TobaccoDays

Chicago Show 2013 – Show Report

David M. — Tue, 07 May 2013 14:39:02 +0000

Once again the greatest pipe show on earth has come and gone. Chicago 2013 was the place to see old friends and meet new ones alike. Quite unfortunately, yours truly was unable to attend the event this year but after looking at these pictures and speaking to several people who attended, it really feels like I was there, from a ‘feeling’ point of view.

I have heard many different reports on the show, as usual. I will leave you all to take away whatever it is you have heard from your fellow attendees. Right now, the important thing is to re-live the show, especially for those of us who were not there.

We have to extend a very warm thank you to Mikael Pertot for taking 100% of the people pictures and a good 20% of the pipe pictures as well. Thank you Mikael for taking the time to snap these pictures for us, so that we can share in the obvious joy that you felt while at the show.

As always, we start off with the people pictures and then onto the pipe pictures. And the pipe pictures, man oh man, let me tell you, are our talented pipe-makers ever growing and evolving and going off in new directions? Yes they are! You will be amazed at some of the work you are about to see. The veterans outperformed themselves as usual and for many of the younger carvers, just stunning to imagine where some of these pipe-makers were just a short year ago. Leaps & bounds for some of them. Just amazing. Truly a joy to see the bursts of new energy, creativity and general perfectionism, coming from our younger carvers.

Enjoy the pictures pipe friends.

Steve Liskey & Adam Remington – Who likes Adam's new hair-cut? I do.

Full table in the Smoking Tent with Adam Davidson's case of pipes in center

Several folks including Sam Adebayo, Adam and Michelle Remington

Konstantin Shekita showing his beautiful wares.

Konstantin showing the layout for one of his new pipes on briar

Mikael Pertot with Hiroyuki Tokutomi

Scott Klein showing us his Harpoon pipe

Neil Flancbaum of Smokin' Holsters

Teddy Knudsen

Rad Davis

Ernie Markle

A jovial Alex Florov with Dustin Babitzke

Grant Batson and his pipes

Steve Liskey with his pipe case

Per Bilhall of ScandPipes surrounded by Adam Remington and Grant Batson

Carl Staudenmyer with Brad Pohlmann

Smoking Tent – Almost Full

Rex Poggenpohl with Per Bilhall

Massimiliano Rimensi of Il Duca pipes

Dirty, Ragged, Monster looking pipes? Must be Ollie Sylvester's Monstrosity's.

Aage and Margit from Bisgaard-Pipes

Lomma pipes

Briar Art for Sale

K. Anastasopoulos Pipes, from Greece

Cigars, cigars and more cigars

T-Shirts for Sale

Jonas Rosengren, Sweden

Adam making sure that we know of the other half in Remington pipes, Michelle.

Greg Lobnik with Matt Guss of the Seattle Pipe Club

Smoking Tent now Officially Full!

Someone adores Large Pipes!

Now the pictures travel inside the rooms of Pheasant Run

Manduela, Bobby Nesbith and David Sahagian

The Dinner

Jonas, Mikael & Dustin

Anthony Harris of the Kansas City Crew

The legendary Former about to say hello to Per, on couch

Smoke Tent at night, rather Smokey!

Nanna Ivarsson

Gabriele Dal Fiume of Dal Fiume Pipes

The single gentleman staring into the camera is the genius Kei Ichi Gotoh

Who do we have here? Looks like Wolfgang Becker & his wife Gitte. Jorg Wittkamp and Per Bilhall.

Per Bilhall caught in the middle of His Full Inspection of Pipes, for us to buy soon.

David Sahagian – Strong Coffee anyone?

Mr. Gotoh inspecting a pipe

Some Nanna and Gotoh pipes on display

Maigurs Knets, Dustin, Mikael & Per

Kei-Ichi Gotoh

Tom Eltang and Gotoh

A stunning selection of Wolfgang Becker pipes

Mr. Lars Ivarsson

Tonni Nielsen

Kansas City Show – Best of Competition Pipes

Mr. Robert Lawing – Who has not purchased a pipe form Robert at one point or another?

Mimmo of Romeo Briar with friend

Wolfgang Becker, working the numbers with a buyer

Chunks of plateau rich briar for sale

Jeff Gracik of J. Alan pipes

Olie Sylvester of OomPaul

But of course

A rather dapper looking Ernie Markle

Sketches by Sixten Ivarsson. Further explanation in picture below.

Grant Batson, and his pipes.

Free tobacco samples

A stunning Todd Johnson pipe merging both old & new Japan

Some rare tobaccos

Tom Eltang inspecting what I believe is a Ray Kurusru pipe

American carver Bruce Weaver chatting with Per Bilhall

Per Bilhall & Wolfgang Becker

Neil Flancbaum & Mikael Pertot

Bruce Weaver

Tom Eltang enjoying a pipe and a pint

Teddy Knudsen and Grant Batson. You can just imagine these two getting along well.

Mikael & Steve Morisette

And now for the pipes that were on sale at the show.

Adam Remington

Adam Remington – Gorgeous!

Adam Remington

Adam Remington – Wow!

Adam Remington

Gregor Lobnik

Gregor Lobnik – Beautiful!

Gregor Lobnik

Steve Liskey

Steve Liskey – Amazing Bamboo on this piece

Steve Liskey

Steve Liskey – Another gorgeous piece.

Steve Liskey

Steve Liskey – someone likes Bamboo.

Steve Liskey

Grant Batson

Grant Batson – Nice Wave Expression.

Grant Batson

Grant Batson's Table

A gorgeous shot – all of Grant Batson's pipe in his case. The red 'velvet'? is a Very Nice touch!

Peter Matzhold

Peter Matzhold – Gorgeous birds-eye and so elegant.

Peter Matzhold

Alexander Tupitsyn

Ernie Markle

Ernie Markle – Great looking pipe!

Ernie Markle

Chris Morgan

Chris Morgan – Calabash top with loads of birds-eye

Vladimir Grechukin

Vladimir Grechukin – Nice multi-texture.

Vladimir Grechukin

Vladimir Grechukin – Nice contrast stain.

Vladimir Grechukin

Vladimir Grechukin – Gorgeous!

Vladimir Grechukin

Jonas Rosengren

An early Hiroyuki Tokutomi

Kei-Ichi Gotoh

Dunhill's

Race Car #48 Vauen Pipe

Alex Florov

Michael Lindner's Table

Konstantin Shekita Pipes

Konstantin Shekita

Nathan King SteamPunk Pipes

Lee Von Erck's Table

Kent Rasmussen

Kent Rasmussen – Incredible one-sided display of so many different elements. Stunning!

Kent Rasmussen – And it continues on the other side.

Kent Rasmussen – And the bottom as well. This may be one of the most dynamic pipes out there. Stunner!

Kent Rasmussen – The composition on this pipe is a magnificent story!

Kent Rasmussen

Kent Rasmussen – No part of a Rasmussen pipe is untouched by beauty & elegance.

Kent Rasmussen

Kent Rasmussen – So beautiful, how Kent's lines dance along the briar.

Kent Rasmussen

Kent Rasmussen – Unending imagination. It just goes on & on.

Kent Rasmussen – It truly almost leaves you speechless. So beautiful.

Kent Rasmussen

Kent Rasmussen – Taking a need to blast to another level.

Kent Rasmussen

Thank you again to TobaccoDays correspondant Mikael Pertot for delivering us the bulk of these great pictures and truly giving us an inside view of the show.

Some information on TobaccoDays favorite foreign correspondant.

The Truly Lovable Mikael Pertot

Mikael Pertot is a 51-year old pipe collector from Sweden. He describes himself as being an avid cigar smoker for the past 20 years and that he worked as the distributor for Cigar La Donna Dorado (Dominican) in Sweden some time ago. By coincidence a friend of his introduced him to pipes several years ago and Mikael was, in his words ”…instantly hooked by the flavor and body of the tobacco…” Shortly after that moment and sadly, like many of us, Mikael was diagnosed with P.A.D. (Pipe Acquisition Disorder) and he immediately set out on a trek to learn as much as possible regarding everything that is pipe related. His main interest was in high grade pipes and he began to visit most, if not all, the pipe makers in Sweden & Denmark. After his first visit to the 2010 St. Petersburg pipe show, Mikael got hooked on Russian and Ukranian carvers, where he believes that many of tomorrows high grade carvers will soon be found.

Mikael counts many of the best pipe makers in the world as his personal friends and he is happy to announce that Per Bilhall (ScandPipes.com) has made him Assistant Pipe Dealer and he is now in charge of managing Russian and Ukranian carvers for ScandPipes.

Exploring Pipe Evolution – Boris Starkov’s Fin

David M. — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 05:45:01 +0000

All pipe-makers and their work naturally evolve over time. Things change within their work and sometimes you can literally see the step by step, natural transitions that such an idea takes and you can watch as it slowly evolves and goes from one place to another & then another.

The evolution expresses itself in all areas of the pipe. You can see them searching and exploring new ways of executing a shape, how a stem can look, accessorizing and adding little extra’s to the pipe, a search for using new materials and more. Sometimes, when the conditions are just right, slowly and gently, pipe by pipe after pipe, the more they work on and explore the concept, the more the concept begins to grow and then, the magical process of ‘design evolution’ occurs and the entire body of work has the potential to become completely altered.

No area of the pipe is out of bounds. If it is part of the normal pipe, these pipe-makers are looking for ways to approach it differently.

The pipe-makers to be showcased in this series are all searching for something and it is this search that is driving the evolution and it is their search & their journey, that affords us collectors & admirers, a front row seat to their process.

These pipe-makers and their work are crucially important to the hobby as a whole because it is their personal exploration and their journeys, culminating in whatever it is they find, the conclusions so to speak, that influences other pipe-makers. It is that influence which will then take another pipe-maker on a similar journey to also find something new and different. It is a constant, never ending process of copying and refinement that further brings the art of pipes forward.

Today’s article will focus on Russian artisan Boris Starkov.

Boris Starkov

The focus will be on the evolution seen in what we will call, Boris Starkov’s Fin

The birth of Boris Starkov's Fin on the top of the stem

Boris struck gold when he copied an idea he had previously seen in some Kent Rasmussen and Peter Heding pipes. It was a little fin (or step as Boris calls it) protruding out on top of the stem. On it’s own (as seen above and below) this type of ‘fin’ element is what I would categorize as a ‘pipe accessorizing’ element. The application of an element, most often for purely aesthetic (non-engineering) purposes. The element has no functional or practical use to the smokability of the pipe. The act of accessorizing is done mainly to bring out and accentuate the overall expression of the pipe and or it’s form, in one way or another.

It is simple to surmise that Boris had no idea where this accessorizing would lead him but it is right here that this current form of expression began. What was it that he did? He began playing with the stem and looking for ways to express the ebonite in a more dynamic manner. Rather simple. He grabbed an idea and slowly, several of his pipes started having these little fins protruding out from the rear top & bottom of his stems. This started about 2 years ago. They jutted straight out, some had a sharp upward curve, some veered left, some veered right and others even went upside down.

