Ideas that were discussed were Corinthian and Doric columns.

What I was hoping to create was an organic form that would speak about the columns of antiquity. I wanted to have echo’s of the egg and dart shapes that often run along the pediments of classic buildings. The curves were the most important detail. I did not want them to be identical, nor did I want them to look mass produced. Since this piece was symmetrical, I had quite the job ahead.

The wood I chose was Myrtle Burl. Myrtle Burl has a nice heft to it. It also has a nice dark to light pattern. My customer was defiantly part of the inception, carving and finish process, as you can see in the pictures.

Regards,

Jennifer Rinaldi

I took a good look at the grain pattern

Here it is with the Iverson casting

Side view

It's getting smoother ... I'll keep sanding

More sanding

Curves are emerging ... looking good

Finished

Shown with my husband Jon's Freehand

Hi Jen! It’s about a quarter to five and I just received and unwrapped the pipe stand.  It’s awesome!  Love the whimsical carving, which makes it look almost as if it grew into that shape.  No machine-turned radiuses (radii?) that would make it look mass-produced.  The curves roll forth in a natural way, and the finish is positively the smoothest I have ever felt.   You can see the smoothness of the finish, but you have to run your fingers over it to comprehend just how silky it really is.  And without varnish, shellac, artificial sealer, etc.  It’s the kind of hand-rubbed finish you just don’t see anymore.The stand fits the pipe as if it were MADE for it!   (That’s a joke; don’t take offense.)   Seriously, the pipe just snugs down in the recess perfectly.  Total, custom-made job.The Myrtle worked out beautifully too.  Love the veins of light and dark that appear everywhere through it.  Many thanks!I know it’ll be a long time before you get to it, but I’m sending the lion castings and one of the pipe.  It, too, is a bent Dublin shape; not so different from this one.  The “pipe” I cast in plaster is just the bottom of the bowl and most of the shank – I simply made a mold of the part that will contact the pipe rest, basically.Again Jen, many many thanks for the countless hours of painstaking work.  Big, big payoff in beauty and quality!

Best,  Mike

We had a wonderful Italian dinner in St. Charles with Todd Johnson and his lovely wife Rachel along with Bruce Weaver and his soon to be bride Cindy.  I have a picture of us in unbelievable 20 ft. limo they sent.  It was very cool, we called for a taxi, we certainly didn’t expect this limo, it felt as though we were at a disco.

Here are a few picture, hope you enjoy them.

Cindy, Bruce Weaver, Jennifer and Rachel, Todd's wife

My handsome self with Brad Pohlman

Lasse Skovgaard holding one of his spectacular pipes

Lasse's beauty only $2,600.00

In the limo, Todd and Rachel,Bruce and Cindy and my terrific wife Jennifer

Jennifer and Cindy

Handley Scott with his new "Clan Pipe"

]]> http://jrinaldipipes.com/wp/back-from-chicago-2010/feed/ 0 http://jrinaldipipes.com/wp/chicago-preview/ http://jrinaldipipes.com/wp/chicago-preview/#comments Fri, 09 Apr 2010 16:48:35 +0000 jon http://jrinaldipipes.com/wp/?p=826 “A few weeks left to go and counting”

Busy, Busy, Busy, is our mantra this time of year; Jennifer and I have been working extra hours in our shop preparing for the Chicago Show May 1^st and 2^nd.  We are very grateful that we are so busy with custom work and adding to our inventory of pipes and stand for the show.  Here are six completed pipes for the show; I have another six at various stages of completion.

If any one is interested in purchasing any of these pipes prior to the show, please contact me via email or call for more images, specs, and price.  Pipes will be mailed out on my return from the show.

Hadley Scott’s pipe and stand were designed to incorporate his Scottish heritage, yet still be functional.  The pipe was made large enough for him to hold on his lap while smoking.  It is adorned with the Scott family crest and sword, as well as the thistle, another Scottish symbol.  I designed the stem of the pipe to look like the stem of a bagpipe. We even ordered an authentic bagpipe tassel to hang from the top of the stem.  The shank is in two parts and it is drilled with a larger airway so it will have an easy draw for an 18” shank.

