Chinese Pipes….Anyone Ever Smoke a Good One?

[anotherbob]

It definitely helps to have friends in China. I learned long ago that if you buy something made in China to sell in the US ~ you're getting crap, and that's what the Western companies are paying for. Blaming the Chinese for what they get paid to make is an unfortunate effect of the arrangement.

But I have seen Chinese pipes that would make people weep from the sheer beauty of a handcrafted masterpiece.

some of the most beautiful hand crafted pipes I've seen have come from chinesse artisans and fetch high prices that are still shockingly small for how well done they are. They are filling in most cases specific voids in the market. That void is often cheaply made mass produced stuff. But you can consider it proper revenge for us convincing them Pabst is a high end expensive beer.

 

[anotherbob]

Toyotas have many domestic made parts. My company makes much of Honda's and Toyota's fuel systems.

my understanding that say a car is from this or that place is kind of selling the international effort pretty seriously short. Could be totally wrong but I've heard the parts are often not only from all over but those parts are made with things harvested or manufactured globally as well. Provence in something like a car is kind of hard to boil down into a simple statement, or so I've been lead to believe.

 

[anotherbob]

I think we can use the same generalizations on numerous Etsy and eBay “artisans”.
To the op, I bet if SP has a 350 dollar pipe made by a Chinese carver, it’s a pretty good pipe.
We’re so inundated with Walmart Chinese crap that we forget that out of those billions of souls, there’s lots of fine craftsmen.

China is a big place. And even people who live in part of it from my understanding often have about the same understanding of the other side of the country as we have of the place as a whole. Again could be sharing incorrect information, but makes sense to me. That's the funny thing at one point who heard of a Danish pipe? All it takes is a few great carvers to change things.

 

[frozenchurchwarden]

I've at least had some luck finding decent pipes on AliExpress: AliExpress Gem: Shao Lan Reverse Calabash. :: Pipe Talk - https://www.pipesmagazine.com/forums/threads/aliexpress-gem-shao-lan-reverse-calabash.86681/

I don't think it's hard to see if a pipe is only produced to minimum quality or if the company is actually trying, from what I can tell anyone who actually sources Briar for their pipe is trying to make a genuinely good pipe, and I can't say I've ever received a pipe that doesn't function.
The biggest point of deception is just size, they love to photoshop images to make things look bigger than they are, but any time I've seen measurements listed they are accurate.

 

[olkofri]

All this looks like a very bad IDEA... ?

 

[Chasing Embers]

 

[Michigan_Bill]

I just purchased a new pipe in Flint, Michigan, from Paul's Pipe Shop. The pride in the fellow's face when he told me that this pipe was made on the premises was a joy to behold. I'll put it the pipe section soon. ?

 

[warren]

IBTL! We all knew it was coming just from the thread title.

 

[The Amish Tyrant]

I just purchased a new pipe in Flint, Michigan, from Paul's Pipe Shop. The pride in the fellow's face when he told me that this pipe was made on the premises was a joy to behold. I'll put it the pipe section soon. ?

The current owner of Paul's Pipe Shop, Dan, is now a member here. @Spaniola

Come to think of it, I'll need to replenish my Arrowhead stash soon. For others not in the know, Arrowhead is Paul's houseblend that is a "kitchen sink" aromatic blend like 1-Q on steroids, with vanilla, caramel, honey, and other flavors in the mix.

 

[bbqpiper]

Title edited. Use caps for all but articles and tiny words.

I gave up. ‘Probably made by prison labor anyway. Ukrainian pipes on the other hand I have found to be quite good. ‘Bought a few off ebay, inexpensive, nice looking and good smokers. They use a lot of pear wood.

UncleCharlie does not lie.

Had a pipe made from Jieo Pipes. Top notch as good as any pipe I have. Can be found at jieou22 on Instagram.

 

[hoosierpipeguy]

I've been surprised by how many parts on my Hondas have been made in the USA. My Ford has a lot of Toyota parts. Go figure.

The vast majority of the Hondas and Toyotas are manufactured here in the USA. Very, very little comes from off shore. The parts are manufactured by hundreds of tier 1, 2 and 3 suppliers located across the country, mostly in the Midwest. Toyota has major assembly operations in Princeton, IN, Georgetown, KY and San Antonio, TX. Honda has a huge operation in Greensburg, IN. Nissan in Smyrna, TN.

 

[5star]

If going inexpensive I just smoke a MM cob. Made in the USA. A cool, excellent smoke. (Cheap or not, I probably smoke MM cobs half the time).

 

[UncleCharlie]

I love my MM cobs and have modified quite a few by staining and shellacking, installing hardwood bottom plugs (on their real cheapies) to personalize and extend their lives. They smoke great and are the best buy on the planet. I too smoke them about half the time.

 

[Chasing Embers]

and a man without anything of substance to add is a waste of a post. My OP was sincere and with no agenda. If you didn’t like scroll past sir.

He was referring to this post. Covid discussions are not allowed here.

Post in thread 'Chinese Pipes….Anyone Ever Smoke a Good One?' Chinese Pipes….Anyone Ever Smoke a Good One? :: General Pipe Smoking Discussion - https://pipesmagazine.com/forums/threads/chinese-pipes%E2%80%A6-anyone-ever-smoke-a-good-one.90583/post-36570315

Not to mention discrediting an entire country for a few bad pipe makers.

 

[musicman]

View attachment 137240

Yep. This one started out questionable and has now veered fully into lockable territory.

 

[admin]

IBTL