BirdseyeBen
New member
- Joined
- Jul 6, 2018
- Messages
- 1
- Reaction score
- 0
Hi there, hope some are ready for a rather storied introduction! 
Pipe smoking goes way back for me. When I was little (about 6 or 7) my Dad, who was a Structural Engineer, after many years of pipe smoking gave it up. I had always loved the smell when he did it & was fascinated with his tobacco & the pipe he had. A while after he stopped, he let me have the pipe cause I wanted to at least pretend to smoke out of it! This was in our house in Whittier.
I remember it was probably a freehand bent billiard or similar shape, red stain, some sort of natural rough finish with a HUGE bowl, basically the size of some small coffee cups! He would put a ton of tobacco in there & smoke the thing forever!
At some point either my Mom didn't like the thought of me wanting to smoke & took it away or I broke it. My interest in it dropped after that & after we moved from Whittier to La Habra Heights Dad's old pipe was never to be seen again. :-(
Fast forward several years & I saw a tobacco pipe in a drugstore we had nearby that I thought looked awesome - a weird rusticated medium straight zeppelin like shape with a pointed, metal, bullet like embellishment on the front. I smelled some of the tobacco they had & really wanted to try it. I had a friend who had just turned 18 so I had him get it & some tobacco for me & remember summer vacation days eagerly waiting to be left home alone so I could sneak some puffs! Well like a lot of things your into when your young the interest faded after a short while.
Now, many years later - amazingly I still have that pipe even though the stem is broken. I was looking at it this last fathers day fondly, smelling it, & remembering how much I loved that sweet smoke! Hardly knowing anything about the hobby I thought a stem could be easily replaced & started going to different Tobacconists looking to have my weird old pipe fixed. Well after stopping by 3 or 4 places a customer at one right off the The Circle in Orange recommended I take a trip to Tobacco Barn in Lake Forest.
Although they couldn't help me fix my broken pipe directly, Jacob did recommend someone I have yet to get ahold of. While there I perused their shop a bit & decided to buy an old KBB YelloBole straight Bulldog they had in their basket pipes assortment that has an attractive reddish tint with some really nice grain & some of their own house tobacco - Grandfather & Treasure Chest. I really loved the pipe & the tobaccos, especially the Grandfather.
I bought another used (I don't like using the term "estate" if its just an old drug store type) pipe, bent Tomato stamped Winston & Imported Briar with a screw on aluminum mortise & tenon fitting that I can't find much info about on ebay a week ago, seems at least 30 or 40 years old. Although it has a quite wide bowl & the previous steward didn't build much cake it smokes great, better than my KBB Bulldog possibly due to the lack of a condenser like that in the Bulldog. I know the idea of a condenser is to help with moisture but it seems to create more problems than it solves, often gurgles, & needs stem separation & condenser cleaning after every bowl.
Well ever since Fathers Day I've been obsessed with the world of pipe tobacco & it's pipes. I've absorbed a lot of info about it & been blabbing my wife's head off, who is a cigarette smoker who likes pipe tobacco & whatnot but isn't nearly as into yet as me.
Well to alleviate her burden she started looking into local pipe enthusiast groups for me & found the first meeting of the OC Pipe Club near us at The Outlets at Orange restaurant Saddle Ranch Chop House, this last Thu July 5th.
I went & it was awesome!
I met some great guys that were very accepting of me despite my excited, overly enthusiastic attitude that must have been like a young lad with a sweet tooth who just stepped into a real candy store for the first time! I was graciously invited to try any of a very large number of tobaccos everyone had brought despite the fact I had hardly brought anything to reciprocate with. There was great conversation had, I discovered some amazing leaves & met some solid characters. I will be back next time with something to bring to the table proper.
I'm pretty bad with names but just want to thank those I remember for making it such a comfortable environment for a newcomer, something I can't often say about joining a new social group: Loren, Neal, Wyatt, Mike & George were the names I can recall, but faces I never forget so whoever wasn't named thanks as well. Hopefully I'll see you all again next month. (And I'll try to contain my excitement a little better next time!)
Looking forward to meeting any new fellow pipe tobacco friends in this here forum, learning valuable info on pipes & blends, & maybe reading some interesting stories while smoking a bowl of some good flake.
