Draft hole too high

[wcannoy]

The draft set high tends to be more prevalent in bent pipes, whereas most straight pipes seem to be fairly flush in all of the pipes that I have seen from the Danes and even most high end Italians.

If setting the draft high is a solution, why wouldn't they do it consistently in bent and straight pipes alike? I have great respect for Nording and his place in the pipe industry, but we're talking about $100 pipes here. I wouldn't expect a perfect draft hole every time in that price range.
This whole bent/straight thing begs the question: Is he stating that the high draft hole in bent pipes prevents moisture by creating a sump at the bottom of the chamber? Or is he stating that the high draft hole in bent pipes is a by-product of trying to reduce moisture by designing a straighter airway on bent pipes? I would buy the second explanation, to a point.

Nording even sells a stone for his pipes that are drilled high

Noisy engine, earplugs...

Outside of Walt and a few stragglers, they do enough stone throwing and chest beating that a little criticism shouldn't be a big deal.

Sometimes stones need to be thrown. I've been on the receiving end of those stones plenty of times... A large percentage of the advice and criticism I give in pipemaking was once given to me just the same.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

Well, I have gone through all of the pipes at The Briary. I am by no means an expert, and The Briary is by no means "ALL" pipes, however, his collection is the largest outside one of the largest pipe shows.

Nording just happened to be the only Danish pipemaker I have set down with. I agree, he is by no means top end, but I'd put his years in the pipe industry above most of the whole US pipemaking community.

This has been affirmed by many on this forum that also have many of the Danish pipes.
And, why would they be more prevalent in bents above straights? I really thought you would know this one. Bent pipes create more turbulence as the air is pulled through due to the bend, increasing pull on one side and reducing it on the other. Air is more condensed in the draft, causing more accumulation of water vapor inside the draft. This is similar to how a condenser works in an air conditioner or an alcohol still. A straight pipe with a clean drill doesn't tend to have as much of an issue. I know that it is just a matter of inches, but in chemistry, it doesn't take but a few inches to reduce water from alcohol in a small diameter. I think that this would translate to pulling water, the natural biproduct of all combustion, from smoke.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

However, it very well could be that all of the Eltangs, Bjarnes, Nordings, Formers, Karl Eriks, Neerups, Winslows, as well as Castellos, and many Italian pipemakers just messed up their drilling on all of the bents that I have seen. That could very well be the case, if you are willing to argue that Amurika made is better. Or, maybe Skip just doesn't know what he is doing after being in the pipe business since the early 70's. Maybe, he just picks the worst pipes, ha ha.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

Even the SBang that I have made bands for all have a high drill. Take a look at any Danish high-end bent pipes, tell me if you see a bottom drilled one. Maybe, I am wrong. But, please post a picture if you do have one. Before I eat my hat, I'd like some photo evidence, ha ha. Straw doesn't agree with me, and that's what I wore today. ::

 

[atskywalker]

About a week ago I posted here about 2 pipes that I have that always tasted horrible. A combination of a foul taste and the smoke being too hot. I was about to toss them away but thought I'd ask for help here. I've been given some very informative direction by members here which I executed on to try to salvage the pipes. Lots of people talked about using salt to absorb any bad taste with alcohol. clickklick suggested using pipemud to coat the bowls and letting it dry. Having never heard of pipemud before I starting researching and realized people use it sometimes to tweak draft holes and there was many mentions of getting the low draft hole to be higher.
I followed the instruction and did everything that was suggested. Used salt and alcohol then let it dry. I noticed that indeed on both pipes the draft hole was high (in both cases there was a pocket underneath the hole. I used pipe mud to raise it and smeared the bowls with pipemud. The results were certainly remarkable. I can't tell what caused the improvements since I went ahead and did them in sequence (combined them all).
That's just my experience but you have to understand that I was about to give up on the pipes. I had a problem. I then looked at some of my other pipes and noticed that they also have high draft holes yet they smoke great.
My take away was, if there's a problem and the pipe has a high draft hole, pipemud may be a remedy. Also note that you should use as little water as you possibly can. When it sets in and completely dries it shouldn't impart any bad taste (certainly didn't in my case). Once a few bowls are smoked you won't be able to tell there's anything additional inside the bowl .
Hope this helps.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

Yeh, it is amazing how many pipe guys have done very little research on how the drafts are set on the top end pipes. I realized it when an old coot started shooting his mouth off in the Briary about how the draft had to be perfectly on bottom. My hypothesis was that, that didn't make sense why you would want it on bottom for every pipe design. Sure, maybe straight pipes, but bents? So we went through every pipe in the store, and absolutely none of the topend pipes had bottom drilled drafts. Why would you? If you did, a water drop would set right there on bottom and gurgle all day long. However, if you raise the draft, the water moves further away with gravity.

Thus goes the myth of bottom drills.
I'm not sure why anyone would want to raise the floor of the pipe, especially with cigar ash pipe mud. Is smoking all of the dottle that big a deal? I think that I can toss out a pinch of un-smoked tobacco without loosing any sleep, myself.

 

[aldecaker]

That's where I eventually found myself, Cosmic -convinced that it's a non-issue for me.