Downtown Toronto Pipe Club

Our next Smoker is slated for Wednesday, September 17th at 7:30pm at The Raq. (This could be our last one depending on how things look in October.) Look forward to seeing everyone there!

DTPC and Lakeshore Smokestacks would like to invite you to join us at the workshop of pipe maker Michael Parks for an event-filled day of smoking, eating and many other sandtastic activities. It will be a blast! (Okay, I’m done with the puns. Promise.)

Schedule

10am – Meet and Greet + Buy, Trade or Sell (Coffee provided by us—you provide the greetings as well as the stuff you want to trade or sell. Bringing money is also a good idea from a buying perspective.)

Noon – Free BBQ Lunch catered by Buster Rhinos.

1pm – Presentation on the art of pipe making by Michael Parks.

2 pm – Blast and Raffle – Pay 10 bucks to get a turn at blasting a pipe for 5-10 minutes. We’ll raffle off the pipes and the winners will get a pipe that will be finished, stained (to your choice of colour) and stamped by Mike.

4 pm – Party is over. Get the heck out!

Note: If you want to ensure a place to park your posterior, we suggest bringing along a folding chair as we cannot guarantee an adequate amount of seats.

Registration

We will only be providing lunch to those who have done us the courtesy of signing up for the event in advance. (Lunch is free.)

To sign-up for this event and view location, please use the link below:

https://sept-bbq.eventbrite.ca

Egad. It’s almost August already. That means only about 3 smokers left for the season! On that mildly depressing note: Our next Smoker is slated for Wednesday, August 13th at 7:30pm at The Raq. Look forward to seeing everyone there!

Mark a special spot on your calendars on Saturday, September 6th for an extra-special event: The DTPC and Lakeshore Smokestacks will be jointly-hosting a special BBQ at the workshop of the esteemed pipe maker Michael Parks. On the agenda will be the opportunity to listen to Mike talk about the art of making pipes, a BBQ lunch, a buy-sell-and-swap, and (in case you weren’t sure) the chance to hang-out, eat, drink and smoke with a myriad of like-minded pipe smokers.

All of this for the cost of merely showing up. More details to follow!

So far this year the weather has been a bit fickle — it rained during the last two smokers (May and June) until about 7:45pm despite the forecast telling us “blue skies” or some otherwise woefully inaccurate information. But, then, luck ended up on our side: the remainder of the evenings stayed dry!

And despite the inclement weather we’ve managed to have more than a dozen people in attendance each time. So I doff my imaginary hat to the hardy souls who thumb their nose at the rain gods and come out for a smoke and good company.

Furthermore, we have now raised $730 for charity and the club. (I guess I’m gonna have to start planning a special DTPC Event to blow some of that dough!) There are only 3 pipes left up for grabs but still plenty of good tobacco that I’ll continue to bring out.

And on that note: Our next Smoker is slated for Wednesday, July 16th at 7:30pm at The Raq. Look forward to seeing everyone there!

It was great to see so many people out at our Spring Opener despite the threat of rain!

We sold 32 of the 40 estate pipes given to us and raised $670 — half of which will be donated to Princess Margaret Hospital and the other half fund DTPC club event(s). Thanks for your generosity and happy smoking!

Our next Smoker is slated for Wednesday, June 18th at 7:30pm at The Raq. I’ll bring more tobacco to sample, as well as some other items from the estate donation — pipe bags, cleaners, etc. to pass around.

With an 80% chance of rain tonight I think the odds are not in our favour. (Plus thunderstorms tomorrow — and it being the Thursday before a long weekend I suspect many people will be away.)

I’ve rescheduled for next week, on a Tuesday — this will give me a little more leeway that week for any additional schedule changes due to weather. Sorry, folks!

Meeting now Tuesday, May 20th at 7:30pm at The Raq.

May Meeting

“Spring is coming.” Or at least, it had better! This sure has been one long, dark winter. (At least compared to previous years. Although when I was a kid, I suppose this was just a normal winter.)

At any rate — let us get together on a patio to smoke and imbibe! I’ve validated that we can still (for now) smoke outdoors, in public, on a patio. So I hereby announce our Spring Opener: It will be on Wednesday, May  14th at 7:30pm at The Raq. (The have four walls and patio heaters, so even if it’s a bit chilly we’ll be okay. Rain, on the other hand… means rescheduling.)

Share the Wealth

We were lucky enough to have been donated a copious amount of vintage tobaccos and pipes from a generous fellow out in Port Hope who had to quit the hobby for health reasons. There are several pounds of tobacco — some of it in sealed tins dating back decades (Esoterica and Rattrays) — as well as about 40 pipes; most of which were carved by Bob Peretti and re-stemmed by Jim Cooke. (They look to be all great smokers, albeit in need of a bit of reaming.)

At any rate — we are in the early stages of deciding how to best distribute this bounty among our club members while both donating some money to charity and keeping some within the club to fund our next special event.

Stay tuned!

Max, who comes to almost every meeting, was kind enough to let us repost some of the pictures he’s taken during four of our Smokers. (You can find the originals on his site.)