Hubby's Randy Wiley pipe

As I requested last night, today hubby left his Randy Wiley pipe here at home so I could give it a go.  He also left me the tin of MacBaren's PlumCake ... with the lid loosened enough I can actually open it.

The Wiley pipe ... the beautiful BEAUTIFUL briar Wiley pipe:

Handmade in the USA, graded "55"

A good-sized pipe!

Lovely grain on it all around

Wiley pipe

the Wiley pipe's best side IMO

I bought this pipe for hubby when were visiting Jacksonville, Florida and popped into a local tobacco shop.  The shopkeeper pointed out that he was running a sale on his Wiley pipes.  After I looked through the display case and the rack over the bulk tobacco, the shopkeeper repeated that he had a sale on the Wiley pipes, and pointed to a freestanding display shelf ... so I wandered over to take a peek even though the only ones I saw were rusticated finish, which isn't our style.  As I walked around the display, I saw this beauty behind the sale sign!  I picked it up and realized this fit all the criteria hubby had been saying he was looking for in a pipe.

Within 15 seconds of placing this pipe into hubby's hands and mentioning that I was buying this round, he declared I had "twisted his arm".  He loves smoking this pipe, and I loved cleaning it up and making it look all shiny and new.  Today is the first time since I bought it a couple weeks ago that I have finally been able to smoke it myself ... mainly because I am seriously thinking of getting one for myself.

Now, a pic of hubby enjoying it down at our new house in Florida on a pretty sunny morning:

Hubby enjoying a bowlful in his Randy Wiley pipe

My new favorite - estate Wally Frank half-bent pipe

A surprise from the big estate box!  When we first opened the box and pulled this one out, it was basically just one muddled tone of brown ... both the briar and the stem.  The maker stamps were pretty easy to read - WALLY FRANK on one side and STRAIGHT GRAIN on the other - and while it had some cake and rim-scorches, we could tell it wasn't exactly the previous owner's favorite.

When I cleaned it up ... WOW!  Under the years of blah and neglect, a beauty lay hidden:

Wally Frank Straight Grain estate pipe

Wally Frank Straight Grain estate pipe

Yeah, I probably should have wiped the ash out of the bowl, but I snapped these pics all excited after the first bowl.  This pipe smokes so easy and even, it makes a newb like me look like she knows what she's doing!  I'd call it "a diamond in the rough" but that's a different pipe for a different post.
;-)

Bloggin my tobacco

So, I need a space on ye olde interwebz to put my growing obsession with using pipes to smoke my tobacco, the acquisition of more exotic tobaccos, and of course the quest for the right pipes.  Hubby kicked that door open wide last month by bidding on - and winning - a box of old pipes and accessories, which also tosses me headfirst into a new joy: bringing someone's old junk back to life.  We're having great good fun trying new tobacco types and blends, comparing notes, swapping tins and bags ... and the occasional good-natured squabble when one has the word "CHOCOLATE" in its name.  If it says chocolate then of course it is for me.  He'll just have to put up his own blog if he wants to dispute that.