Why We Like What We Like

[Chasing Embers]

Don't know if it has been discussed before, but why do you buy the pipes that you buy? Personally, I enjoy hand filling unusual geometry, and deeply textured sandblasts to explore with my fingers while getting lost in a good book, or just my thoughts. It is these reasons alone that I am very attracted to Holm era Ben Wades, as well as my growing collection of Bruce Weaver pieces. Any thoughts?

 

[toby67]

Primarily it's the look of a pipe, it needs to grab your attention. Is why some like certain shapes and others prefer something different. Then it's the feel, the way it sits in your hand and feels between your lips, then it comes to smokability. You either like it or you don't. When buying online you can only go by the looks and hope the feel and smoke is as good.
Funny how sometimes a pipe at first is a great pipe but after a few months (or sometimes after only a few bowls) the pipe loses its appeal and you put it aside. Anyway that's my thoughts.

 

[david555]

I agree with toby67, the first thing that draws me to certain pipes and away from others is their appearance. I collect a large variety of art, but pipes are by far my favorite. The second feature (when initially purchasing a pipe) is how it feels in the hand; shape, weight, texture, etc. The third, yet most important feature is how the thing smokes. This final characteristic supersedes all previous, in my opinion, because if I don't enjoy smoking a certain pipe it will be the last pipe I reach for unless I'm just showing it off or trading it.

That said, I have met pipe collectors who spend thousands of dollars on a single pipe who don't even smoke pipes. I also know of another fellow who purchased a Dunhill salesman's sample box of pipes that weren't even drilled for the price of a quite nice used car, so to each his/her own.

 

[iamn8]

I value personal aesthetics and a good company story/history above all else. Beautiful with a good story.... just like I value most in women.

 

[sablebrush52]

I'll start off with aesthetics and/or brand based on experience. Both those elements greatly diminish if the performance isn't there.

 

[jorgesoler]

I like heavily rusticated chunky pipes. This is one of my last purchases from Rick Briar pipes.

 

[frank13]

I went the other way: I bought a pipe that I absolutely hated, but it had a space for a filter. Once I installed a filter, (on a whim, because I almost NEVER use the darn things!) it smoked like a dream. :puffpipe:

 

[tbradsim1]

A pipe is like a good woman, Good looks Goes, but a Good Cook Stays

 

[northernneil]

My tastes in pipes have changed in the 3 or so years I have been enjoying them. I started buying based on esthetics and price, but now look more at the size of the pipe more than anything.
I personally prefer small pipes, which leads me to french carvers. Also, I find small pipes lend them selves better to certain shapes such as princes, apples, billards and lovat's.
I was eyeballing some group 1 and 2 Dunhill's the other day that were absolutely stunning!

 

[warren]

First it has to catch my eye. That means the pipe must be bent to some degree, correct in proportion and the bowl of conventional shape. Then it has to fit my fist comfortably. Third, it must be well fitted and finished. These are all subjective measures and listed in order of occurrence. Cost is never a determining factor.
Smoking characteristics are, of course, the final factor. If it is not a grand smoker it will be tossed, possibly retained as a reminder of what not to buy, as I would never pass on a poor pipe to unwitting smoker.
I will say that one very talented creator of pipes showed off one of his creations on this forum. It caught my eye and wasn't bent nor did it have a conventional shape. And . . . . I fell in love with it. No idea why, it just fit my eye. Unfortunately for me the pipe was already promised. My loss! I doubt I shall see another like it. It would have been the first pipe I purchased unfondled and on the internet, discounting a Falcon and some cobs. No real risk on those products. I mean, it was a stunning one off by a very talented individual.

 

[Chasing Embers]

Loving this so far! Also interesting is the mentioning of changing tastes. When I was a younger man, my pipes had to be smooth and shiny, now I really like rough plateau and heavy sandblasts.

