Chinese Briars

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olkofri

Lifer
Sep 9, 2017
8,048
14,666
The Arm of Orion
I choose to follow my Chinese doctor’s advice & avoid putting those products in my mouth.

Likewise.
Heh, you reminded me of my former Chinese co-worker, when he was looking for a car to buy and I told him, 'no offence, mate, but I don't like Asian cars', to which he replied, 'I don't like Asian cars either!' He ended up buying a Jeep.
Pipes being hobby articles, I don't have to go for cheap or buy subpar pipes. If I really must buy a cheap pipe I'll buy a cob, and I'm not too fond of those either. And I'd buy an AMERICAN cob, of course.

 

gatorlope

Part of the Furniture Now
Feb 5, 2019
503
196
South Florida
There’s one Chinese purchase I don’t think I can go wrong with...
My sister’s been a lifelong smoker and is not about to quit (I wish!), but living in Massachusetts, she’s taxed terribly! Well over $100 just for a carton of cigarettes!
Here in Florida they’re about $65... Almost half! And that difference is nothing but taxes!
She just got the package from me and had to ask what it was because the writing is all Chinese!
They’re tobacco seeds and she likes to garden! :rofl:

 

eggrollpiper

Can't Leave
Jul 27, 2018
378
38
Gatorlope - very nice presentation of the road town and hs studio pipes. I have 3 and petit yes but smoke great and definitively real briar and stems are good acrylic. I always thought those link pipes look like the Starfleet U.S.S. Enterprise (not to be confused w the USN ship of same name). I bid on many of them but those ussually go higher than my cheap ass allows. I wonder if they qualify as a reverse calabash. And China may not care about the end consumer but the lady that sells them does, she offers excelent c.s. I only wish they'd make at least one. 9mm model.

As for putting Chinese stuff in ones mouth, as cosmic suggested it's inevitable. And is it worse than Smoking Syrian latakia or a cigar from Nicaragua or Cuba?

 

jrblount

Lurker
Apr 7, 2019
25
1
I saw a lot of those pipes recently while shopping on Ebay. I decided to go with estate pipes.

 

tulsagentleman

Starting to Get Obsessed
Feb 7, 2019
206
39
I have ordered several of these Road Town or HS Studio pipes from the seller on eBay and have generally been satisfied with them. The construction is solid and the briar is decent. All have been smokable. Several have been a bit smaller than I expected but all were attractive. One I particularly like is this one which I paid $38 for. I would say that in my experience they are well worth the money.

NiufGd3.jpg


 

monkeylyf

Lurker
Nov 1, 2018
18
0
I do see pipes made by Ping Zhan, a pipe carver from Dalian, available on smokingpipes.

As a Chinese, I'd say in the past few years, the pipe community's been growing pretty darn fast. I myself never purchased one pipe from Chinese carvers, mostly due to the quality/price concerns. Meanwhile I understand it takes years or even decades to establish a good reputation for a carver or a pipe brand. Maybe I should try get one Chinese pipe in hand this year, just to have a feeling how it is compared those well established ones.
One of my doctors is from China. (He’s a US citizen now.) This physician said he personally would never put something in his mouth that came from China.

I respect that, due to various historical reasons. Things are changed now or being changed. For the most of population here, it's pretty hard to avoid made-in-China merchandise.

 

mso489

Lifer
Feb 21, 2013
41,210
60,454
National economies change and mature, so China might move beyond digital devices and kitchen ware to dominate electric cars and space travel. I remember as a small child, Japanese products were associated with little paper parasols and inexpensive stamped metal toys. Then came most of my cars over the years ... after continuing and persistent efforts to "buy American," some weird disconnect with the American dealership culture and me, despite my sincere efforts over years.

