So in my never ending hunt for locally available tins I went to Tacoma Pipe and Tobacco, accordingly the oldest local smoke shop. Upon entering I see an old cigar store Indian stature, and wall to wall coolers with TONS of imported beers. Rare imported beers are probably the only thing keep this shop open, as every random internet review raves about this aspect of the shop. I head straight for the pipes displayed under the glass, and the lady that came forth to help immediately assumed I was interested in weed pipes and started to try to send me outside to the other side of the shop. When you park you see painted across the wall, CIGARS AND BEER (arrow left) and PIPES (arrow left) and mind you I've been in the so called pipe shop on the left and it's nothing but glass pipes and bongs and such, and if you tell the goofball behind the counter with gauged earlobes you're actually interested in briar TOBACCO pipes he sends you out to the CIGARS AND BEER side of the store. That poor advertisement in of itself is a problem. However back to the proper pipe part of this pipe shop, I was waking past an old Cigar Store Indian stature when I entered if I remember correctly. When I told the lady that I was actually a real authentic pipe smoker she seemed to warm up a bit and stopped with the whole you looking for bongs? That's next door! routine. She came behind the glass counter and picked out a pipe for me, which was a saddle bit billard, all black opera style or what I call a tuxedo pipe since it would certainly match that style of dress. I'm very partial to anything black, I wear all black much of the time, take your pick of reasons, same reason that Johnny Cash had, maybe it's my love of metal, hell maybe it's some long dead Puritan relative genes kicking in. The reason behind my love of all black being what it may I began to inspect the all black pipe I had selected. I attempted to question the shop keep, where was this made, who do you buy them from, what's the deal lady? She had no definite answers other than it's their new stock of pipes (a few monthes ago they had about 7 or so bruyere garantie pipes that all had metal condensers in them, and the three I've bought have all been lackluster, but now they had at least 20 new pipes under glass ), and she knows they are from NC (at least I think that is what I heard) and so in my interest in keeping one of the last non franchise pip shops operating I decided to share some of my hard earned dollars and purchased the so call opera pipe, for 29.99$ which tells you a lot off the bat. It's lightweight, and the tennon was hollow, holding some sort of plastic adapter to keep the airflow even in case you don't have a filter. The bottom of the shank is stamped ITALY, but other than that there are NO identifying marks. I asked the lady if they carried tins, and she responded with a verbal line of thought that basically consisted of well we don't carry tins, we haven't had them in forever due to the taxes, the last time we had tins was.... wait a minute we've NEVER had tins! So I asked to see their tobacco bar of house blends. It was small, maybe 12 jars, 99% black cavendish heavy aromatics, and one jar of "Caroline Flakes" that looks like shredded cardboard. All were beyond half empty, all were labeled with names like "bourbon, tropical, rum, chocolate, norse gold, cherry bomb" etc. No basic Burly, even though I remember a burly blend from my last visit. Five of the jars weren't even pipe tobacco, two were RYO and three were chew! The only pipe related redeeming feature is a display case of GIGANTIC meers, the kind that have the maximum amount of shank extensions and require a temp hired out just to light the damn thing while you puff, all not for sale. I requested an ounce of bourbon because it was the least candy flavored name they had, and stared balefully at a standup cardboard display card of corn cobs that were NOT Missouri Meerscham, they had some logo that was really craptastic like GENUINE or AUTHENTIC or NOT CRAP and actually appeared to have never dipped in plaster. She rang me up and sent me on my way, and this is what I got. There's a logo on the stem which appears to be a P overlaid on an S, a stamp on the bottom of the shank that says ITALY, and that's it. It seems too light, dents and scars EASILY, I knocked it against the sole of my work boot and now have dents. It's hot and wet like a new pipe pushed too hard can be, but no where near as bad as a Grabow with an aluminum tennon. Any idea how to decipher who made this pipe? I've recently discovered the draught hole was clogged, and with a type of tobacco I NEVER smoked, looks like someone clogged it up trying to pre smoke it with RYO, due to all the RYO looking tobacco detritus I scraped from the draught hole with a Phillips 5/43 precision flat head screwdriver, I'm sure I scraped enough mystery baccy out in order to get a clean draw to roll a mystery cigarette... All I know is it's not the ounce of bourbon I bought, because that stuff is 90% black Cavendish and wetter than a (insert off color joke here), and whatever I scraped out of there to improve the draw is dry as dust and all light brown, almost like PA or CH left out in the sun for ages. Any idea on what I have? Also any comments on the sad state of our last local B&M? I didn't get anything special there at all, but I feel a need to spend money there in order to help them out, I'd hate it if the only pipe tobacco shop in town ends up being the last franchise Tinderbox in WA that is left. I like Tinderbox mind you, but I don't want them to be the only option.
Cant help you one the pipe at all. Hell, I couldnt tell a $1000.00 pipe from a $100.00 pipe right now. (really new to the pipe). But I can tell you that I my search for a new pipe for smoking an aromatic around the wife, i went to two B&M shops close to base. The first one that I entered had a huge selection of metal and glass pipes. So, I ask the nice lady behind the counter to see some "wood pipes" She said sure, and showed me to the other counter. I asked to see some, and they all felt plastic, and were made in an exclusive part of China, known for the history of pipe carving. The nicest one was about 20 dollars. Well, being new, i figured that I could wait, and check out the other shop down the road. So next shop. Same thing. Lots of dedication to glass and metal pipes, but this one only had 4 "wooden" pipes. Funny that they all looked the same, and were made in the same exclusive part of China that is known for it's pipe carving. (Plastic). I kinda felt let down. Like you, I want to support local shops, but it is hard when they cater to cheap cigarettes, and smoking other than tobacco products. I mean, had i gone in for some RYO papers, I could spend an hour in there trying to decide on the correct one. LOL So finally, I gave up and drove the 20 minutes to the mall which has the B&M tobacco shop that actually sells good cigars and pipes. I am too new at smoking to try and decipher what is on ebay, or other online shops. I am a little nervous, because I want a decent pipe at a decent price, but I know that most people want you to have a cheap pipe at a expensive price. So, yes I rely right now on the advice from the gentlemen at the B&M to help me learn this time-honored hobby. Even here, I felt like I wasnt given enough time by the gent, because I told him my price range and that I am still learning. Guess I need to spend more to be given more time. O well. Sorry to rant, but I feel your pain on the local store. To be fair they have to compete with the internet! Good luck on trying to find the maker of that pipe.
Sorry - my old eyes must be failing, it took quite a while to make out that there was a pipe in the picture!
It could be, that logo looks exactly the same. Odd that it's not stamped spitfire though, just Italy. It's funny you mention the B&M's having to compete with the internet, because internet sales are verboten in my neck of the woods, so where are all the quality B&M's?
Hmm Lorenzo eh? Not impressed with the wood quality, thing dents if you look at it funny. Weird thing is that if I smoke it with the 9MM plastic insert in place it's a wet gurgling mess, however if I remove it the thing smokes fine, if a bit hot on the briar due to thin walls. Go figure right? Too bad about the dents in the rim, they kind of take away from the classy look of an opera style pipe. On a positive note I love the saddle style stem, gonna have to get more pipes with those, preferably on Canadian style briar!
