|
It's no secret that the Rattray's Beltane's Fire pipes are my favorite. I reach for my Beltane's Fire pipe so much that I'm considering adding a second to my collection in a different finish. The shape is just perfect to me: Medium-sized bowl, elegant curves, stout shank, beautiful stem that makes for an excellent "hanger." And speaking of the stem, the Beltane's Fire pipes come with 3 stems (black, yellow, red). I have a favorite colored stem that I use most of the time, but I'm glad I can swap out the stem when the mood strikes. Rattray's pipes in general, and the Beltane's Fire pipes in particular, have become more and more difficult to keep in stock...I think word is getting out about these wonderful pipes. Well, I'm happy to say that I'm currently sitting on a pretty good offering of Rattray's pipes, including the Beltane's Fire series!
In addition, I've added Rattray's Thin Caber Tampers to the site in 12 different designs! These tampers are well-engineered and balanced to perform as great as they look! The foot is curved slightly for those who prefer a convex shape to the top of their tobacco while burning, and the top can be removed to present a hidden pick tool for emptying out dottle at the end of your smoke. I've been using one for many months now, and I'm happy to finally have the chance to offer them to you! Keep 'em lit, Eddie Gray  I've had these Savinelli Camouflage pipes in stock for some time, but I wasn't able to put them on the site until now, because I just couldn't find them. :)
Okay, forgive me...I had to. All kidding aside, these beautiful pipes are perfect for those with military or hunting interests. When I first heard of this series, I was hesitant, but as soon as I saw them, I was sold. My hardest decision all week was which one of these beauties to add to my personal collection. Camouflage pipes are available in a number of Savinelli's most popular shapes paired to unique camo-patterned acrylic mouthpieces that were custom-made specifically for this series. Available in Smooth Dark Brown and Rusticated Black finishes, each pipe is accented by a smart aluminum band and promises to be one of the best workhorse smokers in your collection! Keep 'em lit, Eddie Gray One of my YouTube viewers recently asked for assistance with finding lower nicotine blends. As I looked for recommendations for him, I decided this would be a good blog post. First, some tips: If you're having trouble with the strength of certain blends, you'll want to smoke them on a full stomach, and possibly smoke only half a bowl, or a 3/4 bowl...or possibly just not smoke a full bowl all the way down. Keep in mind that the bottom of a tobacco bowl acts as a natural filter of sorts, so the further down you smoke a bowl, the stronger it gets. I've gotten to where I typically don't smoke the last 10% to 25% of many bowls for that reason.
With those tips in mind, we can talk about the nicotine content of various components. Here's a quick list of various tobaccos in order from the least amount of nicotine at the top, down to the most nicotine at the bottom of the list:
Most people wouldn't expect that Latakia (which is made from Orientals) is lighter in nicotine, because of the smokiness and robust flavor...but it's true. Thus, a blend with a higher Latakia content such as Cornell & Diehl's Pirate Kake (75% Latakia) is a fairly low nicotine blend. If you like medium to heavy English blends, this is good news! You can just focus on those types of blends. Others along those lines would be Cornell & Diehl Star of the East, GL Pease Quiet Nights and Gaslight, Mac Baren HH Latakia Flake, and Captain Earle's Ten Russians and Stimulus Package. As a side note, I would recommend all of the Captain Earle's blends, as they all contain good amounts of Orientals, and all of them except Honor Blend (which I still recommend) contains some amount of Latakia. Because Cavendish is so widely used in aromatic blends, I'd say that pretty much all aromatics would be on the lighter side, nicotine-wise. If you don't like aromatic blends, that's not helpful, but it's good news if you do! For aromatics, I would recommend Cornell & Diehl Autumn Evening, Mocha and String Duster, GL Pease Virginia Cream, Savinelli Aroma, Cavendish and Black Cavendish, and Peterson Sweet Killarney and Sunset Breeze. Looking at the nicotine strength list, you might decide to steer clear of any blends containing Perique or Dark Fired Kentucky. However, one must consider the proportions of these elements used in a blend. So while I would recommend to anyone looking for lower nicotine content blends to stay away from heavy Perique blends like Cornell & Diehl's Chenet's Cake, or heavy Dark Fired Kentucky Blends like Mac Baren's Old Dark Fired, Bold