Fall 98 Volume II Issue 2

Visits to pipe factories in Europe and the U.S. in the past few months were heartwarming to an inveterate pipester like me, because the production is running at full tilt. Peterson, Chacom, Butz-Choquin, Savinelli, Brebbia, Dunhill, and most of the smaller artisan workshops report a 25 to 50 percent production increase. Demand is strongest in the U.S., which seems to be experiencing a "boomlet" in the mid- and high-priced pipes. Tobacco production is up, and so are sales of bulk product to smokeshops as well as packaged goods, both imported and domestic.

Why do we like these developments? Because, although the trend is a spin-off of the cigar mania of the past few years, unlike the craze of shoe stores and filling stations selling high-priced cigars without the knowledge to inform the customer, pipes are sold (mostly) in pipeshops, usually by knowledgeable people who can guide the customer to pipes and tobacco that are good choices for pocket, personality, and taste preferences. In other words, it's a sane trend towards what we believe is the most enjoyable way to smoke, as nothing else offers the variety of taste or lasting value. Both cigars and cigarettes disappear as they are used, but the pipe endures as a utilitarian object, and sometimes a thing of beauty. Well tended, it'll last a lifetime and continue to give pleasure; in fact, improving with continued use.

In this issue of PipeSMOKE, the cover story on Robyn Miller, inventor of the best-selling video games MYST and RIVEN, suggests a relationship between pipe smoking and creativity. Not a wild idea, that: presidents, physicists, and poets bear it out. Mike Malone, our talented Associate Editor who wrote the piece now can't stop playing the games or smoking his pipes. Other articles include a primer of pipe shapes by Jacques Cole, veteran pipeman, author, and retired editor of Tobacco Europe, a British trade magazine; an informative guide on how to blend your own pipe tobacco from easily available materials by Gregory Maier, a master tobacco blender from California; and an article about my visit to the largest pipe factory in the U.S., where the Alpha pipe, a "service" pipe of extraordinary value for price, is being resurrected for the newly burgeoning pipe market. We think it's a good, balanced issue, and hope you like it, too.

Your letters, faxes, e-mails, and phone calls are appreciated. Keep them coming: we really want to know what you think and what you would like to see us cover in the pages of PipeSMOKE. We try to answer as many letters as we can. Please include your full name, address, and daytime telephone number. Ours is:

Alan Schwartz
Associate Publisher
Editorial Director, PipeSMOKE
130 West 42nd Street, Suite #1050
New York, NY 10036
tel: 212-391-2060
fax: 212-827-0945
e-mail: pipeful@aol.com