Peterson NAP System

On St. Patrick’s Day last I shared with you my co-author Gary Malmberg’s acquisition of an Irish Free State (1922-38) NAP System and how the mouthpiece functioned like nothing we’d ever smoked. To recap, the NAP button, which Silver Gray has aptly dubbed a “clamshell,” radiates smoke through eight vents from five slots of 36º separation. Smoke is first felt from the side ports then radiates from the three central ridges of the button which extend above and below the lateral vent. Charles Peterson coupled this with his graduated bore in the stem, which moves from 1.5 to 5mm, and his patented reservoir, evidently giving much thought to the way flavor is distributed across the palate. The traditional fishtail, which evolved in the early 20th century from a round hole at the end of the mouthpiece to a fan or channeled fishtail, pulls smoke onto the tip of the tongue, concentrating the tobacco’s flavor profile at that point. The 1898 Patent P-Lip pulls smoke to the roof of the mouth at a 45° and down across the entire palate, the tongue tip being tucked into the lower shelf. The NAP clamshell button can be positioned in front of the tongue or just as easily ride on the top of the tongue, but either way, much of the smoke is pulled out laterally into the mouth, with only a gentle whiff hitting the tongue’s tip. This past Sunday, Silver Gray, American artisan and winner of “Best Pipe of Show” at last year’s West Coast (Las Vegas) Pipe Show, completed a numbered, limited edition of 17 NAP mouthpieces. The idea was simply to see how Charles Peterson’s 1906 design smoked by asking people from across the pipe-smoking community—hobbyists, artisans and industry reps—to try it, think about it in comparison with the P-Lip System and traditional fishtail mouthpieces and then talk about it. The pipes will be shipped to their new homes in the next week or ten days, but until then I thought you’d like to see what went into creating the replicas, with photos courtesy of Silver Gray and Brad Pohlmann. Making A Start Silver had all the bowls and participant's rod color choices by the middle of July. “Upon receiving all the pipes,” Silver told me, “I began by measuring the original from Gary Malmberg. I then determined the length of the stem, then the saddle height, the button height and length. The original’s mortise was much bigger [than current production], so I had to mathematically translate that to the current model’s mortise size. I then began preparing the rods (which are all ebonite) by bringing them to size. I then had to figure out how to drill sideways... Thanks is given to master carver, Brad Pohlmann, for keeping his tool and die training equipment all these years! He had a piece of equipment that allowed me to keep the rod stationary for drilling! Afterwards, I had to figure out how to cut the tiny slot on the end of…