A Smoker's Spring

Thank the good lord for the Spring time! Cigarettes, cigars & pipes can now be smoked outside in the mild temperatures that are upon us! Rather annoyingly this week though I didn't manage to finish my smokers tray. Though getting all the spraying done the handles need much tinkering & precise drilling. I am happy at least that my Vesta "match strikers" are down & chrome match stand proudly sits in the centre. A few pictoral phases follow to the finishing stages I'm at.

From humble beginnings & a piece of measly MDF, the outline of the Tobacco boxes along with the smaller cigarette boxes for Rizla & tips.



Boxes down, sized correctly & covered with primer.

This was a tray that I'd decided to make around a month ago. My inspiration came from wanting to own some Art Deco Ronson Touch Tip table lighters to adorn my coffee table. However, I haven't been able to justify the $800 or so they regularly fetch! 

Still wanting  a central piece where I can roll, store & smoke my own roll up cigarettes it was along the theme of chrome with a black base that the idea of the tray was thought. Also I absolutely love the smell of matches & couldn't resist incorporating them aswell.

After 4 light layers of black gloss.

Vesta strikers in place, matches in their holder.

So hopefully by the end of  this week I shall have my meditative calm smokers tray to lazily roll, strike & smoke my way through some crisp morning & hazy dusks.

Other ups this week was coming across a most fabulous gentleman's accessory site which is named "Fine & Dandy".     http://www.fineanddandyshop.com/info.html     The shop is run stateside & in our own true spirit also they partake in "Formal Fridays"! Any chaps who shun the dress down Friday norm that's been with us for far too long & which I'm sure effects productivity at work to say the least, will always be welcome on this site & the following photos tribute those Dandys who post in their photos on a weekly basis on the said day!

Jason

Jesse

Matt

Sabir

And from left to right, Kunle, Keith, Chibuike & Jason.

These boys are on facebook also http://www.facebook.com/login/setashome.php?ref=home#!/FineAndDandyShop

Though their site is well worth a look if you'r e after an accessory that will cut a dash, whether it be neckwear, hats or pocket squares. I don't think it'll be too long until I place an order myself!

And, possibly see if we, this side of the pond could join them in their quest that is Formal Fridays at Fine & Dandy.  I'm sure some regulars at Bar Italia Scooter Club in Soho, Central London wouldn't mind following the call. Take note El Presidente Nick The Bubbles!

The Bow Tie Friday could more than easily catch on!

Also I'd like to thank Miss Nicole Needles for awarding myself
with http://nicoleneedles.blogspot.com/2011/03/7-things.html

the Stylish Blogger Award. I'd be pleased to pass on my nominees in the near future!

Merci

Backwards from Modernism

Within the last few weeks a noticeable change has begun within myself & so shown itself in the daily attire  I choose to wear also. Simple changes with braces & newsboy caps.

I believe it's been happening since taking up pipe smoking, as a hobby of course.

The past few years have been dedicated to Mod, with a heightened sense for aesthetics which had leanings toward clean, straight, sharp lines, tailored fits & carried out in a precise way.

After attending a few events here on the south coast, the most memorable being Batastini's Retro Revival, a love for Big Band, '40's Lindy hopping & '50's jiving have swept across me & taken hold. With the guys at these events dressing let's say more "Gentlemanly" & "Grown Up",

Myself with the start of a 1950's pot belly.

 I had to admit that being Mod is & always has been a youth cult. At 32 it felt like time for change and to skip back a decade to 1950's Dandy perhaps.

The pipe smoking has begun & offers indescribably wonderful "time outs" during the afternoon & late at night to reflect on the days work & looking forward to tomorrow's.

My local Pipe Shop in Southbourne Bournemouth is nothing short of a haven for the dedicated smoker & upon enetering am overwhelmed by the aromas of assorted flavoured tobaccos.

The staff were more than happy to guide me around & advise me on the different kinds of tobacco, actual tips on Pipe Smoking & the tools I'd need to get ahead!

It feels like a place I'd be happy to spend a good half hour in every visit & which of course harps back to the days when Gentleman knew there Tobacconist on a friendly first name basis.

Richard & Amanda were a pleasure to meet & more than welcoming this newbie to to an old traditional way of smoking!

 Cherry Vanilla smelt good enough to eat so 37.5grams was piled onto the scales for me and I was on my way.

Other days were being filled getting back to my old routine of writing my Journal most evenings and are more pleasurable now more than ever after I finished making my own writing slope come case!

There's nothing really on the market that accommodates exactly what I was after in a writing slope so it I gave it a bash myself in making my own.

Simply knocking bits of wood together isn't half as hard as I thought it would be!

Waiting for the lacquer to dry was probably the hardest part.

But soon enough ready to go!

Now onto making myself a smoking tray, something else which is not on the market!

Also looking forward to the start of summer bike rides now the girl & I have an ol' bike each.

