This kind of stem really annoys me...

shawnofthedead · Sep 27, 2015

I'm just using this image of a Peterson Standard System as an example. You can see how the stem is bending a little too much that it is pointing downwards. Maybe it's just me but I hate it when clenching a pipe and the bowl of the pipe is tilting forward slightly, I know this doesn't affect smoking in any way, but whenever I smoke my pipes that have a really bent stem, I would hold them in my hand because clenching them just looks a little silly. Why can't they just make it so that the end of the stem could be level with the bowl? Please tell me I'm not the only one who has this OCD...

lestrout · Sep 27, 2015

Yo Sha
An example that bugs me is the recent runs of Dunhill Princes, which have a 1/4 bend, which makes it distinctly un-Princey to me.
hp

les

disinformatique · Sep 27, 2015

Someone got really excited to bend this pipe, it needs to be unbent at-least by 50%

xrundog · Sep 27, 2015

A lot of people hold their pipes. Using the P-lip correctly, I guess that would work okay.
But I think I'm like you. I am a clencher with a slight over bite. That pipe would be resting on my chin. Tobacco and embers would probably fall out. I have on occasion sacrificed aesthetics for functionality and taken some bend out of stems on a few pipes that I really liked.

prndl · Sep 27, 2015

Just goes to show, we all do things at different speeds. The only Petes that appeal to me are bents with that severity of stem.
That said, I am not the dedicated clencher, either.

elbert · Sep 27, 2015

This is a bizarre photo, and it might not be obvious why.
When you photograph a straight billiard with a forward cant to the bowl (however slight), you don't make the top of the bowl level with the frame--you make the stem level with the frame. The bowl tilts forward, and that doesn't bother us. The problem with this pipe is that it's a sitter. If they had cut the bottom of the briar to be parallel with the bit rather than the bowl, then the stem would sit parallel (as it should) and the bowl would cant forward.
I think if this pipe was rounded at the bottom, and oriented properly in the camera frame (level bit and canted bowl), it wouldn't be so visually inharmonious.

oldredbeard · Sep 27, 2015

I completely agree with you Shawn, I am a clincher and want the bowl to be level with the end of the stem. I have also took some bend out of several stems to achieve what I consider the proper alignment.

jpmcwjr · Sep 27, 2015

If someone gifted me, or I found a great bargain of a pipe with a stem bend I didn't like, I'd mess with altering it. YMMV.

davet · Sep 27, 2015

Doesn't look right to me, it should match the line of the bowl.

mso489 · Sep 27, 2015

I agree the angle of the bowl when the pipe is clenched isn't the best, or even good. An odd design from pipe makers who do this for a career. Which senior pipe designer is signing off on these? Alas, it isn't just this series or Peterson. Many bent pipes are not done so the smoking position is what most pipe smokers would want. A few probably like ungainly angles for their own particular reasons, but not many. I regularly see pipes in many different brands that defy simple practical logic. Some brands like Savenelli, Stanwell, and many artisanal carvers seldom get it wrong. Some old codger or codgette with briar in their blood is perched over the design room and workshop ready to swoop down on any misguided designers or carvers who get it wrong. Whoa be to them; they won't make the mistake twice.

davet · Sep 27, 2015

This one just doesn't look right

beerandbaccy · Sep 27, 2015

That last one looks like someone has put a straight stem on a bowl originally meant for a bent stem... maybe

brudnod · Sep 27, 2015

The concept that it does not do any harm might not be entirely true. With the bowl tipping down at that angle the side of the bowl closest to the smoker gets more of the heat of the chamber and runs the risk of burning through or scorching that rim, and of tipping ash out of the bowl. Most of us prefer to be looking at the bowl while lighting and if it is tipped so far forward you certainly have to use your non-dominant hand to hold the bowl up. Besides, as all have said, it looks wrong!

georged · Sep 27, 2015

For every fishhook there is a periscope.
http://images.smokingpipes.com/products/002-681-0149.jpg

shawnofthedead · Sep 27, 2015

Very good points Spencer. I assume smoking a pipe like this outside is also a bad idea as wind will be blowing right into the tobacco. Not that I smoke much pipes outdoors.

I have a Peterson Spigot that's beautiful in every way, sadly it has this exact stem problem, and this is the only reason why I seldom use that pipe.

The only time a pipe like this would be useful is if you are sitting back on a comfy sofa with your head resting on the back, and the top of the bowl would be completely horizontal.

georged · Sep 27, 2015

Soldiers get into bar fights every day. Nine times out of ten, the soldier initiates the fight... And if he didn't initiate it, he definitely talked a bunch of shit. At a certain point, the fact that he was in the Army is just an outrage factor for stupid people.

Very easy to set right and won't cost a dime. Just heat the bend to the point (no further!) that the stem becomes slightly pliable, set it to where you like, and allow to cool in that position.
A hot air gun is the easiest, but a stove burner will work, as will an alcohol lamp or candle. (Bo Nordh used a candle, believe it or not.)
Do NOT, however, use hot water. Some vulcanite formulations instantly oxidize from contact with hot water.

georged · Sep 27, 2015

Something very strange obviously happened in the previous post. (It's a chunk of text from a reddit post about a local news item that I was responding to... it is neither my words NOR my opinion)
Anyway, all week long I've been battling a cut & paste error that Google says is a known bug my particular machine. One that (apparently) has no easy fix, either, once it starts.
Grrrrr... I've been needing to swap old for new for a while now, and I think this sort of thing is the straw that killed the camel.
Anyone who might be or know a mod, please delete. Thanks.

okiescout · Sep 28, 2015

This one just doesn't look right
I agree, Dave. I would think beerandbaccy is right.
To me this seems to go back to the smokers proclivity or the makers. But to the individual it comes across like seeing an injustice being perpetrated in front of his eyes.
While I once thought P-lips to be a great concept, I have personally come to find a flat thin bit much more to my liking and comfort.

cosmicfolklore · Sep 28, 2015

I hate seeing these on ebay. Forehead warmers.

lestrout · Sep 28, 2015

yo Cos - that upsidedown pipe bit worked to my benefit when I saw a Becker with that feature. All the collectors were scared off and I scored it for $86. Great puffer too, especially when I turned the stem around.
hp

les

This kind of stem really annoys me...

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