Pipe Shape You Never Buy, Or Finally Did

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mso489

Lifer
Feb 21, 2013
41,210
60,433
I looked at Oom-Paul/Hungarian pipes for years, but never bought one, thinking they were difficult to clean and moisture traps. Finally, my wife who has an uncanny skill in picking out pipes and blends for me, bought me Sav Hercules Hungarian for Christmas. No problem. Smokes dry, no moisture problem, and cleaning is like any other bent pipe. Plus, these oversize Hercules are ideal for burley blends or single leaf (like Tabac-Manil Semois). They're big-bowled but light weight. Perfect. Where have you been all my life? Oom-Paul, the South African Africaner leader, to most people at this point in history, is an unappealing figure, so I like thinking of it as my Hungarian. Any pipe shapes you avoid, or avoided in the past? Happy endings? Still not wanting to take that path? Then my wife got me the Mac B's Latakia Flake -- she's got the touch.

 

iamn8

Lifer
Sep 8, 2014
4,248
14
Moody, AL
I've never been a fan of any pipes with a curve of more than an 1/8th. It's an aesthetics choice, not sure why. There's no accounting for tastes.

 

jefff

Lifer
May 28, 2015
1,915
6
Chicago
Cuttys and Zulus. For 30 years they just looked wrong to me. Then one day I was skimming Marty Pulvers site and an Eltang Cutty jumped out at me. It was very reasonably priced so I bought it. I like it so much I am waiting for Trevor Talbert to add an LB cutty to his web site.

 

jpmcwjr

Moderator
Staff member
May 12, 2015
24,568
27,069
Carmel Valley, CA
I am a fan of Hungarians, and don't even use the other name for them. I am not a fan of pots, and have one of them.
The shape I desire that I don't have is a true cutty.

 

aldecaker

Lifer
Feb 13, 2015
4,407
42
I'm actually pretty open to all the standard (or I guess you could say "traditional") pipe shapes, but I just gotta ask: so what do you guys call your Krugerrands?

 

mso489

Lifer
Feb 21, 2013
41,210
60,433
I still have difficulty imagining smoking a cavalier. At home, it would just feel theatrical, and at a pipe show or pipe shop, it would look exhibitionistic. There are probably some understated versions that might not offend me, but I haven't seen them. Don't get me wrong. I've seen someone else smoking one at a pipe show, and that's his business, but I didn't want to be that guy.

 

pagan

Lifer
May 6, 2016
5,963
28
West Texas
Big silly looking Calabash or one with a lid on it, just dont look right to me, but then its your choice what you smoke, as long as you enjoy it

 

agnosticpipe

Lifer
Nov 3, 2013
3,332
3,413
In the sticks in Mississippi
Mostly freehand pipes. I don't know why, and I have owned some beauties in the past, but they mostly seem too big for me, so I end selling them. Most of the shapes aren't usually something I'm attracted to.

I have though recently bought a bamboo stemmed freehand pipe that has a rather small bowl that I like.

 

puffy

Lifer
Dec 24, 2010
2,511
98
North Carolina
I hold my thumb on the back of the bowl so that it rests on the shank when I smoke.I just don't like the feel of the ridge on the shank of the Bulldog shape.

 

zekest

Lifer
Apr 1, 2013
1,136
9
Anything that cannot be easily held, or anything down-right weird.
Weird would be a pipe recently featured at Smoking Pipes dot com: It was an upside-down pipe, where the bowl, instead of upright, you filled the pipe from the stem-side and the "bowl" protruded downward.

 

drennan

Can't Leave
Mar 30, 2014
344
3
Normandy
I just don't get freehands, they look rough and unfinished.
I'm more into traditional shapes, partically if they're light weight.

 

newbroom

Lifer
Jul 11, 2014
6,087
6,394
Florida
I've got just one full bent pipe and I've yet to smoke it. It may be the largest bowl I own, as well as posing it's potential for difficulty to maintain. It's a B/C Gigante with a beautiful smooth finish and lots of bird's eye.

