Big Dollar Pipes vs Lower Priced Pipes

[Briar Lee]

The lowest quality Lee pipe, which would have been the last one that left the factory with stamped stars and a push stem (or maybe a cheap Kaywoodie style fitting) was an excellent quality pipe.

My newest medium squat bulldog Three Star is at the very top of a curve of build quality from Lee. The grain is just fabulous. The construction is perfect. Yet, it must have been one of the first stamped stars.


Condition is critical when buying a used pipe. This one had been moderately smoked, but cleaned up again to as new.

Lee advertised they made the world’s finest pipes. For years, Lee did market the most expensive regular catalog production pipe on earth in the late forties at $25, the Five Star grade. You could chose a squat bulldog and pay $5, $10, $15 or $25 for the same pipe, just better briar and maybe, a bit better workmanship. As the pipes gained five pointed instead of seven pointed inlaid gold stars, quality increases, not by much because it was so high at the beginning, but it’s noticeable. Then into the stamped star era, you begin to find more stain, even tiny fills, but never drugstore pipe mediocrity.

I don’t claim a Lee is the finest pipe in the world.

But there are none really any better, at any price.

 

[Lees65GTO]

When I first started smoking a pipe it was a Dr. Grabow with Mixture 79. I worked with a guy from Ireland who smoked a pipe and let me try some of his tobacco and recommended I go to a pipe shop and buy a better pipe. I went to a Pipe Pub (no longer around) and ask what pipe they recommended I buy. The guy recommended I spend at least $20 and I selected a Savinelli Extra (also no longer available new). This brings me to the point of this post. When I told him what pipe I was smoking the guy said that you could take the varnish off any cheap pipe and after it was broken in it would smoke as good as an expensive pipe (of course “expensive” is a relative term). Of course the breaking in part is done with your mouth.

 

[Chasing Embers]

When I first started smoking a pipe it was a Dr. Grabow with Mixture 79. I worked with a guy from Ireland who smoked a pipe and let me try some of his tobacco and recommended I go to a pipe shop and buy a better pipe. I went to a Pipe Pub (no longer around) and ask what pipe they recommended I buy. The guy recommended I spend at least $20 and I selected a Savinelli Extra (also no longer available new). This brings me to the point of this post. When I told him what pipe I was smoking the guy said that you could take the varnish off any cheap pipe and after it was broken in it would smoke as good as an expensive pipe (of course “expensive” is a relative term). Of course the breaking in part is done with your mouth.

Many cheap pipes with decent drilling will smoke as well as an expensive one. Beyond that you're paying for aesthetics and personal preferences but it's hard to improve upon a straw.

 

[Ope!]

Rarely hear complaints about Savinelli (I have a 606KS that is a great smoker and bought a 616KS that hasn't been christened yet) and I recently became a Peterson fan.

Others have good things to say about Morgan Bones and Rossi, but I don't own any.

I will say my cobs are likely my best smokers, but I'm not currently in the market for another.

I'm smoking out of a Rossi right now, and although I'm a newbie to me it is an absolutely great smoker.

 

[Coreios]

Yes price does matter. I think cobs smoke really well though and they're cheap. I have some Chinese pipes for like 20 bucks and I have a Mr. Brog Briar, there is a huge difference. And Mr. Brogs not very great. You truly do get what you pay for in my opinion. Just performs better.There is a point though where you begin to pay for nothing more than appearance.

 

[Chasing Embers]

Yes price does matter.

There was a white dot on this one's stem.

 

[georged]

There was a white dot on this one's stem.

View attachment 186790

So you threw it away...

As well as the five Dunhills you owned which came before it...

Because not passing a pipecleaner meant they were useless junk that you didn't want to inflict on someone else.


We've heard the tale dozens of times.


Why you kept buying them is mystery #1. Why you didn't expend the cost-free 30 seconds of effort necessary to GET a pipecleaner to pass is mystery #2.


The entire tale and its lack of answers is starting to have the aroma of a posting bot that's triggered by subject matter.

