Castello & Dunhill

[mngslvs]

Here are some of the opinions I've heard in the pipe world :

Castello is the best Italian pipe.
Dunhill is the best British pipe.
In Italy, Dunhill is considered the best pipe.
Never buy a Dunhill made after 1967.
British pipes have a sharper taste than Italian pipes.

I own some Castellos, but personally, have never bought a Dunhill. Any opinions about smoking qualities of recent era Dunhills? Especially in comparison to Castellos ?
Hit me with your opinions.

 

[Chasing Embers]

'74s make great plant containers!

 

[lightmybriar]

Regarding newer Dunhills, I own a 2004 Shell which I acquired well-smoked, and for a while I had a 2013 Dunhill County, which I received after it had only been smoked a few times. Both smoke(d) as good as any other of my “good” pipes. The Shell even rivals some of my Patent Shells.

It is my opinion that most of the variables that affect a smoke originate in the technique of the smoker, rather than the pipe. Of course there are outliers, as a badly made pipe will cause trouble even for someone who has a working technique, but conversely, someone with poor technique (whether in packing, tamping, drawing / puffing...any or all of the above) can make even the most perfectly constructed pipe function like a nightmare.

I personally enjoy altering my technique to match that of some of the pipes I have. My clays smoke different than my briars, which smoke different than my cobs, etc. Heck, even my briars smoke different than my briars haha!

 

[wolflarsen]

Castello is the best Italian pipe.

Says who?
I buy Ardor and Rinaldo before Castello every time.

 

[Chasing Embers]

Says who?
I buy Ardor and Rinaldo before Castello every time.

I like Bruto Sordini's Don Carlos pipes better than Castello. It's all subjective.

 

[Chasing Embers]

I would also take a GBD over a Dunhill, but again, that's just me.

 

[alaskanpiper]

Castello >>>>> Dunhill. Regardless of dunhill era, but my 60s dunhills are the better ones.

This is an opinion and an opinion only.

 

[gamzultovah]

I own a 1947 Castello and a 1990 Dunhill andI enjoy them both equally. On the Italian side, I owned a 2006 Paolo Becker that I could not stand and I’ve owned two Tom Eltang’s that I could not stand. In my world, quality (in a pipe) does not always equal enjoyment.

 

[bluegrassbrian]

Ive owned 6 Castellos but sold them all off eventually. Just cant embrace the stem.

Ive owned give or take a dozen Dunhills and 2 remain as keepers - A '63 Tanshell and a '79 Dead Root.

As far as contemporary Italian brands go, Radice is my favorite.

 

[tg51]

Ive owned 6 Castellos but sold them all off eventually. Just cant embrace the stem.

Ive owned give or take a dozen Dunhills and 2 remain as keepers - A '63 Tanshell and a '79 Dead Root.

As far as contemporary Italian brands go, Radice is my favorite.

What don't you like about the stem? Forgive my ignorance but my experience of pipe brands is relatively low.

 

[sandollars]

I have a 1962 Dunhill Amber Root Bent Apple and a 2019 County Cumberland "White Spot". They both smoke perfectly and are both great pipes. I also have a Castello Squat Tomato and a Sea Rock (G) Bent Dublin and both of them also smoke perfectly. If I had to choose just one, I wouldn't. They all have a special purpose and all make me happy. BTW, I smoke all my pipes with Rubber bits on them and to some on here, this is a form of sacrilege.

Buy what makes you happy.

Among my most favorite pipes is a little nose warmer I bought on here from a Forum member for like 40 bucks. It's a little ROPP Stout. Smokes great (after I fixed the stem), fits in my pocket and at that price, I am not too worried if it gets a little "Hangar rash" on it. I wouldn't get too hung up on brand names..

And like Alaskanpiper said: This is an opinion, and an opinion only..

 

[oldgeezersmoker]

Newer Castello production seems to have thicker shanks, chunkier bits, and just not appear as graceful overall as they made say pre 2000 or so. IMO. Complaints about buttons are endemic. There are exceptions. I picked up a 12 made last year that has the old style thin tapered pencil shank and 70’s style mouthpiece that is a ringer for one I own from that era. But, as @briarblues says, shapes evolve. Fortunately nice older ones do appear every now and then on eBay. Even unsmoked.

Dunhills are indeed highly thought of in Italy. But few Italians give a s**t. Unless they have developed an export internet trade, tabaccherias in Italy are devoted to lottery ticket sales, cigarettes, cigars (when the state monopoly on Tuscan Cigars ended, that part of the cigar business exploded) and booze. What used to be large, active pipe clubs are a shadow of what they were 20 years ago. Franco Coppo of Castello makes an annual trip to Asia. The majority of Radice’s production goes there.

