Ok I know sounds weird but I know I'm not the only one. I'm a "builder". I build stuff. Yeah I know that is weird too. I mean I build houses, cars, motorcycles, carve stuff, sew clothes, pretty much anything working with my hands. Needless to say I have huge hands from this. My pointer finger is nearly an inch wide. I have to pack the pipe I have now (going to carve some of my own for more pipes) with my pinky and it has a fairly large bowl. So what do people do besides make their own to get pipes they can pack when they have massive hands? I've tried tools to pack and that doesn't work for me. Again I know this is a weird question, but I will want to buy pre-made pipes also, and I am trying to figure out how to find pipes with larger bowls. I am kind of new to this with quality pipes, not simple dr Grabow kind of stuff.
When your finger doesnot fit in a pipe
- Thread starter bigd.daddydave
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Shit, if I'd known that was the way to get bigger hands, I would have chosen another line of work!
I know your problem first hand 
Being a farmer makes for some pretty large mits and little pipes can be tricky to load. I generally smoke pipes with a chamber width greater than 20mm simply because I get better flavour out of wider bowls. That said I do have narrower bowls and I tend to choose what I smoke in them more carefully. Narrow pipes I tend to stuff with flakes or gravity fill with cube cut which is just flake diced up.
Being a farmer makes for some pretty large mits and little pipes can be tricky to load. I generally smoke pipes with a chamber width greater than 20mm simply because I get better flavour out of wider bowls. That said I do have narrower bowls and I tend to choose what I smoke in them more carefully. Narrow pipes I tend to stuff with flakes or gravity fill with cube cut which is just flake diced up.
@bullet08 yeah a tamper is the tool I'm referring to. I always pack too tight with them. My question is where do I find pipes with larger bowls? The shop I go to in Arlington Texas most of their pipes have the same size bowl as the one I have. They have some church wardens with larger bowls, but just basic sized pipes they carry have bowls my pointer finger gets stuck in. I can pack with my pinky finger and that is what I use. Looks funny, and have had a lot of people ask me what I am doing and why. I don't mind that, gives me a chance to teach someone something....
Glad you're not a proctologist or urologist
Most online stores (eg SmokingPipes, Blue Room Briars, The Danish Pipe Shop) have a search function
You can put in the bowl dimensions and go on from there
It should be quite easy to find pipes with larger sized bowls or bowls with wider inner diameters eg pots
Be wary - a lot of pipes have very thick walls. So wide outer diameter, BUT the inner diameter is normal sized.
Savinelli 316KS has a wide bowl, 22+mm... and there are more. Should be easy enough to load and tamp. I'm sure there are some options for you without going custom or DIY... give a call to smokingpipes and tell them your interest and they can make some recommendations.
Commission one. Nearly all of my regular use pipes have chamber dimensions of 1"×2"+.
Look at pots. This type of pipe features a wide bowl. The larger pots have chambers that hover around 1" in diameter. They're not the most popular shape because of the wide bowls. They're not svelte
What pots are, are workhorses in which you can smoke just about anything and get great flavors and pick up the nuances of a blend. They beat the crap out of most of those fussy little confections that a lot of pipe smokers swoon over.
Your story reminds me of the jeweler I worked for while I was going to University. He had real mitts, thick fingers covered with callus from 60 years of manufacturing fine jewelry. He could pick up the smallest stone and plunk it right into a setting because those calluses kept it from sinking into his fingertips. He could make the most delicate gold tracerie work, solder tiny links holding them in his fingers, do incredibly involved, delicate and ornate hand engraving with those callused mitts. I watched him turn out waldemars, pocket watch chains, that were absolute perfection, the result of having apprenticed at the age of 5, in 1910. Big smart hands.
What pots are, are workhorses in which you can smoke just about anything and get great flavors and pick up the nuances of a blend. They beat the crap out of most of those fussy little confections that a lot of pipe smokers swoon over.
Your story reminds me of the jeweler I worked for while I was going to University. He had real mitts, thick fingers covered with callus from 60 years of manufacturing fine jewelry. He could pick up the smallest stone and plunk it right into a setting because those calluses kept it from sinking into his fingertips. He could make the most delicate gold tracerie work, solder tiny links holding them in his fingers, do incredibly involved, delicate and ornate hand engraving with those callused mitts. I watched him turn out waldemars, pocket watch chains, that were absolute perfection, the result of having apprenticed at the age of 5, in 1910. Big smart hands.
Try your hand(pun intended) at a Savinelli 320KS or Rossi 8320. The bowl ID is at least 1”. They’re fairly compact as well, about 5” long so easy to tote around. Just got a 320 & it is the pipe for blends with a lot of components.
Well I guess that explains your user name.
I dont know what you are using for a tamper but if its light you may want to change to a heavier one. Then just use the weight of the tamber to help gauge how to pack. WIth big hands its easy to overdo it. So maybe a heavy tamper with a light touch would be the key. Just a guess.
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AroEnglish
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It’s like any tool you have - just learn to use a tamper properly for your needs or, as mentioned, gravity fill, but maybe that’s an issue because of the big fingers - you could get a little siphon like we have for canning jars but then you’ll need goggles because you’ll look like a mad scientist.
Randy Wiley makes so really big pipes, and he has been at it for a long time.
Be sure to really look at the description of pots, because some makers will put tiny bowls in a huge chunk of briar. I only have one large chambered pot out of six pots. The rest are in the .7" range.
Be sure to really look at the description of pots, because some makers will put tiny bowls in a huge chunk of briar. I only have one large chambered pot out of six pots. The rest are in the .7" range.
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AroEnglish
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Seeing is believing. That’s a bear paw with brats sticking out of it.
Also, I’m not sure what truck you’re driving but it brings back memories of the days when I was driving a recycling truck around town. It was a good gig and seeing your pic is definitely nostalgic.
Also look at JM Boswell Pipes. They have a series of Jumbo pipes that might fit the bill. They put several new pipes up online for sale on Mondays at 7:30 est, but you can email them & explain what you’re looking for. They’ll probably have a pipe that’ll work for you.