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Banished with a Heeschen

Marking the start of a new series featuring well-known personalities from the pipe scene, Pfeifenbox wants to know what defines them as smokers, rather than artisans or business people. The time-honoured desert island interrogation theme may not be particularly original, but it remains a nifty way of avoiding ifs and buts.

Neil Flancbaum (Smokin' Holsters) makes some of the most exquisite leatherware you could ever slip a pipe in. Ranging from holsters for individual pieces to vacation-size bags, his work stands for usability, beauty and durability. "Everything I turn out is made from the highest grade leather available," he says. "This includes the bag liners, which are made of an assortment of leathers - including elk, buckskin, moose and kangaroo."

As the first to endure the desert island ordeal, Neil is at a definite advantage. He has no use for machinery anyway, nor for pre-manufactured material such as fillers or stiffeners. "With the exception of hardware and zippers, the bags are all 100% leather, hand cut and stitched from full hides," he stresses. (Robinson Crusoe's goats may have to watch theirs… )

An anti-smoking government is banishing you to a desert island for your incorrigible baccy habit. You are allowed to take one pipe with you. It can be any piece in the world. Which would you choose?

NF: This is a hard question, as I have not smoked any of the super high grades by the likes of such as Bo Nordh, Jess or Teddy, or some of the older masters like Sixten Ivarsson. My favourite pipe artisan is Peter Heeschen. I own many of Peter's pipes, have spent a lot of time with Peter at shows and consider him a friend and a truly wonderful person. It is very hard to smoke one of Peter's pipes and not think of him as I'm smoking it - which really does increase the pleasure of the smoke, so I would have to say that I would choose a Heeschen. Choosing a single Heeschen would be just as hard, but my favourite is my Heeschen Volcano, so I guess that would be it.

You are, of course, also granted an unlimited supply of a single blend. Which would it be?

NF: I'm basically a smoker of Virginia/Perique blends and my favorite is and has always been Three Nuns. So that would, of course, be my first choice. I've recently learned that the newest incarnation of this blend has changed, and as I have not yet tried the latest version I am a bit nervous. Should the current version not be to my liking I would choose Solani 633, a good all-day smoke.

Arriving on the island, you realise the full depth of the authorities' sadism. They've given you the pipe you wanted, but the baccy they have supplied is the one blend with the potential to make you quit smoking immediately. Which is it?

NF: The list of tobaccos I wouldn't smoke is long and varied and would certainly be longer than is feasible here. I do smoke selected aromatics and I'm generally open to trying anything once or twice, so the choice is hard. But whenever people ask me this question my taste bud memory harkens back to a blend I truly found foul each time I gave it a shot. With all due respect to Craig and Patty Tarler, wonderful people who blend excellent tobaccos, their company Cornell and Diehl have a blend called Cross-Eyed Cricket which I have tried several times - and each of those times found myself almost ill at the flavour. The topping is listed as 'rum punch' and really doesn't agree with me at all. I would probably give up smoking if that was my only choice.

(December 7, 2003)

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