I was running a thought experiment the other day asking myself what people like about their pipes. I mean, some people go out spending $800 for a Dunhill, BBB or Barling, others swear by Savinellis, Petes, Big Bens, Ascortis, etc., and while a lot of it is antique, collector, and rarity issues, pride of possession, much of it is also cosmetics, surely somewhere in there is how they smoke too!
At the same time I note the many people buying Grabows, cobs, Kaywoodies or some other lesser grade and swearing by them as well. I've seen the Grabow collectors. Indeed, you can get a beautiful, well made and fine smoking pipe from any of these lines!
Now obviously, there is personal tastes involved, but briar is briar, it all comes out of the ground and before being harvested, there is little chance of knowing an exceptional bruyere from an average one, and while a high-end company might be very selective in the briar they choose, there is nothing stopping a no-name company from getting top notch briar (if even buy accident), and their carver doing a first class bang-up job in carving and drilling it too. Yes?
So then there is the other issue: the old adage that with the better lines, you just get a higher likelihood of getting a perfect pipe. But then, if you bought a B-line pipe and it had an unsatisfactory issue, you could always send it back for another.
That leaves us with the brand name. But does having a given company's name stamped on the shank mean that much to people? Obviously yes, but what if you can get just as nice a pipe in grade and quality for a lot less money from another company? I know a lot of people just don't care.
Now, lots of people are willing to pay a certain price for the pipe they want regardless, but what I wondered, blindfolded, how well could people tell one brand from another /just by smoking it?/
My idea and question is whether anyone has ever conducted a double blind test, individually or as a group, where they took six pipes all of identical size and shape, each from a different brand of widely varying cost, and blindfolded or however in a way that no one knew which pipe was which, smoked each with the same tobacco to see if they could even tell them apart? As they did so, picking pipe A as the best smoking, pipe B as the next best, etc. To be meaningful, repeat the experiment at least three times and see what results they got.
Has anyone ever thought of doing this? And if not, why? I mean, considering the time, money and effort many people put into pipes, I find it difficult to understand, if even only for the idle curiosity of a club, etc., how the different pipes would fare smoked side by side in the dark?
The idea here is that we all know what we think of different brands of pipes in the light of day--- the question is, why hasn't anyone ever tested them to see how they really deliver objectively? Everyone complains of the subjectivity of this hobby, here is one way to create some objective opinions. What if a $60 pipe consistently challenges a $300 pipe, or is even often preferred?
Not predicting anything, just saying that with the large collections and many clubs, I'm surprised no one has ever tried this just to see how different pipes really stand up toe to toe when you know nothing about them other than the smoke they deliver!
At the same time I note the many people buying Grabows, cobs, Kaywoodies or some other lesser grade and swearing by them as well. I've seen the Grabow collectors. Indeed, you can get a beautiful, well made and fine smoking pipe from any of these lines!
Now obviously, there is personal tastes involved, but briar is briar, it all comes out of the ground and before being harvested, there is little chance of knowing an exceptional bruyere from an average one, and while a high-end company might be very selective in the briar they choose, there is nothing stopping a no-name company from getting top notch briar (if even buy accident), and their carver doing a first class bang-up job in carving and drilling it too. Yes?
So then there is the other issue: the old adage that with the better lines, you just get a higher likelihood of getting a perfect pipe. But then, if you bought a B-line pipe and it had an unsatisfactory issue, you could always send it back for another.
That leaves us with the brand name. But does having a given company's name stamped on the shank mean that much to people? Obviously yes, but what if you can get just as nice a pipe in grade and quality for a lot less money from another company? I know a lot of people just don't care.
Now, lots of people are willing to pay a certain price for the pipe they want regardless, but what I wondered, blindfolded, how well could people tell one brand from another /just by smoking it?/
My idea and question is whether anyone has ever conducted a double blind test, individually or as a group, where they took six pipes all of identical size and shape, each from a different brand of widely varying cost, and blindfolded or however in a way that no one knew which pipe was which, smoked each with the same tobacco to see if they could even tell them apart? As they did so, picking pipe A as the best smoking, pipe B as the next best, etc. To be meaningful, repeat the experiment at least three times and see what results they got.
Has anyone ever thought of doing this? And if not, why? I mean, considering the time, money and effort many people put into pipes, I find it difficult to understand, if even only for the idle curiosity of a club, etc., how the different pipes would fare smoked side by side in the dark?
The idea here is that we all know what we think of different brands of pipes in the light of day--- the question is, why hasn't anyone ever tested them to see how they really deliver objectively? Everyone complains of the subjectivity of this hobby, here is one way to create some objective opinions. What if a $60 pipe consistently challenges a $300 pipe, or is even often preferred?
Not predicting anything, just saying that with the large collections and many clubs, I'm surprised no one has ever tried this just to see how different pipes really stand up toe to toe when you know nothing about them other than the smoke they deliver!