The Wizard's Horn

The Wizard's Horn tobacco pipe is a very different pipe. I am not entirely sure how well I like it. Visually it is beautiful. The straight grain of the plateaux briar is stunning and I have been improving on the way I use the dyes which have given this pipe an amazing finish and the rough outside of the root burl is always fascinating. What I am not happy about is the curve, and how that has effected the way it sits in the mouth. This is not a lazy pipe, all the weight is out at the end and the stem doesn't displace any of the weight from out to down. Still it is smokable and looks amazing, you just might want to build up your biceps before smoking this one.

I want to give a return shout out to Catholic Stuff Podcast created by the willing minds of Fr. John, Fr. Peter, Fr. Mike, Joe Doman, and, last but certainly not least, the esteemed Nathan Goebel. Joe recently lead a podcast on our own St. John Kemble and encouraged the listeners to check out this site, so thank you gents over at Catholic Stuff. Listen to this podcast, they have some amazing topics and deal with them thoughtfully and enjoyably. 

Kemble's Gospel

I would like to bring my own experience in connection with the martyrdom of St. John Kemble in order to draw out something about tobacco. The first time I smoked a cigarette was while walking across the country spreading the gospel of life with Crossroads (http://www.crossroadswalk.org/). It was while walking this pilgramage that I saw smoking used as a means to spread the gospel. I remember one occasion specifically. 

We were praying outside of an abortion clinic. Our two sidewalk counselors were having difficult time getting people to stop and talk to them. We all had the blah feeling that you get in your stomach while you're out there. At one point a woman came out to smoke a cigarette. One of the guys who was with us went over and also lit up. She started talking to him just because he was smoking. She had brought her friend in to have an abortion that day. He talked with her for quite a while and by the end she was trying to talk her friend out of the abortion. Although her friend continued on and had the abortion, we were able to give her friend information about post-abortion counseling. 

I find it remarkable that smoking can bring together people with very different ideas. I love the image of St. John Kemble, not just forgiving his enemies (defined as those who were going to kill him), but even enjoying their company over a pipe in his last minutes. Most people would rather curse those who had come to hang them. 

This pipe was my second briar, it was a fun pipe to make. the lip is natural color,  and the body a one step red mahogany stain. 

The stems on all of these pipes have started out as unfinished, preformed vulcanite stems. I take the stem sand it, modify any of the form I want to change, and then I polish them with a compound called tripoli.

The Kemble Pipe

As I started carving pipes, being a good Catholic, I started to research saints and tobacco. Pier Giorgio Frassati is the saint best known for smoking a pipe. But I came across several others, including St. John Kemble. He caught my eye because the pipe is not just a part of his life but a part of his martyrdom.

The brief story of his life is posted under the Kemble Pipe crest. What impressed me was the hour of his death. When he had finished his duties to his prayers, which as a priest he had promised to his superior to do faithfully each day, he enjoyed his last drink and his last pipe with the under-sheriff and the governor. These were the men under whom he had been sentenced to death. I would have liked to have heard that conversation. I imagine it might have gone something like this:


St. John: Well this is quite a good tobac'. And the whiskey, cheap but enjoyable.

Under-sheriff: Well I'm glad you approve of our accommodations. This whiskey is the same I take at home. Can't afford anything too nice on my allowance.

Governor: We can't afford much for you damned papist priests. Your constantly sapping our money and resources.

St. John: Don't you mean, us damned papists and our priests, You only stopped being a papists when your father died. Your career, I believe, had something to do with your decision. Keep with the faith and keep paying the fines, always uncertain of what would come next, slowly having to sell your land, one fine at a time. Instead you made your choice, security of land, position, title, ah yes, Governor.

Governor: And I spared you an extra thirty minutes so you could lecture me. Do you know how hard it is to be in constant rebellion to your King.

Under-sheriff: (laughing) What did you just say govn'r? To be in constant rebellion to the King. He's been a priest here, what, at least forty, no fifty years. There's few who've been in more constant rebellion than him.

Governor: Oh, your on his side too I see. And didn't I tell you not to call me govn'r.

St. John: I apologize, I did not intend to lecture. It is not every day one gets to enjoy a pipe and cup with the men who have decided I no longer fit for this earthly tobac' and have taken upon themselves the duty of sending me to where the angels have pipes fit for incense and the whiskey to be drunk by God himself. Why I imagine I shall have a fine time with dear St. Bridget tending to her lake of Beer.

Governor: Is that mockery I hear? How you bloody papists ramble, it is the same with all your hocus pocus.

St. John: Oh dear me, your latin is in shambles, it's "Hoc est corpus meum". And the bloody part is "Hic est Sanguinis Mei" A man of learning like yourself should surely know that. Ah, well, it seems I have come to the end of my pipe and cup is quite empty. Gentleman, the time has come for us to go. Thank you both for these thirty minutes, I will pray for you when I am enjoying heaven.