Boris clearly found a lot of joy in accessorizing the pipe in this way but at this time, there was little thought to anything else but the existence of the fin. Boris did not pair or connect the fin with another element on the pipe. He did not match the fin’s shape somewhere else on the briar to create a double element effect, he did not transition the fin into something else, none of that was done. The new lines associated with the ‘fin’ started at the fin and ended at the fin. It was a very simple treatment. And simple treatments are quite naturally how these beautiful things begin.

Starkov's Fin – At the time, an element all it's own

So now Boris had this fin idea. It looked interesting. It was something new and different. Boris however was not content with the fin in that particular state. He began to ask himself what more he can do? How can he take his fin further? If someone is searching for new ways of doing things, one pushes forward, even when one is unsure of the end result.

The natural thing in that state of mind was to take the lines from the fin and extend them out onto the briar itself. Carry the fin’s line forward and see what happens. The results were again very interesting. Boris first had to raise the fin a little and he then carried the top of the fin’s line forward, as seen in the picture below. By doing this, a small wave formed over the briar highlighting the path that the fin’s line was taking. Boris’s extension of the fin’s lines have now brought the fin idea onto the briar itself.

Starkov's Fin evolving – Fin raised slightly allowing the line to enter and caress the top of the shank forming a wave in the process

Now he had to contend with the side-effect of this wave or hump travelling down the shank. The natural thing to do at that moment, was to simply let the wave peter out and create a smooth transition to the bottom of the shank. Slowly but surely however, we see the fin’s effect’s creeping their way into the rest of the pipe.

Starkov's Fin – The Fin's lines first entry onto the briar

And on the other side of this very same pipe, Boris again explored and did something different. He took the fin and split the top and bottom of it and formed two lines & he allowed those two lines to split apart and form a channel inside the shank as seen below.

Starkov's Fin – The Fin is split into two lines and as each travels down the shank, a channel is created

Boris was clearly taking small steps at first, likely because that is all that most of us can do in such moments. We take small steps and see what happens. It is difficult to think in bigger steps, which is why the very act of taking small steps is so important. Remember that this entire process we are reviewing, occurred over a two-year period.

Let’s pause for a moment and review where the fin idea is at right now – We have a fin, a fin’s natural lines when extended and the waves they form & finally a fin splitting into a top and bottom, forming two lines which when separated, create a channel. Now things are getting really interesting.

Boris tested this new concept on several shapes.

Starkov's Fin – Applied to a horn, two lines extend from fin to form a channel

Soon after, the fin took a rather sharp and dramatic turn with a high upward slant. This had two side-effects. The first more basic side-effect is that it created some dual harmony with the side of the bowl facing the fin. Both fin and bowl are now parallel which always creates a nice dynamic design effect as seen below.

Starkov's Fin – The Fin gets a high upward curve

The second side-effect and more important in my mind, is that the sharp upward curve allowed Boris to explore how low he could take the bottom line of the two fin lines. Obviously he did this and one can see the slow formation of a ‘natural channel’ forming in between the fin’s lines and the bottom of the shank. Now we have the lower lines framing the shank. Another novel new step in the right direction.

Starkov's Fin – As a result of the high curve on the top of the fin, Boris saw that the lower lines can now extend deeper and travel under the shank

The extension of the fin’s lines below the shank, framing this natural channel around the bottom of the shank was such a smart and beautiful step. The crisp execution of that design idea all alone, is absolutely stunning to me. Here are some examples of this fin application where Boris takes the lines slightly further.

This example from my personal collection, combines the beauty of the fin’s lines with Boris’s penchant for asymmetry to create a wonderful interplay of form and line.

Starkov's Fin – One line travelling down & below the shank.

The elegant simplicity of this particular fin variation is truly spell-binding.

Starkov's Fin

The asymmetry of the pipe is in a literal dance with the fin’s lines.

Starkov's Fin

The exact same concept seen applied to a Pot shaped pipe below. If you look closely in both the above and below pipes, Boris again did something new with the fin. Rather than have the fin’s lines split apart to form a channel, he still let them split but this time he kept the surface in between the two lines, flat. Boris is slowly opening up option upon option for him to work with with his continued exploration of this fin idea.

Starkov's Fin – Top and bottom fin lines extending but not forming a channel and rather creating a flat surface

Starkov's Fin

Another brief review of the fin and where it is at now in the evolution process – We have a fin on it’s own, a fin’s natural lines when extended and the waves they form. We have a fin splitting into a top and bottom, forming two lines which when separated, create either a channel or a flat surface and finally, a fin’s lines extending below the pipe to frame the shank in a natural manner. So many steps brought Boris to this place and now, he has so many options to choose from when making a pipe. Naturally, at this point in the game, Boris took all of the above many different fin applications and decided to make an attempt at producing an entire pipe which would carry all of these ideas throughout as much surface area on the pipe as possible.

His first attempt produced one of the most interesting Bulldog’s I have ever seen. The lines on this pipe are so easy to follow, so fluid in their form and so beautiful to look at. In this variation, Boris placed two separate fins on the pipe, on the top and bottom of the stem and the rest was a simple application of all the steps he had gone through previously.

Starkov's Fin – Two fins now frame the shank with a slender channel in the middle.

Starkov's Fin – The top and bottom fins from the rear

Starkov's Fin

His second attempt at combining all of the elements we listed above is truly Starkov’s Master Opus. Starkov completely unrestricted himself and allowed the entire pipe to reap the full benefits of his fin exploration. He had now become so comfortable with the various fin applications and allowed his full artistry and new knowledge of this one element to shine.

The fin’s lines travel the entire length of the pipe almost protruding beyond the bowl. He both allows a small channel to form along the shank and take the lower fin line and accentuate it to the point of it forming it’s own wave that hugs the bottom of the pipe. He separates the bowl completely from the lower portion of the pipe to allow the fin’s full beauty to shine on it’s own. He even places some of the channels he grew so fond of earlier on the top of the bowl to highlight the harmony of what the fin has done for him.

Starkov's Fin

What is it that we saw occur in this evolution? We saw the stem becoming an absolutely distinct part of the overall pipe design. The stem is no longer just a stem with the main pipe design residing within the briar. Rather we now see a small element in the stem, ‘the fin’, become a larger part of a much bigger and harmonious idea. We now see the entire design concept for a pipe, flowing solely from the stem. The stem has become the starting point for the entire design concept for the remainder of the pipe. What a fantastic flip in the design process.

Where Boris Starkov’s fin will end up, nobody knows. His exploration on the subject matter and the results he achieved along that journey are highly commendable.

To see more of Boris Starkov’s work, visit his website here:

http://starkovpipes.ru/index.php

The Easy Transformation of the Briar Block’s Skin from Wood to something Extraordinary

David M. — Mon, 11 Mar 2013 06:30:18 +0000

Its nice to know that if a pipe maker ever becomes flustered with difficult thoughts related to what type of shape they should make next, they can always breath at least a small sigh of relief knowing that we also have the pipe’s exterior, or it’s skin to experiment and play with as well.

It seems relatively easy to assert that 95% (and likely more) of pipes being sold today have one of the three major types of surfaces on it. They are a smooth, sandblasted or basic rusticated surface. The average pipe will look like one of those three. My desire would be to see a greater number of alternative ‘surface definitions’ added to this existing general mix. It seems like there are several pipe-makers who agree and we will briefly review their work here.

Why do we have this scarcity in alternative surfaces? The short answer is – Tradition. Our market is heavily rooted in the past and the difficulty involved in breaking out of this mold, especially from a pipe-makers point of view, cannot be underestimated. Why should a pipe-maker even search for something new and different when there is so much steady business connected to the regular way of doing things? Clearly a relatively new pipe-maker would have not only a different perspective on this topic but also different motivations in the ‘be seen’ and become known department. Being the first pipe-maker to ‘test out’ some new idea always carries risks with it but the potential reward is very much worth it.

For established pipe-makers it should actually be much easier to take such risks since it should not impact their existing standing with the collector community to a high degree. Obviously the hope is that the risk being taken turns out to be a smart one. Cearly the result should look good from both the aesthetic point of view and ensuring the pipe’s overall design remains harmonious and flowing, no matter what interesting and unique applications are applied to the pipe’s skin. Once those basic’s are achieved, the results are very positive. In such a competitive market as we see today, any added element of differentiation can only help the pipe-maker.

Anne Julie has been applying unique skins for decades now. Her most famous and aesthetically pleasing to me, is her flower series. I most especially enjoy her black stained flower pipes. They tend to exude in my mind, a strong leathery type quality, implying both a hard yet soft texture.

Anne Julie – Image Courtesy of Bisgaard-Pipes

This dual (hard yet soft) element in Anne’s pieces were the first to truly open my eyes to what ‘can’ be, with regards to the true transformation of a wooden block of briar into something exuding a completely different overall sense. At that initial point of realization, all one can then think about is what other extraordinary transformations and modifications can occur to a regular block of briar?

Anne Julie – Image Courtesy of ScandPipes

To enhance the overall fluidity in her design, Anne ensures that the entire piece speaks in one language by allowing her carving to travel over the shank and even to the tip of the stem. A smart and natural way to approach an all-encompassing, single design concept.

Anne Julie – Image Courtesy of ScandPipes

Rolando Negoita has been applying interesting skins for the bulk of his career. Negoita often finds himself borrowing from nature for his inspiration. His pipes often express the form and texture of various nuts, from acorn’s to walnuts.

Rolando Negoita – Image Courtesy of Al Pascia

Ukranian carver Konstantin Shekita takes a decidedly different approach to transformation. Konstantin seems to enjoy the almost complete elimination of the pipe surface area altogether and applying a webbed or fishnet style of application.

Konstantin Shekita – Image Courtesy of ScandPipes

It seems difficult to imagine the time needed to create such a startling piece but the results are nothing short of fantastic in the realm of new ideas for us to look at. Exploring in this area, it seems that Konstantin has found an new way to potentially take the word ‘contrast’ to a whole new level.

Looking at this next piece, one can easily imagine some potential future applications when allowing the two levels of pipe surfaces to interplay with one another on a deeper level.

Konstantin Shekita – Image Courtesy of ScandPipes

The always unique and different Michail Revyagin enjoys modifying as many elements as possible. Michail is always twisting what we believe we know and understand regarding what a pipe should look like. It should therefore come as no surprise that Michail decided to actually glue layers of different materials, such as vulcanite in various colors and even briar itself, on top of the briar.

Michail Revyagin – Image Courtesy of Quality Briar

Michail Revyagin

For Misha it is all about the interplay of elements and what type of visual waltz he can create for our eyeballs. Chop off a section of the pipe here and replace it with some rubber. Why not! It seems to open things up quite a drastic bit…creatively speaking. If the material is functional and performs the same job as the briar would, all while adding new elements to the surface, what can be more pleasing in terms of a final result?

