I started reading up on Barlings, and they sound very interesting. Some people say that they smoke better than Dunhills.
Almost any well made pipe will smoke well if you know how to smoke a pipe. It's 25% equipment and 75% technique.
I own Dunhills and they're well made pipes, as are Comoy's, Charatans, Sasienis, Loewes, BBB's, GBD's and Leeds Era Ben Wades. Barlings are very well made, and they have become an area of fascination for me. I own about 100 of them, ranging from the 1880's to the 1970's. I like how they smoke for me, and I like the extremely comfortable bits.
Barling was a relatively small producer, largely made by hand, with carefully chosen and aged wood. They were fanatical about all aspects of making a pipe. They did their own harvesting in Algeria, air cured their wood. and controlled every aspect of their manufacture from the ground to the sales counter, for decades.
Drilling is spot on, the draw is open, and as I mentioned, nobody made a more comfortable bit.
Rather than use the Pre-Transition, Transition, and Post-Transition terms currently in use, I refer to define the eras of manufacture as Family Era and Corporate Era because it's less clumsy, and more accurate.
The Family Era pipes are the more sought after and collectible. These can be recognized by the nomenclature which consists of a BARLING'S MAKE in block letters with the word BARLING'S arched over the word MAKE. After the family left the business the logo was changed to a script
Barling.
Barling conducted their Algerian harvesting operations until 1954, when the Algerian War for Independence put an end to it. After that they bought their wood from anywhere they could find wood of the quality they required for their pipes. They did such a good job of it that almost no one can tell the difference. What did not change was their process for making pipes, old growth wood, long air curing, and careful milling, shaping and finishing.
The early Corporate Era product is very good and I enjoy these pipes as much as the Family Era product. But eventually Imperial Tobacco's policies did result in some shoddy pipes as Imperial pushed for greater capacity over quality.
Read the Pipedia article that I wrote with significant contributions by Barling authority Tad Gage and pipe historian extraordinaire Jon Guss. There is quite a bit of information in that article. If you have any specific questions I will be happy to answer them if I can.
