Today I want to talk to you about something that I am very passionate about: my setup for travel when I'm carrying my pipes, pipe tobacco, and other smoking accessories, which includes a host of fine Italian leather pipe accessories made by my good friend, Claudio Albieri.

Claudio Albieri Handmade Accessories

You've probably heard the name before and have seen Claudio Albieri's selection on our website. He recently celebrated his 10-year anniversary and has been handmaking fine smoking accessories from the highest grade Italian leather for over 10 years. After a lot of trial-and-error over my time as a smoker, nearly 20 years, I've used all of the typical tobacco pouch designs, one and two-pipe combo cases, and so forth. What I've ended up with over time is a line of products here. I find them to be the most durable, useful, well thought out, well designed, and beautiful of anything else that I've seen on the market.

4-Pipe Cube Bag

I wanted to talk a little bit about one of the newest additions to the Claudio Albieri line. It's a product near and dear to me and one that has been in development for many years, and that is the 4-Pipe Cube Bag.

The concept behind this bag is that it is a super versatile, compact, and deceptively spacious solution for those of us who like to carry a lot of pipes, tobacco, and smoking accessories with us. Perhaps that could be on an extended vacation. Or, if you're like me, it could be to a pipe show or maybe even for some work travel. I had a desire for a bag that had a high capacity, a small footprint, and that was not a stand-alone bag that I needed to try to carry all of my other non-smoking accessory-related items in.

I can travel with this, toss it into a carry-on suitcase, a dufflebag, or a backpack, and it is a solution for all of my pipe-smoking needs, yet I still have room in my bags for clothes, cords, chargers, and all my other stuff that I need to travel with. When you find yourself with a need to travel with more than one or two pipes, and you wanna be able to carry all your stuff with you, which could include even a cigar case with a couple of cigar holders, it is an extremely versatile bag.

I have carried mine all over the world for nearly five years. It is a prototype that I picked up from Claudio when he was working on the designs of this project. It is well traveled and well used and pretty much still looks brand new. I've dinged it up a tiny bit, but this high-grade Italian leather is just gonna wear and get more beautiful and hold up for a lifetime. Like I said, I've used it, I've taken it all over the place, from countless pipe shows, to countless international trips, and it basically looks brand new.

The setup is as follows: You've got a little lunchbox-type of size with a top lid. There's four very versatile accessory pockets that I typically carry pipe lighters, a Toscano holder, a tamper, and cigar cutters in. Obviously there's a lot that you can do in here, but that's my personal setup for the top there. Then what you have in the middle is this detachable divider along the spine that flips back and forth from both sides. This comes complete with four individual gusseted pipe socks that are also removable.

Now the important thing about these being gusseted like so is that they will accommodate a wide variety of shapes and sizes. Pipes that are larger, or pipes that are longer, will fit into those socks and protect them well. It's the same high-quality Italian leather as the rest of the composition, and the drawstring, I think, is a very nice touch because sometimes with a pipe sock, when you cinch it, it opens itself. This one is gonna keep your pipes secure. So when you tie these shut, the pipes aren't going anywhere. And trust me, I've thrown them into checked bags and suitcases.

The other thing about this 4-Pipe Cube Bag that makes it so versatile is that you're not limited to four pipes because the bottom compartment here is deceptively deep. If you only wanted to carry pipes, you can easily fit, depending on the size, another four to six pipes in their own original socks layered here in the bottom. Sometimes I do that, especially when I go to a pipe show. I'm not limiting myself to four pipes. I'm usually taking eight, and I still have room for a tin of tobacco, a tobacco pouch, and some of my other accessories.

If you have some space in here, and you're not trying to carry more than the four pipes, like I said, a two or three-finger cigar case easily fits in here, up to about a Churchill size. Similarly, there's enough space in the bottom of this, which I often use it for, if you want to carry a Kindle or an iPad Mini. Typically, if I'm out and about or if I'm traveling and I'm traveling light, 'cause it's vacation or whatever, I can keep a couple of cigars, a couple of pipes, all the accessories, plus a Kindle, plus an iPad, a polishing cloth, tobacco pouches, and pipe cleaners in there. This bag holds a ton. Even with everything that's in there right now, I still have plenty of space that I could throw an extra couple pipes in the bottom.