Michail Revyagin – Image Courtesy of ScandPipes

Alex Brishuta, another Ukranian carver, says that he adores the rusticated finish because it provides him with more opportunities in terms of the final look. He could not be more correct. Anything that gives us the opportunity to discuss something new and different is an asset to us.

Alex Brishuta – Image Courtesy of ScandPipes

Moon pocked marks all over the bowl, sometimes finished smooth, other times with additional, even smaller pock marks to go on top and left rough. What a simple yet very interesting application.

Alex Brishuta – Image Courtesy of ScandPipes

And finally, new carver Grant Batson and what he calls his ‘tormented’ finish.

Grant Batson

It seems that Grant was experimenting away, possibly looking at the natural plateau placement in his pieces and looking to find a way to extend those rough elements related to it, throughout the rest of the pipe. No matter what the course taken, I think he did a wonderful job in finding something new for us to digest.

Grant Batson

One of the greatest things about so many of these exteriors that we look at, is the general ‘simplicity’ in the idea they portray. This is not rocket science and is likely more connected to these artisans having either a personal desire to find something different and or they had enough time, in between commissions, to actually ‘think’ about what more they could do to transform the briar’s surface.

Temporary Hiatus Almost Over

David M. — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 05:28:06 +0000

Dear Readers,

The site has clearly been on a temporary break for some time. Clearly for good reason though.

Some of the reasons are connected to the new business venture I am involved in, coupled with a full blown move down to Los Angeles for said business and finally there are some additional personal reasons affecting the situation as well.

All that being said, I can tell you that the break is almost over and new posts will be coming very soon.

Thank you for your emails and comments during this down-time.

My Best,

David M.

Don’t Smoke Aromatics? Think Again!

Chris Garlasco — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 16:18:37 +0000

I found my way to the joy of pipe tobacco after many years as a self described cigar aficionado. Rather than starting out as many new pipe smokers do in the world of aromatics, it was a natural progression for me to jump right into the world of English blends. I soon found myself glued to internet sites reading as much about pipes and pipe tobacco as I could reasonably digest. I spent a year diligently taking notes about my favorite blends and when I felt some degree of confidence, I decided to begin sharing my thoughts on one of the popular tobacco review web sites. With the confidence and skill of an armchair quarterback on Monday morning I documented my journey from one blend to the next. It wasn’t long before I was venturing off into Virginias and various flakes. I was a man on a mission! Packages arrived at my doorstep so often that soon our mail carrier became part of our family’s circle of trust! Mason jars began to occupy all of the available space in the basement of our new home. Boxes piled up and several large pipe racks made their way into the “pipe room.” I had fully succumbed to the duel disorder of PAD and TAD, pipe and tobacco acquisition disorder for those that aren’t in the “know.” Over the course of the next three years, I had sampled nearly three hundred different blends from all over the pipe tobacco spectrum!

The actual day is a bit murky in the shadow of my mind, but there came a day that I made the decision to “take a vacation” into the world of aromatics. I even referred to this endeavor as a “vacation” in several of my online reviews. It was a term that announced, “I’m not really an aromatic smoker, just a dabbler.” It was my way of distinguishing me as a supercilious smoker of “real” tobaccos and not one of the poor, lost pipe smokers that actually enjoyed aromatics as a regular smoke. After all, aromatics were for beginners. It was the stuff that showed up in your local drug store and as one who is “in the hobby,” I had a perceived reputation to protect!

Photo credited to: Jenna Lee. Pipe is a Steve Liskey RhoDublin.

Soon after receiving several aromatic sampler packages from various online retailers, I began my “vacation” into the world of aromatics. It didn’t take long before I found myself enjoying a bowl of aromatic tobacco before bed each evening. This was a clandestine activity that I hesitated to share with my wife, an English blend smoker, and I left our mailman completely in the dark. It was my secret, my guilty pleasure to be enjoyed late in the evening, while my family was locked into a deep sleep. In an effort to avoid discovery, I went so far as to puff a few clouds of Latakia into the air around the “man cave” prior to climbing into bed just to ensure that all stayed right with the world.

I was now ready to begin posting some reviews. What I found were review after review that started with disclaimers from others maintaining the same guilty pleasure. Reviews that started with statements like, “I’m not normally an aromatic smoker but…….and ending with, “if I actually smoked aromatics, this would be my choice.” Review after review contained these disclaimers or even worse, outright condescension coming from those that claim to not smoke aromatics. Being the amateur detective that I am, I soon found myself reading other reviews written by those that claimed to hate aromatics. The evidence was clear; some of those very folks in my opinion actually did smoke aromatics.

My interest had been peeked and I decided to seek out just where the line exists between aromatic and non-aromatic tobacco. In other words, at what point does a blend fall into one category or the other? I wasn’t seeking a debate on the topic, but like so many topics in the pipe smoking world, what I found was a friendly debate on the subject. Our humble hobby is no stranger to a good debate. You may recall a debate about briar verses brand, or debates over the value of a widely drilled draft hole and so on. There have even been debates as to what the difference is between an English blend and a Balkan blend.

My search left me without answers and only served to add to my confusion because it seems that for some pipe enthusiasts, pipe tobacco doesn’t just fall into two categories, but possibly three! There are some that claim that there are tobaccos that are neither aromatic nor non aromatic, but fall into a third category that lands somewhere in the middle. These blends were often referred to as “Crossovers.”

As a result of my search, I made the decision to ask a few well respected people in the world of pipe tobacco for their thoughts on the subject. I sent out identical emails with two questions in hopes that some of these fine people would be willing to share their thoughts on the subject. The first question that I asked was simply, “when does one determine when a tobacco blend has crossed the line into the realm of aromatics?” I expanded on the question by siting several examples of tobaccos that could be considered one or the other, depending on the opinion of the individual pipe smoker.

The second question that I asked was on the subject of “Crossover” blends. These are blends that some pipe smokers consider to be a “bridge” between an aromatic and a non-aromatic tobacco. I asked if such a category actually existed. I offered up several possibilities as examples.

Here are some of the responses that I received.

Russ Ouellette. Photo courtesy of PipesMagazine.com/Bob Tate

Tobacco Blender Russ Ouellette, of Hearth and Home offers a straightforward distinction by saying, “If you can smell the flavoring and taste it as well, then it’s a “full on” aromatic. If you can smell it but not really taste it the top dressing or casing, it’s a semi aromatic. I refer to the Lakeland (style) tobaccos as “scented” as the flavorings are outside of the mainstream. I wouldn’t want a Captain Black smoker thinking that Bosun Cut Plug would make him happy.”

Photo credited to: Jenna Lee

I asked Russ about the elusive crossover blend and his thoughts on its existence. “We use terms for blends like Frog Morton or Voodoo Queen as Aromatic English blends rather than terming them as “crossovers.”

Rich Gottlieb. Photo courtesy of PipesMagazine.com/Bob Tate

Rich Gottlieb, owner and tobacco blender at online retailer, 4 Noggins, shared similar thoughts to Russ Ouellette. “There can be a fine line what some would call an aromatic, (especially) blends like Royal Yacht, Navy Flake and Erinmore Flake. My thoughts are if you can taste the tobacco primarily at the forefront, then it is not an aromatic. If the first taste is that of a topping, then it’s an aromatic.”

Photo courtesy of G.L. Pease

Blender Greg Pease echoed and expanded on Gottlieb’s thought by saying, “With respect to the conventional use of the term today, aromatic tobacco is not one that is simply cased, but which uses additional toppings, flavorings and essences to alter the taste and aroma of the tobacco in a significant way. It’s important to draw a distinction between casing, (which can be something as simple as the application of additional sugars or the subtle use of things like liquorice, anise or honey), and scents like vanilla, chocolate, fruit and floral essences. When tobacco’s natural aromas are masqued by the sauces used, there is no question that it falls into the aromatic category, but how far back can we draw the line of demarcation?” It should be pointed out that “casing” refers to soaking some of the items that Pease referred to in hopes that the leaf will absorb the casing. Burley is particularly a great tobacco when it comes to absorption. “Top dressing,” is misted onto the finished blend and is applied in a much lighter amount than casing. Some tobaccos have been both cased and top dressed.

Greg Pease, Russ Ouellette pointed out that many tobaccos are “treated” in the processing phase. According to Pease’s web site, he rightly points out, “very few mass-produced tobaccos on the market today are NOT cased. Casing is the process of adding sugars and flavoring agents before the leaf is further processed. Raw tobacco is not always the most pleasant thing to smoke, so it can need a little help. Many raw tobaccos, especially burleys are harsh, and can have poor smoking characteristics. Very few smokers have ever experienced Virginias or burleys that do not have some sort of casing applied.” However, GL Pease does offer blends with no casing or top dressing.

Pertaining to “crossover” blends, Greg Pease had this to say, “The water is not very clear. If a conventionally defined aromatic had Latakia added to it, would it be considered a ‘crossover aromatic,’ or should the term only be used to describe a Latakia mixture that has been sauced? Does the direction from which we approach the end result matter? If not, we might find ourselves struggling with two or more fuzzy dividing lines rather than just one.”

Pease further went on to say, “There are certainly Latakia mixtures that have been sauced, so it’s a fair question as to where they fit in terms of category. I suppose we could look at it, at least informally, like speciation; if two blends are mixed together and the result is the same species, than it must be its own thing. Mix a crossover blend with something that isn’t, you still have a crossover blend. Cross one English mixture with another, and you still have something recognizable as belonging to the same category. But then, what about a mixture mating with a Virginia, or as in the case with my newest blend, a mixture combined with a Navy Flake, is it a new species or a hybrid?” Clearly, when we begin to look into various categories of tobaccos, the water can become very muddy, very quickly when speaking of the possibility of the existence of “crossover” blends.

Photo credited to: Jenna Lee

Steve Fallon’s viewpoint, often shared by many pipe smokers could be called a “purist” point of view as he makes no exceptions to his definition. However, taking that one step further, noted pipe maker, blender and owner of Park Lane Tobacconist, Paul Bonacquisti, pointed out that Latakia is in fact a “flavored” tobacco too. “I believe that flavoring tobacco in any way by means of an additive can classify it as an aromatic……I’m not just talking about heavily cased blends that use sweet syrups such as cherry and vanilla to produce a desired flavor, I am also talking about Latakia which is fire cured to produce its distinctive taste. Any tobacco that contains an additive that alters the smell and taste of the natural leaf by my definition would be classified as an aromatic.” Well known pipe collector and author of many pipe and tobacco articles, Rich Esserman echoed this thought by saying, “All tobacco is processed, (one might say flavored), in one way, shape or form……some more than others, Latakia is a flavored via smoke, perique and flakes by various types of pressure etc.” Esserman continued by saying, “Many of the currently most expensive vintage mixtures today (like Sobranie) were processed using various oils and natural essences. When you open up a vintage tin of Smoker’s Haven Krumble Kake, made by Sobranie, the paper surrounding the tobacco is completely saturated with oil. Many of my old favorite Virginias like McConnell’s Scottish Cake, Sobranie #7, and Dunhill Ready Rubbed all had to have been made with some type of essence. It is important to point out that Paul Bonacquisti and Rich Esserman are by no means attempting to define an English blend in the same classification as a cherry flavored Cavendish but rather to put forth the point the opinion that simply a “non-tobacco” flavor doesn’t define a tobacco as an aromatic.

