Allen's Pipes and Tobaccos Page

I do enjoy smoking a pipe.   There is just something about the ritual of smoking, the aroma, the fine craftsmanship, just kind of provides the means for some peace and relaxation.  I began smoking a pipe around 1970.  Since then, there has been times when my collection of pipes reached 40 or 50.  A few years ago I gave away almost all of the old collection and began anew.  Today, I have 10 and I'm adding a new one about every other month.  So here's a list of some of my smokers and what my opinion of each pipe is.   Obviously, these are personal opinions and impressions, in my case the opinions are subject to change.  It's difficult at best, to be objective in judging something when your choices are driven by developed likes and dislikes.  Trying to be objective though, I came up with a form where I could divide the objective from the subjective, this being an attempt to make sense of why I might consider one pipe better than another.

What is my criteria for buying a pipe?  It starts with a general like for shape, some pipe shapes I like, others I just have no care for.  I do like Billiards, Bulldogs, and Bents; shapes that have been around since pipe makers have practiced their craft, I have never owned a Free Style.  Next, a pipe should be light, and balance well while clenched in the teeth.  There are a couple pipes that I do have that aren't light, I use them as easy chair pipes, holding them throughout the smoke.  I also look into the bore of the tobacco chamber and observe if the small smoke passage hole hits in the center, and I like it right at the bottom.  I like the smoke hole at the bottom because I am a wet smoker sometimes, and I've found that when the hole is at the bottom, you can get a pipe cleaner to better dry up the moisture during the smoke.  I also like a nice metal band, it just adds to the cosmetics, and gives you a classier look as you smoke (like I've got any class!).  Finally, there can be no filters or anything obstructing the flow of smoke.  The easier the draw, the better in my opinion a pipe smokes, since I find that pipe a free draw will let you smoke as slow as you like.

To the pipe smoking purists.  I break some of the accepted rules.  I smoke pipes as often as I want provided the bottom of the bowl doesn't appear wet.  I also let carbon build longer than accepted.  With meerschaum, I touch the stone, and I let carbon build in meerschaum just like I do with briar.  Have I ever had a pipe split due to carbon expansion?  No, never.  I have only had one pipe sent to a pipesmith, for a problem not related to my smoking style.

My pipe break-in procedure has always been the same.  First time use a half bowl packed lightly with frequent re-lights, and very light tamping.  Second bowl to the three quarter mark packed medium firm, with frequent re-lights, and normal tamping.  The third bowl goes all the way, charging the pipe normally, and smoking normally.  I usually do these first three bowls in the same day.  From that point until the day when I judge the pipe to be broken in, I smoke it twice a day, every day.  Generally using the same tobacco.  I have never to my knowledge ever said, a pipe smoked wonderful from the start.  I've found that they're all hot and without much taste to begin with.  It takes that long for the carbon to build a little, and for all of the components: the wood, carbon, shank, and stem to acquire the tobacco flavors.

Again, I attempt to relate objective things about these pipes.  The personal reflections are my subjective, comparative thoughts, each pipe being reviewed in a way relative to all others I've had.  Can a five dollar cob pipe smoke as well as a five hundred dollar pipe?  You bet and frequently so.  So why should we elevate to the higher costing pipes?  Who knows, a good question for Sigmund indeed but since he's gone we may never know.

The pipes are listed in alphabetical order, only my newer additions are included.

Dunhill Bruyere
3/4 Bent Bruyere, Size 4
By Dunhill's

Ferndown Bulldog
Bark Antique with Two Stars
By L. Wood

Peterson System Pipe
Large, Full Bent, System Pipe
by Peterson's

Peterson Series Pipe
Sherlock Holmes Series, The Hudson
by Peterson's

Peterson Series Pipe
Whiskey, Quarter Bent
by Peterson's

Peterson
Kinsale
by Peterson's

Ser Jacopo
Delecta L1, 3/4 Bent
by Ser Jacopo

Tobacco Section

There are hundreds, maybe thousands of tobacco blends available to the pipe smoker.  Each of us are looking for the perfect blends that best suits our tastes.

Included here are some tobaccos that I've tried in the past year.  They are predominately tinned tobaccos, mostly English in nature.  These are blends that are generally all tobacco, with natural tobacco sugars and other inherent natural components making the taste along with the human chemistry.  These aren't expert reviews as others might prepare, they are intended as general, average smokers reflections.

As with the pipe reviews, I created a form for tobacco reviews, keeping the objective facts as I found them, separated from the opinions.  In all cases I have purchased two or more tins of the tobacco reviewed.  I have also used both straight and bent pipes.  Used the tobacco repeatedly in the same pipe, and have used each tobacco at least once in meerschaum to find any differences there.

What makes a good tobacco for me.  First, it should be delivered to me by the manufacturer with the proper amount of moisture.  Too dry and I have to mist, too wet and I have to let it air out, either case is no good.  So the packaging needs to be sealed with properly moist tobacco inside.  I like all cuts except when the tobacco is in very fine bits that can be drawn through the smoke hole and mouthpiece.

I like to use a three step charging of tobacco into the pipe, fill the pipe press down lightly to half way, fill the pipe and press down lightly to three quarters of the way, overfill the pipe a little and firmly bring to the top.  That's how I prefer to charge a pipe, some tobacco can't be done this way, I don't value them less it just breaks my ritual.  The ability of a tobacco to form carbon means nothing to me, I prefer for carbon to grow at a very slow rate, I'm lazy... and stubborn, and tend to let carbon build longer than I should.

Taste, well to each his own as they say.  With tobacco this phrase means something, and I think, needs to be taken a little further.  I believe that all smokers have an individual chemistry and combination of senses where some tobaccos are bland while others have powerful tastes.  So reviews of tobacco should be regarded as individual reflections.  For my part in gauging a blends merit so far as taste goes, I must find a distinctive flavor.  The flavor could be one that builds as the smoke progresses, or it can have a tapering out of flavor, that's ok with me as well.  There must however, be a point during the smoke, where the blend produces a memorable flavor.

So far as strength goes, I like a medium strength tobacco most.  Mild and strong a little less.  I do keep some mild and some strong.  Room aroma, I do ask the wife and others what they find.  Their reflections are usually "smells good", or it "smells like smoke".  So far as me picking up the aroma of the tobacco, I like to have a first try with a tobacco in a bent pipe.  This way I can catch a whiff of the smoke as it comes from the top of the pipe.  I can usually tell somewhat from this smoke what type of room aroma there will be and have at least a notion of what sort of taste there should be through the stem.

There may be some items on my forms that seem out of place.  Like whether I use a match or lighter, a charring light and so on.  These are used to indicate my personal traits, some may be different for different tobaccos.

The tobacco blends are listed in alphabetical order.

Balkan Sasieni
by Sasieni of London and New York

The Celebrated Bengal Slices
imported by James B. Russell

Capstan
by Imperial Tobacco

Dunhill My Mixture 965
by Dunhill Tobacco

Dunhill Standard Mixture Medium
by Dunhill Tobacco

Dunhill Early Morning Pipe
by Dunhill Tobacco

Dunhill Royal Yacht Mixture
by Dunhill Tobacco

Frog Morton
by McClelland Tobacco Company

Peterson's Irish Whiskey
by Peterson's of Dublin

Mick McQuaid Square Cut
by Mick McQuaid

Rattray's Old Gowrie
by Charles Rattray

Penzance
by Esoterica