I've found it to be the best solution for carrying the most smoking accessories, plus a couple of extra items, and keeping them secure and looking good while doing it. And like I said, the small footprint makes it really easy to throw into a backpack or a suitcase. So that's why I love my 4-Pipe Cube Bag.

Deluxe Tobacco Pouch

I also have a matching Claudio Albieri Deluxe Tobacco Pouch, which is my favorite tobacco pouch on the market. Again, the same high-quality Italian leather. What I really like about the Deluxe version of this pouch is that you've got an extra little pocket up here. If you're just walking around with one pipe, you can easily put a tamper or a lighter in this top pocket, plenty of tobacco for a day or two in here, and a pipe. This is my everyday carry, when I'm not traveling.

Also worth noting, the high-quality surgical rubber that's inside these tobacco pouches don't crack, break, and have no aroma. Your tobacco stays fresh for a lot longer. I've had flake tobacco in one of these pouches for weeks, and I just give it a little bit of squeeze to get the air out of it and it will stay fresh for quite a long time. These are handy and well designed. I recommend getting a couple of them, at least. I have pretty much every color that he makes and I often travel with more than one.

Leather Cleaner's Holder

In addition to that, I can't travel without a pipe cleaner's holder.

1-Pipe Rollup

What do I do for a weekend trip or even a daily trip where I need a good amount of things, but I don't really want to carry something like this around? The 1-Pipe Rollup is another prototype that I've been using for many years. I really like it. It's a handy size. It's very functional and you can actually carry a number of things in here.

You've got your dedicated and sewn-in pipe pouch. Again, it's gusseted, which means it will accommodate a wide variety of shapes and sizes, and actually, an interesting little Easter egg, if you open this pouch in here, let's say that you've got a pipe that's a little longer than that, maybe a Canadian, a Lumberman, even a Churchwarden of modest length, a demi-Churchwarden, there's actually a small pocket back here where you can detach the stem if you like, slip the stem in that pocket, put the bowl of the pipe in the main pocket, and they won't rub up against each other. Or you can just use that extra pocket for something else, like an extra tamper, flints for your lighter, or whatever you want. If you're a Peterson System smoker and you just like to separate your pipe at the end of the smoking experience, same thing. They won't clank around in there. It'll be perfectly protected.

There's a skinny pocket that is the perfect size for standard-length pipe cleaners. I tend to prefer using the handy flat pocket for a lighter because I don't want my lighter slipping out when I'm in transit, and because of the items that I carry in here, it tends to be heavy. It's metal. I don't want it clanking around with anything else.

On the other side, you have a slimmer pocket, which could equally be used for a tamper or some other similar accessory. I tend to carry around a little cigarette holder with me. You never know when you're gonna run into a vintage tin of cigarettes where you gotta have one. Another pocket could fit either another lighter or even a couple of different tampers. You can also fit a cigar cutter in here. And honestly, what I tend to do, if I'm traveling and I want to take one or two cigars with me, is you can get something that's in a tube, like a tubo cigar, and you can just lay it flat here and roll it up with the rest of the roll up, and then carry your cutter in the small pocket.

This is what I use if I'm gonna go on a weekend trip, or if I'm gonna spend a day where I'm gonna have more than one opportunity to smoke and I want to be able to take one pipe with me that I can smoke a couple of times before I need to rest it and that I have all of the accessories that I need to give it a little bit of a clean between smokes. It stores my lighter, tamper, cigar cutter, cigarette holder, Toscano holder, and whatever else I might need.

Again, you can carry a couple cigars in this case, in either a single-cigar finger or like a tubo. Most of the time, this is in my actual pocket, like my back pocket, but if you really want to, you can absolutely roll all of this up together with a tobacco pouch, and ultimately it's still not very bulky at all.

Truthfully, these products are amazing and everybody out there that I know who owns anything from Claudio, whether it's a pipe-cleaner holder, a tobacco pouch, one of his old briefcases, or any of these items, they just love them. They're so well made, they're so well thought out, and they're so easy to use. And I can say, after years and years and many thousands of miles traveled, that these are the items I rely on the most these days. I think they're a worthwhile investment. Clearly you can see that they're still in good shape, even though I've used them like crazy for years. I just don't think there's anything else out there like it and you'll have to pry them outta my cold dead hands. These will be my go-to pipe-travel solutions for the rest of my life, I'm pretty sure about that. And they'll last that long too.