 Mine being Chinese with the name "Golden Pigeon".

Zozo's being a Raleigh and lovingly being named the "Flying Rat"!

Here's to a sunny Spring time!

Dandy Lovings.

A Piping Hot Pictorial Preamble

A day into the semi conversion to pipe smoking & far too early for a contemplative perspective. Suffice to say it's going swimmingly! 

I hated tobacco. I could have almost lent my support to any institution that had for its object the putting of tobacco smokers to death...I now feel that smoking in moderation is a comfortable and laudable practice, and is productive of good. There is no more harm in a pipe than in a cup of tea. You may poison yourself by drinking too much green tea, and kill yourself by eating too many beefsteaks. For my part, I consider that tobacco, in moderation, is a sweetener and equalizer of the temper.

~Thomas Henry Huxley~

There is no composing draught like the draught through the tube of a pipe."

~Captain Frederick Marryat~

"It is not enough to fill a pipe and put it to the mouth and set fire to it, for even the country bumpkin knows as much. It is only correct to hold it with the left hand, have the right hand provided with the stopper, impress the onlookers with majestic mien, sit in the proper attitude on the chair, and finally, to take enough time for each pipe and not treat with hasty irreverence this heavenly food."

-Peter Burmann on pipe etiquette, c. 1710

“Second-hand smoke is claimed to cause many deaths and is the basis for tyrannical curbs on offices and pubs. This figure is arrived at by guesswork, inspired by hysteria, and masquerades as scientific ‘proof’ – a process which characterises our age.”

"Nothing helps scenery like ham and eggs. Ham and eggs, and after these a pipe -- an old, rank, delicious pipe -- ham and eggs and scenery, a 'down grade,' a flying coach, a fragrant pipe and a contented heart--these make happiness. It is what all the ages have struggled for."
-- Mark Twain, Chapter XVII of "Roughing It"

I believe that pipe smoking contributes to a somewhat calm and objective judgement in all human affairs."  Albert Einstein, 1950

Smoke your pipe and be silent; there’s only wind and smoke in the world

"Pipe smoking is the most protracted of all forms of tobacco consumption. it may explain why pipe smokers are generally regarded as patient men--and philosophers."

-Jerome E. Brooks, from The Mighty Leaf, Tobacco Through the Centuries

 

"I have some friends, some honest friends, and honest friends are few;
My pipe of briar, my open fire, A book that's not too new."

-Robert Service

 

 

"The fact is, squire, the moment a man takes to a pipe, he becomes a philosopher. It's the poor man's friend; it calms the mind, soothes the temper, and makes a man patient under difficulties. It has made more good men, good husbands, kind masters, indulgent fathers, than any other blessed thing on this universal earth."

-"Sam Slick, the clockmaker"

 

Now put that in your pipe . . . . .

Valentines For Him . . . . . Gent's Boxes . . . . . .

I've loved well made boxes for as long as I can remember. From my teenage years when I first really starting taking pride in my desk & it's tidiness as homework became more important so the more time I would spend there. Well  that was the plan,  pretty much straight  away I was just as concerned with what my belongings & stationary were housed in rather than actually what I was supposedly meant to be using them for.

It then grew into a love for creating an environment that was ideal for me to get dressed in & decide what type of day, that day, was going to be for me. As an avid collector of men's accessories, a chap does have to have a place to put these things, all in order of course, season by season.

Now some blokes may scoff at the idea of  A Man's Jewellery Box in public, but that doesn't mean at all that they would be displeased if presented  with one with which to house their rings,cases, cuffs, wallets, keys, glasses and so on. Trust me.

A man's Valet Box, as the American's call it, is I believe one of the best presents any man could get this Valentines Day. And he WILL find things to fill it up with! Online you can find these start around the £25.00 and go up  to £2,500.

Having had the same one for 3 years or so, picking it up for a couple of hundred pounds, it's sure to last me the rest of my lifetime & it's contets shall of course change & evolve but always be with me. 

 I can think of the beginning of the film "Amelie", her dad loves tipping out his tool box, cleaning it & placing everything back in again perfectly in place. And me too, only not my tool box. Cuffs & cases for me.

With desk organisers fairly hard to come by though, or ridiculously opulent at £13,500 below by T.Anthony, that's one item I'm thinkng of  actually making myself.

So I will need my proper tool box. Wanting a deep reddish brown croc effect leather I shall be starting on it this week hopefully! So these "Valets" though do come in a range of sizes  and of course prices.

 And of course aviailable are Vintage/Antique Gentleman's travelling cases.

Contemporary versions & the most exsqusite of all though are those made by Smythson. http://www.smythson.com/SmythsonSite/product/wp-1004355.htm

Above "Gentleman's Accessory Box" £1,195

                                  

Below, my own personal box after a Sunday's sort out!

Lighters filled, watches wound. All set for Monday!

                                       Ladies all we want are boxes, nice ones!

                                                           Dandy Love.