Steve Fallon. Photo courtesy of OldToby.com

The fact is that the term “aromatic” itself has been called into question by Greg Pease, Rich Esserman and others. “I do not like to use the term aromatic because the term has been corrupted. The original use of the term ‘aromatic’ meant flavorful Orientals, rather than the way the term is used today that means that a tobacco has had flavoring added to it” Esserman points out. House of Calabash master blender, Steven Books, a blender of tobacco for decades, has a similar point of view. “Fifty years ago, an aromatic tobacco was a tobacco that had an aromatic smell that came from certain tobaccos, not the casing.” Rather than classifying a tobacco as either an aromatic or non-aromatic, Esserman prefers to refer to tobacco as either cased or uncased.

Rich Esserman. Photo courtesy of BrothersOfBriar.com

Pertaining to the possible existence of the “crossover” blend, Esserman says that it doesn’t make any sense in his opinion. “If a tobacco has a flavored component, it is still an aromatic. It’s like being a ‘little’ pregnant!” Paul Bonacquisti’s point of view is markedly different than Rich Esserman’s and similar to Greg Pease’s description.

Paul Bonacquisti. Photo courtesy of Doc Watson.

Like Pease, Bonacquiti looks at the blends in categories and then describes mixing one category with another to create a crossover. He uses the example of a natural mixture such as a straight Virginia blend that is introduced to a small aromatic component to create the “crossover blend.” Both points of view offer compelling arguments.

Photo credited to: Jenna Lee

With the advent of ecommerce, today’s pipe smoker has more blend choices than ever before. Different tobaccos can be purchased from all over the world. Blenders are constantly pushing the boundaries in an effort to produce blends that stand out from the competition. The Tobacco Reviews website (www.tobaccoreviews.com ) currently lists more than forty two hundred different pipe tobacco blends! The vast majority of these different blends are still in production, with new blends being added to the site weekly. It’s no surprise that the line between aromatic and non-aromatic can be easily blurred. It’s also clear that even the term “aromatic” may also be subject to change.

The fact is that nearly every pipe smoker’s regular tobacco rotation likely contains some form of aromatic tobacco. The question for each of us is where do we draw the line?

Greg Pease offers us this summation, “I suppose I’d say that if the purpose of an additive, either a casing or an essence, is to enhance the tobacco’s natural flavor and aroma, it may not be an aromatic. If the intent is to masque the tobacco, it certainly is. It’s not much of a definition, I realize, but it’s somewhat better than the meaningless tautology about pornography that first came to mind; we may not know what it is, but we know it when we smell it!”

Amen Greg!

Chicago 2012 – Show Report

David M. — Tue, 29 May 2012 01:31:59 +0000

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

What is the Best Pricing Strategy for New Pipe-makers to use?

David M. — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 05:43:19 +0000

New pipe-makers just entering the business, have to make a living. They work long and hard hours at their craft and for the hours worked, they need to be compensated. If they are however new to the business, how should they approach their compensation right at the beginning of their careers, in order to maximize their business potential in the future? Is there a strategy or one could even call it, philosophy, for brand new pipe-makers to consider that would help them achieve those long-term goals?

I look at each and every pipe-maker currently out there and compare the very beginning of their careers to that of a new business venture, a start-up so to speak. Ultimately this is exactly what they are doing when they begin, evaluating whether or not they can ‘make it’ in this industry and become a self-sufficient business that involves making and then selling high-grade/expensive pipes. I am obviously excluding the hobby pipe-maker from this analysis.

The difficulties of making it in this business are known quite well to more than a few current as well as no longer carving pipe-makers. Some carvers try to come into the business by first quitting their day jobs, only to find themselves not making enough money selling pipes and looking for that same day job a few years later. Every year all of us watch how the ‘hot’ pipe-maker of just a few years ago used to sell at $X High Value is now selling at $X Lower Value. If this truly is a business for these carvers and how else can it be viewed, then long-term price sustainability and a consistent base of orders, is obviously paramount for their business to succeed. Needing to go back into the workforce, as well as those price drops are likely difficult blows to the pipe-makers ego but can this circumstance be better managed or even avoided?

The ego stoking the fires of all these brand new pipe-makers can act as both a friend and an enemy. Wanting to get ‘paid’ for one’s work, especially one’s extremely hard work, as is the likely case for someone just starting out & learning the business as well as the craft, is very natural. How can that desire be approached in a way that is more fruitful to their careers?

The prominent US pipe-maker Todd Johnson shared some insights on the very beginning of his career in pipe-making. He told me: “During the first year or so of my production, the pipes I was making probably didn’t live up to their $200-$400 price tags. When I sold one such pipe to notoriously picky collector Toren Smith, he returned it in person at the Chicago pipe show, and he essentially obliterated it with his criticism. While it hurt both my pride, and my pocketbook, Toren was absolutely spot-on. Taking his criticism to heart, I returned home with a new understanding of the “bar” a high grade pipe has to clear, and the next year, I believe Toren bought seven or eight pieces from me.”

Todd Johnson

Todd was lucky because he received constructive criticism and combined with his strong personality, he is where he is now. What if other pipe-makers are not so lucky? I would imagine that not all collectors are able to offer the effective form of feedback that Todd received. I also imagine that most pipe-makers are not even able to handle such feedback very well at all. Still though, it is difficult to ignore the need to get more and frankly as much as possible, feedback at this early stage in someone’s career? A good and simple tip however, if your not getting constructive feedback but also not getting any repeat customers at the same time, that likely says a lot as well.

It seems that the connection with the collector community is a very important element in any new pipe-makers future. It seems therefore wise for the new pipe-maker to want to get as many of their first pipes into as many collectors’ hands as possible? The best way to do this then would be to price their pipes right out of the gate with this long-term business goal in mind. Price them in a way that makes it easy for this process to occur. Their pipes should flow into the system with ease. Make that feedback happen easily by participating with it, rather than against it. If the new pipe-maker is truly good and their potential is clearly seen, they will automatically gain a following and potential future customers. If they are really good, this is a small sacrifice for the confirmation they will get, which they so desperately need. No matter which way you look at it, even if they find out that they are horrible pipe-makers, it seems that the value in this step produces only good results and good information allowing the new pipe-maker to better understand their place and future in the business. Such an initial step could be viewed as the ‘market research’ portion of the business plan.

The ultimate costs for these pipes do not concern me as much as what is best for the new pipe-maker when taking their personal long-term goals into account. I am concerned with the new pipe-makers future success rather than how much I pay for his or her pipes. I am happy to pay a tidy sum for something that I want. I also believe in our free market economy.

Todd Johnson echoed a similar sentiment saying to collectors: “If you don’t think the quality measures up to the price, keep your wallet in your pocket. Any pipe-maker with half a brain will recognize that either their pipes aren’t good enough to sell, or they’re too expensive. Collectors needn’t try and make it some sort of a moral issue.”

I completely agree with Todd and find the confidence that I see in some new pipe-makers pricing to be intriguing. When I however see so many new pipe-makers charging at prices that established pipe-makers have taken years to achieve, it simply raises these natural questions and my concern for these new pipe-makers and their future tends to magnify.

Todd Johnson expressed some of that fear with another comment, he said: “I’m asked to look at a lot of new pipe maker’s pipes, and some of them are terrible at any price. Others clear the bar for a couple hundred bucks, and a few are truly exceptional and should indeed command true high grade prices. I have no problem if someone wants to charge $500/pipe right out of the gate, but the pipes had better be damn good. The problem I see with new makers most often is not that their prices are somehow objectively ‘too high,’ for someone without name recognition, but that they don’t make good enough pipes. Guys, if you want to do this for a living, make better pipes!”

I clearly do not look at the quantity of new pipe-maker pipes that Todd Johnson reviews. In terms of his comments though, the common sense portion that one should take away is that the ‘exceptional few’ statistic will likely remain. When you look at what is being sold however and at what prices, the numbers seem to tell us something different. They imply that there are a lot of exceptionally great, brand spanking new pipe-makers out there. Perhaps yes, perhaps not.

One industry veteran who shall remain anonymous shared some insight on this issue. They said: “I have noticed this as well with some guys pricing very high right out of the gate. Like other products on the market, price is more about prestige than money. Some people price low and work up. Some price very high and want people to flock toward them. Both can work and both can fail. Many are pricing high for wholesale, I believe, because they can’t or don’t sell directly. It’s a risk.”

A certain amount of risk-taking is normal with any new business venture. I still however gravitate towards a more conservative approach. What if the carver is really talented? An argument could still be made for staying conservative at the beginning. Especially if they are destined to be great, why are those guys taking some of the same risks? They will easily command the high prices they expect right now, down the road. By taking a gradual price increase approach today, they will actually be more certain of their long-term sustainability.

It also seems clear that all new pipe-makers working during this beginning stage, should definitely have a second job to ease some of the financial pressures that come with starting up a new business. Having sufficient ‘start-up’ cash on hand is key to minimize some of the feelings associated with their personal finances, especially when they are paying $40 per block of briar. There are costs to learning how to carve well. A lot of lost costs that come about from learning from mistakes.It is an expensive business to get up and running.

Todd Johnson again shares some insight from his experience, he said: “Every new pipe maker spends a tremendous number of hours on each pipe, and despite the fact that, when it’s finished, it’s mediocre at best, they can’t imagine that their 20+ hrs of work, has yielded something that’s “worth” only $75-$100. I tell every pipe maker I work with, ‘you don’t get paid by the hour, so efficiency is paramount if you want to make a sustainable living as a pipe maker.’ For me, a sandblasted billiard might be more ‘profitable’ from an hourly rate standpoint than a giant smooth sculptural piece. In the end, it’s the former that finances the latter, not the other way around.”

What Todd said above takes time. If this efficiency will automatically come with greater experience, then a certain amount of investment towards that, is needed up-front. Who will benefit most from the investment/sacrifice made up front? The pipe-maker or the collector? I vote for the pipe-maker. Once again though, a cross-roads where we are forced to ask ourselves, what is the best way to get there then, as effectively as possible, especially if it is truly meant to be? Marketing ones self takes some time in any case, it rarely ever happens overnight.

