When I was a kid (around the time of the invention of water), we were only allowed to use the eight color box of crayons because some families couldn’t afford the bigger selections and the school didn’t want people to be able to buy an advantage for their children and also wanted to spare the [...]
About Russ
Russ Ouellette is the blender/creator of the Hearth & Home series of tobaccos for www.pipesandcigars.com in Bethlehem, PA. He has been a pipe smoker and blender for over 30 years, and enjoys feedback from the pipe smoking public. You can reach Russ at russo@pipesandcigars.com or by calling 1-800-494-9144.
A Grain of Truth
March 18, 2013 By 1 Comment
Briar is an amazing material, and is ideally suited to making tobacco pipes. It’s a hard wood that polishes beautifully, it’s heat-resistant and it has a relatively neutral flavor. But one of the main reasons for its popularity as a pipe making wood is the intriguing grain that it has. The way it grows accounts [...]
Tobacco Legislation and The “Social Creep”
January 18, 2013 By 4 Comments
We’ve all heard the truism “Give ‘em an inch and they’ll take a mile”. It’s usually in reference to children regarding self-discipline, but I’m coming to realize that it has a lot to do with government, especially legislators. Let me explain. I remember a time, not all that long ago, when smoking pipes, cigarettes, and [...]
Blends, People, and Moods
January 7, 2013 By 21 Comments
I was recently thinking about the hobby of smoking pipes, all the different kinds of blends we make and sell, and also about all the pipe smokers I know, and it got me to wondering if there’s a common thread tying certain types of tobaccos to particular personality types. To take it a step further, [...]
It Stretches Credulity
December 24, 2012 By 1 Comment
The title of this post is a paraphrase from Captain Barbossa from Pirates of the Caribbean Part 3. The fundamental meaning is that the subject is very hard to believe. And, trust me, this one still makes me shake my head. Back in May of 2011, I was fortunate enough to have my entry in [...]
Some Cold Weather Smoking Tips
December 11, 2012 By Leave a Comment
For those of you who live in Florida, the deep Southwest, southern California and Hawaii, ignore this information. For those of you who live elsewhere in the United States, these tips are for you, after you get done mumbling curses under your breath directed toward the people who live in those warmer regions. Obviously, if [...]
Pipes and Cigars
Despite the title, this isn’t about our website. This is about my thoughts on the differences between pipe and cigar smoking. Some are obvious, others are less so. All of them are just my opinion, but that’s what I have to work with, so here I go. The first thing I ever smoked was a [...]
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