Why do you like your Calabash Pipe?

Are you talking a pipe made out of a gourd, or just a Calabash shape briar? I have the later, and it is

a good, compact, sturdy little pipe, a Cassano unfinished pipe, that holds quite a bit of leaf. Never had

a gourd pipe.

It is quite effective I will say. When you do a puff you don't get the hot smoke from the bowl but the cooled smoke from the chamber instead. So basically the smoke you get in is the smoke from the bowl from your previous puff - if that makes sense.

I never thought that the smoke was much cooler from a calabash, because it can't bring it below room temperature and I don't notice heat much from a regular briar anyway with my smoking style. I supposed if I was a puffer, I would like it. But, I found the gourd to be too delicate and cumbersome to keep clean for my own use. But, they are beautiful to look at. I keep mine on a special rack, but I probably won't smoke it, because then I'd have to clean the damned thing, ha ha.

I think the attraction is that dramatic gourd shape, not your basic clencher, but a fine,

expansive looking shape when you plan a big bowl of leaf and mostly keeping it in hand.

These are the gourd pipes I'm talking about.

I have to say I love my calabash pipes, but admit I don't smoke them every day. They do take a good bit more work to clean and can be a pain. A pain I said, yeah, but so is cleaning the guns or washing the truck. It's all part of it. I have one with a pressed bowl and the other is a true block. I do recommend getting one if you like setting in a lounge chair and enjoying a good drink with a movie or book.

You will pay more for the gourd than the mahogony calabash pipes.

If you like the the gourd calabash for air chamber but want 'regular' shapes you might to check out reverse/inverted calabash pipes. They work the same way the calabash gourd works and smoke great. Like the gourd calabash the flavor in some blends become mellow. But for this reason I prefer some blends in the calabash system.

I have one gourd calabash, a 1908 Barling (of course...) and while I don't often smoke it, I get a kick from the experience. It smokes wonderfully well and cool and it's just fun to hold the damned thing. Gets lots of positive attention on those occasions when I do smoke it. "Hey Sherlock, how're they hanging?" That sort of thing.

I have a gourd. I think I'm usually somewhere in the middle of a puffer and a sipper but find that I puff like a train when I smoke my calabash. It may be due to the larger chamber. Seems like I get very little flavor when I sip, but get a lot of flavor when I'm puffing hard and often with my calabash. The big block of meerschaum never gets too hot and and the smoke is always cool and never bites. It is big and bulky, not for clenching and the stem needs extra long cleaners.

Hated it and threw it away. The inside gets full of gunk which who knows how to remove, and the pressed meerschaum bowl kept falling out. And the smoke was terrible. Save some money and do not get one.

I have an old Pioneer gourd calabash with the pressed meerschaum bowl. I keep it, and smoke it from time to time, because it provides a unique, cool smoke, imparts no additional flavor to the tobacco, and is much lighter to clench than one would think. Tobacco is a finicky substance: what smokes well in one pipe may be horrible in another. So, my gourd calabash is often used when I have a tobacco that seems to burn too hot or tastes bad in other pipes. Sometimes I smoke it just to be different.

The best way to keep them clean is to take them apart, and use dry cotton balls and paper towels to swab out the inside of the gourd. I don't moisten them, since the inside of the gourd is dry and might absorb the moisture and start to rot. The stem and bowl, of course, are cleaned like other pipe parts.

My personal outlook on it is that a piper should experiment with different types of materials and styles of pipes, as well as the different tobaccos, to find the best combinations that result in the most enjoyment of the experience. Fortunately, if one doesn't like a certain pipe, or a particular blend, there is a market to sell or trade nearly everything. I enjoy smoking my calabash, but it is a bit unwieldy for everyday use.

Okay, back to briar Calabash shape pipes, if you want an admirable version at a remarkably good

price, Iwan Ries has just restocked their Iwan Ries Exclusives briar Calabash pipe after about a year

of not having it. It's a beautiful little pipe made by Benton, I think. I was about to buy it, but went

for the SP offer on the Chacom zulu (that I showed in a Forums post). I'm hoping Forums members

buy these Calabash pipes before I'm tempted again.