Pipe Line

Introducing: The Charles Peterson Collection

March 23, 2022 by Chuck Stanion

3 Comments

Peterson of Dublin is doing some particularly innovative work, improving and refining their sandblasting, their finishing processes and design. A large part of their ability to do that is thanks to the founder of the company, Charles Peterson, who designed the world-famous Peterson System Pipe and whose legacy of innovation ... Read More

James Thurber: Celebrated Humorist and Sometimes Pipe Smoker

March 11, 2022 by Chuck Stanion

4 Comments

Widely considered the foremost humorist of the 20th century, James Thurber (1894-1961) often portrayed bemused protagonists clumsily navigating the complexity of modern life through incomprehension, fantasy, and defeated acceptance. Thurber's writings and drawings encapsulate those odd but universal feelings of being out of phase with the rest of humanity, and his ... Read More

Pipe Smoking Desktop Backgrounds: March 2022

March 1, 2022 by Andrew Wike

1 Comment

It's time for another round of beautiful pipe smoking desktop backgrounds! As in previous months, we've compiled some of our favorite shots and artwork to share with you. Below you'll find nine unique images, split between desktop and mobile orientations and available for download in two high-resolution ... Read More

Rich Esserman: Big Pipe Guy

February 25, 2022 by Chuck Stanion

22 Comments

The Pipe Smoker's Ephemeris was a journal of vast pipe experiences submitted for publication by collectors and pipe enthusiasts around the globe. Tom Dunn founded The Universal Coterie of Pipe Smokers in 1964 as a means of exchanging information about pipes across the entire world. Most of his issues in the first decades were hand-cranked on a mimeograph machine, and Tom typed the contents on his manual typewriter. ... Read More

Top Seven Meerschaum Motifs

February 23, 2022 by Angela Robertson

1 Comment

One of the world's oldest pipe-making mediums, meerschaum is prized for its flavor-neutral smoking properties, heat resistance, and ability to darken with warm tones of patina as it's smoked over time. Moreover, the mineral's malleable composition allows it to be carved into ornate figural motifs that depict animals, people, flowers, and skulls, for example, as well as more traditional pipe shapes. ... Read More

Herbert Hoover: Pipe Smoker... and Perhaps Worst President in History

February 18, 2022 by Chuck Stanion

16 Comments

The 31st president of the United States, Herbert Hoover is popularly remembered as one of the worst presidents in history. That reputation, however, is somewhat undeserved and partially the result of political propaganda advanced by the opposing party and Franklin Roosevelt, who ran against him in 1932 and despite his New Deal being no more effective in resolving the economic downturn than his predecessor. That's not to say it's entirely undeserved. Hoover made mistakes. ... Read More

Carl Gustav Jung: Pipe-Smoking Founder of Analytical Psychology

February 11, 2022 by Chuck Stanion

22 Comments

Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung were great friends for about five years, from 1907 to 1912. Both were brilliant, and their psychoanalytic work and theories coincided. They fished together, they lectured together, they explored the Arctic on an expedition together, they spent three months touring the U.S. together. Freud ... Read More

Survival Pipe Skills

February 9, 2022 by Joel Balyeat

24 Comments

Typically I light my pipes with my favorite Kiribi lighter, but I have lately been remiss in resupplying my butane needs and find myself without. I like a challenge, however, and accept this situation as a test of my character and ingenuity. ... Read More

Herman Melville's Literary Pipes

February 4, 2022 by Chuck Stanion

25 Comments

Moby-Dick; (1851), the most famous tale of whaling and the high seas ever written, was a commercial disaster. Its author, Herman Melville, made about $1,200 from the 3,200 total copies sold in his lifetime. It was a critical and popular failure, and readers didn't know what to make of its complex themes and erratic point of view. Like Vincent Van Gogh, Paul Gauguin, Emily ... Read More

Pipe Smoking Desktop Backgrounds: February 2022

February 1, 2022 by Andrew Wike

2 Comments

It's time for another round of beautiful pipe smoking desktop backgrounds! As in previous months, we've compiled some of our favorite shots and artwork to share with you. Below you'll find eleven unique images, split between desktop and mobile orientations and available for download in two high-resolution ... Read More