D18

Rev. 1:21pm, 5/12/2024 by D. H. Billings If there's one thing that I've ever actually learned in my life, it's that the first version of something is rarely the best, and that oftentimes there needs to be some sort of modification in order to get it right. And when you think about it, that does makes sense. "Let it Be" took 27 takes and multiple overdubs, the X-Man Logan was originally supposed to be a talking wolverine, Luke Skywalker originally was called "Luke Starkiller" with a "laser sword," Stephen King typically needs two drafts and some final polishing before one of his books goes to press, my car model has had a couple of recalls and updates through the years, etc. It just takes time and experience in order to work out the kinks, and that's completely okay; it's normal. Lightning in a bottle rarely happens on first try. Pipe making is no different, as is evidenced by Charles Peterson's continued tweaks to his System throughout the years or the slight modifications to the basic System stems since the switch to acrylic. But the best example of this, at least for me, is the Pub Pipe. Laptop One: Nursing School Lecture With The Original Pub Pipe When I was in nursing school, I purchased one of the original Pub Pipes from 2019 (see Post #138). Peterson had recently changed up their rustication style and, honestly, the very first version of the new style from Wojciech Blaszczak just didn't do it for me; in my opinion, it also needed some tweaks to become what it was meant to be - and so I ordered one of the original ones from a shop across the pond. The pipe came in, and it was obvious that Peterson was really on to something with this new shape. Not only did it hold enough tobacco to get me through an entire online lecture without having to change pipes, but the silver work was amazing, it featured an acrylic stem that would never oxidize, and the design allowed for easy clenching. It was almost lightning in a bottle... almost.... but, like with pretty much everything else in this world, there were some kinks that needed to be worked out. In this particular case, there were two main issues: the push stem didn't sit deep enough in the shank for it to be completely stable and the pipe gurgled horrifically. There wasn't anything I could do about the stem, but I was able to deepen the well and reduce (but not eliminate) the gurgling. That pipe got me through many a nursing lecture and study session, but ultimately I ended up getting rid of it as the continued gurgling and stem stability just proved to be too much of an issue for me. I still liked the shape, just I recognized that the kinks hadn't been fully worked out yet. Fast forward to earlier this year. My birthday is right after IPSD, and there was a new…