V.P.B. Vulcanite Push Bit

By Jason Canady On Tuesday, January 16th at 6 p.m. eastern standard time, Kapp and Peterson will release their annual St. Patrick’s Day pipe. It’s been exactly 350 days since Peterson’s special 25th anniversary edition was released with the first-ever addition of their Irish tweed pipe bags, but who's counting? It’s me, I was counting. Knowing I’m a long-time collector of St. Patrick’s Day pipes, Mark Irwin asked if I would cover this year’s release and I’m honored to do so. “Bless his heart” as we say here in the south. I’m glad you’re here. We won’t deep dive into the history of Peterson’s St. Patrick’s Day pipes, as that has already been covered quite well by chief Pete Geek – Professor Irwin [but you can see Jason's complete collection here]. We’ll look at this year’s SPD pipe offerings from Kapp and Peterson and hear from Glen Whelan, Peterson’s Director of Sales about the latest release and what makes this year’s release special. Finally, we’ll look at some interesting facts about St. Patrick himself and origins of the holiday you may be surprised to learn. It’s January, the time Peterson usually drops their highly collectible and much anticipated SPD line. You may feel like it’s a wee bit early to look ahead for St. Patrick’s Day, but the holiday will be here before you know it and soon it will be time to “step to the Green!” For the 2024 release of its St. Patrick’s Day pipe, Peterson of Dublin will offer this year’s line in the classic system range in five finishes: Smooth, Ebony, Heritage, Sandblasted and Rusticated. Most likely the price points will be in that order, from highest to lowest. The suggested retail price is $125-$185. As you may recall, the first and only time to date the SPD line joined the system pipe was in 2019 with their “The System Goes Green,” slogan. The idea of turning a smooth-finished system pipe green for the holiday pipe belonged to Glen Whelan Jr., Peterson’s Director of Sales. The idea was a big hit. This year’s release brings back the system with a historic first-time ever acrylic emerald green army mount with an acrylic p-lip stem. This Ebony 302 Apple looks smartly dressed and ready to step to the green with its black coat and green collar. To my knowledge, this is the first time in the SPD’s history the Ebony finish has been offered. “For the first time we have used an acrylic mount on a pipe,” says Whelan. We wanted to offer something novel for this year's release and decided to go with something that we haven't done previously.” I asked Whelan if there was a concern of long-time durability for the cap being made of acrylic rather than the traditional nickel or silver band. “I absolutely believe it's durable. The method of manufacturing is similar to how we apply the ring accents that you see on a series like Killarney, or even last year's SPD and…