Whats the Most Polarizing Pipe You Own?

[mikethompson]

Is there a pipe in your rotation that sometimes you love, sometimes you hate? Is there a pipe you have that you can't quite decide whether you like it or not?

I think I might have a couple. There's nothing wrong with them at all, they just aren't what I'm drawn too, yet I don't think I want to get rid of them.

Anyone else have similar problems?

 

[olkofri]

Cobs.

And my first pipe, a Vincenzo churchwarden: nostalgic value, invariable tongue bite every time.

 

[didimauw]

Interesting topic! Polarizing.....

I would have to put my current Grabow in this area. Still learning it. Bigger than I like, but smokes pretty good. Not my favorite shape, but I think it looks good on me. Not a pipe I'd choose normally, but I'm stuck with it for 10+ more months....

 

[corncobguy]

Without a doubt. I have sister kaywoodie flame grains both are really good looking but both smoke like shit. Don't want to get rid of them, they were my first briarwood pipes, but I can't figure out how to use them properly. One smokes hot as hell and the other one gurgles really bad.

 

[warren]

I won't waste emotions on inanimate objects. Nor will keep a pipe which is not consistent as a smoker. I want to be the only in consistent link in the smoking chain.

 

[gamzultovah]

All of my old Preben Holm, Ben Wade sitters. Just not into them anymore.

 

[warren]

Actually, I am the steady inconsistent link in the smoking chain. When an old pipe fails me...it's usually me that failed the pipe.

 

[mso489]

I have two really big pipes, my biggest, that are beautiful and fine smokers, just a little too heavy on the jaw and teeth, and in clenching to light or move around. I've settled on 1.50 oz or just a little more as optimal. I'll smoke my biggies, but not as often as I'd like otherwise. Any others have been traded away or been mastered by technique, I'd like to think. Mostly my feelings toward pipes is good, part of the frame of mind that makes a pipe bowl an enticing idea.

 

[Chasing Embers]

I trashed almost 130 pipes back in the Spring for that very reason. If they fall into any kind of disuse or if I have any second thoughts about them, they just become clutter. Not a fan of clutter.

 

[scloyd]

My Falcon. I enjoyed it when I purchased it about a year ago. Now, I have no interest in smoking it. I haven't smoked it in six months. I'll probably sell it or trade it.

 

[logs]

I have a few estate pipes that are problematic enough to hardly be worth the trouble, yet I put up with them because they have character.

 

[peregrinus]

My smoking habits have changed over the years and so has what I want/need in a pipe. I admit I have to many pipes just sitting in stands or stored in boxes. To answer the OP’s question I’ll pick one.
I have a nice Dunhill ODA Shell Dublin that smokes great. Even so, I don’t smoke it anymore because I now smoke VP flakes almost exclusively and that pipe holds a whole lot of SG St. James flake. It is too heavy to clench while working and t’s not often I have the time to just sit and smoke it through. For some reason that pipe keeps calling to me and I always answer, “later maybe”, when the weather is better, after some project is done or I find I have more time on my hands.

 

[npod]

Many (most) of my Castello pipes fall in this category. I love the way they smoke and I love to collect. But in general I hat their big chunky stems. They tend to feel like a brick in your mouth. But then again the stems don’t require maintenance like ebonite does and this I love. So they can be polarizing because there are things I love and things I hate.

 

[mikethompson]

Good, so I'm not the only one! There are pipes I like having in my collection, but never use.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

Of course! I have several. They are well known name pipes that I felt compelled to buy to have one in my collection, and they smoke well. But the price, and the "feeling" attached to the pipe brings me down when I smoke it. They are confined to drawers or shelves till I get the notion to smoke them, which is occasionally. But, I am just not as excited to smoke them as some of my other more expensive pipes. So, It's not just the price, but some other factor that I just can't put my finger on.
But, I don't dump pipes. I still want all of my pipes. I just don't always smoke all of them. Weird, I know. puf

 

[bnichols23]

But, I don't dump pipes. I still want all of my pipes. I just don't always smoke all of them. Weird, I know. puf

Hey, just because you feel guilty because you do it opposite from how Embers does, don't mean YOU'se de one what's weird.

 

[prndl]

If I don't like a thing, it is soon gone.

 

[PaulTheScandinavian]

Over the year I have had several of those whether it was clumsy feeling stems or bad finish or gurgling/heating issues,and so they were gone and replaced with another,often 'higher grade'pies,but one thing doesen't stop surprising me ,the older the better it smokes ,and so far the stems on those (buttons)never did cause me problems

 

[anotherbob]

my Tyrolean pipe it looks cool smokes horrid. Which makes sense since it even said not really intended for smoking. Oddly I had one by the same maker that said the same thing and smoked awesome. Second one smokes like super crap.