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Dr. Grabow Pipes
"America's One and Only"
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Sir Duke
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 Posted: Fri May 30, 2008 2:20 pm Post subject: |
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| drbridges wrote: | Good case in point: I just returned to the same pipe and same blend that blistered and tormented me last evening. This morning it seemed mild and friendly, even pleasant. I did make some conscious changes in packing the bowl this morning, mindful of the tearful experiences of the previous smoke.
36 years of pipe smoking, and I am still learning. |
Its amazing what a good night sleep can do for you...
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Sir Duke
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| Posted: Sun Jun 01, 2008 5:19 pm Post subject: |
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Dr. G Collector* w/ Captain Black Gold.
*Famous for being able to smoke any tobacco a High Grade can! |
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drbridges
Search Master
Joined: 19 May 2008
Posts: 1381
Location: Bryan Texas
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| Posted: Wed Jun 04, 2008 2:19 am Post subject: |
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I've been living with my new custom pipe blend, Dr. Bridges Blend for the past several days. Pleasure and satisfaction are increasing. After several bad bowls in the beginning I was worried I had made a mistake. Then I changed my rotation. Amazing what difference clean/dry pipes and less packing can make!
Your blends are in the mail, Sir Duke. |
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Sir Duke
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| Posted: Wed Jun 04, 2008 11:01 am Post subject: Rotation |
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I never could quit figure how one with so many pipes could stick to but a few for regular use. Especially Grabows, the ones with stinger seem to need extra care and cleaning lest they sour.
Although I do also see the beauty in keeping it simple and building cake...
A trade off I'm sure.
Me, I smoke a pipe a day (sometimes more) and clean it at the end of the day and set it aside for a while.
I do have my favorites which seem able to go nine innings a couple nights a week...
Today a Va/Bur blend in a Grabow Full Bent. Can't wait to try the Dr B! |
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drbridges
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Joined: 19 May 2008
Posts: 1381
Location: Bryan Texas
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| Posted: Thu Jun 05, 2008 12:41 pm Post subject: |
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My limited rotation began as an imposition really. We moved last year, and for 5-6 months, we lived in a 5th wheel camper. Space was at a premium, like living on a boat. Except for a few pipes, my collection remained in storage.
Now my pipes are accessible, but not convenient. But I am gradually increasing my rotation. And will continue, until my wife decides there are too many smelly pipes in the house and suggests a relocation. |
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Sir Duke
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| Posted: Thu Jun 05, 2008 1:32 pm Post subject: |
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Today a little va/burley in a sexy lil prince.
(if she complains of the smelly pipes, star griping 'bout her shoes) |
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LokoMac8
Tru-Grain
Joined: 19 May 2008
Posts: 985
Location: Heidenheimer, Texas
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| Posted: Sun Jun 08, 2008 4:41 am Post subject: Aromatics, Chemicals and Accidental Design |
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| drbridges wrote: | My cafe crebow cups just arrived!
Pipes & tobak still mystify me. The packing, the lighting, the tamping, the drawing. I can enjoy the best bowl in memory one day, go to that same pipe and blend later and become so revulsed I dump it half way.
That really struck me reading tobacco reviews. How the same blend affected reviewers so differently. One thought it was mild and cool. A second thought it rivaled the fires of hell. And we don't know did both of them begin with clean dry pipes? How differently did they pack their bowls?
Pipes are more like campfires, each is a unique creature of the moment. You can no more recreate a fine and memorable bowl, than you can last night's campfire. |
Why is it I never know what people are talking about -- "cafe crebow cups"?
All this time I have known you, DRB, and I would've never guessed that you would have blistered tour tongue. I feel better now. Anyway, I think it's just the darn chemicals in aromatics. maybe some people have steel tongues. You would think after all the spicy food I eat, it wouldn't affect me, but IT DOES. Trying to enjoy MacBaren's Cherry Ambrosia right now and it just ain't working. If I have any hide left on my tongue, I'll finish up with a bowl of Prince Albert.
I think what I like best about cherry tobacco is when SOMEONE ELSE is smoking it. Now I have read this some where and found it to be true myself, that when you are actually the one smoking something, that you normally don't get the same good smell sensation as others around you do that are not smoking it. I guess it is sort of like the ability to smell beer on someone else's breath -- you just can't do it as well if you have been drinking yourself, yet if you haven't been drinking, you can smell someone else's beer breath a mile off.
I, too, have experimented with packing and tamping and all sorts of things, but seldom get the perfect smoke from anything other than the big commercial tobaccos like Carter Hall, Prince Albert, etc. I guess it would help if I stuck with one tobacco, the same pipe for that particular tobacco, and the same method of packing, tamping and smoking, but alas, I don't.
