Celtic Odyssey

Happy Peterson System Pipe Day! Today marks the anniversary of Charles Peterson’s famous System Pipe! It was 124 years ago that Charles Peterson received the final patent of his System Pipe, the “P-Lip” or “Peterson-Lip” mouthpiece. The P-Lip has a graduated bore that runs from roughly 5mm at the tenon and 1.5mm at the P-Lip button, which has a hole at the top of the button instead of a flat, “fish tale” button. Here’s a very brief history of Peterson’s System Pipes from Peterson’s website: In 1890, after 15 years of handling and repairing pipes while working for the Kapp [brothers], Charles Peterson secured a patent in his own name, titled “A certain new and useful improvement in Tobacco-Pipes,” which introduced a unique system comprised of a higher draft hole and a moisture reservoir bored into the shank and transition of a briar pipe. Over the next eight years, Charles continued to refine his System, applying for and securing patents for a graduated bore mouthpiece (1891), and a u...

The next pipe I want to spotlight in this series is my Peterson’s System Standard 314 . I’ve had this pipe for so long I don’t remember when I got it! I’m fairly sure I purchased it from Cup O’ Joes as that was my primary source for online pipes and tobaccos when I first started smoking a pipe. According to Mark Irwin over at Peterson Pipe Notes , the 314 was one of the original Patent shapes. The 314 is described as a “medium bent billiard,” and while I get the bent billiard part, the “medium” is a little bit of a stretch, to me anyway. Looking at the numbers from Peterson of Dublin , I compared 3 of the 6 pipes listed on Mark’s post, A Guide to System Shapes, 1896 – 2019, Part 1 (The 300 Shape Group) — 307 , 312 , 314 . Their sizes are as follows: 307 312 314 Length 144mm 152mm 124mm Height 51mm 50mm 45mm Outside Diameter 40mm 36mm 36mm Chamber Diameter 20mm 19mm 18mm Chamber Depth 41mm 40mm 37mm Weight 63g...

Many moons ago, when I first got into pipe smoking, I discovered Peterson Pipes . [1] As I’ve stated before, I was in a local pipe shop and saw the Peterson’s cut-away of their patented System Pipe . At the time, I couldn’t afford one but the image — and the lesson from the shop owner — was etched in my brain. So I saved up my money and bought my first Peterson System Pipe — a rusticated, system standard 312, with P-Lip . Since then I’ve collected several Peterson pipes ; some I’ve given away and some I’ve kept. Today I want to talk about one of the pipes I picked up several years ago — Peterson’s Donegal Rocky 80s. The 80s can be found in several of the Peterson lines — Aran , Cara , Killarney , Racing Green , and different Spigot iterations, just to name a few. It also comes with either a tapered stem with a Fishtail bit or a saddle-bit stem with a P-Lip bit (Peterson Patent-Lip). [2] The 80s comes adorned without or with a metal band, generally Nickel ...

A year and a half ago, I published a series of posts on Pipe Smoking and Theology . In the first part of the series, we discussed different types of pipes, tobaccos, etc. Since then I’ve been posting reviews of different tobaccos that I enjoy. In this series, I’ll be focusing on the pipes I have in my collection. And the first pipe I want to spotlight is a pipe I never really thought I would acquire. When I started smoking a pipe, I was smoking a hand-me-down Dr. Grabow. [1] I then purchased my first pipe from a local pipe and tobacco shop. It was a no-name, Italian made, basket pipe; a little sandblasted ¼ bent pot with a smooth rim on the bowl. It smoked all right but I was still learning about different pipes, different tobaccos, different packing methods, etc. You get the idea. I had a long way to go and even more to learn. But there was something in the pipe case of that shop that caught my eye. It was a pipe that had been cut in half so one could see the inner work...