take your own measurements quite easily with a micrometer caliper: 1) measure to bottom of smoke hole; 2) measure the condenser length from the tenon/mortise using a tape marker; 3) measure the reservoir.

Gary Hamilton and I have both written about condensers and condenser engineering elsewhere on the blog, paying careful attention to the original Patent specifications. We’ve also talked with Patent era companioners like Ken Sigel CPG and others. We’ve learned there is a dizzying array of mortise apertures and reservoir depths depending on the size of the bowl and when it was made. But we’ve also found that nearly all Premier and DeLuxe Systems, of whatever era, have a condenser that reaches at least to the bottom of the smoke hole in the mortise, if not further. The 309 PPN Spigot System—based on the AP1 and AP2 samples sent to me, averages out like this:

Bottom of smoke hole: 21.9 mm
Condenser length: 26.6 mm
Reservoir depth: 39.0mm

The condenser, in other words, reaches 4.7 mm below the smoke hole.  That’s as perfect as we could wish.

All of this leads me to say unequivocally that if I could acquire a Peterson System with a condenser every time, I would.  That’s how great a difference I’ve discerned, if not every time, then so many times that it’s a certainty the condenser is what is delivering the cooler smoke, the better flavor, less turbulence.

Peterson blasting–what a feast for fingers and eyes.

 

Ordering

There are only 40 smooths available. The remainder of the pipes will be in black sandblast. Both are available in 9mm and can be ordered from either Smokingpipes.com or Smokingpipes.eu.

Per Josh Burgess: “They’ll be priced the same as System Spigots.

“In the US, that means a retail price of $227.50 for the smooths and $205 for sandblasts. Usual Smokingpipes.com discounts apply, which means that customers will buy them for $182 and $164, respectively.

“In Europe, customers can buy the smooth pipes from SPE for €200 and the sandblasts for €180. As in years past, the SPE price can sometimes be a bit less based upon the customer’s local VAT rate. Remember, the prices for SPE are VAT inclusive. In the event that someone is buying from SPE but not within the EU, there is obviously no VAT applicable. That would make the smooth, non-VAT price €162 and the sandblasted, non-VAT price €146.”

Please read carefully (and I repeat myself here somewhat because redundancy is what communication entropy is all about):

• The PPN Pipe of the Year 2024 is currently in production.
• The pipe will be available in 2 finishes: smooth and sandblast. There are only 40 smooths available. The remainder will be black sandblast.
• A 9mm version will be available.
• Shank stamps will include PPN 2014-2024 and the serial number of the pipe.
• Pricing per Josh Burgess: “They’ll be priced the same as System Spigots. In the US, that means a retail price of $227.50 for the smooths and $205 for sandblasts. Usual Smokingpipes.com discounts apply, which means that customers will buy them for $182 and $164, respectively. In Europe, customers can buy the smooth pipes from SPE for €200 and the sandblasts for €180. As in years past, the SPE price can sometimes be a bit less based upon the customer’s local VAT rate. Remember, the prices for SPE are VAT inclusive. In the event that someone is buying from SPE but not within the EU, there is obviously no VAT applicable. That would make the smooth, non-VAT price €162 and the sandblasted, non-VAT price €146.”
• Your request must be received by Monday, October 21st, 12 noon CDT.
• Pipes are expected to be ready in late November.
• When the pipes are ready for distribution payment will be made through Smokingpipes.com or Smokingpipes.eu.
• Questions? Send email to petegeek1896@gmail.com

If you submit the Google Form, you will receive the correct code to place your order when the pipes are ready in late November.

Google Order Form :  PPN 2024 PIPE OF THE YEAR

Many, many thanks to Sykes Wilford and Josh Burgess,
who made this project a reality.

 

 

THE ZIPPO 10^TH ANNIVERSARY PPN STERLING ARMOR

I’m going to lay the responsibility for the 10^th Anniversary Zippo at Shimshon Cooke CPG’s door, since it was he who first got me thinking about a lighter that could stand up to outdoor smoking and to the sometimes breezy tent at pipe shows. The idea is also the fault of whoever made up those gorgeous Peterson sterling lighters for the Grafton Street shop in Dublin several years back (see Post #325). But what made it easy was working with Zippo’s wonderful Alyssa McGrew.

The digital previews above lack the luster and gloss of the actual lighters, but you can see here the front and back images and somewhat of how the engraving process etches the silver.

What you cannot see, of course, is that these lighters will have a pipe lighter insert (the one with the hole in the middle so you lay the lighter horizontally over the rim of the pipe bowl). Nor can you see that these will be serialized by the number of lighters we order.