Marty Pulvers of PulversBriar.com also chimed in on the discussion adding these valuable points: “We also face the problem (not ever being able to see into the future) of a person who starts off great but fails to grow. He has commanded a fairly big price to begin with, justifiably, let’s say, but fails to improve enough to attract a wider audience. He is now saddled with high prices and a small audience. If he kept his prices low even at the beginning, he would at least, we hope, be delivering good value for the dollar without much improvement. Conversely, the guy who starts off slowly, and is smart enough to keep his initial prices low, does have the option of raising his prices. Thus, I would argue that it is always best to start off with low prices and let time and the market (and ego, I suppose) help dictate any rise in prices.”

Marty Pulvers of PulversBriar.com – Photo courtesy of pipesetbouffardes.com

The pipe economy is changing folks and prices are changing with it. Some things will definitely have their own life and create their own movement which none of us will be able to control. There are also no ultimate right or wrong answers and there will always be exceptions to the rule. Obviously, everyone also has the right to approach their new business however they choose. It simply seems like a good strategy to consider as many of the potential factors that lie ahead as one can, when would be pipe-makers make the leap into this field.

Cornelius Manz – Focusing on his own Voice

David M. — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 16:54:23 +0000

Is there a pipe-maker having more fun today than Cornelius Manz? (also spelled Maenz) How can he not be having fun? His pipes are sold out within a few hours of being posted. His re-orders from retailers are occurring at a non-stop steady stream. In terms of business, it seems like Cornelius is doing well. This isn’t the fun part for him though. This just provides for him and his family. His wife is a fashion designer and both Cornelius and her just welcomed their brand new baby boy named Mimmo. Yes, they named their son after the Italian briar maestro. Cornelius is actually having so much fun, mainly because he has been making the pipes that he wants to make, for pretty much the bulk of his career. That may not sound like a very odd sentence but ask any pipe-maker out there and most of them are making what they believe the market is asking for. There is a big, big difference.

He is a strong believer in listening to his inner self and doing what he wants to do, rather than what other people may think he should do. It is not seen as a safe way to work in this business however Cornelius is all about doing things in his own way, with his own style. This is his mantra. When his mantra is singing loud and clear, he feels that he makes his most beautiful pipes. There is a very strong personal philosophy behind those words which you will read about shortly. He also provides some good advice to burgeoning pipe-makers.

Cornelius has risen to fame so incredibly fast. He has not just arrived at the top of the scene like so many other pipe-makers, he has arrived at the top and taken one of its top spots. To do this in just over a decade, it is clear that this is an incredibly gifted and very talented man.

In addition to his gorgeous shapes, he brings a host of small details to his pipes which make them that much more unique. For example his use of bamboo is out of this world and now his approach is being copied by other pipe-makers all over the world. He is his own man, doing his own thing and listening to his own voice. That is the main thing you should take away from learning about him. Oh and also that his pipes look so outrageously gorgeous, you feel like you are staring at masterpieces.

I kept as much of his real voice as possible, edits were required but it should feel like you are hearing him talk. Find some time to read this when you can sit back and load up a pipe and relax. I hope you enjoy the interview.

Cornelius Manz

David M. (DM): Before you began pipe making, what was your life like?

Cornelius Manz (CM): I grew up with 2 brothers, we had a very good relationship, one of the best things in my life actually. My parents are both artists. My father passed away in ’90. They both painted and drew. My mother is still alive and still doing some art exhibitions. The surrounding of my youth was always full of color. My father was a strange guy, a real pure artist type. Somedays he would be incredibly enthusiastic and some days the complete opposite. He had a lot of emotional up and downs. My father really influenced me in the sense that one day I feel my work is great and the next day I look at my work and am bored. Before pipe making I wanted to study art like my parents but I decided that it is not a good idea because it is hard to make a living at that. By coincidence I started getting into textile design, textures for the furniture industry, wall-paper and the like.

Cornelius Manz – Half Bent

DM: This means designing the fabrics.

CM: Yes, this was an old fashioned way to learn. At the end of my time there we started using computers but before that, we just drew everything out by hand. We also painted. This was a very conservative education somehow. Also by coincidence we met a Swiss textile agency and they traveled around the world selling their designs to big companies like IKEA. We started to work for them in 1995 and this was my full time job. A lot of hard work for little money.But we loved the work.

Cornelius Manz – Horn, Courtesy of ScandPipes

DM: Do you see any connection between textiles and what you did then to what you do now? Any strong parallels, whatever they may be?

CM: Before that in my teenager years I painted and drew quite a bit. When I was 7 years old I got a swiss pocket knife from my grandfather and from that day forward, I loved carving wood. I believe that this feeling is still in my pipes today. Just the pure love for working with wood. That year when I was 7, I made my first pipe out of a small piece of wood. I put a straw on it and my Mom had to put one of her cigarettes inside to make it smoke. My whole family actually smoked. In the 70’s, in Germany, everybody smoked. I was also attracted by smoking and all the things around that.

Cornelius Manz – Bamboo Pipes

DM: So you were an artist deciding to go to Textiles. How many years was that going on and what events directly led you to deciding to be a pipe maker?

CM: For 8 years, almost full time, I was doing textiles. Then in 1998 I began carving pipes. I purchased a pre-drilled block and made a pipe. I was immediately mesmerized again, just like I was back in childhood, with the pipe. In a town close to us, I met this guy who was the first in Germany to deal in Estate pipes. He knew all the pipe makers very well and just by coincidence I met him and showed him one of my very first pipes and he gave me a great response. He invited me to come visit him and he showed me his amazing collection.

Cornelius Manz – Calabash, Courtesy of Al Pascia

CM Cont’d: Pipes from the early years of Bo, Lars and Nanna and all the big pipe-makers. I was immediately and totally attracted to them. Of course this retailer had no idea about technique but he showed me so many pipes that were so attractive. So it was this contact and buying pre-drilled blocks that I just decided that I wanted to make my own pipes, with my own equipment, with my own tools. Back then it was not easy to get all these pipe making tools. Now it is easy. It was quite hard to get started and get enough knowledge about all the pipe making techniques. I bought all the pipe magazines I could get my hands on and I read about great carvers like Rainer Barbi & Joura. I always read that they don’t share their information and they keep all their secrets to themselves. No need to ask them because they wont tell you was the message. That is what I read. So I was too shy to contact them on my own and I kind of struggled for a few years.

Cornelius Manz – Blowfish image 1, Courtesy of ScandPipes

CM cont’d: Then when I bought myself a lathe in 2001 and I did not know how to use it, the gentleman who sold estate pipes, he recommended that I call Wolfgang Becker. And this started everything. Wolfgang had no secrets and he taught me everything he knew and this was really the start of my real pipe making career. We are now very good friends and all the knowledge he shared with me is very special to me.

Cornelius Manz – Blowfish image 2, Courtesy of ScandPipes

CM cont’d: Then in late 2001 I met a German collector, Jorg Lehman and he introduced me to the pipe world. He invited me to a local pipe club meeting and I went there with my first 20 pipes and I sold 15 and that made me so happy.

Cornelius Manz – Blowfish image 3, Courtesy of ScandPipes

CM cont’d: The textile design business was always very tough to make money in and I started to work half my time as a pipe maker. So I started working on pipes much more and it still took me such a long time to make a mouthpiece for example.

Cornelius Manz – Almost finished Pipes

DM: How did you feel during that time? Anybody starting something new has trouble and especially with pipe making, it must be very difficult.

CM: Of course and it was ridiculous somehow. My friends would say: ‘What? You want to make pipes? No don’t do that’. I did not know where pipe making would take me to at that time. I think when I look back that I was really very lucky. At least in Germany in 2001 and 2002 there were very few young pipe-makers. There was Barbi, Joura, Safferling, Brandt, Becker and Paul Becker but very few others. So when I came up, my pipes were not that great. Yes, they looked normal and everything but there was no style to them. The briar was not very good. But still, people became crazy for my pipes because I was young and they wanted to support me. I think pipe makers now a days have a much harder time to break into the market. So I was very lucky and Jorg Lehman introduced me to Per Bilhall from ScandPipes and of course I knew that internet home page of his and always looked at the beautiful pipes he had and when they just wrote my name there for the first time on that web-page it was absolutely crazy. It honestly still feels like a dream to me.

Cornelius Manz – Rough Top Blasted Tulip with Horn

DM: Why do you call it a dream?

CM: Because I have been so lucky. My life was always up and down. Private and Business was always hard. Finding my way was difficult. Just in 2003 when it was quite easy to make a decision to become a full time pipe maker, because the textile business was basically doing very bad, I jumped into the water and said okay I will do this. And it worked somehow. Of course my aim was always to become a real good pipe maker and to be able to just make my pipes without making too many compromises. People would ask me if I can make them this or that shape and of course I always tried to. It sometimes took me up to 10 blocks of briar to make this or that one shape. I think this is the problem for every pipe maker. Customers are obviously always asking for a specific shape and learning that shape feels like a requirement so a lot of pipe-makers struggle with this. I was just so lucky, maybe because I was used to work with wood and my background as a designer, it all just came together so perfectly. Working with my hands with this wonderful material and after a while I saw that hey, I am really able to make a good techincal pipe. And after that, I was even more lucky to start to have an idea, find the right piece of briar and I was able to make the pipe look like the idea I had in my mind. Honestly, the best pipes, they just happen and its like wow, I can’t believe I made this. I don’t even know how it happened but here it is. Crazy. But a very good crazy.

Cornelius Manz

CM Cont’d: You have to say this really loud from the beginning I was able to just make the pipes that I wanted to make, in terms of shape I mean, even up until today. I was making my own work, my own style and nothing else and people liked my work and my own style. Of course I was influenced by all the Danish pipe makers and all the nice pipes you can see on the internet, like most of us. I have a close look at the Bang or Chonowitsch pipes and you can see my influence from them easily. Of course it is hard to ignore all the pictures I see on the internet today, because I say to myself that I should not learn these images so that they don’t influence me too much. Just like the beautiful Bang I saw yesterday.

Cornelius Manz – Assorted Pipes

DM: It sounds like your somewhere else in your mind when you work. Your mind drifts.

CM: Pipe making takes so much time, so many hours a day and now the little guy is there so time is really short. I love to just be in nature. My work-shop is a 30 minute walk away. I have to walk through the woods to get there. Just being in nature and having contact with nature, is really calming for me. Also, close to my shop there is a hill and I go there quite often and relax. When the stress of pipe making is not too big, my focus is very small. When I am in a good state of mind and I am working, I just see the lines kind of drawing themselves on the piece of briar and I think to myself okay, as I turn the block around and around and I see if I sand here a little bit, I sand there a little bit, turning the pipe around and around and now, for me and my feeling, it’s done. Of course not every pipe is a master piece but for me, all the lines I have in my mind are really there and when I see all of them appear on the piece, at that moment I am able to sit back and say to myself that the pipe is finished and I think, this is it, this is the good moment. The pipe is done and the process for that piece is complete.

Cornelius Manz – Bamboo Pipes

DM: What is stressful about pipe making?

