Greater Kansas City Pipe Club

Another great meeting. We had Cam Schutte gave us a great presentation on his world class collection of Comoy's. He had several "one-of-a-kind" items that only a serious collector could have. He even had a copy of the 1909 Comoy's catalogue.

Naturally lots of reports on the Chicago show. Turns out the club had 25 of its members in attendance. Our blue shirts with the gold insignias seemed to be everywhere. At the Cigar Dinner we even got a further treat. Our very own Mike McNiel was inducted as a Doctor of Pipes by the CPCC.

We have another story on the Emperor Leopaldo saga. I hope you enjoy these as much as I do.

Lots of photos of the meeting and Chicago.

GKCPC News May 2012-2.pdf

Here's our newsletter for April. Lots of good stuff. Our program at the April meeting revolved around Mike Sull's collection of non-briar, non-meeer pipes. Heck of a collection and quite an enjoyable program. An article on the history of meerschaum. We also had an article on the Rams Head Studio which makes really nice pewter and silver jewelry to include some nice tampers. You might want to give them a look at www.ramsheadstudio.com.  We also included an article from them on Clay Pipes. We also included another of John Seiler's Emperor Leopaldo stories. This one features Nick Reardon.   We also wrote about pipesmokerunleashed.com and the wonderful software that really helps a collector keep records on his pipes and tobaccos.

April Newsletter.pdf

Guys, we need everyone who has a FaceBook account to go to our FaceBook presence (www,facebook.com/gkcpipeclub)  and "like" us. As we approach our Pipe Show we want to get the word out to everyone all the neat things what will be going on. The show is going to be a sell-out and one thing we need is for people to know is if they want a table they really need to register for it.

An interesting story we heard at our last meeting was from a former member who now lives in Denver. He said the Denver Pipe Club has over 100 members and all the recruiting was done through FaceBook. This is a very powerful tool that is very good at reaching younger pipe smokers, but isn't limited to that. You would be surprised at how many older folks are into this social media stuff. They may be using it to keep in touch with their family that is now extended across the U.S., but they have no problem in using this tool for other things.

The DoubleTree hotel is sold out for the week end of the pipe show. This just sucks but when you have a monster convention in town the same week as your event it can happen. We knew the hotel would sell out, but had hoped people coming to the show would reserve a room early on.

Anyway, we have a very good backup plan for those that want to come to the show and need a room. The Hawthorne Suites is 3/4's of a mile west of the DoubleTree on the same street. Its has excellent rooms and amenities. To reserve a room call them at (913) 344-8100 and say you want a room in the GKCPC block. They have reserved a block of rooms for us that have king size beds. There is a shuttle running back and forth and GKCPC members will be available to take you back or pick you up as needed.

As they say, timing is everything. Just 6+ weeks before the Chicago Show and 13+ weeks before the GKCPC show Fred Hanna has released his new book, "The Perfect Smoke". The book is being published by the NASPC Press for $25 for U.S. residents. Just sent a PayPal to bill @naspc.org to order your copy. The book will be released in late April, but is available for pre-order.

Fred is the scheduled guest speaker at the annual banquet at the GKCPC Pipe Show.

The CPCC capitalizing on the success of the 2011 Balkan Sobranie Throw Down at their 2011 pipe show by coming back with a new challenge. This time the "throw down" tobacco will be John Cotton Nos. 1 and 2 Medium. The contestants this year are Steven Books of the House of Calabash, Dick Silverman of Chief Catoonah, and Leonard Wortzel of Lane Limited. The judges will be Russ Ouillette (last year's winner), Neil Roan, and Marty Pulvers.

For more info go to http://www.apassionforpipes.com/neills-blog/2012/3/13/2012-throwdown-aims-to-reincarnate-john-cottons-nos-12-mediu.html

With the Chicago Show having this event and Kansas City having its Carvers Contest it will be interesting to see if other show develop a hook that will captivate the pipe smoking community.