I also have to thank Sykes Wilford and Andy Wikes at Laudisi for permission to use “The Thinking Man Smokes A Peterson Patent Pipe.”

Notice I got the number wrong on the pipe the first time: it’s not a 4, but a 309 (as appears in Zippo’s visualization). Yoicks. I love do-overs.

Also—in case you didn’t see it at first glance—notice there’s a “P” of smoke curling up from each pipe, front and back!

Ordering.

Please read carefully:

You must fill out the Google Form. You will receive a PayPal invoice  from Gigi on Monday the 21st, which must be paid in order to process your order. Lighters ship in approximately 3-4 weeks. There. Did I repeat (repeat) myself enough?

Order here:  GOOGLE FORM FOR ZIPPO LIGHTER

 

 

 

TOLKIEN AND PETERSON

And now for a treat from our talented Ralle Perera CPG:

Ralle Perera CPG: My choice of pipe would be a Peterson Pub pipe for Gandalf… l always feel a little bit like Gandalf when smoking it and I think he feels a little bit like me when he smokes it…  And the 9B for Bilbo, for the same reasons!

 

Book Review.
John Hendrix, The Mythmakers: The Remarkable Fellowship of C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien.

When C. S. Lewis writes “Nothing, I suspect, is more astonishing in any man’s life than the discovery that there do exist people very, very like himself,” he might have been talking about the coterie of Pete Geeks.  In fact, he was talking about his friendship with J. R. R. Tolkien.  Lewis was the motivator behind Tolkien’s The Hobbit and Tolkien the inspiration for Lewis’s Space Trilogy—the protagonist, Elwin Ransom (“Elf Friend” is what Elwin translates as) being modeled on Tolkien. Their deep friendship would forever change literature.

I don’t write book reviews for the blog, but these two authors are foundational to my life—Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings and Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia being literal bookends of my adolescent bookshelf.  Their pipe smoking and love for Ireland (Lewis was born in Belfast; Tolkien modeled Middle Earth and its inhabitants in part after Ireland) became my own, as did their spiritual worldview.

When my wife forwarded the New York Times book review of John Hendrix’s The Mythmakers, a hybrid graphic novel about the friendship of Jack and Tollers (i.e., Lewis and Tolkien) I was more than intrigued.  I’ve read several biographies of Lewis and Tolkien. In fact, my first grad school publication was a piece on Puddleglum, the pipe-smoking Marsh-wiggle from Lewis’s The Silver Chair.* And you already know about my Pipe Smoking in Middle Earth (at least, I hope you do).

I thought I would know how Hendrix’s book would unfold. I was wrong, and delightfully so.  Just like their works—and their celebration of “Joy”—this book brought many unexpected surprises, contextualizing their lives apart and together, sharing many facts I hadn’t known before (shrapnel lodged near the heart? Nobel Prize nominations?). More importantly, it gave me a renewed sense of compassion for the foibles and failings of what, remarkably, were in many respects two ordinary (if gifted) pipe-smoking human beings.  I rarely cry, Hendrix’s ending was so very, very right it sent those kind of shivers up through my body that I only experience in the encounter with something Wholly Other. As the Scottish pioneering mythopoeic writer George MacDonald whom they both loved said, “Love drives everything up to the Center.”

While Hendrix’s book is listed under the “Children’s Book” heading at the Times, don’t be deceived.  It’s not.  Sure, there’s “child-like” elements, but you’ve got to expect those in Lewis and Tolkien.  Like Hendrix’s graphic hybrid novel The Faithful Spy (about Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the famous Christian pastor and theologian who was executed for his help in an assassination attempt on Adolf Hitler), this contains some very “adult” stuff—in the existential as well as intellectual sense of that word.  The pull out sections (ingeniously scripted as doors the reader can choose to enter or not) explain the history of modern epic fantasy back to its roots in earliest story.  These require some close reading to understand just how enormous a debt modern literature and religious thought owes to the two writers.

In conclusion, it occurs to me yet again that Kapp & Peterson, whose Dracula and Darwin commemoratives were so successful, might do no better than offer their loyal fans  a 2 pipe commemorative set celebrating “Jack” (Lewis) and “Tollers” (Tolkien) based on classic but long unavailable Peterson shapes from the 1930s and 40s.

*Are you brave enough (or is that foolish)? Here’s my first piece of published academic writing—and don’t say I didn’t warn you: Irwin-PuddleglumFigureComic-2002

PETE GEEK CAP UPDATE

The New Era 39THIRTY caps are finally in production and will ship to me on November 8th. With some grace, they’ll be shipped out to those who ordered them the following week. We had a buy a few extras to make the minimum order, so if you’re interested, drop me an email.