Looking through my inventory of tobacco tins, and came across this tin of Samuel Gawith Squadron Leader. I used to dabble occasionally in Latakia blends more than I do now, and this was one I liked. Medium bodied, not a lat bomb, and cool smoking. It’s a typical English, with Virginias, Latakia, and oriental tobaccos and of course no flavoring, but a very fine English blend. Alas, when I opened it, it was only half full! I had failed at some point to jar the remainder of the tin, and it was dry as could be. I was at first tempted to toss it, but decided to see if I could rehydrate it. I’ve done this frequently in the past, but usually when it was just a little dry, not completely dried out. I put the remnants in a bowl, and placed a well wrung out damp wash cloth over it (not touching the tobacco of course), and left it overnight. The next morning I checked it, and it had improved a bit. I covered the bowl, to let that little bit of moisture work completely through the ribbons, then repeated the process a couple of times over 3 days, to accomplish the rehydration gradually. At the end, I had to leave it open for a couple of hours, and it finally reached what I felt was the proper moisture level. Packed a bowl in this 45 year old counter pipe that is dedicated to Latakia blends, and smoked it while sipping coffee. It was very nice, seemed no different after rehydration than what I remember from previous years. Squadron Leader was a classic English blend. Samuel Gawith was bought out by Gawith Hoggarth (the two companies were both descended from the same family) a few years back, and I’m not sure if Squadron Leader is even still available. At one point it could be bought in bulk, but by most accounts not anywhere as good as the tins. The pipe has Stratford Copper Grain imprinted on the side of the shank, and also has an M on the bottom of the shank. I was either lucky with my counter/ basket pipe purchases many years ago, or even the factory seconds then were better engineered than many counter pipes I see today. The stem currently has some oxidation that needs cleaning, in fact I need to do that on several of my vulcanite stems. After I clean them, I always rub a little olive oil into them, and they’re good then for a while.
Squadron Leader is one of my favorites. I enjoy English and Balkan blends, as well as Virginia, burley, and perique blends, Haunted Bookshop being one of my favorites. I very seldom smoke aromatics anymore.
Smoked my old Lorenzo pipe tonight while getting a start on cleaning out my basement. It was an estate pipe, cleaned up by The Briary. It smokes very cool, and is really comfortable in the hand. My granddad’s old shovel is in the edge of the photo.