For general ease of use, I like a pipe I can sit w/o needing to support it, typically with a flat surface on its bottom, but, most of my rotation consists of traditional shapes requiring a pipe rest to set down.

I've got a briar freehand that shows absolutely superb straight grain and has plateaux on its rim and at the mortise and it has grown on me as a smoker as well as a looker.

The larger bowled pipes require a commitment I'm not always ready to make, but when I do, they usually make me realize that my avoidance is not warranted.

 

ahmadothman

Part of the Furniture Now
Apr 26, 2016
751
7
Egypt
I am not into freehand pipes, they seem like unfinished business. Also, I thought I'd never get a rusticated/sandblasted pipe. But I did, a Stanwell and I love it

 

jerwynn

Lifer
Dec 7, 2011
1,033
12
I had always been a deep-bend Hungarian sorta guy, which shape I collected as much as I could... I am also a large and tall person, and felt Hungarians were more complimentary to my physical morphology. Then I bought a single straight, light billiard for the first time and loved it! Consequently I bought a load of those in the ensuing years. Then, most recently, I found a fine little wayward estate Prince by IPE that fit my requirements and found that lovely as well. I suppose now I just love them all. wistful sigh.

 
May 4, 2015
3,210
16
Only classic shapes for me. More power to anyone that likes them, but I don't ever see myself buying a freehand, Zulu etc. My brother loves Nording freehands. I can't stand them.
I have a cobwarden, but only because it was included in a grab bag once. It's fun to smoke occasionally, but only really for novelty purposes.

 

pipedreamin

Starting to Get Obsessed
Feb 25, 2016
194
164
My first briar pipe was a Hungarian bent, when I realized who uncle Paul was my oom paul became a Hungarian. Still smoking it 20+ years later, a no-name of English manufacture, it is a bit damp due to it's depth I guess but I love how it handles.
The pipe shape I'd never buy is a straight billiard, I like pipes a little on the rogue-ish side and the billiard is not that imo. Not that I ever succumb to PAD but somehow a lightly rusticated giant Kilimanjaro straight billiard showed up today. I only snagged it for its stem as a replacement for the bent one on the Kilimanjaro poker I have. But I have to say, I like it, it's a rugged pipe.

 

noquarter

Starting to Get Obsessed
Jan 18, 2015
104
0
It took me a long while to get an Oom Paul though I was always on a lookout for one.

With the amount of rhodesians on my collection I also find it odd that I have yet to have a

square-shanked bulldog.Canadians,Churchwardens and nosewarmers are also not my thing.

 

cynicismandsugar

Part of the Furniture Now
Nov 17, 2015
773
4
Springfield, Mo
Poker shapes always seemed a bit too rustic for my personal liking (just a step above Huck Finn's trusty ol' corncob); however, I once received a poker shape as part of a Peterson collectors two pack, and my taste were broadened. Now I own 5 briars and two cob pokers, with my most recent acquisition being a Mauro Armellini Rustica.
That pipe smokes grassy virginas like none other!
I also had an aversion to Canadian style pipes, and now I own two with the Peterson 1940s Shamrock being one of the favorites from my modest collection.
Taste grow. Who knows, maybe I'll own cutty someday.

 

jpmcwjr

Moderator
Staff member
May 12, 2015
24,568
27,069
Carmel Valley, CA
I'm actually pretty open to all the standard (or I guess you could say "traditional") pipe shapes, but I just gotta ask: so what do you guys call your Krugerrands?
Heh. I don't! Cause I don't have any, but if I did I would call them by their official name, Krugerrand.
But with "Hungarian" being a very legitimate traditional shape, I avoid the alternate name due to the nature of the man, a racist among other things. Besides, no one's ever shown that "Uncle" Paul Kruger even smoked that shape!

 
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