So there are fewer Italians around to give an opinion, though any Italian I know will share his regardless of qualifications.
But Alberto Bonfigliolo, who is a superb pipe maker, owns his own tabaccheria in Bologna and is a Castello dealer.

 

[ssjones]

If by "recent era Dunhills", you mean the White Spot pipes, made after 2014 (I think..). My experience is it was a slightly better pipe on all accounts than a similar era Castello (both bulldogs). The White Spot button work was far superior.

 

[sasquatch]

Castellos are built more like what most artisan carvers would aim at, fairly tight tolerances as regards airway design, a fairly open draw (and a stem that is smooth as glass inside). There are some.... ugly ones, some with worse stems for sure, in terms of bit work and thickness, but buying carefully, a guy can find Castellos with stems as good as anything else.

Dunhills are build the way they are built, the straight pipes and the bents are built with slightly different philosophies. The stems are comfortable, the slotting deep and thin, the draw usually very smooth. So they smoke good.

These are both good pipes, period. Very good pipes even. Will one find a certain preference (acrylic vs vulcanite for example)? Of course. For me, two pipes I smoke a lot are a tiny kk Sea Rock billiard, and .... a tiny group 2 shell billiard. They smoke very similarly because they are about the same size bowl, about the same size airway. The idea that the shell would taste like salty air and biscuits and the Castello would be haunted by Monica Bellucci's perfume or something (I wish) is ridiculous, frankly. Did they taste identical on the first smoke? Probably not. But on the tenth? Yes.

So what we are talking about when we say "a good pipe" is more the mechanical side, does it draw well, does it gurgle, is it balanced right, is the stem comfortable.... And this is all sort of personal stuff, some people like huge airways, some like a pinhole, some like a tall button, some don't.

 

[jpmcwjr]

Opinions are like........noses; everyone has one.

"So what we are talking about when we say "a good pipe" is more the mechanical side, does it draw well, does it gurgle, is it balanced right, is the stem comfortable.... And this is all sort of personal stuff, some people like huge airways, some like a pinhole, some like a tall button, some don't."

Yes, and then there's the briar itself. Some is better than others. But of the brands mentioned, they are likely to have similar sources, similar cutters and curers, and a similar mix of good, better and best blocks of briar. So, if you're an excellent experienced pipe maker, you can make an educated guess as to which ebauchon will make a superior pipe, but you probably can't guarantee it.

Recommendation? Buy a decent estate Dunny.

 

[bluegrassbrian]

What don't you like about the stem? Forgive my ignorance but my experience of pipe brands is relatively low.

Im a clencher that favors smaller, lighter pipes so Castello isn’t going to quench my thirst frequently anyway..
BUT of the six I’ve had, two had stems that didn’t mount flush with the shank. Acrylic is harder on the teeth. And I found them all to be thicker than I prefer just behind the button.

 

[tg51]

Im a clencher that favors smaller, lighter pipes so Castello isn’t going to quench my thirst frequently anyway..
BUT of the six I’ve had, two had stems that didn’t mount flush with the shank. Acrylic is harder on the teeth. And I found them all to be thicker than I prefer just behind the button.

Ah gotcha, do many brands still make ebonite stems on new pipes or do you mostly smoke estates?

 

[bluegrassbrian]

Ah gotcha, do many brands still make ebonite stems on new pipes or do you mostly smoke estates?

I personally smoke mostly British estates and contemporary artisan pipes.
Radice has started making more pipes with nice vulcanite stems. Those are stamped with an E.

 

[mngslvs]

I have one Castello that is a difficult clench. Not impossible, just awkward. It doesn't like my teeth, or my teeth don't like it, one. From just looking at it, I don't get it. But then I don't make pipes.

From what I've gleaned over time, the debate over "good smoker" seems to come down to 3 factors : engineering, smoking style, and briar. I'm always surprised then I hear it said that the briar doesn't much matter, since some of my pipes seem to loudly counter this assertion. The debate continues, with no clear answer, it seems.

 

[oldgeezersmoker]

The debate continues as long as people want it to, I guess. If you are just talking about a pipe that smokes good, I have cleaned up any number of no name estate pipes and gotten them to smoke as sweet as a snickers candy bar and dryer than a popcorn fart. Files do wonders on stems if you care to be troubled. And I am far from some of the pipe restoration artists who post here regularly.

And I had been smoking pipes for 15 years before I ever heard about engineering. And that pipes that I loved weren’t well engineered because the draft holes weren’t as wide as some Danish f**ksticks said they should be.