CM: The stress is to make enough pipes and to make a living out of it. I am a slow worker so I am happy that I can make a living off the few pipes I make. People always tell me that I speak about this a lot but that they are good problems to have. From the very beginning and for many years now, always, I am always completely sold out. All my dealers are in a non-stop waiting mode for more pipes from me. It maybe sounds arrogant but it is really stressful. For example I send 10 pipes to one of my dealers and they sell them in one day and they call me on the phone at the end of that first day of selling out and they say that ‘we need more pipes’ and wow, I say okay, but that will take me three weeks and I still have to fulfill my orders from my other dealers and believe me, for me, this is stressful.

Cornelius Manz – Close-up Birds-Eye

DM: Your very much in demand, it is an automatic side effect of your incredible work.

CM: Of course I am more than thankful for this and part of the problem is that I cannot say no. So I guess I ask them to at the very least, to please be patient with me. The same sentence I am using over and over again. And they are frankly patient with me and they are waiting so long for the pipes, I think they are never content with the amount of pipes that I send them. They are now getting used to it though, even when they know that I would love to fill all the orders as quickly as possible. With the large amount of orders I do have, it is simply impossible to do it fast.

Cornelius Manz – Calabash with Un-finished Stem

DM: Do you have pipes going to Asia?

CM: Yes. The Chinese market is really a boom somehow. There is not one week without one or two emails from China from some new dealer asking to do business with me. I had one inquiry from a Chinese dealer who asked me if he could buy my whole annual production. Of course, it is a nice idea and I was proud but I had to tell him it could not be.

Cornelius Manz – Blowfish

DM: How many pipes are you making a year?

CM: I think around 180 to 200. I think I have 8 or 9 dealers so it is easy to count how many pipes they get. And some of my friends of course get some pipes, maybe around 10 to 15 pipes a year.

Cornelius Manz – Volcano image 1, Courtesy of ScandPipes

DM: Do you let collectors contact you directly for pipes?

CM: No I don’t. I only let friends contact me directly. Sorry for all the collectors but they will have to buy my pipes from my dealers. I do have one golden rule collectors can take advantage of, my highest grade and best stamped pipes, I do sell on my own. That is the only item I don’t share with my dealers.

Cornelius Manz – Volcano image 2, Courtesy of ScandPipes

DM: How many have you had of those in your career?

CM: Two pipes.

Cornelius Manz

DM: Who else was influencing you at the beginning of your career?

CM: From the first beginning and up until now, it has been Jess Chonowitsch. Jess focuses on a few certain shapes. He has been making these shapes for some 30 years. Each time I see them I am blown away. He is fantastic. I was in Zurich in December I think and I saw some of his latest smooth pipes. It is always the same. I see them and I want to have them. His work is so inspiring me, just because of his proportions and his angles. The shapes are not out there shapes and of course he has very nice briar and he is very strict with his briar, he throws away so many of his blocks or make sandblasts. The smooth pipes are always really nice straight grain pipes. It is the technical part though, the difficult part, this is what is amazing, it is always perfect. Everything fits nicely and perfect together. It is his proportions which amaze me.

Cornelius Manz – Blowfish image 1, Courtesy of Bisgaard-Pipes

CM Cont’d: Of course it is always nice to see the Bang pipes as well, they have very nice shapes. Those guys truly have their own styling. Their lines are always moving. When they take their time and apply their patience and come up with new ideas, the outcome is almost always absolutely brilliant. The flow in their lines is very attractive to me. Tom is also so innovative. Innovative and fun shapes and he is producing like hell. He is inspiring to me in the sense that he is always working and moving all the time. It is good for me to see and know this in his work.

Cornelius Manz – Blowfish image 2, Courtesy of Bisgaard-Pipes

DM: So the classic shapes are not appealing to you? I think I understand why but can you explain how a classic shape conflicts with your approach to pipe design?

CM: Yes but that is not really true. I love to look at classical pipes. They are somehow very motivating and they do inspire me, because it is so easy to see if a Billiard of Prince or any classical shape frankly, is done correctly or not. So easy to see. So for me it is very inspiring to see a very well made Lovat for example, in the right proportions. But I don’t have a big longing to make them myself. It is not my personal way of working. I do things different and I like the asymmetric pipes. This is my personal feel for the briar.

Cornelius Mans – Half Bent

CM Cont’d: Everybody has a different focus when they approach pipes. Of course I turn pipes like Billiards or Pots and recently I made something like a Bulldog shape and I do it with the help of my lathe because I think it is done more properly than when I do it with my hands. In the end though, for me, my feeling for the briar, for the material, is that is alive. So to me, in nature, nothing is really symmetric. When you look at a leaf or whatever, it looks nearly symmetric but it actually never is. This is what really attracts me personally. I like symmetric things maybe done in architecture or arts or whatever, its nice to look at but when I go further with them, it feels like a thorn in my side when it is a perfect 90 degree angle, I think to myself, what does this really represent? In nature I cant find a perfect 90-degree angle, only an 89 degree angle. So this is what attracts me. This is my perspective though, everybody is different.

Cornelius Manz – Bamboo Calabash

DM: So this is like a life philosophy for you, since reality does not show everything so perfect, reality is much more bent so to speak. Through this sensible view of nature, it forces you to give respect to it in a sense. By not doing those unrealistic lines but rather real lines.

CM: Yes, and you know I think that Sixten looked at the briar grain in a similar way. He found this out by inventing the new way of drilling the pipes and shaping the pipes, he came up with the Danish style, because he just saw that the type of grain in briar fits perfectly for these asymmetric pipes. It is so rare to find a briar with straight grain that actually fits very well to those perfect shape pipes. From my perspective there is always a more common slightly bent style that exposes itself in the grain and it is much more easy and more sensible for me, to follow those natural briar lines in an asymmetric way.

Cornelius Manz Pipes

DM: So when you were learning, what were you learning, especially when your teachers were mostly making classical shapes?

CM: Of course when I spent time with my friend Tom, this happened. First I’d like to say that it his personality and his atmosphere that he is giving to people he meets. He is very open and sharing. It was amazing to see how easy it was for him to show me to make pipes. I remember he told me one day, Cornelius, we are going to make a Ukelele shape today. He just got in his first shipment from Mimmo and was impressed by the grain. So he said come on, let’s make an Eskimo pipe now. He turned it, drilled it and made a mouth piece. The entire pipe was basically done in I think, about 20 minutes. And I was so impressed. Just by his way of pipe making, he is kind of like a pipe making God. Any shape he thinks about, he can make it. He has every single tool imaginable. He has such a large amount of experience and the way he starts to make a pipe, he just picks up a piece of briar, looks at it and goes right into making it. It’s as if he is playing, rather than working. It looks so easy with him. And it is easy for him. It was amazing. And I felt totally stupid at that moment. I actually also thought that maybe I should stop pipe making because I would never arrive at this level that he already achieved.

Cornelius Manz – Smooth Bend with Horn, Courtesy of Bisgaard-Pipes

DM: It seems like today at least, you are not focusing on classical shape pipes. It frankly seems like you have come up with something new. The subtle and gentle nuances in your pipes create their own style and I see it on a regular basis now. Your design is not 100% Danish, its not German, it is really and truly unique. It seems like you have come up with your own aesthetic. Rainer Barbi had something similar. I am not trying to pump you up but I have to talk about it. You are easily one of the top 2 or 3 best freehand pipe-makers in the world and you seem to have your own style that is clear to see in all of your pipes. In my opinion, this should be the ultimate goal of any artist. Your pipes are truly noticeable from 100 feet away. What do you think about that?

CM: Of course, if you would have told me this 10 years earlier, I would have just died. [laughs] I remember after I met Wolfgang Becker, I was brave enough to contact Rainer Barbi and Joura and we met at a pipe show in 2004 and I saw that what was written in the magazine was wrong, of course they talk to you and tell you everything they can. Rainer Barbi was also a big fan of my pipes and in the beginning he said to me, now you have to find your own style. Ok, I thought, he is right, I have to find my own style but how do I do it? It turns out it’s actually very easy. I think this is what I want to tell the new pipe makers who are just starting. Some very friendly advise to those pipe-makers who want to find their own style. Not everybody wants to do this so only to those pipe-makers who are looking for this type of expression. I have a feeling that more pipe-makers want to express themselves but they are afraid to.

Cornelius Manz – Half Bent Bamboo, Courtesy of Al Pascia

CM Cont’d: You know you look on the internet and you see a lot of really talented pipe makers. They make beautiful pipes but as we all know, most of them look the exact same. When you put them in one box, it would be quite hard to tell them apart. So, I just would like to tell those people who do want to find their own voice, I would tell them to just make your own pipes, it is that simple. Of course we are all influenced and it is good to practice and copy shapes and get used to shaping by copying other masters. This is normal. This type of work though should be just for practicing and learning. In the end you have to just make your own pipes. For me the secret in the end is not to make something known. People should just avoid several shapes which are too closely originated to the first maker. Like the Ballerina or the Snail or the Ramses. It does not make too much sense to me to constantly make a Ramses shape pipe because this is what Bo invented. This is Bo’s shape and Bo’s style and it is his. There is no need to make pipes like this so much. Okay, if a collector asks, this is different. When you have the opportunity to make something that is your own, wow, the feeling is so much better, at least for me. I just try to keep the contact focused on myself and what is in my mind while I am working to make pipes that I really truly like. It is because of this goal in my head, to make what I want and being constantly aware of it, after doing it like that for so long, I am used to it and it really has become very easy for me to make my own pipes. It took work but because of the work I put in, now it is simple. I now know what I mean when I say the idea that I want to make my own pipes. Any new pipe maker who wants this and who works on this can get to the same place. You have to be patient with yourself.

Cornelius Manz – Half Bent

DM: You know that this is very difficult for a lot of people.

CM: Of course, you can’t force it, when you start to hurry, you get lost. Trust me, I know. Obviously there is the money side to it. You think to yourself, today I have to make money and that is one side to it. In the end though, for me, don’t we have to keep to yourself and make what you really like? If you always end up with a Billiard shape, then it seems that this is your pipe and what you do best. It never is and finding yourself by only making a Billiard shape is obviously difficult. When you make your own work, maybe 10 people will say, Oh, this is a boring shape and you have to expect that criticism, but there will be other people who will see the style or the idea behind the pipes. You have to trust in that.

Cornelius Manz – Half Bent, Courtesy of Al Pascia

DM: The market does not know what it wants until it see’s an idea of what it could want. Since the market mostly shows one version of everything, clearly the carver’s are feeding the closed minded approach to new ideas. Obviously one of the responses you will get to why people do not do what your saying is that the market demands that they make classical shaped pipes. ‘My customers ask me for this shape’ is what we will hear. So they feel like they must take their true self and put it aside and make what the market wants. That is obviously one of many types of explanations and how a lot of people look at it. Clearly with you, the market is asking you to make whatever your style is so that type of reasoning is not completely solid. Do you think that the differences come down to personality? It seems to take a lot of courage for people to do what you are doing. Maybe not courage but rather the answer is that you don’t have something inside yourself, that these people do have. What do you think it is about you that allows you to think so different?

