I love the clay pipe. I dedicate a small one for strong burley blends.
Do You Smoke Clay Pipes?
- Thread starter sherlock
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I bought a cheap clay pipe from the gift shop of The Hermitage (Andrew Jackson's Home) here in Nashville. While I like how it looks, it get's really hot pretty quickly. I don't typically get pipes hot, but this one gets there fast!
I knew you’d find this post.
So you only smoke Clay, nothing else, any particular reason, I’m curious?
From what I’ve read online Markus Fohr’s family has been making clay pipes for generations if I’m not mistaken. He use to also have a website I can no longer find.
Do you prefer any particular clay makers, and what do you think of Markus Fohr’s pipes?
The one and only clay I’ve ever owned, didn’t have it long, I accidentally snapped the stem, this Markus Fohr Churchwarden;
Tavern Cutty with Hemp Wrap - Old German Clay Pipes
Buy this Old German Clay Tavern Cutty with Hemp Wrap tobacco pipe from Smokingpipes, hand-crafted from quality German clay by Markus Fohr.
www.smokingpipes.com
My interest in my clay pipes started with seeing re-enactors smoking them at living history events.I knew you’d find this post.
So you only smoke Clay, nothing else, any particular reason, I’m curious?
From what I’ve read online Markus Fohr’s family has been making clay pipes for generations if I’m not mistaken. He use to also have a website I can no longer find.
Do you prefer any particular clay makers, and what do you think of Markus Fohr’s pipes?
The one and only clay I’ve ever owned, didn’t have it long, I accidentally snapped the stem, this Markus Fohr Churchwarden;
Tavern Cutty with Hemp Wrap - Old German Clay Pipes
Buy this Old German Clay Tavern Cutty with Hemp Wrap tobacco pipe from Smokingpipes, hand-crafted from quality German clay by Markus Fohr.
I've broken a few as well!
Yes I received a box of Markus Fohr clay pipes from a forum member, I really like them!
@PipeIT The Clay King recommends you get another one. Yes I like the Markus Fohr pipes; they have a good range of styles. I also like the Old Dominion clays (Jamestowne, Williamsburg etc) - perfect for re-enactment!I knew you’d find this post.
So you only smoke Clay, nothing else, any particular reason, I’m curious?
From what I’ve read online Markus Fohr’s family has been making clay pipes for generations if I’m not mistaken. He use to also have a website I can no longer find.
Do you prefer any particular clay makers, and what do you think of Markus Fohr’s pipes?
The one and only clay I’ve ever owned, didn’t have it long, I accidentally snapped the stem, this Markus Fohr Churchwarden;
Tavern Cutty with Hemp Wrap - Old German Clay Pipes
Buy this Old German Clay Tavern Cutty with Hemp Wrap tobacco pipe from Smokingpipes, hand-crafted from quality German clay by Markus Fohr.
I tend to smoke vintage clays from eBay & antiques / collectibles shops & flea markets. I only paid GBP4 for my latest clay!
I’ve been holding out waiting to get a Clarin Clay. They’ve talked to SPC, to see about them carrying their clays, if so, I plan to get one, otherwise, might have to buy it from Brazil.
Clarin Clay Pipes
Os Clarin Clay Pipes são sempre uma boa! Celebre bons momentos com o que há de melhor nesse mundo! Clarin Clay Pipes, the worldwide best-in-class is waking up!
www.clarinclaypipes.com
@PipeIT They look good pipes but would be expensive and take too long to ship from Brazil...I’ve been holding out waiting to get a Clarin Clay. They’ve talked to SPC, to see about them carrying their clays, if so, I plan to get one, otherwise, might have to buy it from Brazil.
Clarin Clay Pipes
Os Clarin Clay Pipes são sempre uma boa! Celebre bons momentos com o que há de melhor nesse mundo! Clarin Clay Pipes, the worldwide best-in-class is waking up!
I don’t mind spending a little to help support them, but I’m hoping SPC will eventually carry them, so maybe it will be less expensive.
G
Gimlet
Guest
Never smoked a clay pipe. Dug up plenty of them. The ground around any street or property over here that's Victorian or older is riddled with them. You only ever find the bowls. I guess they were cheap, broke easily, and when broken people just chucked them away like cigarette butts. I was working once on a house build (I'm a bricklayer) on a site that was known to have been a brothel in the 18th century. We were digging up old pipes in every shovelfull of soil. Queuing punters having a smoke I guess.
I imagine they must get pretty hot but the long stem helped cool the smoke.
I imagine they must get pretty hot but the long stem helped cool the smoke.
The bowl will get pretty hot, but the stem generally doesn't. I hold my clays sort of like you'd hold a pool cue for a shot (index finger wrapped around the stem with middle finger under, but the thumb back further and supporting)—not smoking a clay at the moment, but I'll take a pic to demonstrate anyway. I've held them with my index finger almost touching the bowl and felt no heat from the stem.
I imagine it's less to do with the length of stem, and more that the thinner bowl walls and clay material pulls and dissipates a lot of the heat. I have a clay that's right about 4" in total length and the smoke from it doesn't feel hot (at least, not until the very bottom of the bowl).
How I hold clays:
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G
Gimlet
Guest
I see you have a acrylic (?) stem. I was wondering what the old fashion one-piece clay pipes were like to smoke. Those old pipes looked like they would snap easily if held by the stem - maybe why you find so many old stemless bowls discarded - and you often see old paintings depicting smokers holding them by the bowl. I'm curious how the clay stem would have effected the smoke as well.
I saw a UK antiques-hunt show a while back where they visited an old factory where one-piece clay pipes were made going back to the 18th century. It was quite an ingenious and skilled process. They were made in molds with the stem hand-formed beforehand then set in the mold around a wire which formed the draw hole and was withdrawn before firing. It looked very tricky. The show's presenter had a go at it and found it impossible. Apparently the workers were mostly women and each of them could make several hundred pipes a day and they were all near identical.
The pipe in that picture, as I said in the post, is not a clay—it was just a demonstration of how I hold clays using the pipe I happened to be smoking at that moment (which is a meerschaum pipe). I don't own fancy clays with stems.
My clay pipes are all "old fashioned one piece". That's how I hold them (except the short ones), and mine haven't broken. You don't have to hold them with a death grip, but they're not so fragile they'll snap if you blink at them wrong—just don't drop them on the floor or carelessly toss them in a drawer.
Even then, these are all $10 or $12 USD or less... no big loss if they break.
I am also not seeing any paintings on a quick Google image search of people holding clay pipes by the bowl, they're all holding by the stem in different ways...
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I hold mine like this lady, but like her I smoke one with a fair sized bowl
I regularly smoke a clay. It brings out something in the dark burley i smoke that I don’t get with pipes of other material—a complexity and nuance. I don’t find they smoke hot, and even the bowl on my clay billiard rarely gets too hot to touch. And I’ve never broken a clay, though I have broken a briar pipe and a cob. I know it’s fragile but somehow I don’t drop clay pipes. I think it may be the lightness and stickiness of the material
For easy clenching I file down any ridges on the stem. I use a coarse stone for this.
To prevent the stem from sticking to the lips, I just wet it with saliva.
For easy clenching I file down any ridges on the stem. I use a coarse stone for this.
To prevent the stem from sticking to the lips, I just wet it with saliva.
@makhorkasmoker Well done for not breaking any clays; I've lost count of how many I've broken...
Yeah, I drop briars and break the stems off instead. I’d be better off dropping my clays!
tried clay pipes several times, but cannot stand the feeling of "clay" on my lips. also like to hold a pipe between my teeth which is hard to imagine with a clay pipe