Are Modern Pipes The Same Size As Estate Pipes?

[brut666]

As title would suggest.
Just a wonder out load. Are modern pipes the same size as there predecessor of the same model?
I have estate sav 122's and modern ones and they are very similar in size.
So that got me wondering about others.
(This a noob of noob questions ?)

 

[larryspencer]

Simular I would imagine, as the shape numbers designate, but there can always be variables, such as a larger version. Peterson comes to mind with the 03 vs. XL02?

 

[judcole]

Why should their be any difference if it is the same model of pipe?

 

[stokesdale]

Depends on the size of the briar and how easy that piece is to work with. For example, go on SP's website and look at a good quality production brand like Savinelli; you will see that pipes of the same model will be slightly different in size--bowl diameter, depth, length, weight, and such. Now, Savinelli today is I'm sure a lot more able to size briars and work with them more consistently than Savinelli 30 years ago...so if the difference exists today among pipes today (even though only very small differences), it only makes sense the difference would be greater over time as well within the same model, if that makes any sense.

 

[Chasing Embers]

Are Modern Pipes The Same Size As Estate Pipes?

 

[mso489]

Some of the pipes sold from old stummel stock run small, suggesting that pipes on average may have been smaller in the past, like 1920's through 50's. There is also the idea that tobacco prices were higher and wages lower in the past, so the bowls were smaller to stretch the supply. Also, average pipe chamber size may have varied in different countries in the past. Some people still find French pipes a bit small, on average, though they fall within the Group 4 (old Dunhill sizing) category mostly. I think there have always been larger pipes, but averages may have run somewhat smaller in earlier decades.

 

[Chasing Embers]

I think there have always been larger pipes

Jesse's 1880s Barling is proof of that.

 

[kcghost]

I'd say pretty much so.

 

[PaulTheScandinavian]

Based on my experience specifically with certain classic Savinelli models,it seems that the newer ones do have more spacious chambers

 

[cshubhra]

In the 18th and 19th century tobacco was premium and smaller pipes were more common.

 

[cshubhra]

History of pipes have been fairly interesting but my favorite is these ones (Taken from Alfred Dunhill’s The Pipe Book)

 

[sablebrush52]

Factory pipes that are shaped to a specific model number do not vary in any significant way. They all follow an established design called a pattern. Consequently, contemporary copies of a specific model are nearly identical to earlier copies.

Pipes have been made in all sizes, from 17th century pipes that were several feet long to tavern clay’s with bowls about the size of a group one.

The preponderance of pipes in the 19th and early 20th centuries were small due to tobaccos being a very expensive luxury. But pipes of all sizes and shapes were made, like the 19th century Barling Magnum that appeared above.

 

[mso489]

Here's a real leap into the dark, but I was trying to remember the approximate size of my dad's pipes growing up. Of course children's concepts of size are often wrong, because the have nothing to compare things to, no experience over time. My father bought one pipe at at time, smoked most of the day, and never bought a new pipe until the old one split and was nearly burnt out. He wasn't short of money, just a thrifty Scot. My memory of his pipes, for what it is worth, is that they were what I would call a larger Group Four and occasionally a Five, on the medium large side. He was born in 1917, smoked from 1922 to 1982, and lived on to 2006, licensed to drive without glasses. I observed his smoking from around 1950 until he quit. So pipes had gotten larger, at least in the U.S., I think.