Kentucky, and Peterson's Irish Flake, there are blends with lighter touch of these components. As such, I would recommend Peterson's Early Morning Pipe, Captain Earle's Honor Blend, and Cornell & Diehl's Blue Ridge and Bridge Mixture. Although Virginia and Burley blends are typically medium strength, those who don't like either Latakia or Aromatics but are still looking for lighter nicotine blends must necessarily look to these types of blends. For these, I would recommend Peterson's Flake, Sherlock Holmes, and University Flake, Sir Walter Raleigh, Cornell & Diehl's Americana, Epiphany, and Pegasus, and Savinelli's Brunello Flake. These recommendations are all of course based on my personal tastes, and your mileage may vary. There are many other blends that fall along these lines, and part of the fun is finding your own personal favorites along the way. I hope this blog helps you as you navigate your path to finding your own favorite blends that won't knock your socks off with nicotine...I'm looking at you, Old Joe Krantz! :) Keep 'em lit, Eddie Gray Anyone who spends 5 minutes talking to me about pipe smoking learns that I'm a huge fan of 9mm filtered pipes. 9mm Charcoal filters greatly alleviate (and in most cases, completely eradicate) the issue of tongue bite for me without affecting the taste of the tobacco in any detrimental way. I couldn't enjoy pipe smoking nearly as much as I do without them. This year, Savinelli has introduced 6mm charcoal filters, which allows their 6mm standard version pipes to be enjoyed in much the same way. However, I do have to say that for me, if given the preference, I'd still take a 9mm filtered pipe over a 6mm filtered one. It's always bugged me that many pipe manufacturers don't offer 9mm filtered pipes outside of the European market. Well today, I'm helping to change that. I'm happy to announce that most of the Savinelli Roma Lucite pipes I have in stock at The Pipe Nook now have both 6mm and 9mm versions available to purchase! When I sell out of a particular 9mm version of a shape, it will unfortunately take more time to get it back in stock than the 6mm versions, since they are special orders. But I'll do my very best to keep as many of these in stock as possible! This is a new day dawning at The Pipe Nook. If these Roma Lucite 9mm pipes do well (and I think they will), I'll be offering 9mm versions of other Savinelli pipes soon! Keep 'em lit, Eddie Gray  Dear Pipe Nook Pals,
I've started referring to The Pipe Nook as "the little pipe shop that could." It's amazing to me how this venture, which grew out of my own pipe smoking passion, has steadily grown these past 5 years. But I never forget that there would be no Pipe Nook without all of you, and for that, I humbly thank you! Although I try my best to keep many of your favorite pipes, tobaccos and accessories in stock, I simply can't carry everything. Part of this is by design: I want The Pipe Nook to be a limiter of choice for the vast amount of options that are available on the market, and for everything I carry on the site to be a personal recommendation from me. But the other part of it is that I just don't have the room that the "Big Dawgs" have to stock everything you may ever want. However, I want to extend this option to you. If you're ever interested in any pipes, tobaccos, or accessories within the brands that I carry that I don't normally stock, I can and do work with my customers to place special orders! Just send me an email (thepipenook@outlook.com) with a list of what you'd like to order, along with your shipping address and a snapshot of your photo ID (if you're ordering tobacco), and I'll send you an invoice. It can be a combination of special ordered items and products on the site, if you like. Special orders must be pre-paid, but I can typically ship your order out to you within 2 weeks of your payment. Some of you may not want to wait the extra time it takes to do a special order through The Pipe Nook when the items you want can be found elsewhere, and I completely understand. However, I get emails all the time from loyal customers who tell me they'd prefer to support my business with their purchases, and for that, I'm always grateful for their loyalty and support of "the little pipe shop that could!" So if you've been looking for a Rattray's or Peterson pipe that I don't normally carry, or one of the newer lines of Savinelli pipes (6 introduced so far this year, including the Camouflage, Bacco, Arlecchino, Bamboo, Lime, and Collection 2021), or any Savinelli pipe for that matter, hit me up. I can make it happen! I may also be able to obtain items from brands that I don't carry at all at this time. Please feel free to check with me...it doesn't hurt to ask! :) Keep 'em lit, Eddie Gray |