 

[drezz01]

As I'm still fairly new to the pipe world (~2.5 years) my tastes have been fairly exploratory but trending towards straighter lines.
My fist pipe was an unfinished savinelli oom paul that I bought in Venice because I thought at the time it was the quintessential pipe shape. Why I thought that at the time? I do not know. From there I went to a half-bent billiard. A small straight bulldog was next and then a poker, followed by a straight billiard. My most recent acquisition was a Castello sea rock Canadian I came across at a price I couldn't turn down. Finally I've just recently commissioned an Alden lovat after searching for a robust lovat for some time.
When I bought my 1/2 bent billiard (A Savinelli Sistina) I remember thinking rustication looked grungy and haphazard. When I purchased my bulldog (a donegal rocky) I thought rustication was utilitarian and that the extra surface area combined with a smaller chamber would help cool down my aromatics; my smooth billiard was darn near scalding my hand (of course this was because I was smoking the thing like a steam engine). Then I discovered blasted pipes and now I simply must have one.
To me smooths and blasts express the grain of the briar in a way that allows the natural growth of the wood to remain part of the story of a pipe. That's what I've come to love about pipes and I owe much of it to that castello that I couldn't walk away from. Trying, excitedly, to learn the period in which it was from, the curiosity of its straw inserts and marbled stem... finding it while visiting my long-distance GF on my first trip to Montana... hearing the often-uttered story of a widow bringing her late husbands pipe collection in to the local brick and mortar for sale... It's a narrative I am about to contribute to by breaking it in for the first time with the first of many small bowls of straight virginias, as I've been told I ought to do.
I'm still refining my tastes but for me (now) a great pipe is one that is storied: starting with the peculiar and unpredictable way in which that particular burl grows, the pipemaker who read it and shaped it, the happenstance of it coming in to possession, and the continuation of that tale every time it is picked up and lit.

 

[iamn8]

<p>Hey I bought my first pipe at Poor Richards on Main Street in bozeman, MT. I'd totally forgotten this until reading your post. Thank you!

 

[drezz01]

Hey I bought my first pipe at Poor Richards on Main Street in bozeman, MT. I'd totally forgotten this until reading your post. Thank you!

That's where I got the Castello! Nice enough little news/tobacco shop! I picked up the full gamut of Frog Morton blends there as well!

 

[lestrout]

northernneil sez: "My tastes in pipes have changed in the 3 or so years I have been enjoying them. I started buying based on esthetics and price, but now look more at the size of the pipe more than anything.
I personally prefer small pipes, which leads me to french carvers. Also, I find small pipes lend them selves better to certain shapes such as princes, apples, billards and lovat's."
and I'm on the same wavelength in all his observations. I might have too short an attention span to puff through the ginormous bowls being produced these days, but I do like to look at them.
hp

les

 

[jchaplick]

For me what causes me to buy a pipe is its looks, I like nice grains, but lately I have been liking chunky pipes, especially ball shapes that are sandblasted. I love how they feel in my hand. However, when I decide to keep a pipe it generally are the ones that smoke the best regardless of their look or shape. Even though aesthetically I like chunky pipe, I rarely keep them because I like lightweight pipes I can clench. To be perfectly frank, I have been smoking my MM legend most often. Smokes like a dream, super light for clenching and chewing on. Its just the way it goes for me.

 

[fearsclave]

For some reason my PAD is driven by how old the shape is; if it's not an English shape that would have been around during the Victorian era, for some reason I am just not interested. There's something vaguely old-fashioned about the hobby that really attracts me, and smoking a bulldog that wouldn't have looked out of place in a 19th-century pub just works for me.

 

[phred]

It starts with visuals for me - a shape that attracts my eye gets further attention. From there, I look at details and (if possible) check physical characteristics - balance, heft, etc. I'm not yet experienced enough to judge probably smoking characteristics except as they're impacted by physical stuff that I can see (off-kilter draft holes, for example), so that has to come after I've paid for the pipe...
As for what draws my eye, I started off thinking that straight billiards were boring and that bent pipes were where it's at. Now, two years in, I own more straight pipes than I do bents and I'm finding that I kind of like the billiard shape after all. I seem to prefer larger pipes - something that fills my hand, but can still be clenched relatively easily (Savinelli 320 Author shape, for example). I'll probably be picking up another pipe this weekend, as I got an unexpected bonus at work (well, the bonus wasn't entirely unexpected, but the amount was higher than last year!), and I'm currently inclined toward another Author, or possibly a bent egg/apple/billiard.

 

[Chasing Embers]

@phred If you like a good hand filler that is an equaly good jawhanger, check out Neerup's bent apples.