 
About 20 years ago, WalMart used to advertise that it was all about American Made. It had signs in all stores, that everything was American Made, and all of the tags had little American Flags on them. Now, everything in WalMart is made in China. All to shave maybe a quarter off of the price of a product and put more money into the pockets of shareholders.
A college friend of mine who was born here, but had family in China, went to visit back in the 90's. He had an uncle who wanted to show off how flexible his factories were, so he told him to bring anything from America that looked hard to make. Long story short, the uncle was able to re-gear his factory within a week to make anything your heart desires, any materials, any processes. They are the masters of copy and mass production.

 
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olkofri

Lifer
Sep 9, 2017
8,048
14,666
The Arm of Orion
All to shave maybe a quarter off of the price of a product and put more money into the pockets of shareholders.

This. The worship of Mammon has replaced love for country. That's the thing that irritates me the most and makes me go out of my way to avoid Chinese as much as possible.
China has also flooded the world markets with junk, and made a killing in the process (and killed other countries' economies and made them subservient to theirs). Now they're the ones buying the Bo Nords and Chonowitsch pipes at astronomical prices: they have actually driven the prices of such premium pipes to where they are now.
...to make anything your heart desires, any materials, any processes

True. I once read that the same factory that pumps out tons of crappy photography supplies is also the one where Profoto's top notch stuff is made. The facility is divided in two sections: one for the premium, expensive gear, and one for the elcheapo junk.

 

gatorlope

Part of the Furniture Now
Feb 5, 2019
503
196
South Florida
Ping Zhan...
It’s interesting to see that one of the pipe carvers in China is making a name for hiimself. I’ll look him up and see what he’s done that he takes pride in.

 

verporchting

Lifer
Dec 30, 2018
2,892
8,965
I've read that others believe the pipes are pear wood or something else. I'm no expert but I'm not sure I agree. It sure looks and feels like briar to me, and most certainly doesn't look like cherry, maple, apple, or any more exotic thing like rosewoods or other rubbish that ought never to be made into a pipe. It's got the look, heft and feel of a briar pipe, including the type of grain pattern I would expect.
Like anything else in the world the quality can and will vary, but ... these look far, far superior in construction than more commonly seen basket pipes or even something like H.I.S. or whatever.
And for what it's worth, even the stain and bowl coating appear to be legit. I've had crap stains and worse bowl coating from Savinelli, Peterson and the very worst of all of the lot was a handmade Johs and if you can't depend upon a handmade Danish pipe ... well, shit.
Not to diminish any other opinion stated here, because everyone absolutely has the right to their own views, but I think these pipes are a decent product.
And there's the irony of burning a known carcinogen in one's face and then being concerned the vessel might be unhealthy :rofl:
Meh, I've been enjoying mine. YMMV. :puffy:

 

gatorlope

Part of the Furniture Now
Feb 5, 2019
503
196
South Florida
I looked up Ping Zhan online and saw some photos of his pipes.

Of course,I can’t say much for the heft or feel of his pipes, but the prices I saw were pretty hefty and several were marked as sold....
They looked good and part of the commentary said that he makes about a hundred pipes a year.

The mouthpieces looked to be similar material and design to those photos that I already posted here

 

craig61a

Lifer
Apr 29, 2017
5,807
48,190
Minnesota USA
I have one HS studio pipe and although I don’t smoke it much it’s a solid pipe... That’ said, I think I will pull it out and smoke it today.

 
May 8, 2017
1,605
1,661
Sugar Grove, IL, USA
I haven't owned an HS Studio nor Road Town pipes, but have two Zhiputang pipes which, INHO, are worth 3 to 4 times what I paid for them. There's nothing inherently bad about Chinese-made pipes. Hell, the most expensive pipes are pretty much all going to China these days, so they know little something about briars.
https://photos.smugmug.com/Pipes/i-GXq9SHX/0/f2ed85d0/X3/15411342956705509420873945779306-X3.png
https://photos.smugmug.com/Pipes/i-npj8gQG/0/b8d2f60f/X4/Screenshot_20190401-090320~2-X4.png

 
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