Below is a link to a video report done by HEC-TV in St. Louis on the recent Pipe Show sponsored by the St. Louis Pipe Club. It's about 4.5 minutes long. The camera work is clear, but not very good. The voice over reporter knows nothing about pipes so he kind of gushes at times. Having said all that it is tremendous coverage of the show.

http://bit.ly/zRKzSo

On February 25th  we hosted our International Pipe Smoking Day pipe smoking contest. Lyn Beyer of Cigar & Tabac put up the prizes for the contest. In addition, Mike and Mary McNiel of McClelland Tobacco put up some wonderful tins of tobacco.

Despite beating the drums, holding this on a Saturday, and mentioning it at the last two club meetings the turn out for the contest was rather light. We did end up with five contestants who are all members of the club.
 


Clockwise From Lower Left: Brad Forster, Doug Scheffner, Bill Miller, David Scheffner, and Tom Whitlow.

The goal here was to make the contest fun and non-intimidating. The contestants could use their own pipe and for the first five minutes they could re-light their pipe as often as they liked with whatever they liked. After that five minute period they could re-light their pipe just one more time, but it had to be with a supplied match. The second match, if used, had to be used in the second five minutes of the contest.

The entry fee was a mere $10 and whether you used our pipe or you own you got to keep the pipe given to you for the contest.

With these rules all the contestants were able to last at least 30 minutes. After that thing went quick. By the forty minute mark we were done. The contest winner was David Scheffner who received a unsmoked, hand made, H. Worobiec estate pipe valued at $100.


 
Lyn Beyer with winner David Scheffner holding the 1st place prize!
 

Smokingpipes.com has agreed to help sponsor the carvers contest and is supplying the gift certificates in the drawing. We are adding additional prizes to the drawing this year, so each ticket you buy will have 4 chances to win instead of just one.

The prizes will be:

- 7 day set, “Bulldog Family”, mounted in a custom display case made by Anthony Harris of acmepipes.com.

- $ 750.00 Gift certificate to Smokingpipes.com towards the purchase of a new pipe.

- $  500.00 Gift certificate for an “Instant Cellar”, tobaccos of your choice from Smokingpipes.com

- The first and only Lifetime subscription to Pipes and tobaccos magazine. (Lifetime of the magazine, or the winner, whichever comes first).

Ticket Sales:  Tickets for the contest are now available.

The prices are:

$25.00 Each or 5/$100.  We reserve the right to limit how many tickets you can buy as there are only 400 tickets available. At least 150 tickets will be reserved for sale at the Kansas City show. The tickets will be available from the club table at the St. Louis Pipe Show (Feb 18th), the Chicago Pipe Show (May 5th & 6th) and the Kansas City Pipe Show (June 23rd & 24th). Tickets are also available from the club directly. Go to www.gkcpipeclub.com  under the 2012 Show Information tab click on Register Now, and then on Raffle Tickets.

PLEASE NOTE:  All proceeds of the raffle go to the carvers and the cost of the custom case. The Greater Kansas City Pipe Club does not keep any of the proceeds.

Shape: The shape selected for this year is “Bulldog Family”.  This includes all the traditional Bulldog shapes as well as free form interpretations of the shape.  Although difficult to spell out in words, the easiest way to say it is “if it reminds the judges of a bulldog” then it counts. This leave’s a lot of room for interpretation by the carvers. The pipe may be straight or bent. The pipe can be paneled. Rings are optional.  The color, finish and all other details are up to the carver. Remember, it is not just the shape but also the execution that the judges will be looking at. Details count.

Size:  Please remember that we are trying to assemble a 7 day set with a display case made ahead of time. We can allow for some variation in size, but very small or very large pipes may be difficult to fit in the case.

Eligible Carvers: If you carve pipes and live in North America, you are eligible. You do not have to attend the show to enter. Entry is limited to one pipe per carver.