A BoB reader becomes a member

[Lesepfeife]

It all started so innocently. In early October I was participating in a War Between the States (WBtS) military encampment and had recently finished stripping the kernels off the ears of corn I had dried to make a period food, parched corn. Looking at the bare cobs I decided to pass the time in camp seeing if I could fashion a pipe from one. Once I had the bowl made I went in search of a plant that would have a branch that could be easily hollowed out to make a stem. I found it in those nasty good-for-nothing only-one-thing wild roses that my grandmother called florabunda. Some tobacco was procured from a fellow soldier and I was participating in another common 1860's pastime. Upon our return home I stashed the pipe among my other personal effects to await spring and the beginning of the 2012 reenacting season.

To my surprise, one of my Christmas presents was a roughly-formed piece of walnut with a bowl in it and a long vulcanite stem, a pipe kit if you will, to finish however I desired. Anything worth doing is worth doing right so I set out to research the requisite seasoning techniques and tobaccos that would be correct for the 1860's. This of course led to a case of TAD/PAD.

In my quest I came across the BoB site a few times but it wasn't until my son-in-law, Tim (Crusader Pipes) and the giver of the Christmas pipe, said he had joined that I returned to give serious rumination to the content and participants here. Last week I spent quite a bit of time looking for information and answers and since I think I now have at least a little to contribute I've decided to sign on the dotted line.

I work on historic buildings for the National Park Service so spend a lot of my days away from home, thus the 2 sites on my profile. I started seasoning my pipes in the woodshed attached to our house but apparently had made good selections in weed because was then told I could smoke in the house . Hotels these days are not so accommodating . I've set up a spreadsheet with the tobacco reviews information and a ranking based on room note reviews by my wife and 2 daughters, one of whom has a meerschaum on the way from her B-I-L, Tim. My avatar is my collection to date, which is now housed on 4 racks/stands that I made from oak and cherry selected from my stash in the barn.

 

[mike_68]

Welcome aboard!

 

[Buckshot]

Welcome to the Brotherhood. Stop by often.

 

[George Kaplan]

Greetings, Lesepeife. Based on your interests, I was about to point you toward "Crusader Tim", but I see you've already met.

 

[dshpipes]

Great story! Welcome to the BoB. :cheers:

 

[Mozjo33]

Welcome! Great intro. Enjoy.

 

[ejames]

Welcome to the forums!

 

[flytyer]

Welcome to BoB.

 

[DrT999]

Welcome to the forums! I hope to see you posting about

"T"

 

[Lesepfeife]

Welcome to the forums! I hope to see you posting about

This will make #5 for me. I've resurrected the thread on strike anywhere matches and added to a thread on tips to help decrease the number of relights. Today's baccy was cubed PSLBF in my Calabash and I definitely want to get some more of that!

 

[jefe1037]

Welcome!

I went to school for Historic preservation @ the College of charleston. good to have you on board.

 

[Boulder]

Hello and Welcome to the BoB forum.

 

[s.ireland]

Welcome to the forum! It's good to have you here :cheers:

 

[PipeLeisure]

Welcome to the forum, thanks for sharing your story with us.

 

[Crusader Pipes]

Welcome Lesepfeife,
That was a great intro,and I am glad you joined ! I am looking forward to your contributions on this forum. There is so much we can both learn here and I can't think of a better man to share this with.
I will try to get some pictures of my pipes up tonight or tomorrow night. We'll see how it goes.

 

[Lesepfeife]

I appreciate the warm welcome from everybody. Cracked open a new can of SG Celtic Talisman this evening to have a go at that. Quite nice but doesn't rise in the list as one of my favorites. You can check out the story of my big score of the day in the 'strike anywhere matches' thread

 

[Wet Dottle]

Welcome, and thanks for upgrading your status from lurker to member. Hope many others will follow the example.

 

[Kyle Weiss]

Great story.

I was pulled into the intrigue of the same time period by watching the Gettysburg reenactment, at the exact location, on the exact day, with 4,000 participants when I was about 13. My father and I drove across the country to visit family in upstate NY and western NC, and this was kind of on the way--we literally just chanced upon it. Very surreal to me, and begged for further interest and study. I didn't get super "into" it and whatnot, but at 13, any history interest is a good thing.

I do happen to have a Springfield 1863 relic that was gifted to me by a good friend, unrestored (and will stay that way) and will hang on my wall as a reminder of that era once I get a proper shadowbox or mounting. 8)

My next door neighbor has a replica clay pipe he used during his own reenactments, and naturally, that got us to be good buddies and smoking friends--he'd never owned a briar, and I've given him several to round out his collection.

 

[Lesepfeife]

Great story.

I do happen to have a Springfield 1863 relic that was gifted to me by a good friend, unrestored (and will stay that way) and will hang on my wall as a reminder of that era once I get a proper shadowbox or mounting. 8)

My next door neighbor has a replica clay pipe he used during his own reenactments, and naturally, that got us to be good buddies and smoking friends--he'd never owned a briar, and I've given him several to round out his collection.

Tim and I know a guy who has an original Springfield that he uses sometimes for hunting. Using a 150 year old gun for live firing isn't always a good idea but it's fine if the gun is well kept and in good condition. There's nothing wrong with unrestored either. It's much better than "restored" by a person ignorant in the correct way to do it and ruining the historic and/or $ value.

I believe my clay pipes date to the 19th century. It's one of those things that was made so long with no changes that it's hard or impossible to determine exact date of manufacture. The ones I have were supposedly dug in Virginia and are the glazed type known as Powhattan or Pamplin. One of my problems for the upcoming season will be selecting which pipe(s) to take with me. Events are only Friday afternoon/evening through Sunday afternoon so there isn't a lot of time. And despite my desire for variety I suspect that a soldier of the day maybe would have had only one pipe. There's also the element that the less stuff you take to an event the easier it is setting up and loading out.

 

[Kyle Weiss]

I know little about the artifacts of the time period, I almost feel silly having any of my own just because there's people out there that really like this kind of stuff, whereas I'm a curious passer-by more than anything. :lol: All I know is, I'm not going to go doing anything stupid to the rifle thinking I know better, nor take it to someone that claims they can do it, either. The age that's on it was earned and is more unique that way, I think. It's a neat old rifle.

I'd imagine a soldier had only one clay, perhaps a cob, in his smoking arsenal--probably for the same reasons as you--no sense in carrying more than you need. 8)