 

[Papamique]

One person says, “why buy a Rolex when I can get a wrist watch for $15 that does just what I need it to do- tell time? Plus it has a calculator on it. Win-win”

Another person says, “I’m not wearing some cheap plastic band wrist watch with a gaudy calculator. The thing feels cheap and when I sweat it doesn’t breath but starts to literally stink! I’ll pay the money for a Rolex and buy quality”

Pipes are similar. One says, “a corn cob is all I need! It does what I need it to do- smoke tobacco! Why buy a Dunhill or Castello? It’s just a huge waste of money since the cob smokes just as well! Some people have more money than sense”

Another says, “I wouldn’t be caught dead looking like an old man hillbilly smoking some corncob pipe they took from Frosty! The stems are cheaply made and the cobs are inconsistent. Even the forever stems are cheap! No thank you, give me a Dunhill or Castello please. I’ll spend the extra money on quality!”

If you look closely, you can see they are two sides of the same “snob” coin. One pretends to be practical and “down to earth” while the other hides behind some magical quality over the other. Both are snobs, putting one side down and looking down on them for their choice.

Me? I see nothing wrong with smoking a cob or a Dunhill. Both are great pipes. I have my preference but that doesn’t make me better or less than you and your choice. Who gives a rats ass? if I want to spend $1000 on a pipe, why would you care? Or if I burn a hole through my $30 basket pipe please don’t pretend to be looking out for the newbies when you are only pushing your agenda. Stop the pipe snobbery. Codgers and connoisseurs alike.

Now what did I do with my $1000 corn cob pipe? Probably next to my Dunhill that I picked up for $40 and grew a tree in. For God sakes!

 

[sablebrush52]

High-end audio is fraught with the diminishing returns you describe—it can cost an arm and a leg to extract that nth degree of musical information from an LP or CD—but, sometimes that little bit of info that reveals an echo off of the rear wall of the recording space or delicate harmonic from a guitar string makes the listening session truly magical and worth every penny, dollar, or limb. I'm not sure the same could be said for a pipe, but, maybe, when the stars are aligned.

Audio. Ugh...
It's endless, that search for transparency of reproduction, and mostly BS. There was a brand, about 30 years ago, whose name I can't remember, that became a sensation in the audio world because their gear created an eerily precise sonic stage where you could sit in front of the speakers, close your eyes, and "hear" where each section of the orchestra was spatially.

A person can, and some do, spend literally millions on a set up, including having a listening room designed and built to support the acoustics of the system. I've been away from this for so long that I have no idea where thnigs now stand in terms of the state of the art. But there's definitely an aspect of hucksterism to the whole thing.

A state of the art system would be a total waste of money for me, as I have developed "age appropriate" deafness - meaning that I can't hear hear the ultra high frequencies. When I was in my 20's I could hear the ultra sonic alarm in the jewelry store when I came in to work, on those occasions when the owner forgot to turn it off. Those days are long gone. But, I can still hear a pin drop.

 

[The Amish Tyrant]

Audio. Ugh...
It's endless, that search for transparency of reproduction, and mostly BS. There was a brand, about 30 years ago, whose name I can't remember, that became a sensation in the audio world because their gear created an eerily precise sonic stage where you could sit in front of the speakers, close your eyes, and "hear" where each section of the orchestra was spatially.

A person can, and some do, spend literally millions on a set up, including having a listening room designed and built to support the acoustics of the system. I've been away from this for so long that I have no idea where thnigs now stand in terms of the state of the art. But there's definitely an aspect of hucksterism to the whole thing.

A state of the art system would be a total waste of money for me, as I have developed "age appropriate" deafness - meaning that I can't hear hear the ultra high frequencies. When I was in my 20's I could hear the ultra sonic alarm in the jewelry store when I came in to work, on those occasions when the owner forgot to turn it off. Those days are long gone. But, I can still hear a pin drop.

Bose?

 

[sablebrush52]

Me? I see nothing wrong with smoking a cob or a Dunhill. Both are great pipes.

I smoke cobs from time to time, and I'll replace Dunhill with Barling for purposes of this comparison. At a certain level, they are equally good. But the comfort of a well designed stem, bit and button, as well as more chamber shapes and sizes with Briars, and a few other things to do with the airway, etc, makes briar a better choice for me. But one doesn't have to spend 4 figures to get a top grade smoking implement. Technique is more important.

