Summer 98 Volume II Issue 1

We get a lot of mail with questions such as, "... can you give me an opinion on 'XYZ' pipes, handmade in England, and where do they rank on a scale of one to 10?" Or, what is the best pipe tobacco, and how does it compare to so-and-so?"

While these are, no doubt, honest requests for information, I find the "scoreboard" mentality troubling. What if I answered the letter: "XYZ pipes were the best until 1988, when Joe Bloggs retired. Since then, the pipes have been inferior and are best used as firewood." Does that judgment call serve any purpose? Will the guy smoking his XYZ throw it away, or think himself a fool? And as to tobacco, as a famous wit punned, "One man's meat is another man's poisson.

I won't make those calls, because setting up such hierarchies or taxonomies goes against the grain (pardon) of what PipeSMOKE, and pipe-smoking, is all about: the simple pleasure in a puff of smoke, in the oldest traditional way to enjoy tobacco, and probably the sanest as well as the most economical. Our Tobacco Maven tries to inform in the Maven's Choice column at the back of the book, not make "good, better, best" calls, and I have stated in earlier editorials that, brands aside, an unfinished (or lightly waxed/oiled) "virgin" briar from a reputable retailer is the best way to get the most for the least. I still smoke pipes that I bought years ago, and some I bought the other day at a shop I visited. They smoke as well as anything else. Briar from different sources can vary in taste, but who is to say better or worse? I have had some "virgins." as well as branded pipes that never came to life, while others from the same lot did. All inspections, rejections, and knowledge notwithstanding, it's still often the luck of the draw.

Every pipemaker tries to make the best product he can to fill a market position. Whether you are buying an Ascorti, Ashton, Barling, Brebbia, Butz-Choquin, Chacom, Comoy, Don Carlos, Dunhill, Larsen, Peterson, Savinelli, Stanwell, Upshall, Winslow, etc., (space forbids mentioning every brand), you've got a good pipe. Grading is only a question of aesthetics. All pipes in a good brand use the same quality briar, but the rare ones that are completely free from surface flaws, such as tiny fissures or sandspots, will cost more, although they will not necessarily smoke better.

As for tobacco, here's one of my life lessons: my father, of blessed memory, liked plain old domestic Edgeworth, a cubed Burley. I liked Craven Mixture, an English import endorsed in 1897 as the original "Arcadia" James Barrie wrote about in My Lady Nicotine (1890), and would accept nothing but. Was one better than the other? I certainly thought so, and made my case strongly, and critically, as young men do, as I could not tolerate the earthy nose and straightforward taste of my father's blend. His comment on mine was, "Feh!"

Today, I love a hearty Burley outdoors, a Virginia flake (which I didn't when younger) as an all day smoke, and a classic English mixture only in the evening. Tastes change, people grow. Mark Twain is reputed to have said: "When I was 16, I thought my father was a damned fool. When I was 21, I was amazed to see how much the old man had learned in five years!" Smart is one thing, wise another. Find a pipe that pleases your eye, your pocket, and especially your teeth. Get some small quantities of different tobaccos, and you're in business. Forget the scoreboard and play the game for the fun of it. Everyone wins.

Alan Schwartz
ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER
and EDITORIAL DIRECTOR