Smio Satou

Sykes Wilford has a pipe on display in his office that was made by Hiroyuki Tokutomi in 2004. It's what artisan pipe makers refer to as an "own" — a pipe that is complete and functional in every respect but doesn't quite meet the standards of being sellable. Perhaps the draft hole is drilled slightly askew, or the bottom of the chamber reaches too close to the heel. Sometimes, pipe makers ... Read More

Satou Smio, pipe maker, aged 79, died on July 16th, 2023, following a prolonged illness. While not as prolific as in his earlier years, he continued to make pipes until a few months before his death.
I met him in Tokyo in 2002. It was my first time in Japan and my first serious trip for Smokingpipes. I was 21, but ... Read More

Those involved in the pipe community for any length of time are familiar with Brian Levine, because he makes sure they are. He introduces himself to everyone, and with humor and self-deprecation, charm and bad jokes, makes them immediate friends. His knowledge of tobacco and pipes is a resource admired by many ... Read More

It's never my intention to insult someone's intelligence (but sometimes I do). It's also never my intention to mispronounce someone's name (but sometimes I do). Mispronunciation is a particular potential if a person's name follows the phonetic standards of a language other than my native English — ... Read More

In this episode of All Pipes Considered, Chip and Shane return to talk about Chip's collection as a whole, how it's evolved, his Holy Grail pipes, and who's on his radar right now.

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In this episode of All Pipes Considered, Shane sits down with Chip Kushner, Customer Service Manager here at Smokingpipes.com, to talk through a few choice pieces from Chip's collection.

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In this episode of All Pipes Considered, the first part of two videos, I'm joined by Jeremy Reeves, Head Blender at Cornell & Diehl, to discuss some of Jeremy's collection.

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In this episode of All Pipes Considered, Shane and Ted sit down to discuss the fresh batch of pipes from Smio Satou, his Volcano on the 5/18 update, plus his use of urushi and tsuishu. ... Read More

Several weeks ago we had the pleasure of hosting Smio Satou here at Smokingpipes headquarters. While good food and tobacco were all on the menu during Satou's trip, we also had the opportunity to sit down with the Japanese master and ask him a series of questions about everything from his unique tsuishu accents to ... Read More

As we returned from Chicago, we had a very special guest accompanying us. Rather than flying directly back home to Japan, Smio Satou decided to join us here in Longs, SC to check out our new facility and learn more about the process every one of his pipes goes through before it hits the site. ... Read More