Jennifer has been working on Hadley’s pipe stand. The stags’ head is carved out of a solid piece of cedar.  Jen’s stand had to be large enough to hold such a large pipe.  The very center of the cedar block is the very center of the stand.  The block was chosen because of its rich red hue and nice ring pattern.  I also inserted deer horn, both on the back of the neck, and on the bottom, which the pipe sits.  The whole set is really a sight to see.

Hello from the windy slopes of Sonoita!

It has been quite a while since my last post, I am sorry for that.

We have been busy making pipes and playing in the snow!

One of my Readers alerted me of a Newsletter that I was not aware of; it is called the “Smokers Intellegencer”. In this newsletter there is an article written by Dr. Bob, A physician.

The name of the section is” Thoughts From A Smoking Stethoscope”

In this piece, Dr. Bob writes about our communities’ on going struggle to keep our rights as smokers.  He talks specifically of the planned new tax on tobacco.  As you know by reading my past blog entries, I to have taken up the sword on many similar concerns.

Please read Dr. Bob’s article:          ”first published in the Intelligencer”

THOUGHTS FROM A SMOKING STETHOSCOPE JANUARY 15, 2010

The Doctor Is In

I am a pipe smoking family physician as well as a pipe carver (DR BOB PIPES) and I am appalled and angered by the anti-smoking propaganda that we pipe people have to labor under these days.

I plan to have articles like this one appear in the Intelligencer to help build facts that we all can use in some way. I applaud Craig Tarler and Fred Brown who are giving all of us some basis to use our freedom of speech to protest this anti-smoking nonsense.

Many of us have sat around in our rooms at the pipe shows and dream of ways to fight our cause. Often we conclude we cannot do much because we feel powerless because of the lack of legal defense we could muster, primarily because of huge legal costs. Also what forum would we use?

I spoke to a pipe smoking attorney a few years ago and asked him why no attorneys would jump into this arena as it seems there would be plenty of legal cases. His answer was “Bob, there is no money in that for attorneys.”

One obvious way to fight would be to smoke in a banned place, get arrested, and then take it to court and win because of constitutional violations. This would set a precedent much like the victorious case won a few years ago in that restaurant in Pittsburgh, Pa. But who would be that sacrificial lamb and who would be that attorney who would step up to the plate?

In the meantime here we are starting to do our part and thus the Intelligencer. The antismokers (henceforth simply “anti’s”) are quite a group are they not? They use any and all means to promote their cause.

The following are just a few of their twisted methods of operation • crusade • hypocrisy • political compromise and stunts • lies • unconstitutionality • stupidity. The crusade is a term I have used often and is so appropriate. Think about the old crusades. They were won by a group of passionates about a cause. They mustered all the power they could find by forging great instruments of destruction and enlisting those with strength and skill. They went forth to win AT ANY COST!!!! So go the anti’s as they will attempt to win at any cost.

Their cause is not really about stopping smoking but hating the smoker (like crushing the smoker as you would crush the butt of a cigarette). Yes, most of this is about cigarettes but kid not yourself as they are already drawing a bead on those of us who smoke a pipe or cigar; i.e.,the 2 reps from Tennessee who have proposed a bill to increase tax on pipe tobacco to as high as $25/lb .

So if we are to engage the enemy in this crusade, we must be informed and know truth, become informers or teachers to those close to us at home or in the workplace, be zealous and uncompromising, and willing to work hard and make personal sacrifices.

THE STUPID AND THE LIARS

Let us look at some of the distortions, stupidity and lies out there; this reminds me of a tornado-twisting to destruction everything in its path! The crusader knows how to distort facts and even produce outright falsification of facts especially in the medical science arena. We call it junk science.

The crusader knows how to use press releases giving false information before published data is available. A hot topic lately is the e-cigarette (ec) which is a device that vaporizes a liquid that has nicotine in it. It is a great invention that should save more lives as people will get primarily nicotine delivered and not the other 4,000 ingredients.

