Peterson Irish Sea

I picked up a new pipe at Mayan Imports.  For anyone interested, the shop is located on the ground floor of an old orphanage at 3009 Magazine Street.  Pipes, pipe tobacco, cigars and accessories.  Nice people.

It amazes me how many orphanages there once were in New Orleans and also how they are apparently not needed any more.  The one that houses Mayan Imports also advertises luxury apartments in its other spaces.  The complex takes up a whole block.  The same is true of the St. Vincent Guest House, just a few blocks away at 1507 Magazine Street.  St. Vincent isn't luxury apartments, its part hostel-part hotel.  Beautiful lodging for the money.  From what I can gather, all these orphanages would have been run by nuns.

Anyhow, the pictures that follow aren't for my regular readers but for my "brothers of the briar" at Pipe Smokers' Forum.  I can never figure out how to post pictures there but I've mastered how to do it on the blog.  Apologies to those of you who don't find this interesting.

Peterson Pipes is a long established company based in Dublin.  The Irish Sea line features bowls crafted out of briar and finished in sea green.  The band is nickle-bruyere (I have no idea what bruyere is) and the stem is vulcanite.  It's a very nice pipe, light in the hand and cool to the touch.  The shape of this bowl is known as "egg."  The line also comes with bowls in bulldog, apple, billiard, pot and dublin shapes if that means anything to you.

The stately Peterson Irish Sea.

Top View. Peterson Irish Sea with New Orleans mold in the background.

The underside of the Peterson Irish Sea. Rotund and shiny.

You can see the raw briar where the stem meets the stummel.

While this pipe cost a little more than I would usually spend on a pipe, I find it a good value.  If you are a cigar smoker, just think:  you can buy an ounce of good pipe tobacco for between three to ten dollars and it will last you a week.  How long will a three dollar cigar last you and how good will it be?  For you cigarette smokers, I know you can buy a pack of smokes for three dollars or a little more.  How long will that last you?  Will you remember every cigarette?  Me?  I'll take a pipe any day.

If you don't want to spend relatively big money on a briar pipe, there are always corn cob pipes.  Don't laugh.  These are a the best kept secret in the tobacco world.  If it's good enough for Mark Twain, a corn cob is good enough for you.  The fascinating world of Missouri Meerschaum is here.