4th Annual West Coast Pipe Show

Brought to you by Steve O'Neill and Marty Pulvers

Tom Pfaeffle began smoking pipes in 1973. He started collecting pipes a full 20 years later in 1993. Influenced by the steady minds of some of the senior most collectors in the United States, Tom Pfaeffle eventually started charting his own course in pipe collecting and has kept a steady rhythmn ever since.

He focuses his collecting habits on as he puts it 'an eclectic mix of different pipe styles, brands and shapes'. One name that does stand out in his collection is the Dunhill Redbark, of which he has over 100 pieces. What's Tom's nickname you ask? You guessed it, 'Redbark'. His pipe collection also encompasses Ashtons, Dunhills, Charatans and many more.

'Redbark' also holds the unique title of being the 2007 North American Pipe Smoking Champion. We got a picture of Tom with the big trophy below. That same year, Tom was part of a delegation of American Pipe Smokers sent to Russia to compete in the World Championship Pipe Smoking contest. Although Tom and the team had a tremendous time, they did not place, saving that endeavor for another year.

Tom will not be displaying any of his collection at this year's show. Tom will however be bringing some tantalizingly beautiful pipes to sell and you should definitely get in line for them. A small sample of them is shown below.

We sat down with Tom and dove into the mind of a Collector, in order to bring to light some of their unique habits. We bring to you, what we uncovered. Please enjoy.

West Coast Pipe Show (WCPS): How many pipes do you expect to bring and display at the show?

Tom Pfaeffle (TP): At the Chicago show I once displayed about 40 pieces from my high-grade Danish collection. Another time I displayed about 40 pieces from my Redbark collection at both the Chicago & Los Angeles shows. Traveling with pipes is a real hassle, so I don't display anymore.

WCPS: Are you bringing any pipes to sell? If so, how many?

TP: I am bringing about 30 pipes to sell. Most of them are high-grade Danish and English. About half are unsmoked. I keep hoping that I will go home with fewer pipes and more money than I came with, but it never works out that way.

WCPS: Is there a specific type of pipe you collect? A specific shape or style?

TP: I'm a very eclectic collector. If there is any focus, I'd say it was the Dunhill Redbark. I probably have close to 100 in my collection. Beyond that, I have a separate collection of other Dunhills, Ashtons, and Charatans, a collection of high-grade Danish, a collection of Jim Cooke, and another collection of cavalier shapes. Recently, I’ve gotten intrigued by the Peter Stokkebye/Jorgen Larsen pipes.

WCPS: Why are you so passionate about pipe collecting? What is it about this hobby that makes you so rabidly happy to pursue it with such gusto?

TP: Well, I’m a passionate pipe smoker! Pipes themselves are wonderful illustrations of usable art. Even if they are factory-made, no two are alike. Factory-made or hand-made, there is a craftsmanship about fine pipes that matches the work of artists or fine jewelers.
There is also the camaraderie among collectors--they’re wonderful guys. Hanging around with them on-line, at the pipe club, or at a pipe show makes the world a little smaller.

WCPS: Can you list the Top 3 pipes you own as perceived by Collectors or the Public at large? Can you list the Top 3 pipes you own that are closest to your heart and why?

TP: I have no idea what Collectors or the Public at large would make of my diverse collection, and I really don’t care. I collect the pieces that make me happy. Often I envy friends of mine who are more focused—one buddy of mine exclusively collects Charatans, another exclusively Castellos. I greatly admire their discipline and the depth of their collections. Except for a few themes, my collection is all over the place.
Choosing three pipes that are closest to my heart would not be easy. It would be just as difficult choosing a favorite among your children (and not having children, I’m an expert on such topics).

One of the pipes that is meaningful to me is a 61032 Dunhill Redbark. This pipe is reputably the largest Redbark ever made. I’ve enclosed a picture. To give you some idea of scale, that is a standard Group 4, a 4110 to be precise, behind it. This pipe was once owned by my mentor in Redbark collecting, Ed Lehman. You can still see his teeth marks in the bit. I’ll never have them removed--that’s a part of Ed. A very personal object, like a pipe, helps to maintain the connection with friends that are no longer here.

Perhaps my most unique piece is, a Dunhill Shell. At first glance, it’s a very unassuming Dunhill Shell, a pretty standard-shaped Group 4 Diplomat. However, it’s the strangest-colored Shell you ever saw. If you turn it over and look at the nomenclature with a loupe, just above the “Shell” you can barely make out the “..bark” from “Redbark”. This shows me that Dunhill was having so much trouble getting rid of Redbarks during their initial run, that they were sanding off the nomenclature, re-staining them, and trying to pass them off as Shells.

