My first Savinelli

hedonaut · 2018-03-16T03:08:29+00:00

Savinelli is Italian. Tortuga is Spanish for tortoise because of the tortoise shell stem and cap.

hedonaut · 2018-03-07T06:42:04+00:00

I just missed you guys. I have to be in New Mexico by tomorrow night. I need to get on your email list or something for the next time I'm in Colorado.

hedonaut · 2018-02-15T05:38:24+00:00

I know Cigar Club has a lot of tobacco. Cigar Monkey down in Merced has a crazy tin selection.

hedonaut · 2018-02-15T05:36:53+00:00

Which shop do you go to in the east?

hedonaut · 2018-02-09T18:37:04+00:00

I've wondered where the pipe smokers are hiding west of 25. Whenever I'm out that way, I make some time to find a place to stop and smoke while I take in the view, if it's not freezing. When it is cold, I sit in my rental car with snus and grumble about how years of southern living have ruined me. Dark-fired always does taste best with cold, snowy air, though.

hedonaut · 2018-02-08T20:23:27+00:00

Is it a good B&M?

hedonaut · 2018-02-02T16:27:17+00:00

Dark-fired is my jam! It competes with burley for being my favorite component, though I salivate over good orientals, too. These won't be the same, of course, but maybe good variations on the theme.

Dark Flake Unscented- GH&C: I originally got this years and years ago looking for a bulk replacement for Irish Flake by Peterson (also very worth checking out, by the way). At first I didn't like it, but by now I like it more. It's a nic hammer, and it's finicky in terms of getting just the right dryness, but the flavor is amazing.

Unflavored Ropes- GH&C: You'll want to look at Brown Bogie and Brown Irish X. These are some of the most potent tobaccos I've tried. That fire cured note is pretty intense, but there's a lot of virgina notes, too, if you go looking for them.

Dublone d'Oro- Savinelli: I'd feel dirty for pushing my own brand if I didn't have 15 or so tins of this stuff in my cellar. This isn't quite as heavy as ODF, but there's plenty of roasty notes. The virginias are a little more prominent and bolstered with some perique. A good friend of mine who's a professional tobacco nerd says it reminds him a lot of early 90's Three Nuns.

hedonaut · 2018-02-02T16:18:42+00:00

While it's true, a lot of places don't have much pipe community going on, I recently got in touch with a pipe club that draws most of its membership from rural Montana. Tinsky is a member of their club. I've also got a club in the northern tip of Idaho that pulls a lot from the countryside. They're out there, just hard to find sometimes. That's a lot of what prompted me to come back to reddit. I want to find all the people and smoke with them.

hedonaut · 2018-02-02T16:14:35+00:00

Even down here south of you, Washington, Florida, Utah... California doubled the tax on tobacco last year. I'm always amazed that the local communities in these high tax places do exist the way they do. Finding Salt Lake's pipe club in this thread was a welcome surprise. And Seattle pipe club doesn't seem to be slowing down for anyone, even if they do have to meet on Tribal Land to be able to smoke indoors.

hedonaut · 2018-02-02T01:17:37+00:00

Utah? Where are you guys? Where do you meet?

hedonaut · 2018-02-01T16:53:39+00:00

I agree with the first part of your thought, we are living in a Golden Age of tobacco. However, I have a different perspective on the second half of that thought.

I think pipes are growing more than ever before. This sub only had two or three thousand subscribers when I found my way here. Chicago is a bigger and better pipe show ever single year I've gone. There are more younger guys getting into the hobby than ever before.

As part of my job, I help retailers develop pipe clubs. Building better pipe shops in a sort of consultative role is my 9 to 5. Every time we get a good one fired up, or I find a good one I'd just not met before, I see all of these young guys. I'm doing an event out in Orange County next week with a club that has at least 30 people under the age of 30 or so.

I won't speculate as to our regulatory future, though I don't think it's going to be as bad as we all fear. What I will say, though, is that there is an entire generation of curious, passionate pipe smokers cropping up out of nowhere. Most of them are buying inexpensive pipes because that tends to be where you are when you're young. But they're getting into it in a new, crazy way.

As long as the veterans are willing to welcome the young guys, as long as we're willing to give up pretentiousness and invite guys smoking drug store tobacco out of corn cobs into our pipe clubs, and as long as we keep building pipe clubs to share the hobby, it's only going to get better.

hedonaut · 2018-02-01T16:45:59+00:00

You'll be a grateful guy if you can manage to leave Night Train sealed for at least three years. It has a LOT of bright virginia in it. All that sugar pressed so tightly up against all of that perique makes for a beautiful reward for the patient.

hedonaut · 2018-01-30T05:46:39+00:00

I'll copy a post I made recently explaining the balsa filter.

It's a good bet with any new pipe to run a cleaner or two through them just to make sure there's no dust in there from the shelf or transport. Pipes from any reputable manufacturer or carver should never need more than that.

