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Soymilkisgood offered a nice deal on an unsmoked Savinelli Vaniglia 320 KS. I got it, and I’m very happy I did! Came today; smoked it today. That's one of his pictures below I’m reposting.
So excited about the dang thing, want to give it a quick review.
Not everyone likes the author shape, I’ve heard -- though I’ve found a thread (different site) of gentlemen who do. I guess there’s someone for everything. And for me, I just feel “matched up.” It’s big and heavy. I’m big and heavy. My wife loves me; and my wife loves vanilla and rich chocolate. Fits.
The box smelled good. (Why did the *box* smell good?) . Box smelled good because the theme here was “vanilla.” Dark like the vanilla bean on the bowl and shank. White like vanilla on the stem. And they got jissssst a lil bitta vanilla scent in the bowl, get you started on your way, alter it as you like as you go.
I had not looked up dimensions or weight, so opening it I was surprised how heavy it was and how big that chamber is. I’ll post measurements later…it’s down in my vehicle right now. What I see posted by someone else is
Bowl: 50 mm at the broadest point (2”)
Chamber: Ø22 mm x 32 mm deep (0.87” x 1.25”).
Height: 42 mm.
Length: 142 mm (5.6”)
Shank is 24 mm in diameter
Button is 17 mm broad and 7 mm thick
I didn’t take long deciding which tobacco to fill it with as soymilkisgood supplied me with a new tin of Cavendish that was described as being a bit vanilla and chocolate. Oh, but man, when I opened it, it was really, really moist. I wanted to shut it and try something else, but then I got the notion of seeing how the balsa filter would be on the moisture.
Takes a little bit of tobacco to fill that thing! But really, it’s only a little bigger than my other Sav, so no biggie (poor pun half intended).
First I was afraid I couldn’t clench it. If I couldn’t clench it, I’d probably smoke it too hard or else never get a good enough rhythm going. Have to nurse it. I don’t like having to do much to a pipe after the true light, so that was unappealing.
I am a big man at 6’ 3” and 25 stone. (I much prefer 25 stone or even 159 kg to 350 lb.). So maybe that’s it? It was not a problem for me to clench this for an hour.
Balanced? Oh hell no. It’s bowl heavy, for sure. But three things help. One, the bend of the stem. That’s just enough to lay it down a bit. Straight-stemmed I don’t think it would work well.
Two, the chubby shaft and stem to the bit. It crowds my lips. In my big mouth, there’s some kind of advantage to that, almost like wrapping my lips around a cigar over to the side. Don’t know what it is. But it keeps it right at my teeth, doesn’t feel as though it’s prying my jaw open (which you’d think it would).
Then there’s just the way my head sits on my neck. Sort of leaning back a bit. (Makes bifocals a bitch). That tilts my teeth up in front, down in back. I always cant my stems a bit in the shaft so the pipes aren’t “dumping” to the side. Rotating them slightly gives an upright bowl.
Those three things make this clenchable, though I wouldn’t want to clench this thing more than an hour or so. My dentist would slap me, seeing my teeth eventually protruding on that side like bottle caps making love missionary style.
Now… smokeability. I expected briar taste on the first bowl at least. But I think the vanilla treatment, light as it was, confused that experience. It was a pleasant first smoke. I liked it.
And clenching it as I was, I established my routine smoking technique – same as most folks’, I bet – of just forgetting it was there, enjoying the smoky pool my tongue was basking in, not seeing it come out of my nose or lips, only the smoke rising from the bowl.
Cool smoke.
So at some point I turned the radio completely off and continued silently smoking, listening for the crackle and impending gurgle that such moist tobacco has *got* to make. Nothing. Huge bowl like that? Moist as that newly opened flavored Cavendish was? Nothing.
Nothing from beginning to end.
So now my curiosity was up pretty strong. Just before rushing in here to throw this up before I go back to work, I removed the now-cool stem from the shank. That balsa wood filter? Two things:
1) Balsa was so wet you’d need to put on waders before removing it. Glistening with thick wet moisture. Amazing how much moisture was on it and I hadn’t noticed it during the smoke (though I was smoking really slow, no huffing). It kept all that from my mouth like it was a sponge.
2) It wasn’t dark. It was just the lightest tan. Not as white as dry balsa, but definitely not tossable yet. (Let it dry? Just leave it alone? Have to read up on that. Haven’t used balsa filters before).
Cool, dry, *noiseless* smoke of a wet aromatic. Nice!
Now, I don’t want to have to keep ordering balsa. But they have sheets of the stuff in different thicknesses right at the hardware store. Can’t I cut strips, Dremel-route troughs in those strips to make my own filters?
As for tending to the tobacco… no need. I knocked the fluff down after the char. I knocked it down a little twice after that. Got an hour smoke out of it and did not relight, did not have any problem other than once when it seemed weak and I finger-flued it. It snapped right to life.
I like this pipe. And the best part of liking a pipe already on the first smoke? – It only gets better from here on in, doesn’t it?
I’ve only got, maybe.. what is it now… 26? 27? Not that many but big-time piper counts. Thought I was done. Thought I wasn’t getting more. But I’m very happy about this pipe. And where I was on the fence before about the author shape – huh uh, no problem anymore. It’s me. I like it.
