Really beautiful pipes, gentlemen! Sadly, I smoke out of a cheap Grabow. It has treated me well for the last few years. I don’t really see the need to get anything else. My father does have a Savinelli from the 80’s that could use some TLC, maybe I will make a project out of it. Tony, how is Penny doing?
Tony, how is Penny doing? Still struggling with the zimmer frame I’m afraid, though the pain isn’t bothering her so much now. Thanks for asking. Another 5 weeks or so to go. We’re still determined to get to our elder daughter’s in Cornwall for New Year though. Now I’d better go and cook us something for tea. After a full day’s work it’s going to be something quick and easy. Pie and peas I think.
Your daughter lives in Cornwall, Tony? That’s kind of funny, I grew up in Cornwall, NY, named after the UK one of course.
beautiful work, sprang!
Your daughter lives in Cornwall, Tony? Yes, with her family. A few years ago she was working in Manchester where she met a Cornishman. They didn’t want to stay there and he didn’t fancy living in Hull so they’ve settled in Redruth (centre of the old Cornish tin mining industry) very near to where he grew up in Fourlanes. It’s a beautiful part of the country, but as it’s 400 miles away we don’t get to visit as often as we’d like, and of course we had to postpone visits twice this year due to my health problems.
@Tony, the thinking man smokes a Petersen!!
Oh yes! I do a lot of that 
My foray into pipe smoking was hit-or-miss. Strangely, I much preferred smoking a clay pipe over a briar: a completely unadulterated tobacco taste and a lot less maintenance. Plus you can get beautifully made clay pipes for next to nothing.
I like clay pipes but they break easily
I love my pipes and I love smoking them. I’ve gotten into Troost lately. I normally like Balkan blends but the Cavendish just grabbed me. It’s been getting cool here so I’ve been exclusively snuffing for the past month. A pipe should be enjoyed in comfort; not in a cold garage. As far as pipes go, I smoke mostly Petersons. They are a really good mid range pipe and I’ve never had a bad one. Also, they can be readily had cheaply on e-bay.
Most of my pipes are Petersons. Hard to beat for quality at the price I think.
Savinelli isn’t too bad either; some of their prices are even lower than Peterson.
Smoking a pipe is an art. Nothing tastes as good as a good, clean pipe charged with quality tobacco. Can’t be done in a hurry, one must take your time and sit down and enjoy it.
I used to have a nice Peterson but the police took it away thinking it was drug praphnealia. I rotate now between meerschaum and briar. My favorite being a briar churchwarden. I’ve cut back on cleaing my pipes as I’ve found that over cleaning takes away from the pipe’s character.
The silver hallmarks on some of Peterson’s line are an interesting feature in themselves. I’m guessing they still make the Emerald line? My first Peterson was a little rusticated ‘nose-warmer’ with the green band that read ‘Republic of Ireland’ if I recall correctly. Breaking in a pipe is different depending who you ask. I’ve heard of people rubbing honey in the bowl before the first smoke or just wetting it with water. I always just smoked very gently, the whole bowl down and found with time, a carbon layer would form in the bowl, which I controlled how thick that got by carefully scraping. I always smoked a virginian-based or a burley mix and would never mix English in that pipe. For me, having that layer in the bowl, seemed to give a cool, flavorful smoke. I really couldn’t wait till a pipe got built up like that. BTW, some Amish chicken farmers I was friends with years ago swore by the Falcon pipes (made in England?) with the removable bowls and moisture dropout and aluminum stems. Kind of a neat pipe which they liked because they didn’t have to be so careful about cracking stems.
I owned two meerschaum Petersons. The rings on the stems were genuine silver. The bowls were almost white when I bought it and in time it changed to a lovely yellow while the top parts turned brown. In pipes like this one should not allow the carbon deposit to get to thick as it might cause the bowl to crack.
love my falcon pipe. It smoke wonderfully and very cleanly. Though my jewel of a pipe is my brebbia which no one seems to talk about but the one I have is amazing. It’s almost like a churchwarden but one big piece of briar.
I love pipesmoking aswell. I’ve got about 40 pipes. Several Stanwell and Petersons and a few from german pipemakers. I smoke without filters. The most germans use this 9mm filters but they catch too much aroma. I love the natural plain tobaccos. my favorites are english blends and balkan style. For a break a nice Va/per or my beloved RB-Plug 
!
@Longcut: I also smoke English blends and although I live in the USA I don’t like many American made tobaccos. That being said, you ought to try G L Pease Westminister, which is made in USA. It tastes much like Dunhill My Mixture 965, which we can no longer get. Greg Pease’s new Chelsea Morning, which is milder is also a very good natural tobacco, I smoke it when the weather is bad and I have to smoke indoors because my wife doesn’t object to the room note as much.
I have about 18 different pipes, some Savinelli including an Iwan Ries Sav that I positively love and devote to C&D Good Morning exclusively. I don’t go much for the aros but I like Erinmore Flake and Firedance Flake. I’ve kind of neglected the pipe smoking lately in favour of snuffing because of time issues but I think I may just have to go fire up a bowl of GL Pease Abingdon.