Articles by Chuck Stanion | Smokingpipes Daily Reader

BriarWorks: The Handcrafted Factory Pipe

July 17, 2020 by Chuck Stanion

16 Comments

BriarWorks is a company dedicated to producing very high-quality pipes at affordable prices. Those are not easily combined elements, and it took enormous effort and expertise to achieve that goal. It was an idea that had been evolving for years in the mind of Todd Johnson, a world-class pipe maker who is accustomed to making ideas reality. ... Read More

6 Mistakes Every New Pipe Smoker Should Avoid

June 24, 2020 by Chuck Stanion

25 Comments

Beginning pipe smoking can be an intimidating ordeal. Many people try smoking a pipe and give it up because they aren't experiencing the way a pipe should smoke. But if you can avoid these common mistakes, you'll find yourself enjoying pipe tobacco much more quickly. ... Read More

Edwin Hubble: Pipe Smoker and Astronomer

June 12, 2020 by Chuck Stanion

8 Comments

We used to think that our own galaxy was the entire universe. Edwin Hubble expanded that understanding to unimaginable distances. Before Hubble, we didn't know about distant galaxies. Telescopes of the time saw only fuzzy areas of what were deemed gas clouds and dust, referred to as nebulae. ... Read More

The Very Best Worst Pipe Ever

June 3, 2020 by Chuck Stanion

9 Comments

I have a weird pipe and don't know what to do with it. I like it because it was carved by a pipe maker I like a lot, and he went to enormous trouble to make it. His skills are impressive. But I despise it because it's a pipe sculpted to resemble someone whose image I avoid: Me. ... Read More

G.L. Pease: The Man Behind the Blends

May 29, 2020 by Chuck Stanion

14 Comments

At a Columbus pipe show in the late '90s, I found myself talking with a very tall, very articulate gentleman wearing a fool's cap. He was brilliant and interesting. He knew more about tobacco than I could ever hope, and he was knowledgeable about the intricate details of pipes, from engineering to design and from classics to modern artisan interpretations. ... Read More

The Admired Matriarch of Cornell & Diehl Passes

May 12, 2020 by Chuck Stanion

13 Comments

When Craig and Patty Tarler launched Cornell & Diehl in 1990, they did so as a loving partnership, christening their new company with Craig's middle name and Patty's maiden name. They were in this thing together. They took a few pounds of tobacco and some recipes, and they built a tobacco company. ... Read More

Per Jensen of Mac Baren: Tobacco Ambassador to the World

May 1, 2020 by Chuck Stanion

9 Comments

Per Jensen has been the product specialist at Mac Baren tobacco since 2001, but he was entrenched in the pipe industry from the time he was nine, when he started helping in the family business: Georg Jensen pipes. That business had an unusual start. ... Read More

The History of Matches

April 24, 2020 by Chuck Stanion

31 Comments

If not for fire, humans wouldn't have made it this far. Fire was essential to survival, and to the development of technology that gave humanity the advantages necessary to build civilization. Equally important, though, is the fact that fire is necessary for lighting our tobacco, and everyone knows that tobacco is required for the advanced thought that has brought us much understanding of how the universe works. ... Read More

Sir Adrian Carton de Wiart: Toughest Pipe Smoking Tough Guy

April 17, 2020 by Chuck Stanion

24 Comments

We know nothing about his pipe smoking or about his preferences for tobacco or pipe shapes, but we know he smoked pipes because he's seen in photos doing so. That makes Sir Adrian Carton de Wiart one of us. ... Read More

The History and Recovery of the H.L. Hunley

April 3, 2020 by Chuck Stanion

15 Comments

The first working submarine is believed by historians to have been built in 1623 by Cornelis Drebbel, who worked for King James I, perhaps most remembered by we pipe smokers as the author of A Counterblaste Against Tobacco in 1604, the same year he instituted a 4,000 percent tax increase on tobacco. ... Read More

Chuck Stanion