CM: I think what I already said, I was so lucky. The start was so easy for me. Right from the beginning, people loved my pipes. Every comment I was able to hear was ‘lovely new shape’ or ‘this is interesting’ and ‘keep going in this direction’. I started out like this and I have not focused my attention on anything else. So this is what I am. As you said, this is like a Manz pipe, of course for me, some pipes, okay maybe some of them are pipes that I can tell that I made but often I myself cannot see the ‘style’ in my own pipes. I don’t know the differences between all of us and I don’t have too much contact with young pipe makers so I don’t know how they are trying to reach the market and build up their own market and their own work. Some of the new pipe makers I see on the internet from all over the world are all working too fast. I have a lot of respect for the old Danish pipe makers. They are first living for the pipes and second they then made a living from the pipes. They had really hard times and they are still there. Younger pipe makers are able to make nice pipes and they think, Wow, this is easy, I can make hundreds of dollars. This is only the money part of it but it actually shows you much more about how they are thinking and perhaps approaching their work. I think they should be much more patient because becoming really a good pipe maker with a stable market, it takes a long time.

Cornelius Manz – Calabash, Courtesy of Al Pascia

DM: This is part of your personality and this internal element that you possess, allows you to live this approach. And your right, these young pipe makers are pushing themselves so much that they are pushing and pushing and going past themselves and what they could have done.

CM: Yes. Like you said, they come up with some nice pipes. It is easy to sell them through the internet. But once customers and even retailers start asking them if they can make them this or that shape, with a steady production, those guys quickly find out that they are not ready. Normally this takes a longer time.

DM: In general, each pipe maker is an individual, all of us are own people and we should be seeing more individual style in the pipe world. However it is unfortunately not enough in my opinion.

Cornelius Manz – Bamboo Pipe, Courtesy of Al Pascia

CM: Yes and also, at the moment, it is a hard time. Somehow I am a little bit anxious or afraid because of all the new and really talented pipe makers who are making all the same stuff, the Danish style. I love this style and when I see it out there so much, it becomes somehow boring. You look at a forum today and you see someone asking for critique on their pipes and when you look, all you see is the same and same stuff again and again. Why? We all know this is happening and for me, when I see it, it seems to take some of the shine away from something I find very beautiful.

Cornelius Manz – Half Bent image 1, Courtesy of ScandPipes

DM: They feel like it is the standard. To begin showing what the market already understands and to me, it makes the whole market’s true art knowledge, a little bit less.

CK: Of course and then there are some super really exciting new guys. Like Revyagin, the Russian guy. Totally new ideas, totally his own unique world.

DM: Are you worried that the good times will end for you?

CM: It’s so crazy how over the last few years, it started out or me like a rocket. And of course I have kind of already reached my plateau, for me this is good because I had to practice and become more professional in my production. The last three years it seems like it is only going up, up and up, seemingly with no end. It’s impossible that it always goes up. This gives me the feeling that it will end some day. Maybe I will be out of ideas as well. For young pipe-makers it is good that they are here, I just hope that some of them have the same luck that I have and to meet the right person at the right time and maybe feel brave enough to make their own things and not to be too tempted to make all of the pipe shapes that you can now see. It was actually easier for me to follow my own path because when I started the internet was very small for pipe making. My exposure to all this pipe shape information was much more limited than what young pipe makers have today. Young pipe makers today are exposed to so much information, almost like information overload, it is bound to be absorbed and they are bound to make some conclusions about what they see. All of us should still try and see what we can do but this is hard in this environment. On the internet a new shape comes up and okay it is cool to see it for the first 5 times, maybe even 10 times but after you get to 15 or 20, clearly it becomes very boring. Before it was something new and really attractive but now with the internet it feels like it has a small negative associated with it because it becomes dangerous to this new creation experience.

Cornelius Manz – Half Bent image 2, Courtesy of ScandPipes

CM: The speed of the internet has nothing to do with the speed of the life of a pipe maker.

DM: That’s a very good sentence.

CM: Yes, because sometimes you have an idea and you can look for a piece of briar and you look through your stock and say to yourself that this might be the right piece. You start to work and oops, you find a crack and you say I have to start over again. Constantly finding flaws in briar, which is very common, it might then take you 2 or 3 days to actually start this idea. If you tell somebody about this idea, he tells his friend and they all contact you via email and suddenly you have customer requests saying we heard you are making something new and you have not even finished one single pipe yet. This, for me, was the worst problem. I have now fixed this issue for myself because this was far too stressful of an environment for me. There are some really big talents like Former or Tom who can make a pipe in one hour. That is insanely crazy and great for them. This is still too fast for someone like me.

Cornelius Manz – Variant Sandblasted Calabash

DM: Do you sketch out your pipes before hand or do you even sketch designs in general, on paper? How do you, if you do, criticize your work and is there some type of design goal that you have in the back of your mind that you are reaching towards?

CM: I don’t sketch a lot of pipes. Today, sometimes I see kind of a line inside my inner eye and I just imagine the lines on the shank looking like this and I try to make a very quick sketch drawing just to not forget it but normally I don’t make drawings or sketches.

Cornellius Manz – Blowfish, Courtesy of Al Pascia

DM: That’s very interesting. So that whole sketching out and thinking long and hard about how to approach the pipe process, at least the in-depth version and approach to it, seems like an interruption to your personal process. All that time of thinking too much seems to be going against your way of being which is much more fluid and natural rather than intensely planned out.

CM: Yes and also when I do make a drawing and I have it on my table and I look at it several times a day, it also becomes boring. You see the line there and you think to yourself, ok, I can see the line right there, do I really have to carve this now? My interest is not so strong after I make a drawing. Somehow, making a pipe is like painting for me. I was really not into the work part of it, just in the painting and creating part of it. This feeling is very common for me and when I have it, this is a great day to make pipes. This is when I am just kind of drawing lines into the briar and I feel great about it.

Cornelius Manz – Sandblasted Bamboo Volcano & Sandblasted Horn

DM: So your goal is always on the pipe you are currently working on. Your focus is not on some lofty goal for your career, or the next pipes you have to make but only on that pipe that is currently in your hand.

CM: Yes that is correct.

DM: You don’t take too many commissions then, from retailers or otherwise. You are likely mostly only making pipes that you want to make.

CM: Yes most of the time but of course sometimes people send me a picture and they say, can you make me a pipe like this again and although I say yes to them, what ends up happening is that they wait a really long time. Normally I should make the pipe but it’s, its actually kind of a problem for me, I am much more tempted to make something new, rather than something old. If I see a nice piece of briar, I immediately want to create something new with it. I smile when it is in my hand, I smell it, I start to sand it, I make the drilling and then…I put it on the table and Oh! I see another nice piece of briar. I take the block I was just working on and I put it down and start the same process with the new piece of briar I just found. So I usually have 10 to 20 pieces that are always nearly finished. Of course it will take hours and hours to finish the pieces with the staining and all of the process’s related to pipes that is what I actually really call work. That part is obviously not as fun as the creating part. I love the rough part, the shaping and refining lines part.

Cornelius Manz – Top View of Birds-Eye

DM: Where does your crazy, interesting and always unique bamboo come from?

CM: I am a big fan of realistic nature. So just by coincidence, my mother in law has an apartment in the southern part of Switzerland. It has a special micro-climate there, like the Mediterranen sea. Palms and a lot of Bamboo grow there and all kinds of other beautiful plants grow there. The city where she used to live used to be an artist’s city and on one hill, there is this one strange building, beautiful but strange and these people a long time ago, built a big bamboo garden on it. So the people living there now, when they clean or clear the garden, they chop off the roots of the bamboo, near the bottom of the plant and whatever else remains of the bamboo plant, most of it is actually stuck inside the ground and covered with dirt, that remaining portion is what I go in and grab. The very first part that comes out of the ground, the fat part, with all these strange looking bamboo rings. I am so lucky to find the great bamboo when I go there.

Cornelius Manz – Un-finished Bamboo Pipes

DM: Your bamboo looks extra terrestrial. It does in fact look dirty, with irregularities and spots all over it. This is nature though and this is natural and the un-cleaned, un-perfect effect looks stunning and so beautiful. It is different the way you’re doing it. Most people clean their bamboo and look for exact spacing between knuckles. You’re taking a different approach.

CM: Although it is nice to sometimes find the perfect 10-knuckle bamboo that is all shiny and nice, most often, for me this is completely boring. After seeing millions of bamboo pipes on the internet, you get to know the look of the general bamboo pipe. It is always the same. This just doesn’t interest me. I love it when there are spots and cracks inside, of course I love this because this is what nature has given us. Also in the briar, of course the grain has to be straight but in the end it is just a piece of wood that just comes out of the ground. The burl did not know that it will be cut into pieces and will then sold for hundreds of dollars. [laughs]

Cornelius Manz – 3/4 Bent Bamboo Pipe

DM: There are so many beautiful things in any art. I myself am very interested in art. Believe it or not it upsets me when I think about how there are not enough people who are doing what you are doing. I would like to see more new ideas, so people can see what it means to truly express themselves and be themselves. That way pipe collectors could see some new work and there is always a chance to be constantly inspired and pleasantly surprised.

CM: I do not know if you can take the function and encourage the young. I was lucky because my parents have always been very supportive. After school, the owner of the textile agency, both a sales-man and artist, always encouraged all of his employees to just make what you want. Because even the stupidest guy who works for the worst company in some country around the world, even that guy can look at a design and quickly see if the design was done by just you or if you just tried your best to make something that is not common or if you are trying to mimic some new trend. He encouraged me very much to never follow a trend and just to make what you want. Something that at least you can be truly and honestly satisfied with. I am lucky, a lot of people really like my pipes. It would make me really happy if many more pipe makers could have a similar experience. That they have somebody who encourages them to ‘No, do not make a pipe like this!’ Feel free to make what you want, Try and make some experiments and maybe you will make a crazy stupid pipe and you don’t have to sell it but you at least made it. Try to feel where your limits are and how far can you go. When someone gets a beautiful block showing great grain, they immediately know that they can easily sell that pipe and they will automatically focus on making something safe. Just look at all the pipes today and how they look. This is happening too much and it is very sad to see.

Cornelius Manz – Close-up of Grain

DM: Are you coming to the Chicago pipe show?

CM: I came once in 2008 but because flying is not something I enjoy and man oh man, wow, the trip in 2008 was so difficult. It was a big thing for me to get on that plane and manage the entire experience. It was so big in fact that I will likely not be coming to Chicago anymore. Flying is too much for me. So I only travel here in Europe by train or by car.

DM: Do you like sandblasting?