The ec is successfully being used in Europe. Well there are plenty of anti’s attacking. How about a look at stupidity. Two senators from New Jersey are asserting that ec’s are more dangerous than regular cigarettes and that this is a ploy by Big Tobacco (BT) to deceive people into thinking that ec’s are safer than regular ones. Ec’s have a trace of carcinogens plus nicotine while regular cigs have over 40 know carcinogens.

And BT has nothing to do with ec’s, in fact they don’t even make them nor do they market them!!! So, what are the senators really saying? That real cigs are safer than ec’s?

These stups need a course in basic science. Recently the FDA tried to stop the import of ec’s coming into the U.S. because they were a device/drug. But a U.S. District Court ruled against this and stated it was a tobacco product and thus would fall into that category.

A device or drug would have to go through tight clinical and/or epidemiological trials which could take 20 years before they could say this product decreases diseases. Obviously this would be a fatal blow to the device (ec’s) for it could be taken off the market because it had not conducted those trials. If left to be a tobacco product, then the tobacco act precludes the FDA from regulating any tobacco product.

One of the militant crusaders is The Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids and they argue that the FDA should regulate ec’s because they represented a clear blow to public health. So those dummies are saying that smoking cigarettes is healthier than ec’s.

Ec’s represent a great way for current cigarette smokers to quit and to prevent former smokers from relapsing back into regular cigarettes and those 40 carcinogens. And would you believe that some of the stronger voices against ec’s (as being health hazards) are the Big Pharma companies that make stop smoking products like the pills or the patches? Gee would getting into their financial pockets possibly be motivating them?

The lies are astounding especially from the standpoint of the scientific standards that are to be followed by research groups. There have been multiple smoking bans initiated by many countries and then a year later, these groups have published false outcomes. They all showed a considerable drop in heart attack rates.

One study is from Swiss Medical Weekly in which they showed a 22 percent drop in heart attacks after the ban started. The problem with that study is that there were no comparison groups. There should have been studies in other towns of similar size as the decrease may have been from a general secular downward trend secondary to controlling cholesterol and hypertension and improved medical treatment of heart attacks.

That Swiss town has a large transient population of vacationers and the rate of heart attacks were the same among residents and none residents. If the rate truly dropped then it should have been much lower in the residents as one would not expect it from transients staying there for a week or two.

Another lie came from the Institute of Medicine Committee on Second Hand Smoke Exposure and Acute Coronary Events in which they reported they conducted a comprehensive review of published and unpublished data on the effects of smoking bans on the rate of heart attacks.

In a separate communication they even said they did not look at the unpublished data which included the countries of the United States, Scotland, England, Wales, Denmark and the states of Florida, California, New York, and Oregon. This latter list of studies from these countries and states showed NO EFFECT ON HEART ATTACK RATES FROM THE SMOKING BAN.

So the IOM could not resist some lying. There is so much out there nowadays regarding info relative to smoking that it is hard to keep up with it.

Hopefully these summaries of crusader tactics will be helpful and will give us all something useful to see the truth.

More crusader stuff latter…. Dr. Bob

Please visit:

http://pipesmokersintelligencer.org/journal/

Smooth Poker with Zebrawood band

Sandblasted Full Bent with band of Ivory and Green/Black Cumberland stem

In this segment I am working on a few pipes.  One is a poker that has a really nice straight grain; I am making this Poker for a client that wants our Navajo rustication with a black finish, I must admit I am somewhat torn, this pipe would be such a beautiful smooth.  However, I love the Navajo look and it will look great on a Poker shape.  I think I might have to flip a coin, heads I keep it smooth and make another, or tails rusticate it and move on to the next.  What a nice place to be.

The next is a roughed out Bulldog with an Ivory inlay and a handsome piece of black Buffalo horn, the shank needs a little more shaping but again a very nice clean piece of briar with a super grain.

The next is a freeform full bent; this is being made for Carlos.  It has a beautiful Birds Eye rim and I think it will sport a very nice grain.  It has a band of Ivory and a requested green/black Cumberland stem.  The body will be a very dark brown finish.  I enjoy working a freeform shape, it gives me the freedom to use my imagination to create what I see and feel as I go along.

