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Lucky me! Thanks, jgohlke!

hudsonvalley

hudsonvalley

MMMM...Ember
Joined
Sep 26, 2004
Messages
1,582
Location
Orange Co, New York State
Before I post anymore I just have to give a public thank you to jgohlke and his wife for their donation to the herf last Saturday. Many classy gestures and gifts were exhanged. Yours stands out to me.

There were many generous sponsors and folks who expect a commercial return on the gifts and boxes and boxes of fine cigars donated. These people's generosity won't be forgotten.

But for an individual member to donate a gift to a herf he wasn't going to attend---well, that is special. When Charlie and I were organizing the door prizes on the Friday night before I spied this one object: a beautiful hand-carved ashtray. Then Charlie told me that a Padron 35 went with it and showed me the letter that accompanied the gift:
Feb 18, 2006

Cherry Ashtray and Pardron 1926 #35

Donated by Joe & Merry Gohlke

Joe cut the tree down several years ago and has been aging the wood in his shop where he made the ashtray out of a single piece of wood which was sawn in half, milled and glued back together. The wood is treated with tungoil only, no stain or other finish.

Merry recently started smoking the occasional cigar and owns 1 box of cigars (Padron 26's) She donated the "first smoke" for the ashtray.

Joe and Merry wish you many happy smokes!
Click to expand...

I will admit to coveting this from the moment I laid eyes on it. When my number was called, somewhere in the middle of the first round of door prizes, I was amazed to see it was still there!!!! SWOOP!!!

Thank you so much for your work, thoughtfullness, and generosity. It will be well used and kept in a place of honor. I will think of you both each time I use it.

Thank you,
Tom
 
Great gesture I must agree. The cigar smoking bunch have some of the finest individuals around. Congratulations to you as well Tom.
 
Here it is:
P1010051.jpg
 
Wow! That's gorgeous. You're one lucky guy, Tom.

Congratulations. :thumbs:

Wilkey
 
HV,

Glad you like it. When I heard about the herf and how it was growing into a big party, I knew it was going to be a blast. Charlie and I chatted one day in the chat room and he told me he was gathering door prizes (I think we should nickname Charlie "King of the Freebies"... :laugh: ). I thought about sending something. My cigar stash isn't that huge, so I figured a nice ashtray would be cool. When I rooted around in the pile of wood, I found a rough milled plank that still had some bark on it. I chopped it up into several chunks and sat around in the shop looking at them, smoking a cigar and handling them for about an hour. I had purposely cut off the bark end leaving enough in the block to do something with, but I wasn't sure what. I kept going back to that piece. I got a chisel and chipped off the bark and then wire brushed the end. It started coming together....the rest of the ashtray just made itself! After the sanding and finishing, my wife saw it and we both agreed that being able to "see" the tree in the wood really makes it a nice piece. She urged me to keep it for myself, but I still wanted to send it. She said that the ashtray was so nice, it deserved a nice cigar, so she donated one from her personal stash! She only owns about 15 cigars and you got one of them!

A note on care - Since it's made of one piece and has a lot of "end grain" (the bottom and top), it could split or crack if it dries out. The glue will mitigate this some. When it starts to get a bit dull looking, just rub some tung oil on it. You can buy it at any home supply/paint store. Rub it down, let it sit (even overnight) and rub/polish it with a clean cloth. Tung oil has a petroleum smell, so let it sit for a few days before you set your cigar on it. Once it gets some use, the ash will darken the wood and give it a nice "used" look. You can speed this process along, by mixing some cigar ash and tung oil together and rubbing that into the wood in the "ash" area only.

Try to avoid exposing it to wild swings of temperature and humidity. Real cold and direct sunlight won't help it any either. You don't have to be real fussy...I live in Florida and leave mine outside on the back deck year round (no direct sun)...temperatures of 30-100 and humidity from 40-100%. It's been outside about 2 years and hasn't cracked. I've re-oiled it twice. If I wanted to keep it looking nicer, I could oil it twice as often.

Fun to make and fun to use! How can that be bad?

Cheers and Happy Smoking.

Joe
 
Joe I told you it would find a nice home and who better than Tom. We organized the herf and I'm glad you picked it out Tom, now you have something to remember it by besides all the memories, pictures, cigars, etc........ :D :thumbs: :p
 
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