I guess I'm a snob when it comes to technique, but only because developing that technique opens up more possibilities from the blends that I smoke. And I will admit to having preferences with regard to blenders. If that make me a snob then it's good to be a snob.

Captain Black Grape mixed with Holly's Non Plus Ultra is pure nirvana when smoked with proper technique, I promise you.

 

[sablebrush52]

Bose?

No, it wasn't Bose. I seem to remember that the maker's name started with an "M".

 

[fireground_piper]

There's a lot of good crossover examples with audio here. Lots of head games and really it comes down to those heads games and preference. Different materials and spaces will provide different experiences which may or may not be preferable to a specific listener (or smoker).

Once upon a time I could of had a dozen different microphones up and someone walk up to each and speak a few lines and identify the mic without looking at it. $500 or $10K......they all had a characteristic and specific uses depending on what you are looking for.

During the first year of covid, I assisted hundreds of folks set up a home studio with really good success spending under $500 and the average end listener will absolutely never know. Makes you question the validity of the multimillion dollar facility at the end of the day when someone can record in their bedroom for a few hundred dollars and the customer can't tell the difference.

Same thing with pipes or tobacco.

 

[georged]

No, it wasn't Bose. I seem to remember that the maker's name started with an "M".

 

[sablebrush52]

View attachment 186818

Not Mackintosh, either.

 

[georged]

Not Mackintosh, either.

Ah. Meyer Labs

 

[sablebrush52]

Ah. Meyer Labs

Maybe

 

[Chasing Embers]

Now what did I do with my $1000 corn cob pipe? Probably next to my Dunhill that I picked up for $40 and grew a tree in. For God sakes!

Wanna point out where I've ever condemned anyone for smoking what they like? I simply detest when a quality pipe doesn't live up to their reputation on drilling, construction, or integrity.

 

[georged]

Wanna point out where I've ever condemned anyone for smoking what they like? I simply detest when a quality pipe doesn't live up to their reputation on drilling, construction, or integrity.

Asked and answered:

Before Using Your Pipes as Flower Pots or Throwing Them in a Landfill, do this... :: Pipe Talk

Because geometry tolerates no argument, sometimes the bottom-dead-center of a pipe's tobacco chamber and the bullseye-dead-center of its mortise floor cannot be connected with a straight line. It isn't a brand-dependent thing, or even (necessarily) a "quality thing". It's simply three...

pipesmagazine.com

It is NOT a quality issue, as much as you want to insist otherwise.

It is a matter of geometry.

Smoking isn't affected, only "pipe cleaner passage", which is a subjective thing.

And if IS bothersome, either A) don't buy specimens that exhibit it; or B) fix it in 30 seconds at no cost.

There is no C

Except buy six (?!) of them without checking first, and then throw them in a trash can (?!) so no one else will have to suffer their existence, apparently. And then complain at every opportunity for years afterward about Dunhill quality.

 

[bullet08]

Growing up, watch was a necessity. Being late for anything in S. Korea was very much frown up on. Later found out, there were habitually late people, but I wasn't aware of them. My father loved Seiko watches. But I always heard Rolex was the best. When I was getting married, my father in law asked which Rolex I wanted. Basically, he told me to choose one. I picked Submariner. I could have gotten some gold one with more bells and whistles, but I wanted a tool watch. Then about 20 years later, I got another Sub. I just like Rolex Sub. Now, watches are no longer necessities. Everyone has a cell phone with more accurate time than Rolex. But it's just something that I still depend on every day to tell me the time. Now I don't work full time, it also tell me the date.

Pipes have never been a necessity. I smoke cigarettes on top of pipes. It's more of luxury. Sort of like Rolex. I picked Peterson to be my brand because I love everything Irish.

I just think Peterson, Rolex, Sony.. The brands I use serve their purpose and look good at the same time. Does it really matter what they are? Sure they do. It's what I like and I can pay for them. Snobbery? Heck no! It's what it is. You get what you want and that's that.