This next segment is combined work of Jennifer and myself.

THE SCOTT CLAN PIPE & HOLDER

At times we are asked to do things that we have never envisioned doing.  This is the case of our friend Hadley Scott’s Clan Pipe and stand.  Jon and I knew we would need to research this project to make it work.  Being a little intimidated by the scope of the project, I invoked the words of some Scottish Ghosts of the past.

“Keep your fears to yourself, but share your courage with others”.  ~ “Robert Louis Stevenson”

On that note we now embark on the journey of Hadley’s Clan Pipe.

Jon purchased the XX large Italian briar block for this pipe at the Chicago Pipe Show.  The piece was chosen for its clarity and size.  Hadley wanted a pipe large enough to have to bowl resting in his lap.  That meant that the stem would need to be at least 17 inches long.  After researching bagpipes, Jon & I decided that we would fashion the stem after one of the stems on a bagpipe.  The oval buttons on a bagpipe are called projecting mounts.  Jon wanted to re-create that feeling in his stem.

Traditional projecting mounts were made of bone or ivory, with the bands located on the lower regions being called ferrules.  These elements would be a nice touch to the clan pipe.  It was decided that due to the length of this pipe that the stem would be in two parts.  We also wanted to include the silk cord & tassel.

The willing horse is always worked to death.  ~ “Scottish Proverb”

Hadley supplied us with his clan pins, which he wanted to have etched on his pipe.  I took his pins and hand rendered them to preserve the detail this took time.

While I was working on the renderings, Jon was working on the stem & beginning to carve the pipe.

The devil’s boots don’t creak.

Scottish Proverb

This is so true!  That piece of wood looked so perfect too.  As Jon was carving the pipe, a some much feared sand pits made it’s way to the surface.  Not to be daunted, we discussed where to place the clan emblems.  Luckily the emblems mostly covered the flaws.  In the areas where the pipe would be handled, Jon decided to lightly sandblast.  The look was quite pleasing.

“Luck never gives; it only lends”.

“Scottish Proverb”

As the pipe came near to completion, my thoughts turned to the pipe stand.  I will need all of the luck I can get!  With a pipe this long and heavy, my stand would need to be large enough to accommodate the length & weight.

Hadley wanted a stag’s head for the theme.  The Scott clan motto is

“I Love” represented by a stag in the circle of a Scottish belt.  (As seen in crest pins)  Somehow I would like to incorporate the Scottish belt into my design.  We shall see how.

I decided to carve the stag’s head out of a piece of cedar given to me by Olie Sylvester. Olie has a wonderful interesting pod-cast site www.oompaulpodcast.squarespace.com/ the cedar round had a nice purple cast to it as well as being pretty heavy.  The well for the pipe to rest in was the first thing I needed to carve.  I had to make sure that the pipe would rest easily and be nice & stable. In a few weeks Jon will work on the finishing, the sandblasted area will be darker then the body, I can’t wait to see it completed.

THE STAG HEAD PIPE

This is a pipe my wife carved for our friend and pipe artesian Don Kesling of www.Keslingbrairpipes.com Don was asked to carve a pipe resembling a stag’s head.  I was honored that I was asked to take on the challenge.  Being a hunter myself, I have a deep appreciation for a many pointed stag.  I have been fortunate in my lifetime to have seen a few real showstoppers.  Carving this image on a pipe was going to be fun!

Don did all of the drilling, stem work, and technical parts of the pipe that I was to carve.  He sent me pictures of prospective blocks and asked my opinion.  I ended up choosing one with a nice straight grain, but with some cross grain to it as well.  We had decided that parts of the pipe would be sandblasted.  I told him to leave me with as much wood as he could.  This way I could carve the needed details deeply, without risking the thickness of the bowl.

I sent him photo-shopped pictures of how I envisioned the pipe would look.

Don told me the client wanted a nice buck’s head with a many-pointed rack.

Don and I saw the same image.  The antlers needed to wrap themselves around the bowl.  It is always nice to have to adhere to a clients wishes, it is even better when you both can have the same vision.