WCPS: How did you first start collecting pipes and what was the event that happened that led you to the understanding that this collecting thing was more than just a passing fancy?

TP: Recently, I read an article that claimed that most people who pick up a hobby only follow it for about 18 months. After that, they tend to move on to something else. If their interest in a hobby lasts longer than that, there must be something special about it. I’m coming up on 16 years of active collecting. I began smoking a pipe in 1973, and began actively collecting around 1993. About this time, our local club, the Peninsula Pipe Club was formed. Here I had a chance to talk about pipes with noted collectors such as Fr. Al Grosskopf and Dr. Phil Bennett; guys who have been collecting pipes since Moses was in diapers. I also went to the big pipe shows Los Angeles in the early ‘90s. These LA shows were large, elaborate, well-attended shows, held at the best hotels and drawing people from all over the country. Then there was the Dallas show, and in ’95 I began attending the Chicago show--the granddaddy of them all. You could say that after that I was hooked.
I was wandering around one of the shows, I think it might have been Dallas, when I made the acquaintance of Ed Lehman. He was the one that sparked my interest in Redbarks. He pointed out that in the Redbark you could get Dunhill-quality briar and engineering. Plus, you could pick them up at bargain-basement prices. Remember, this was about 1994; the Redbark was a very unpopular finish and dealers couldn’t even give them away. Of course, this was years before the celebrated Redbark Renaissance that has been extensively written about.

WCPS: It may be tough for you to define a consumer buying behavior as ‘bad' but is there anything you see happening in the community that irks you every time you see it occurring? Any advice for consumers on how to avoid it?

TP: I love giving good advice—I have no use for it, myself. I’m tempted to say that we collectors can act like lemmings and dive off the cliff after the latest, new, “hot” product. This was certainly true during the Danish Invasion of the late ‘90s. I want to emphasize the “we” because I have certainly been just as guilty of doing this as anybody else.
Another behavior that irks me is the assumption that a more expensive “name” pipe is automatically a better smoking instrument. It may certainly be better engineered, more artfully designed, have a greater degree of hand finishing, straighter, more even graining, but is it a better smoker? Not necessarily so. I believe that the quality of the briar being the final deciding factor. Mother Nature always has the last laugh.
Now, I also have opinions about the quality of Moroccan briar and the whole controversy about fills versus flaws, but I don’t want to get beaten up at the show, so I’ll keep them to myself.

WCPS: How do you find a pipe that you know you want to have in your collection? How is it different now, from when you first started?

TP: Although my taste is still eclectic, a pipe really has to hit me in some way. As time goes on, and the more pipes I see, that is getting more and more difficult. I’m more discriminating about certain characteristics of the pipe. I originally started out chasing smooth pipes, especially straight grains. Today, I’m more drawn to sandblasts. The stem and shank must fit flush to the shank—no gaps. The bowl must be drilled centered in the pipe—it’s amazing number of high-grade pipes in which the bowl is drilled off-center.
If the pipe is an estate, all of the above still applies, plus the bowl must still be “in round”. The chamber still has to be sound. There should be a minimum of tar and gunk on the bowl rim. The stem should be in pretty good shape.
The smoke hole at the bottom of the chamber must be at the bottom—not lower not higher.

WCPS: Have you ever seen a beautiful, incredible work of art pipe in such horrible condition that it almost made you cry?

TP: Leaving out those guys who insist on lighting their Iverssons with cigar torches, I’d have to say it was a Dunhill Redbark (what else?) 835 ODA with an original silver band. It was over-reamed on one side to the point of being paper-thin. In fact, I shed a few tears for any pipe that’s been over-reamed. It’s an injury that’s so easy to avoid.

WCPS: When was the last time you went in search of pipe and were able to find a diamond among coals, and at coal type of prices? A unique fantastic treasure find, so to speak.

TP: There are two—one is a 1935 Dunhill Root that the seller advertised as a more recent vintage. The second was a 1955 Dunhill 120 Shell. The on-line pictures were not very clear, the seller did not give a date or shape number, but one of the pictures was clear enough for me to barely make out the date code. When the pipe arrived, it was indeed a 120 from 1955 and the blast was superb. It did look to be a bit chewed up around the outside edge of the bowl, but hey, I was made in 1955 and I’m a little chewed-up around the edges too.
Of course I’ve gotten burned a few times too. But it’s worth taking the risk. It’s just as likely to find a diamond as a cockroach in the oatmeal. Finding the diamond is much easier to do on-line than it is at a pipe show. At shows, people typically know what they have.

