TobaccoDays :: Chicago 2012 – Show Report

What an absolutely incredible experience my first Chicago show was and what an absolutely overwhelming experience it was as well. With all the incredible, fun and pleasant experiences I had, side by side with each of them were feelings of utter exhaustion and just too much stuff going on with not enough time to do all of it. I imagine this sentiment is similar for other show newbies however experiencing it for one self, always creates that much more of an impact. I definitely had both extremes with my first show.

I think I ran back and forth from the hotel towards the hall & tent….at least 30x. The most sleep I got on any one given night (I arrived on Wednesday) was 5 hours. This includes the zero hours of sleep the night before I left as well. So many friends, so many pipes, so many pipe-makers, so many pipe-maker interviews, so much information and so little time.

I did survive though and came through the other side with some amazing memories to take home.

The kudos for the organizers should be a non-stop stream of a constant standing ovation. It seems as if the show is now a well-oiled machine and the organizers and other volunteers created a very smooth experience.

I met so many incredible people. Had fantastic dinners with great personalities. Got to know so many wonderful people. The ‘gathering of everyone in a single place’ element is clearly one of the best features of this show.

I tried so many different tobaccos coupled with different forms of tobacco intake. From incredible cigars, to roll your own cigarettes, to some out of this world, very old and very tasty pipe tobacco. Thank you to all of you for sharing some of those highly varied as well as fine specimens of leaf. One of the most unique share’s came from Russia and my friend Misha Revyagin. What is funny about this item is it’s connection to the way Misha makes pipes. This is called a Papirossa. Basically a very small amount of tobacco (very good tobacco I might add that seemed very organic) wrapped in thin paper. The remainder of the stick is simply a piece of long white carton folded around. This has no filter, it is just air flowing through that large rear white piece. This is the first ‘calabash style’ cigarette/tobacco stick, I have ever seen or smoked.

Papirossa

Calabash Papirossa

The pipes. Oh the pipes! I have never seen so many beautiful pipes in one place. ‘Pipe overdose’ is an understatement. No matter what type of strategy one can think of devising to maximize one’s exposure to as many pipes as possible so as to ensure the best purchase, I can’t imagine 100% satisfaction with any collector at such a show. I did come away extremely happy and I did venture into some new pipe directions this year which is turning out to be fun.

Since I have my ‘TobaccoDays’ hat on at such events, I took the element of quickly vanishing pipes (sold by the time people even get to the show) into account when thinking about you dear reader and because of my early Wednesday arrival, I was able to take pictures of many of the pipes that were gone and sold by mid-day on Thursday. Hopefully some of that sadness associated with these quick and early pipe departures can be softened a bit because now you will be able to gaze on what you could not see then.

One seriously unpleasant item mildly impacting the show experience was that I brought a rather vicious, stomach bug home with me which quite literally had a rather crippling effect on me and put me out of commission for a full week. Ending such an amazing pipe experience with one the worst experiences I have ever had was not the most pleasant combination. That illness, coupled with some very busy private business matters, my current vacation, which in fact I am on right now, “Hello From Israel by the way”, and finally the huge amount of images I had to go through, select, crop, re-size, name etc…(the process took well over 20 hours) all together, helps you understand the date, time and delivery of this mildly overdue blurb.

And so, without further adue, let’s move onto the good stuff, the pictures. Obviously, right next to the world’s biggest pipe-show will come the biggest ever picture report. I am presenting around 450 of the 1,500+ shots that were taken. We got some amazing pipes here folks, some serious mastery going on. Note that while 98% of the shots were taken with my photo camera, some of the Tonni Nielsen shots are actually video stills which reduces image quality. Everything else is gorgeous high definition.

The pictures are separated into two sections beginning with the people of the Chicago show and ending with all the amazing pipes.

I hope you enjoy the people and the briar!

Jeff Gracik

Adam Remington

Anders Nilsson of Vollmer & Nilsson

Jurgen Moritz

Charles Cole

Eric Heberling

David M. & Wolfgang Becker

Luca of NeatPipes

Per Bilhall from ScandPipes, David M., Mikael Pertot & Michail Revyagin

Brian Levine of Brigham Pipes

Paolo Becker

Michail Revyagin & David M.