Carving wood is like a time warp to me.  You get started and before you know it the day is gone!  I feel fortunate that I love what I do.  Right down to the smell of the wood!  This pipe took time, but due to the subject matter, it seemed to go fast.

In the end, Don, his client, and I were pleased with the result.  Here are some images from start to finish.

What a wonderful place to have a show!  We congratulate both of them.

All tables were sold out and many of the top pipe makers were there, and from what I hear all were pleased with there sales.

Jennifer and I had a great time; we spent quality time with Todd Johnson, Bruce Weaver, Steve Morrisette, Michael Lindner and many more.  I strongly feel that next year will be an even bigger success.  So, when the dates are posted for 2010, make your reservations.  For those of you have never been to Vegas, you are in for a treat.  There are more shows than one can see in the few days allotted for the show.  If your love is fine food, then you are in luck!  Whatever your fancy, you can find it here!  I enjoyed the absolutely magnificent architecture.  Where else in North America can you see a pyramid?

Jennifer and I were pleased with our sales; here are a few of the pipes that sold along with a pipe stand that Jennifer made.

We thank you all for your support.

Jon and Jen

I thought I would post a few of the pipes that are on or just off my bench.

This ½ bent freehand looks like it will be my star at the West Coast show.  Simply a super grain; and a very clean block.  I am in the final stages of sanding and so far not a spot of imperfection.  The stem still has to be cut, and it has an insert of Mammoth Ivory.

This Lumberman was a commission and is on its way to Germany.  My client liked the Lumberman # 0190-09 (is now at home in Paris France) on my web site and wanted one just like it.  I think it looks pretty close.

This Billiard was being made for a client, but as I was nearing completion, decided he wanted a larger longer pipe.  This billiard would have been a terrific smooth, however, the grain was just perfect to show off a beautiful blast.  This block was very clean, no pits at all, so I kept a natural finish.  This one will accompany me to Las Vegas next week along with the next one.

The last one is a Rhodesian shape with a beautiful birds eye rim, gently sandblast with a band of Mammoth Ivory and horn, the stem is hand cut Cumberland

As I drift on a small row boat in the middle of Luna Lake, smoking my pipe and enjoying nature at her best. I cannot help but think of those who grow this sacred plant that we all enjoy.

From the fertile fields of Georgia, to the verdant plains of Virginia & Kentucky, farms are being forced to change.

In my previous blogs I have spoken about the vast new regulations on

Our beloved tobacco. As regulatory measures and taxes increase, along with tobacco subsidies being reduced or even ended all together, what is the tobacco farmer to do?

When I returned home from our vacation I found the answer in an article from August 2009 in the Wall Street Journal.

Tobacco Road Leads to Wine Country

By ERICA ALINI

Seth Meranda graduated from Ohio State University in 1994 and planned to spend the rest of his life as the fifth generation running the family tobacco farm in Brown County, Ohio.

But amid falling demand and cheap competition from abroad, Mr. Meranda began to lose his taste for the golden leaf. When the federal government ended tobacco subsidies in 2004, he opted for a lump-sum payment of $126,000 in a program to help tobacco growers transition to the free market.

He bet it all on a new vineyard and wine-making business, the Meranda-Nixon Winery, which he opened on the site of the family’s former tobacco farm in 2007. Winemaking requires a depth of knowledge that makes it more challenging than growing tobacco, Mr. Meranda said.

A worker picks grapes at Persimmon Creek Vineyards in Clayton, Ga., last year. The vineyards are part of an expanding winemaking industry in areas once given over to tobacco. The number of U.S. tobacco farms fell by 83% between 1997 and 2007.

The number of U.S. tobacco farms shrank by 83% between 1997 and 2007, according to the most recent agricultural census, reflecting consolidation, the fading popularity of smoking and the end of federal subsidies. Tobacco farmers from Virginia to Kentucky have been replacing their traditional crop with everything from corn and soybeans to more exotic pursuits like goat herding and winemaking.

