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tenton

tenton

Starting to Get Obsessed
Jun 8, 2019
226
1,672
Been looking at and thinking of purchasing an Il Ducca pipe.
All of his pipes I've looked at have what appears to be low draft hole drilling which is intentional and not error.
What is the reasoning behind this?
Here's a photo with an example of the drilling.
002-427-0388_26809.jpg


 
anthonyrosenthal74

anthonyrosenthal74

Lifer
Jan 8, 2013
7,493
733
That pipe is going to collect moisture right there where the draft hole comes out and it's going to gurgle like hell. Pass on that one.
Edit to add: Someone please correct me if I'm wrong. But I've had a couple pipes that weren't quite that bad and they gurgled. Logic tells me that one would as well.

 
tenton

tenton

Starting to Get Obsessed
Jun 8, 2019
226
1,672
Yeah, I bought a Tekin meerschaum which was drilled low. It gurgled like crazy and tobacco would get stuck in the draft hole and would have to pick it out, etc.
Like I said in the OP, this appears to be intentional and not error as all of his (Il Ducca) pipes I've looked at have this feature; this is a $450 pipe.

 
tenton

tenton

Starting to Get Obsessed
Jun 8, 2019
226
1,672
I would think it should be drilled higher like all of my other pipes, at least the ones I've kept.
Putting a screen in the bottom of the bowl would work I suppose :)
Maybe one of the pipe makers here will chime in.

 
sasquatch

sasquatch

Lifer
Jul 16, 2012
1,689
2,886
There are a number of thoughts on this. German pipes, coming from a tradition of porcelain bowls (Tyrolean pipes), often are drilled with VERY low drilling, seeking that "perfect" connect of airway and bowl right at the bottom of the bowl, ie, the airway is under the bowl. I don't like this, and I don't like the trough in the pipe shown either, I think it's low, and I'd drill the airway lower on my pipe.
My thought is that the bottom of the airway should connect with the bottom of the chamber. This seems to smoke good, not plug up, etc.
You can just see the oval of the airway terminating right in the middle of the chamber here.....
ZqCAtJ7.jpg

But ... whatever, guys like all sorts of things for all sorts of reasons, I'm not going to say that the OP pipe is "wrong" it's just not my preference for smoking.

 
tenton

tenton

Starting to Get Obsessed
Jun 8, 2019
226
1,672
Guess I could've contacted the pipe maker, but I didn't.
Anyway I got a satisfactory answer here. Thank you Sasquatch.

 
sasquatch

sasquatch

Lifer
Jul 16, 2012
1,689
2,886
I can't edit my post I guess, but I should have written "I would drill my chamber lower" rather than "airway", at the end of my first paragraph.

 
georged

georged

Lifer
Mar 7, 2013
5,542
14,286
If there's enough wood thickness at the bottom of the chamber, you could always lower it to conventionally match the draft hole. A quarter inch is the generally agreed upon minimum thickness of a chamber "floor". (That's 6.3588720162354981194763219937343219366280012 millimeters for Canadisians and etc.)

 
tenton

tenton

Starting to Get Obsessed
Jun 8, 2019
226
1,672
Yes, I understood you meant to drill the chamber lower.
I don't think this pipe will work well for me.

 
husky

husky

Starting to Get Obsessed
Jul 1, 2019
137
12
For learning purposes I checked my (four) factory pipes.

The Vauen (german) and my Butz Choquin are like the one in the OP.

Peterson is a tad low and Savinelli is perfect.

 
jpmcwjr

jpmcwjr

Moderator
Staff member
May 12, 2015
24,747
27,344
Carmel Valley, CA
That pipe is going to collect moisture right there where the draft hole comes out and it's going to gurgle like hell. Pass on that one.
Edit to add: Someone please correct me if I'm wrong. But I've had a couple pipes that weren't quite that bad and they gurgled. Logic tells me that one would as well.
Click to expand...
My experience suggests otherwise, but you're not wrong.
If there's enough moisture to gurgle, it'll gurgle, unless the draft hole is above the floor of the chamber. There're plusses and minuses to any given placement of the draft hole/chamber junction.

 
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