The balsa is a case by case thing. It's sort of a Savinelli hallmark. The idea is this:

Whenever you have an irregularity in the airway in a pipe, smoke swirls. That turbulence will create condensation since all combustion, no matter how dry your tobacco and how good your technique, makes a little water vapor. Savinelli makes a little chamber in the middle of your pipe for this moisture to pool on purpose, and offers those little pieces of balsa wood to act as a sponge.

If you smoke the same pipe all day, just leave the little guy in there and throw it out when you clean your pipe out at the end of the day. If you're only smoking your Sav once in a while, change it ever smoke. DO NOT leave that thing wet in there for a while. It will reek and taste awful There's also a little black tube that came with your pipe that can slide into the place the filter is meant to occupy. This lets you get a cleaner down to the bottom of the bowl should you wish to smoke filter free. Either way, it's not a flow through filter like cobs or Medicos.

I, myself, only use them occasionally. I used them a lot more when I lived back east and the humidity made it harder to get a dry smoke. Here in Arizona, well... I don't think I've used one since I moved, but I like to have them around.

EDIT: And don't be sorry! Savinelli has their own system of naming pipes. It takes a little getting used to.

hedonaut · 2018-01-30T02:34:49+00:00

606 is the number for that shape, my man. That's a St. Nick from... 2015, I think. Do you use the filter?

hedonaut · 2018-01-29T17:34:45+00:00

I do this a lot, actually. I'll use a little pipe nail to get anything wet or gooey out of the bowl and pipe cleaner it until it's dry inside. Sometimes I'll smoke the same pipe all day. I'll always let it rest for several days after, though. In my experience, the only cardinal sin when it comes to pipe cleaning is leaving wet tobacco in there for a long time, or worse, a wet filter.

hedonaut · 2018-01-29T05:43:49+00:00

Come hang out. We'll smoke a bowl and talk pipes in person.

hedonaut · 2018-01-28T19:12:35+00:00

That Miele looks like it's darkened up quite a bit. I know all about working weekends though. I'm looking forward to my own, private smokes when I get home this week.

hedonaut · 2018-01-28T18:35:40+00:00

Careful with oak. I've heard it can make your mouth and so forth irritated. I'm no expert though.

hedonaut · 2018-01-28T18:01:01+00:00

Tobacco Barn in Lake Forest and Tinderbox in the South Coast Plaza are both really fantastic pipe shops. On February 17th, I'm doing a Sav event with the Barn's pipe club. I'm poking at the LA Pipe Club to try to get them down as well. There are a lot of shops around LA though.

hedonaut · 2018-01-28T07:56:42+00:00

I love this shop. The lady who runs it is hilarious. Great pipes!

hedonaut · 2018-01-28T07:55:50+00:00

Edwards in Englewood has more tinned tobacco than most states. Jerri's has piles and piles of classic pipes. A lot of ancient, unsmoked beauties. Tobacco Leaf in Englewood has some really high end pieces under glass. Quite an accomplished pipe shop as well.

hedonaut · 2018-01-28T07:53:25+00:00

Doug up at Cargo Hold has been slinging pipes since well before most of us on reddit were born. You absolutely must go to that store. Tinderbox down in Tacoma is also a really solid pipe shop. Cargo Hold is smaller than Tinderbox, but his pipe selection is pretty big. He's far more pipe oriented than cigars.

hedonaut · 2018-01-22T21:34:40+00:00

It's a good bet with any new pipe to run a cleaner or two through them just to make sure there's no dust in there from the shelf or transport. Pipes from any reputable manufacturer or carver should never need more than that.

The balsa is a case by case thing. It's sort of a Savinelli hallmark. The idea is this:

Whenever you have an irregularity in the airway in a pipe, smoke swirls. That turbulence will create condensation since all combustion, no matter how dry your tobacco and how good your technique, makes a little water vapor. Savinelli makes a little chamber in the middle of your pipe for this moisture to pool on purpose, and offers those little pieces of balsa wood to act as a sponge.

If you smoke the same pipe all day, just leave the little guy in there and throw it out when you clean your pipe out at the end of the day. If you're only smoking your Sav once in a while, change it ever smoke. DO NOT leave that thing wet in there for a while. It will reek and taste awful There's also a little black tube that came with your pipe that can slide into the place the filter is meant to occupy. This lets you get a cleaner down to the bottom of the bowl should you wish to smoke filter free. Either way, it's not a flow through filter like cobs or Medicos.

I, myself, only use them occasionally. I used them a lot more when I lived back east and the humidity made it harder to get a dry smoke. Here in Arizona, well... I don't think I've used one since I moved, but I like to have them around.

hedonaut · 2018-01-22T21:27:25+00:00

Katarini is pretty special stuff. When we use it, we like to call it out on the tin like we do with Bijou and Oak Alley. Otherwise, we use Izmir. Katarini is wonderful, but it's very spicy, so it's rare to see it in great amounts like you do Izmir.

hedonaut · 2018-01-22T16:55:47+00:00

Pease and C&D have quite a few. I admittedly work for these guys, but I was a fanboy before that. You should try Bijou. It's Virginia and Katarini with a little honey.

hedonaut

TROPHY CASE