Wine production is among the few profitable options for former proprietors of small, family-run tobacco farms, said Margo Knight Metzger, executive director of the North Carolina Wine and Grape Council, a division of the state’s Commerce Department. She said subsidized tobacco used to be a good business for a 10-acre farm, but “the small-plot tobacco farmer is a thing of the past.”

North Carolina and Kentucky allocated money from a tobacco-lawsuit settlement in the late 1990s to set up programs to help tobacco-dependent areas develop other industries, including growing wine grapes and winemaking. Former tobacco farmers in other states are benefiting from state-funded programs offering technical advice on growing grapes and producing wine.

Some media reports have suggested that wine grapes are a cash crop with returns comparable to subsidized tobacco. Not so, according to Tony Wolf, a viticulture professor at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Va. Profit margins on grapes have been falling over at least the past 10 years, he said.

A vineyard with an active winery, on the other hand, can be very lucrative. “There’s much more money to be found in wine production,” Mr. Wolf said.

Frank and Lenna Hobson transformed their tobacco farm in Boonville, N.C., into “RagApple Lassie Vineyards and Winery Estates.” The switch was “Plan B to keep the place agricultural” and replace falling income from tobacco, Mrs. Hobson said.

Mastering the intricacies of winemaking is a challenge for beginners. The Hobsons hired an expert winemaker from Ohio to help. But even with expert guidance, winemaking is a painstaking and risky business. It takes three to five years before grape roots are strong enough for the plants to withstand harvesting, and developing an acre costs $10,000 to $17,000, compared with about $3,000 for tobacco.

Making and marketing wine are separate challenges. From processing grapes to bottling and storing wine without lowering its quality, the road is full of pitfalls for the inexperienced. Then there’s finding a niche for the finished product.

“There are so many labels in the market,” said Rob Morris, a senior manager at Frank, Rimerman & Co. LLP, a California-based accounting and consulting firm that is a leading source of wine-industry research. “To get noticed among that crowd is really difficult,” he said.

RagApple Lassie isn’t turning a profit yet — it normally takes a new winery eight to 10 years to break even, according to Mrs. Hobson. But she said cash flow is enough to cover costs and business has been running ahead of projections.

“There’s definitely light at the end of the tunnel,” she said.

Many former tobacco farmers in Virginia have switched to winemaking. Last year, the state ranked sixth by number of wineries with 170, compared with 99 in 2004, according to the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau of the U.S. Treasury Department. North Carolina, among the chief beneficiaries of federal tobacco subsidies, had 94 wineries in 2008, an increase of 45 from 2004.

Winemaking in tobacco states is gaining a following. Virginia wines dot the “very good” section of Wine Spectator magazine’s blind-taste ratings. One Virginia vintage, a 1993 Chardonnay, even earned an “outstanding,” along with the usual suspects from California.

Vineyards also generate another kind of lucrative low-hanging fruit: the wine tourist.

In 2005, visitors spent $57 million in Virginia to taste the local Chardonnays and Cabernets, among other varieties, according to estimates by MKF Research, a division of Frank, Rimerman & Co. In Pennsylvania, another tobacco state, wine tourists spent $167 million in 2006, up from $140 million in 2003, according to MKF Research.

After spending four years getting his wine business up and running, Mr. Meranda said he had few regrets. In recent months, he expanded his list and now offers eight different wines, instead of just three. “Life is good,” he said. “It’s a lot let stressful this year.”

Write to Erica Alini at Erica.Alini@wsj.com

This article gives you food for thought….

I am happy to see the farmers making a new start. But the nagging thought in the back of my mind remains, “Who will be growing my favorite tobacco in the future?”. Perhaps this will be yet one more commodity we must purchase overseas.

I also completed this really nice, quite large egg shape.  It has a beautiful straight grain completely around the tobacco bowl; the ring band is made of black ebony.  The finish is a very rich sable brown with many highlights showing through.  This one is on it’s way to Columbus also.

Jennifer just completed a very nice Ironwood single pipe stand with tamper.  She inlayed turquoise in the stand and tamper.  It is a good size of small to medium pipes.  The pipe that is shown with it is available on out web site, they sure look good together.