Thanks, Sincerly Ben Camarillo
Pipe smoking goes way back for me. When I was little (about 6 or 7) my Dad, who was a Structural Engineer, after many years of pipe smoking gave it up. I had always loved the smell when he did it & was fascinated with his tobacco & the pipe he had. A while after he stopped, he let me have the pipe cause I wanted to at least pretend to smoke out of it! This was in our house in Whittier.
I remember it was probably a freehand bent billiard or similar shape, red stain, some sort of natural rough finish with a HUGE bowl, basically the size of some small coffee cups! He would put a ton of tobacco in there & smoke the thing forever!
At some point either my Mom didn't like the thought of me wanting to smoke & took it away or I broke it. My interest in it dropped after that & after we moved from Whittier to La Habra Heights Dad's old pipe was never to be seen again. :-(
Fast forward several years & I saw a tobacco pipe in a drugstore we had nearby that I thought looked awesome - a weird rusticated medium straight zeppelin like shape with a pointed, metal, bullet like embellishment on the front. I smelled some of the tobacco they had & really wanted to try it. I had a friend who had just turned 18 so I had him get it & some tobacco for me & remember summer vacation days eagerly waiting to be left home alone so I could sneak some puffs! Well like a lot of things your into when your young the interest faded after a short while.
Now, many years later - amazingly I still have that pipe even though the stem is broken. I was looking at it this last fathers day fondly, smelling it, & remembering how much I loved that sweet smoke! Hardly knowing anything about the hobby I thought a stem could be easily replaced & started going to different Tobacconists looking to have my weird old pipe fixed. Well after stopping by 3 or 4 places a customer at one right off the The Circle in Orange recommended I take a trip to Tobacco Barn in Lake Forest.
Although they couldn't help me fix my broken pipe directly, Jacob did recommend someone I have yet to get ahold of. While there I perused their shop a bit & decided to buy an old KBB YelloBole straight Bulldog they had in their basket pipes assortment that has an attractive reddish tint with some really nice grain & some of their own house tobacco - Grandfather & Treasure Chest. I really loved the pipe & the tobaccos, especially the Grandfather.
I bought another used (I don't like using the term "estate" if its just an old drug store type) pipe, bent Tomato stamped Winston & Imported Briar with a screw on aluminum mortise & tenon fitting that I can't find much info about on ebay a week ago, seems at least 30 or 40 years old. Although it has a quite wide bowl & the previous steward didn't build much cake it smokes great, better than my KBB Bulldog possibly due to the lack of a condenser like that in the Bulldog. I know the idea of a condenser is to help with moisture but it seems to create more problems than it solves, often gurgles, & needs stem separation & condenser cleaning after every bowl.
Well ever since Fathers Day I've been obsessed with the world of pipe tobacco & it's pipes. I've absorbed a lot of info about it & been blabbing my wife's head off, who is a cigarette smoker who likes pipe tobacco & whatnot but isn't nearly as into yet as me.
Well to alleviate her burden she started looking into local pipe enthusiast groups for me & found the first meeting of the OC Pipe Club near us at The Outlets at Orange restaurant Saddle Ranch Chop House, this last Thu July 5th.
I went & it was awesome!
I met some great guys that were very accepting of me despite my excited, overly enthusiastic attitude that must have been like a young lad with a sweet tooth who just stepped into a real candy store for the first time! I was graciously invited to try any of a very large number of tobaccos everyone had brought despite the fact I had hardly brought anything to reciprocate with. There was great conversation had, I discovered some amazing leaves & met some solid characters. I will be back next time with something to bring to the table proper.
I'm pretty bad with names but just want to thank those I remember for making it such a comfortable environment for a newcomer, something I can't often say about joining a new social group: Loren, Neal, Wyatt, Mike & George were the names I can recall, but faces I never forget so whoever wasn't named thanks as well. Hopefully I'll see you all again next month. (And I'll try to contain my excitement a little better next time!)
Looking forward to meeting any new fellow pipe tobacco friends in this here forum, learning valuable info on pipes & blends, & maybe reading some interesting stories while smoking a bowl of some good flake.
Thanks, Sincerly Ben Camarillo