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deluxestogie's Corn Stalk Sitter Pipe

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alPol05

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I Smoked the Pipe Today

I "smoothed" the plaster/sand bowl liner using a dry Popsicle stick, leaving the surface rough. This was mostly to remove easily dislodged sand from the surface. The thin, wood base plate was trimmed to match the shape and angle of the base of the pipe.

Using my Cyprus Knee recipe for an English pipe blend (essentially Towers of Antioch plus Perique--37.5% Latakia), I packed the virgin pipe from the bottom to the top. My (correct) assumption was that the plaster/sand liner would require no break-in.

It smoked beautifully, down to a clean, dry ash at the bottom. The only "pipe" flavor appeared when the burning reached the exposed edge of bamboo stem. The exterior of the bowl (stalk) became about as hot to touch as some thinner-wall briar pipes, but never hot enough to discolor the dried stalk.

CONCLUSIONS:
  • A 50:50 mixture of plaster of Paris and fine sand is fireproof, does not crack from the heat of burning tobacco, and can be used to line any part of a bowl interior, such as the soft bottom of a corncob.
  • A substantial cornstalk segment works as a pipe, but requires a liner (such as the 50:50 mixture of plaster:sand) to prevent it from burning through.
Bob

Bob, I think you need to start making this type of pipes for sale.
Let us know where to send money!

icon6.png


Wiktor
 

MarcL

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I spent an hour or so trying to locate where I posted my 2014 WLT Perique Blending Matrix. It may be somewhere or other, but I couldn't find it. I'll post it here, since I mentioned one of the blends, and will also post it to the pipe blending thread.

PeriqueBlendingMatrix.JPG


Bob

this is wild.. kinda close to what I did. except, the dark air I put fire cured. spooky..
 

alPol05

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Plant some corn. Eat the corn. Cut the stalk.

Bob

This is not possible since I leave in an apartment with a small balcony. Aside from that, I am involved in other projects and my time is very limited. I am also too old to start gardening or tobacco planting.

I have another, more serious question. There are several issues related to Virginia tobaccos used in blends.


  1. Why did you use two different Virginias in your Perique chart - Lemon and Red?
  2. You didn't use a Bright Virginia - why?
  3. In commercial blend descriptions, I see verbiage like: "several types of Virginias used in this blend", "mix of high-quality Virginias", etc. Do you have any speculation of what this means?

I would appreciate your views on these issues.

Thanks,
Wiktor
 

deluxestogie

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  1. Why did you use two different Virginias in your Perique chart - Lemon and Red?
  2. You didn't use a Bright Virginia - why?
  3. In commercial blend descriptions, I see verbiage like: "several types of Virginias used in this blend", "mix of high-quality Virginias", etc. Do you have any speculation of what this means?
"Bright Virginia" is actually a generic term for any flue-cured Virginia. When I use the term "Lemon", I'm suggesting a light yellow leaf. "Red" refers to a deeper colored Virginia leaf. Both are flue-cured. When you order "Lemon Virginia", one batch may differ in color from the next. So every batch of a particular blend may vary. I use both in many blends, because the lighter leaf provides sweetness and acidity (a slight sour taste), whereas redder leaf contributes a richer aroma, though less sweetness and acidity.

There is no way to know what marketers mean in their commercial blends. (And they really don't want you to know exactly what's there.) The leaf may be lighter and darker, not stoved or stoved, pressed and stoved, etc.

My matrix grids seem formal and precise. In reality, my source leaf varies from month to month. In addition, it's not unusual for me to substitute "red" for "lemon", or the other way around. Sometimes I do that out of curiosity, other times out of a shortage of one ingredient or another. I also substitute my home-grown leaf of all sorts for the WLT leaf. There is nothing sacred about those blending charts. They are just a starting point. If I do alter the ratio of lemon to red, AND it's a blend with Perique, then the Perique proportion may need to be adjusted. The more lemon, the more Perique.

I know that if you follow any single line of either Latakia matrix (with or without Perique or Burley), you will end up with a smokable blend. They don't reveal all the crummy combinations that I tried along the way to finalizing the recommendations. BUT...as I emphasize repeatedly...these are just a starting point. You should feel free to adjust the source ingredients as well as the proportions.

[Consider these matrices to be recipes for a beef stew. The recipes will make a nice meal. Changing the meat or vegetables or proportions are what usually happens. And it's usually good. Sometimes not so great. When I'm searching for a food recipe, I'll usually track down a half-dozen different recipes for the same thing. I'll see what is the common theme and the gist of the cooking time and temperature, then invent my own recipe with the specific ingredients that I happen to have on hand. All recipes are meant as a starting point, rather than the final word.]

Bob
 

alPol05

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"Bright Virginia" is actually a generic term for any flue-cured Virginia. When I use the term "Lemon", I'm suggesting a light yellow leaf. "Red" refers to a deeper colored Virginia leaf. Both are flue-cured. When you order "Lemon Virginia", one batch may differ in color from the next. So every batch of a particular blend may vary. I use both in many blends, because the lighter leaf provides sweetness and acidity (a slight sour taste), whereas redder leaf contributes a richer aroma, though less sweetness and acidity.

Thanks, Bob. This is another principle I wanted to extract from you.

It reminds me your Acid-Base Slider:

  • flue-cured = acid = sour
  • Perique = base = bitter
although it would look somewhat different. Maybe something like this:

Virginia types and their relation

Lemon Virginia <--------> Red Virginia
Sweet and Acidic <--------> More aroma, less sweetness, and acidity.

Any comments on this?

As to the charts you presented, I understand that this is a framework and a base for experimentation.

Wiktor

PS. I just noticed that you posted this chart in the "Pure Tobacco Pipe Blends You Can Make" thread. I think this discussion would fin nicely there as well.
 

deluxestogie

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Corn Stalk Pipe Update

This bizarre creation has turned out to be the best-smoking pipe I own. (I have a couple of dozen plus.) The bowl capacity is huge, while the cross-section is still reasonable. When well packed, it keeps on going for over 90 minutes. The draw is excellent. There is no tendency for tamping to over-tighten the draw. With its long stem, the smoke is always cool.

Importantly, the exterior of the stalk bowl never gets hotter than most briar pipes, and has not gotten hot enough to even discolor the flimsy, easily combustible stalk surface. This quality is due, of course, to the plaster/sand coating of the bowl's interior. And it's really a fairly thin coating.

Implications
If the 50:50 plaster/sand coating can protect a corn stalk shell, then the same coating can be utilized to render just about any wood suitable for making a pipe. Pine and basswood come to mind.

Former Boy Scouts may recall those pine neckerchief slide whittling kits that consisted of bored pine block, printed with a face or animal as a guide for carving. Below are two that I whittled from such kits about 30 years ago.

Garden20180406_3503_neckerchiefSlides01_600.jpg


Garden20180406_3502_neckerchiefSlides02_600.jpg


If they had a wooden plug in the bottom, they could function as pipes.

In the US, clear pine is sold in a 2" x 2" board. Basswood blocks are readily available on-line. The only requirement would be to coat the interior of the bowl with the plaster/sand mix before smoking it.

AND...this plaster/sand coating requires no break-in!

Bob
 
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