So excited about the dang thing, want to give it a quick review.
Not everyone likes the author shape, I’ve heard -- though I’ve found a thread (different site) of gentlemen who do. I guess there’s someone for everything. And for me, I just feel “matched up.” It’s big and heavy. I’m big and heavy. My wife loves me; and my wife loves vanilla and rich chocolate. Fits.
The box smelled good. (Why did the *box* smell good?) . Box smelled good because the theme here was “vanilla.” Dark like the vanilla bean on the bowl and shank. White like vanilla on the stem. And they got jissssst a lil bitta vanilla scent in the bowl, get you started on your way, alter it as you like as you go.
I had not looked up dimensions or weight, so opening it I was surprised how heavy it was and how big that chamber is. I’ll post measurements later…it’s down in my vehicle right now. What I see posted by someone else is
Bowl: 50 mm at the broadest point (2”)
Chamber: Ø22 mm x 32 mm deep (0.87” x 1.25”).
Height: 42 mm.
Length: 142 mm (5.6”)
Shank is 24 mm in diameter
Button is 17 mm broad and 7 mm thick
I didn’t take long deciding which tobacco to fill it with as soymilkisgood supplied me with a new tin of Cavendish that was described as being a bit vanilla and chocolate. Oh, but man, when I opened it, it was really, really moist. I wanted to shut it and try something else, but then I got the notion of seeing how the balsa filter would be on the moisture.
Takes a little bit of tobacco to fill that thing! But really, it’s only a little bigger than my other Sav, so no biggie (poor pun half intended).
First I was afraid I couldn’t clench it. If I couldn’t clench it, I’d probably smoke it too hard or else never get a good enough rhythm going. Have to nurse it. I don’t like having to do much to a pipe after the true light, so that was unappealing.
I am a big man at 6’ 3” and 25 stone. (I much prefer 25 stone or even 159 kg to 350 lb.). So maybe that’s it? It was not a problem for me to clench this for an hour.
Balanced? Oh hell no. It’s bowl heavy, for sure. But three things help. One, the bend of the stem. That’s just enough to lay it down a bit. Straight-stemmed I don’t think it would work well.
Two, the chubby shaft and stem to the bit. It crowds my lips. In my big mouth, there’s some kind of advantage to that, almost like wrapping my lips around a cigar over to the side. Don’t know what it is. But it keeps it right at my teeth, doesn’t feel as though it’s prying my jaw open (which you’d think it would).
Then there’s just the way my head sits on my neck. Sort of leaning back a bit. (Makes bifocals a bitch). That tilts my teeth up in front, down in back. I always cant my stems a bit in the shaft so the pipes aren’t “dumping” to the side. Rotating them slightly gives an upright bowl.
Those three things make this clenchable, though I wouldn’t want to clench this thing more than an hour or so. My dentist would slap me, seeing my teeth eventually protruding on that side like bottle caps making love missionary style.
Now… smokeability. I expected briar taste on the first bowl at least. But I think the vanilla treatment, light as it was, confused that experience. It was a pleasant first smoke. I liked it.
And clenching it as I was, I established my routine smoking technique – same as most folks’, I bet – of just forgetting it was there, enjoying the smoky pool my tongue was basking in, not seeing it come out of my nose or lips, only the smoke rising from the bowl.
Cool smoke.
So at some point I turned the radio completely off and continued silently smoking, listening for the crackle and impending gurgle that such moist tobacco has *got* to make. Nothing. Huge bowl like that? Moist as that newly opened flavored Cavendish was? Nothing.
Nothing from beginning to end.
So now my curiosity was up pretty strong. Just before rushing in here to throw this up before I go back to work, I removed the now-cool stem from the shank. That balsa wood filter? Two things:
1) Balsa was so wet you’d need to put on waders before removing it. Glistening with thick wet moisture. Amazing how much moisture was on it and I hadn’t noticed it during the smoke (though I was smoking really slow, no huffing). It kept all that from my mouth like it was a sponge.
2) It wasn’t dark. It was just the lightest tan. Not as white as dry balsa, but definitely not tossable yet. (Let it dry? Just leave it alone? Have to read up on that. Haven’t used balsa filters before).
Cool, dry, *noiseless* smoke of a wet aromatic. Nice!
Now, I don’t want to have to keep ordering balsa. But they have sheets of the stuff in different thicknesses right at the hardware store. Can’t I cut strips, Dremel-route troughs in those strips to make my own filters?
As for tending to the tobacco… no need. I knocked the fluff down after the char. I knocked it down a little twice after that. Got an hour smoke out of it and did not relight, did not have any problem other than once when it seemed weak and I finger-flued it. It snapped right to life.
I like this pipe. And the best part of liking a pipe already on the first smoke? – It only gets better from here on in, doesn’t it?
I’ve only got, maybe.. what is it now… 26? 27? Not that many but big-time piper counts. Thought I was done. Thought I wasn’t getting more. But I’m very happy about this pipe. And where I was on the fence before about the author shape – huh uh, no problem anymore. It’s me. I like it.