Our very own 'Mob' pipe guy, Mario "give me that big pipe" Persico, Adam Remington & Rad Davis

Dustin Babitzke

Nick Miller of QuallityBriar.com

Siam & Adam Remington

My good friend Marty Pulvers

Alex Florov

Chris Garlasco – TobaccoDays contributor, enjoying the heck out of his new Grechukin

Adam Davidson & Jeff Gracik

John Crosby & friend

Tech-Savvy Pipe Show Attendee

Matt Guss of Seattle Pipe Club with Ernie Markle

Pipe Show Attendee enjoying his new Pipe

Gerard Ezvan with Mr. Aziz

Todd Johnson

Adam Davidson

Simeon Turner

Throwdown Judges Neill Archer Roan & Marty Pulvers

Matt Guss awarding the winner of the Throwdown, Dick Silverman

Gotoh, David M. & Revyagin

Joe Nelson

Frank Axmacher

Manduela – Once again, the winner of the Slow Smoke Competition

Revyagin & David M. – David with Boris Starkov pipe

Tyler Lane

Adam Remington

Bruce Weaver

Brucer Weaver

Bruce Weaver

Kent Rasmussen

Paolo Becker

Paolo Becker – Interesting FInish on Strawberry Wood. Turned out great in my opinion.

Paolo Becker

Paolo Becker – Multi-Texture Beauty

Paolo Becker

Paolo Becker – Exquisite lines on this Horn

Viktor Yashtylov

Viktor Yashtylov – ScandPipes Table

Ernie Markle

Nate King

Nate King – Smallest Ukelele I have ever seen.

Nate King

J. Alan – Jeff Gracik

J. Alan

Adam Davidson – Giant / Massive Almond

Adam Davidson

Adam Davidson – What A Beauty!

Adam Davidson

Adam Davidson – Gorgeous Prince

Adam Davidson

Brigham

Alex Florov

Alex Florov – Stunner

Alex Florov

Scott Klein

Joura

Joura – DM Coll.

Joura

Joura – Out of this world Grain Perfection

Joura

Simeon Turner

Brad Pohlmann – An example of the evolution in merging Finish & Blast in a striking manner

Brad Pohlmann – The contrast created between the peak and valleys of the blast is absolutely wonderful. Almost like a new design element all on it's own.

Brad Pohlmann

Boris Starkov – ScandPipes Table – DM Coll.

Boris Starkov – ScandPipes Table – A rather impressive piece where Boris merges various ideas, including some gentle asymmetry and once again, the entire piece retains harmony and works beautifully in terms of overall design.

Boris Starkov – ScandPipes Table

Boris Starkov – ScandPipes Table.

Tonni Nielsen – DM Coll.

Tonni Nielsen

Tonni Nielsen – Believe it or not, this pipe is a reverse calabash. Within that shank it lies. The concept is finding it's way into new places.

Tonni Nielsen

Cornelius Manz – Fun Little Pipe – DM Coll.

Cornelius Manz

Manduela

Manduela – DM Coll.

Manduela

Frank Axmacher

Jurgen Moritz

Charles Cole

Gurra – QualityBriar Table – The shank is very interesting and made out of layers of birch,

Vollmer & Nilsson

Revyagin

Revyagin – Showing rear chamber that is built in sideways

Revyagin

Jonas Rosengren – Calabash

Jonas Rosengren

Jonas Rosengren – Viking Sitter – DM Coll.

Joe Nelson

Michael Parks

Michael Parks – QualityBriar Table – Giant

George Lewis

Kurt Balleby – ScandPipes Table

Peter Heding – ScandPipes Table

Boris Starkov – ScandPipes Table – Another example of Starkov shedding some of his youth and entering a much more mature phase by being able to deftly combine several complex concepts into one harmonious expression. This is one of the most interesting & beautiful Bulldog's I have ever seen.

Boris Starkov – ScandPipes Table.

Gert Holbek – Mikael Pertot Collection

Eric Heberling, EJH

Shalosky

Chheda

Gotoh

Tokutomi

Former

Larrysson – QualityBriar Table

Gregor Lobnik – QualityBriar Table

Rad Davis – QualityBriar Table

Sergey Senatorov – QualityBriar Table – DM Coll.

Sergey Senatorov – QualityBriar Table

Dustin Babitzke assembled a truly astounding display full of blowfish'esque pipes. The most amazing thing is the amount of intense variation in all the designs. Different approaches to one idea show us the limitless possibilities when it comes to doing the same thing – different.

Dustin Babitzke's Display

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Chicago 2012 – Show Report

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