CM: Yes, I started with rusticated pipes because I was not so good and I had no chance to sandblast them. I used to send some pieces to Wolfgang Becker and now, just by coincidence, I found a local sandblasting-company in my town where I can blast my pipes.. I don’t have that equipment in my shop so I use them for my sandblasting. Of course the result is not so deep and precise as the American way of sandblasting. For me though it is okay. It is really fun to see how the grain comes up. You never know what the pipe will look like before blasting and I love that part of the experience, the surprise.

Cornelius Manz – Freehand Dublin, Courtesy of ScandPipes

DM: If I send you 5 random blocks of briar from 5 different places in the world. Do all of them have a chance of becoming one of your pipes? Is the briar itself important is the main question.

CM: Yes and No. I used to work with briar from every cutter who is still alive. I bought a lot of briar from each of them. After a while I developed a really good feeling for the briar itself. When I buy from some countries, I do not know where the burls are coming from because maybe they buy their burls from Morocco or maybe Greece or Spain. So you never really know where the briar comes from. There are some cutters whom I buy from where you always get the same type of wood. This gives me an idea that they always harvest from the same areas because it always smells the same, has the same weight and the grain is always the same, either tight or not. It is always important to see the kind of spots and cracks that come from different regions. But with other cutters, you never know where the briar comes from.

Cornelius Manz – Full Bend image 1, Courtesy of Bisgaard-Pipes

CM Cont’d: Of course we all like to work with well dried, crack free super nice grain briar. I travel around a lot and visit a lot of the cutters and I see how rare the briar that we like to work with exists. You can see the biggest pile of briar in front of you and there are only maybe 10 pieces containing the characteristics of well dried, perfect grain and crack free. The super extra straight grain pieces are really rare. Now I can easily accept the high prices we are paying for the briar. To answer your question though, it absolutely does not matter where the briar is coming from. It is enough if it is a nice piece. Of course another challenge for me is that I have many pieces that are not good enough for smooth pipes and they are only good for sandblasted pipes. If there is no grain but there is still good briar, you can make rusticated pipes. The challenge for me then is to completely ignore the grain. All I care about is shape so I focus on making a nice shape. When people think they have no usable briar that will not make a good pipe, I don’t think like that. You can still make a nice shaped pipe and turn it into a rusticated pipe. This is another way that thrills me.

Cornelius Manz – Full Bend image 2, Courtesy of Bisgaard-Pipes

DM: Tell me about your use of accents and different materials?

CM: Of course at least the natural materials I really enjoy. The horn I really love but it is not easy to work with because it always shrinks for a long period of time. I should actually keep the pipe for half a year before I sell it. Bamboo is something that really attracts me. There was a time when I used exotic woods but I stopped this now. In the end now it is horn and bamboo and what I would really like to do now is work with silver rings. My old friend Benjamin, who is a Gold Smith, I want to ask him to teach me how to work with silver because I like to buy it but I want to make it myself. We will see what happens in the future.

Cornelius Manz – Quarter Bent

DM: Your very happy with what you have right now?

CM: It sounds strange but I am very thankful for where I am right now. It sounds strange because besides all the stress and pressure and routine, most of the time when I am working, it does not feel like work at all. It’s just like fun. Very often when I am on my bicycle on my way to work in the morning, I just think how I am the luckiest guy on planet earth. Because every day I can really make what I love. People buy my work so I can continue this way of living and working. Its fantastic. Its like a dream really.

Cornelius Manz – Assorted Pipes

DM: Yes, maybe you are lucky however you did take a very different path, and that path clearly has a lot of rewards so, you and your decision to make what you want to make, really had a big impact on you and your career.

CM: What changed for me when I think back to the beginning of my pipe making. Now, when I am in a good mood, it is so easy to make a nice pipe. I take a block and say ok, we will make some kind of strange Volcano maybe and after 2 hours, the rough shaping and drilling is done and then I have to sand by hand the nice and fine lines. It’s just easy now, very easy. The first few years it was a hard and difficult process to make a nice pipe. It was very frustrating. Very often at the end of the day I was angry and saying ‘shit’ a lot. These days, with my experience, I am free now to really go a little further in the direction that I was too afraid to go in the past. Now I am technically able to do this. Technically also comes from my experience of focusing on my own style. They are both connected.

Cornelius Manz

If you would like to order a Cornelius Manz pipes, you can find them at the following dealers:

www.AlPascia.com

www.Bisgaard-Pipes.com

www.ScandPipes.com

Hephaestus Pipes, China

Pfeifen Schilde, Germany

Peter Heinrichs, Germany

Tabacum, Germany

Wagner Tabak Laedeli, Germany

To learn more about Cornelius, you can visit him at:

His Website: http://www.cornelius-maenz.de/

Follow him on Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/corneliusmaenz

Are you a Tobacco Customer or a Hoarder? Who Decides?

Chris Garlasco — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 06:57:03 +0000

Much has been said of late concerning the “hoarding” of popular, hard to come by, brands of tobacco. It seems to have come to somewhat of a crescendo with the significant price increase of Samual Gawith bulk tobacco by some e-tailors. It may be a result of an increase in the wholesale cost or e-tailors are simply responding to the huge demand. The fact is that Samual Gawith is just one of several companies where demand currently exceeds supply. The new Balkan Sobranie by Germain and Sons, Stonehaven and Penzance from Germain’s Esoterica label, and not so long ago, some of the Dunhill blends and blends from Dan were in short supply. Recently I witnessed the sale of four new, Germain made tins of Balkan Sobranie for one hundred and ninety eight dollars!

I have been taken aback by some of the venomous commentary on various forums and tobacco review sites. While some of the commentary has been directed at the tobacco companies themselves, much has been levied at the perceived “hoarders” of the blend in demand.

I have often wondered at what point does one go from being just a tobacco customer into the realm of tobacco “hoarder.” What is an acceptable purchase and what constitutes gluttony and who makes that determination? For some, anything more than a tin of a hard to find blend is more than enough. For others, any purchase up to a sleeve is acceptable. Yet, others may feel that anything that can be consumed in a lifetime should ultimately be the limit.

Does the number of bowls of tobacco per day consumed become part of that determination? If a pipe smoker like me smokes an average of ten bowls per day, does that qualify me for an additional number of tins? Should the pipeman (or woman) that smokes only one bowl per day be restricted from purchasing additional tins? It’s not a secret that many blends substantially improve with age and as a result, many pipers maintain a cellar for aging their favorite tobacco blends. Should there be dispensation for those folks? What about those that are concerned about ever increasing taxes and the possibility of restricted sales on the internet, should they be limited from stocking their shelves? Should eBay set a maximum bid limit of tinned tobacco?

It would nearly impossible to examine the issue of hoarding without including tobacco producers in the discussion. Do tobacco companies play any role in the hoarding debate? Is hoarding a result of companies not responding to the current demand? Assuming that the component tobaccos are readily available should they be investing in their business to create a greater supply? Do tobacco companies deliberately seek to keep demand higher than supply? Dare I say it, but should tobacco companies address the demand issue by raising prices in an effort to lessen demand to a manageable amount? Should pipe smokers direct some of their frustration at tobacco companies rather than their fellow pipe smokers?

Here in the United States, we are suffering through a difficult economy. It has become commonplace to question the acceptable amount of income a person should earn. Critics of high income earners often have the same nebulas amounts in mind. It is often said with the misguided belief that if one earns less, than others will earn more. Has that thinking found its way into the pipe tobacco world? Has an entitlement mentality crept into our hobby? If others simply bought less, would we be guaranteed the availability of our favorite blend? Would tobacco companies lose the incentive to produce more product to meet the current demand or would they lessen the amount produced to keep demand artificially high?

Whether we are discussing the availability and pricing of high grade pipes or the availability of our favorite tobacco blends, our hobby isn’t immune to the conditions of a capitalistic system. Arguably, it could be said that we are reaping the benefits of that system with the ever expanding blend and pipe choices available to today’s pipe smoker.

Pipe smokers understand limits all too well. The gentle art of pipe smoking is now a finable offense if you happen to be walking down a San Francisco street. My Sunday morning strolls through New York City’s Central Park are now off limits if that stroll includes my daily bowl full of Early Morning Pipe. With few exceptions, all pipe smokers are experiencing the unjust limitations imposed on our beloved hobby. Are those that chastise others for perceived hoarding seeking to further restrict the pipe smoking community or are they simply asking for some self imposed restrictions? If they seek pipe shops and e-tailors to limit the number of tins sold per sale, how does that affect the manufacturers in the long run? If self imposed restrictions are what they seek, there surely will never be consensus on those limits.

The subject of hoarding is an emotional one, but digging deeper into that subject leaves me with more questions than answers. Those that complain about pipe smokers hoarding tobacco are voicing their anger and frustration over their inability to obtain their favorite blends. On the surface it’s easy to understand that frustration. The challenge lies in identifying the solution. Anger and frustration are emotional responses to a mathematical problem concerning the law of supply and demand. The fact is that it is difficult, if not impossible to quantify an emotion.

Do the answers to the hoarding issue lie within those that are being critical? Have they taken advantage of the wealth of information that is available to today’s pipe smoker? Are they being so narrow in their blend choices that other exciting possibilities are being overlooked? We currently live in a world where access to hundreds of tobacco blends is just a mouse click away. Blend information and reviews are widely available and easily accessible as well.

Each of us will have to determine our own response to this issue. While we don’t have control over the hoarding situation, we do have control over our response to the shortages of our favorite blends. I can vote with my wallet as well as my emotions. I can choose do business only with retailers that place limits on hard to find blends. I can choose to spend my money with tobacco companies that work to meet demand. I can choose to pay a premium for a hard to find blend at a tin reseller. I can decide that I won’t let my frustration overtake my joy of pipe smoking or I can choose to be angry. The choice is mine to make. In the end, I choose to be happy and celebrate those that have been fortunate enough to find their favorite blend.

What choice will you make?

Follow the Al Pascia boys as they scour the German & Danish Country-sides for Pipes

David M. — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 05:29:28 +0000

The Al Pascia boys, Leo & Cosimo, are once again upon their yearly search for the best briar’s coming out of the shops from the most talented German & Danish artisan pipe makers. The pipes they hand-select over the next few weeks will be the same pipes that find a home on our pipe racks over the next few months.

Already they have visited with carvers such as Axel Reichert, Frank Axmacher, Jurgen Moritz and Joao Reis. If I know the boys well their next few pictures will include the likes of Tom Eltang, Former, Cornelius Manz, Kent Rasmussen, Kurt Balleby and the list goes on and on.

Join the boys on their hunting trip for great briar with the best seat in the house, your computer. Every day they will be uploading pictures from their ‘Briar Tour’ and giving us an inside glimpse into the pipe-makers they meet & the magnificent pipe sculptures they carve.

Visit the link below daily to see the Al Pascia Briar Tour 2012 take shape.

Al Pascia Briar Tour 2012 Picture Report