WCPS: There are a lot of new faces joining the carver community. Why do you think that is and how do you view this influx of new talent?

TP: There is some wonderful talent joining the ranks of pipe makers. And I want to make it clear that I’m talking about dedicated pipe makers, and not some guy who thinks he will make a few bucks futzing around his woodworking shop for a few hours. Let’s be honest: simply “making a pipe” is not rocket science. But making a “great” pipe takes time, care, patience, and dedication. The old Jazz musicians had an expression for it: “you got to pay your dues”. Like new music, the pipes from these new makers deserve to be seen and evaluated. Time will tell whether they will continue to put in the time and effort, whether they will continue to grow and improve, and whether people will continue to have interest in their pipes.

On the topic of growth, a few years ago I brought several of Jim Cooke’s pipes to Chicago so they could visit their Daddy. As he looked at some of the pieces from very early in his career, Jim would screw up his face and say things like “…aw, Jim, why did you do that?…” or he would point out a feature and say something like, “…that was back when I was doing xyz, I don’t do it that way anymore…”.

While several talented new pipe makers have appeared in the past few years, only a few are showing any originality. Many of the new Danish pipe makers (and some of the old) are just copying each other. One new pipe maker who has really found his own voice, is the Italian, Gabriel Dal Fiume. His pipes have a quality that runs through the engineering, the fit, finish, and styling. His treatment of his pipes, by creating interesting shapes and mixing smooth surfaces and sandblasting is very striking and unique.

While we’re on this whole topic, there’s an article I’ve thought about writing for a long time but never had the guts. It would be on the theme “50 years from now, who’s pipes will people be collecting?” For example, will there still be interest in Mike Butera or will he only be remembered only as a tobacco and cigar guy? Will anybody remember and care that Michael Frey made incredible pipes before he stopped just at the beginning of a promising career? Is Kent Rasmussen really all that great or is he just copying the styles of Bo Nordh? I believe Marty Pulvers has taken a stab at addressing these topics on his Web site several weeks ago.

WCPS: When did you first meet Marty Pulvers and do you have any interesting stories to share about some experience you have had with him.

TP: I met Marty during my first term in Leavenworth (just kidding). Actually, we met while I was a grad student at Stanford. One day as I was walking across White Plaza, I saw this table full of pipes wedged between tables full of t-shirts and flowers. Standing over the pipes was a bearded guy with a baseball cap, and a big smile. His table was overflowing with good-quality, mid-range used pipes, such as Petersons, Grand Slams, Everymans, and GBDs. As I looked over the table we got talking about pipes. It was obvious that Marty was really enjoying what he was doing. I walked away with a Peterson Kapet Canadian for $10.00 that I still have to this day. Later, from time-to-time I would see him at the Tinder Box in Stanford Shopping Center as he was learning the business. We then lost contact for several years. It was not until ’91 or ’92, when I wandered into Sherlocks Haven in Embarcadero 4 in San Francisco, that we reconnected.

I got to see him pioneer the Danish Invasion of the pipe world. I, and quite a few others, would mark our calendars and wait for his return from his trips to northern Europe. No matter what some people may say, Marty was indeed the first to introduce several of today’s popular high-grade pipe makers to the US. He has one of the sharpest eyes in the business when it comes to recognizing a quality pipe that will please his customers. The fact that new pipe makers ask Marty, as well as other pipe makers, to evaluate their work attests to it.

I think this all goes back to the bearded guy in the baseball cap and the table full of pipes in White Plaza. And the big smile is still there.

IMPORTANT WEBSITE AND INFORMATION NUMBERS

For special West Coast Pipe Show room rates call the Palace Station Hotel & Casino: (800) 634-3101

For Palace Station Hotel & Casino information and amenities please visit the hotel's website at: www.palacestation.com

For table reservations or for any other information, please contact:

 Steve O'Neill:
P.O. Box 2258
Kapaa, HI 96746
steve@westcoastpipeshow.com
http://www.westcoastpipeshow.com
Telephone: (435)760-2411

We're looking forward to seeing you at the West Coast Pipe Show and we hope you'll  join us in making this an annual event!

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