Third Anniversary!

Our third anniversary will be coming up in November (time flies when you're having fun).

To help mark this, I'd like to organise our first slow smoking competition. This will be organised under CIPC rules but it will still be fun! Everyone will have the same pipe and 3g of the same tobacco. Depending on the weather, we might need to move inside for the preparation and packing stages. Unfortunately, we will have to go back outside for the lighting and actual smoking.
Everyone who enters will keep their competition pipe and there will be prizes! :-)

Edinburgh Pipe Club: Cleaning an "estate" pipe.

Edinburgh Pipe Club: Cleaning an "estate" pipe.

As this is the one post that gets the most traffic, I thought it would be worth highlighting again :-)

Pipes for CHAS.

Further to the last post, here are a few of the pipes that will be available on Saturday.

Madrid Pipe Show & Championship

If anyone is interested in attending the Madrid Pipe Show & Championship on 16th November 2013, Brian Mills of the UK Federation of Pipe Clubs is organising a weekend trip to the event.

If you would like further details, let me know and I will pass on Brian's details.

BPSC 2014

Good news!

The date for next year's British Pipe Smoking Championship has been set: Sunday 13th July 2014.

The venue will be Newark Showground again...a bit of a trek for us but a central location.

There will be an informal get-together at the pub on the Saturday (12th) for anyone staying overnight, with a full day of activity on the Sunday.

Venue(s) for future meetings.

After a quick straw poll, at last Saturday's meeting, the general consensus is that everyone is happy with Henrick's for future meetings.

By the time we get the Festival out of the way, we will be heading into Autumn when I guess that The Beehive will be closing up their beer garden. Hopefully the weather won't get too bad, too quickly, so the awning and heaters at Henrick's should keep us comfortable (please note, the "share the heaters" rule will start to be enforced again!).

More pipes!

The club is very fortunate again; we are having a large collection of pipes donated to us by a former piper who has given up for family/health reasons.
I should be collecting them at the end of this week and will update on numbers and condition.
The only condition of this donation is that we promise to give the pipes a good home and to make an appropriate donation to a local children's hospice. To that end, depending on condition, I will be asking for the equivalent of the price they would be as "estates" on eBay. All funds raised will be donated to CHAS (Children's Hospice Association Scotland) and Edinburgh Sick Kid's hospital.

Update: There's literally a (big) box of pipes...and a couple of wall-mounted racks...a pretty mixed lot and they will all need cleaned.

I'll bring a selection along on Saturday.

BPSC13 Highlights video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tI4E3QH3NFI&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Calendar Update

I've updated the calendar with dates for future meetings.

Please note, both of August's meetings will be at Henrick's...they should be a bit quieter, than The Peartree or Beehive Inn, during the Festival.

More generosity!

Just back from a very pleasant trip to Dumfries to meet "Honorary Life Member" Jim Lilley (of The Peterson Pipe Collector and IPPC fame).
Jim has very kindly donated a VERY generous selection of tobacco and pipes to the club. I will type up a list and bring it to the next meeting so you can chose what you want :-)

Change of venue.

Please note the change of venue for the next meeting on Saturday 22nd June.

We will now be meeting in the beer garden (at the rear) of The Beehive Inn in The Grassmarket.

We tried them last summer and it was a nice spot; unfortunately they close their beer garden for the winter so we only went a couple of times.

BPSC13 Competition Pipe and Tobacco.

The pipe and baccy to be used for this year's competition has been announced:

The tobacco will be Gawith Hoggarth & Co's. "Rum and Maple Ready Rubbed". This blend is not currently commercially available so unfortunately we won't be able to practice with it beforehand. However, the description  is "a traditional English type blending and non-aromatic". Personally, I find GH's blends to be based on great tobacco so it should be a good smoke.

The pipe will be a Peterson's Aran 15. This is a classic billiard shape so it will make a handsome addition to your collection.

Yet more from Samuel Gawith.

Bob has very kindly invited us back for another visit later in the year :-) to be included, just come along and join us at a meeting (or two).

To see more photos from the day, have a look at the album on dropbox.

More from Samuel Gawith.

Nice to see that a press made in Edinburgh is helping to make Samuel Gawith's lovely flakes!

Samuel Gawith visit continued.

Here's some of their machinery...it's all pretty low-tech but judging from the end results, it seems to work!
P.S. There might be some magic, or alchemy involved ;-)

Samuel Gawith visit.

Many thanks to Bob Gregory of Samuel Gawith who looked after us yesterday when we visited their factory.
Neil, Ian, Jakub, Marcin and myself had an amazing day seeing how they make all their lovely blends.

Pear Tree

Very pleasant afternoon enjoying the sunshine in The Pear Tree's beer garden yesterday.

Steve, Ricardo, Dragos, Marcin and myself worked our way through a nice selection of baccy and several pints of beer.

Alternative venue.

Please note the change of venue for the next meeting (Saturday 27th April).

We will be in the beer garden of The Pear Tree House, from 2.30pm.

Change of venue.

Please note the change of venue for the next meeting (Saturday 27th April). We will be meeting in the beer garden of The Pear Tree House.

We WILL be returning to Henrick's as Chris and Ailsa look after us so well!

Kearvaig Pipe Club

We were recently joined by a couple of gents from the Kearvaig Pipe Club. Steve and Terry were very pleasant company and will be welcome again anytime!
Thanks to Steve for introducing me to Holger Danske Royal Navy Flake...a very nice, light Virginia based flake. Personally, I would put it between Peterson's University Flake and MacBaren's Navy Flake.

Have a look at their website for some great pipesmoking photos...and some beautiful scenery.

Club pipe?

I've been thinking about seeing if we can get a club pipe commissioned. Limited edition, classic shape and hopefully reasonably priced!
Does anyone have any preferences, such as: bent/straight, smooth/rustic?

If we can order about a dozen, Peter Ellam of Invicta Briars has quoted me a very reasonable price on something from his Classic Briar range, let me know if you have any preferences. He will be able to stamp the pipe with "EPC 2013" (giving us the potential to get a new club pipe every year lol).

BPSC2013

Proposed programme and timetable for British Pipe Smoking Championship 2013.
DATE:- Sunday July 21st.
VENUE: Newark and Nottingham Showground.
12.00hrs. Exhibition opens. Registration table opens. 14.00hrs. Registration closes. 15.00hrs. Start of competition. Prize giving shortly after termination of contest.
Cost of entry:- �40.00. ( Entry to exhibition:- Free )
Licensed bar close by: tba
Catering facilities:- to be announced later.
It would be great if we could have a team representing EPC this year, so please contact me asap to register your interest. Numbers for the competition are being limited to 45 so don't leave it too late.

Further details can be found here.

IPSD13

Four of us marked IPSD at Henrick's on Wednesday; Scottish, Polish and English pipe smokers enjoyed baccy from Ireland, Denmark, USA and England in pipes from Guernsey, Italy, France, Ireland and UK...I think that definitely qualifies as "International"!

International Pipe Smoking Day 2013

To help celebrate International Pipe Smoking Day 2013, we will be having an extra meeting at Henrick's from 7.30pm on Wednesday 20th February.

British Pipe Smoking Championship 2013

BPSC '13 will be on Sunday July 21st at Newark Showground again.
I would like us to have a couple of competitors in the slow smoking competition this time.

N.B. Thanks to Ad David, of the Nottingham Pipe Club, for the above image.