New Lines

Beannachtai na Casca Oraibh! Happy Easter to all! The demi-churchwarden Bard will be released this Tuesday, 19th April at SPC, but also through Laudisi, so that it will be available worldwide. In concept, execution and usability I think it’s going to be welcomed by everyone in the hobby who’s looking for something fun, something just a bit different and something just a bit Hobbitish. *   I like the light tan stain on the stamping area of the rusticated finish—it gives a little surprise to the pipe you might not see online. The stamps on the Heritage finish follow current protocol, with the beautiful, classic fork-tail Peterson’s over DUBLIN (arched) over BARD on the obverse of the shank. I wanted to call attention to the nickel ferrule. Aside from the usual (since c. 1963 or so) K&P over PETERSON nickel-mount Maker’ Mark, if you look at the low-light photo above you can see that there is a hint of turn-down of the ferrule where it meets the mortise shank. I hadn’t noticed this before and perhaps this has been present for quite a while now, but I like it. It creates a cleaner transition to the briar. Josh Burgess, Managing Director at K&P, told me a new stem was created for the Bard. For those who find the churchwarden too awkward or difficult to smoke (among whom, sadly, I must count myself), the Bard is a great size. Unbent, the acrylic F/T stem measures 135 mm or 5.25". The slot in the button and the tenon opening are both well-executed. With extreme close-up photograph, you can see a bit of the tearaway fibers left after the stems are made. These are easily swept away with a bristle cleaner or your tube brush.   Adding the full-size 68 bowl lengthens the pipe to 184 mm / 7.25" or to the 303 or 221 6.8" / 172mm. That’s approximate, of course, depending on the stem bend. The greater the bend, of course, the less felt weight if you need to clench the pipe for a few moments. Clenching is quite possible because none of the three shapes is very heavy. Every time a great new electronic Peterson poster like this comes out, the teenager in me wants a big one to hang in my room. With the last several line entries in the catalog, it’s becoming obvious that just as the Dublin era utilized geographical place names like Irish rivers and cities, the Laudisi era is turning to the Irish language.  "Bard" in Irish (for poet) is actually bhard. Maybe K&P just didn’t want to go there with its distributors and the smoking public. Would Pete Geeks have minded? Hardly. We’ve all got our copies of the Foclóir Póca next to our pipe racks anyway, never knowing when we’ll need it to talk to our pipes. Josh tells me the Bard is a larger release than the Iora and Rua Spigots, though still limited. MSRP is $120 for the 221 and 303…