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Getting Started Making Pipes
I’ve never made a pipe, myself, but I know plenty of pipe makers, and each one uses slightly different methods. For most people, especially for those without a well-equipped workshop, the easiest way...
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A Postscript About Pipe Filters
The single most viewed page on Talking Tobacco is my article “Pipe Filters Explained”. When I wrote that, I didn’t really pay attention to an interesting subject – When is a filter not a filter? In my...
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The Importance of Pipe Tobacco Maintenance
Some people are very concerned about the moisture levels of their pipe tobacco, while for others it’s an afterthought. The degree of impact that the moisture level has will depend on a number of...
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A Different Kind of Blending
In all, I’ve been a tobacco blender for just shy of forty years now. I’ve done enough different blends over that time that, frankly, it’s becoming harder and harder to figure out how not to repeat...
View ArticleIt’s Like Comparing Fast Food to Fine Dining
Like it or not, all smokers are lumped together into a group, usually for the purpose of casting disdain upon us. This is especially true for the antis who site skewed “junk science” to prove that...
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Some Random Thoughts About Cigars
Since I’m around them all the time, I don’t really think about all the minutiae when it comes to cigars, so last might when I was looking through our catalog, I was struck by some of the things that...
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Pipe Academy – A Thorough Cleaning
A customer wrote and asked me to write about pipe cleaning basics. I’ve written recently about what you shouldn’t attempt, now let’s look at an everyday cleaning. For the sake of covering all our...
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An In-Depth Look at Perique
As some of you may know, I’ve been involved in blending tobacco for nearly 40 years, and I can remember to this day the first time I opened a package of Perique and smelled it. The deep, dark, fruity...
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A Daunting Proposition
I’ve put together a number of “tribute” blends. One of the first Hearth & Home Signature Series tobaccos, Old Tartan, was an homage to what my father used to smoke. I did a number of these kinds...
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Sherlock Holmes as a Pipe Smoker – Book Review
I was recently sent a copy of a new book, Sherlock Holmes as a Pipe Smoker, by its author Dr. Thomas Gwinner. Since Sherlockiana is one of my hobbies, I was intrigued by the subject as much has been...
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