It is amazing how our own tastes and experiences change day to day, and also how other's impressions of the same tobacco vary from ours. That's why there are so many different tobaccos, pipes and pipe designs out there and no shortage of inventions and patents for the perect smoking pipe I guess!
There are so many factors that influence a good or bad smoke at any given time that I think sometimes, when it comes to pipe design itself, one that yields a consistently perfect smoke is as much an accident in design as it is purposeful design. Two pipes could almost be absolutely identical to a point that you can't quite see or measure, all conditions such as tobacco and relative humidity the same, yet one will smoke perfectly and the other will perform badly. When it comes to a "bad actor" as I call them, sometimes you can tinker with different things like the flue hole diameter and such, and sometimes you make it better, and sometimes you don't. So who really knows? Apparently no one really does, or we'd all be smoking the same exact pipe and a bunch of pipe makers would be out of business.
Man, ya'll have been busy on this Forum! I just got some time tonight to look around and found this stuff on "the last bowl smoked". I had thought that I had seen it all, but I still haven't! |
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LokoMac8
Tru-Grain
Joined: 19 May 2008
Posts: 985
Location: Heidenheimer, Texas
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| Posted: Sun Jun 08, 2008 5:01 am Post subject: Re: Rotation -- Wiping and Blowing out "Cleaners" |
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| Sir Duke wrote: | | I never could quit figure how one with so many pipes could stick to but a few for regular use. Especially Grabows, the ones with stinger seem to need extra care and cleaning lest they sour. |
I don't -- almost everything I have is in rotation at some point or another! As far as the pipes with the "cleaners" in them, one must follow the good Doctor Grabow's instructions:
After EVERY bowl, I religiously take the pipe apart, blow out the bowl, and blow out the stem and wipe it dry and repeat on the stem until it is dry. Actually, I only use a pipe cleaner every once in while, with a little sweetner on it. I actually prefer that to smoking a tampon pipe as I have the urge to change the tampon after not more than two bowls of tobacco, otherwise I feel like I am getting a bad taste -- one tainted from the residuals of the previous smoke. Of course, I know, "different strokes, for different folks!"
| Sir Duke wrote: | | Me, I smoke a pipe a day (sometimes more) and clean it at the end of the day and set it aside for a while. |
If I am home and in my smoking room/study/office/dog house, I usually smoke a different pipe with each bowl. Sometimes I WILL smoke the same pipe twice. But on the road, I only take ONE pipe with me and smoke it for two or three days that I am gone -- this is where I really learn the character of that particular pipe. I sort of smoke tobaccos in "rotation" as well, but that's not a strict edict, as mood comes into play a lot -- like I skip the English blends almost all the time, but then every great once in awhile will get a craving for them. Other than the abuse a pipe gets when I am on a trip, my pipes get a good rest between smokings and are throughly dry the next time I use them. --RJ-- |
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drbridges
Search Master
Joined: 19 May 2008
Posts: 1381
Location: Bryan Texas
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| Posted: Sun Jun 08, 2008 5:12 am Post subject: |
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Sir Duke, our benevolent dictator here, has coffee mugs (Crebow cups) and sweatshirts with the Dr. Grabow Collector's Forum logo on them. CafePress is selling them for him. I ordered 2 mugs.
http://www.cafepress.com/
Search for Grabow
Sir Duke has a stunningly handsome white hoodie, and there is a photo of him modeling it in the Gallery.
My Collector's Forum mugs have been brightening my mornings since I received them.
Yes, I'm afraid I may be a big wussy. Sir Duke seems quite satisfied with some pipe blends I consider hellish. But I am an intermittent inhaler also, and I suspect he is not. I favor milder and gentler blends. But we agree on CARTER HALL! |
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LokoMac8
Tru-Grain
Joined: 19 May 2008
Posts: 985
Location: Heidenheimer, Texas
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| Posted: Sun Jun 08, 2008 6:32 am Post subject: What? You mean there is MERCHANDISE?!! |
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| drbridges wrote: | Sir Duke, our benevolent dictator here, has coffee mugs (Crebow cups) and sweatshirts with the Dr. Grabow Collector's Forum logo on them. CafePress is selling them for him. I ordered 2 mugs.
http://www.cafepress.com/
Search for Grabow |
I don't know what happened last night -- it was late and I was exhausted -- but none of my reply came across.
First, thanks for the link -- I'll have to order a couple of mugs and a military hat! I did see a photo of Sir Duke in a hoodie, but thought he had just made that for himself. Man! that TM is a mover and a shaker.
DR, funny you didn't get interested in CARTER HALL until TM sang its praises. You must have overlooked my tobacco "reviews" because I combined them with Dr. Grabow information in our old emails. I have spoken lavishly high praise upon CH several times! --RJ--
Last edited by LokoMac8 on Sun Jun 08, 2008 4:15 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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