Dunhill POS - Removing Dip Stain Taste

[kgs]

Don't buy a Dunhill.

 

[frozenchurchwarden]

Thanks everyone for the information. My project is coming along. I am going to take a break from the Dunhill and smoke my Savinelli this week.

I noticed another problem with the pipe this weekend. Apparently whoever fashioned the stem did a poor job. It is not simple to describe the problem so I will try to provide an illustration.

At the button end of the stem they drill at the opening at an angle so that the airhole flares out at roughly 45 degrees. I have seen this done in a video on Dunhill "manufacturing." When they drilled this tapered opening they pressed the drill in too far. The result is that there are these crevices on either side of the inside of the stem. Here is my attempt at a top-down cross section of the stem. At the bottom end you see the button and the two filth-collecting crevices. Truly the work of a brilliant artisan. View attachment 88101So now there is gunk collecting in those little holes. I can't get into the holes with a pipe cleaner. Of course it took some time for me to notice this. Bits of pipe cleaner fuzz get stuck in there along with saliva, tar, and oil. (Pipe juice or whatever you want to call it.)

What a turd this thing is.

Yikes, I have never seen that on a pipe before.

It wouldn't take too long to fix with some needle files, but it's shocking what people are willing to overlook when they know a pipe is sold on name only.

 

[sandollars]

I would be happy to take it off your hands.

 

[sandollars]

On a serious note: Why don't you just return it?

 

[sablebrush52]

As Laudisi Enterprises now owns Peterson and it's believed that Peterson is making Dunhill pipe now perhaps messaging Sykes Wilford or somone in the customer service/public relations team over there might prompt some discussion on this issue on their part.

When I made that crack at the beginning of this thread, it was a joke, reflecting upon a widespread complaint about the dip staining of Peterson pipes that I've been reading for the past 15 years. Where do people get this stuff?
Peterson doesn't make Dunhill White Spot pipes.They're made in Mordor.

 

[Chasing Embers]

They're made in Mordor.

 

[GCW]

So given the aforementioned problems what is the "universal" cut-off date for vintages of Dunhill?

 

[swilford]

HUH? Peterson is not making Dunhill pipes.....

Peterson bought the Dunhill tobacco blends and are made by Scandinavian Tobacco Group for Peterson. The pipes are still made in England, not Ireland.

Trying to clear up a little history here:

Dunhill pipes are made at a factory in north London. The Dunhill brand--including the White Spot division which makes Dunhill pipes--is owned by Richemont, a Swiss luxury goods company.

The Dunhill pipe tobacco brand is owned by British American Tobacco (BAT), but production ceased under that brand in late 2017.

This bifurcation of the Dunhill brand happened in the 1970s when the Dunhill family sold the business.

Now onto Peterson:

In 2018, the Palmer family did something similar with Peterson. They separated the tobacco brand from the rest of the company. They sold the Peterson tobacco brand to Scandinavian Tobacco Group, a publicly-traded Danish multinational that owns the Orlik factory in Assens, Denmark, where the tobacco is produced (where most Peterson tobaccos prior to 2018 were produced and all of them subsequent to 2018, and where Dunhill has been produced since the closing of the Murray and Son's factory in Belfast in 2006). STG bought the rights to the blend names from BAT (Nightcap, Early Morning etc) and rebadged them Peterson following that transaction.

The rest of the Peterson business--the factory in Dublin, the accessory brand, the shop on Nassau St--was sold to Laudisi Enterprises, Inc., a small (tiny, by the standards of the above companies) American company that also owns Smokingpipes.com, Laudisi Distribution Group and Cornell & Diehl (which I founded and run).

Peterson and Dunhill manufacturing are completely and totally unrelated.

 

[jeremiah]

Thanks for the enlightenment, Sykes.

 

[anotherbob]

Trying to clear up a little history here:

Dunhill pipes are made at a factory in north London. The Dunhill brand--including the White Spot division which makes Dunhill pipes--is owned by Richemont, a Swiss luxury goods company.

The Dunhill pipe tobacco brand is owned by British American Tobacco (BAT), but production ceased under that brand in late 2017.

This bifurcation of the Dunhill brand happened in the 1970s when the Dunhill family sold the business.

Now onto Peterson:

In 2018, the Palmer family did something similar with Peterson. They separated the tobacco brand from the rest of the company. They sold the Peterson tobacco brand to Scandinavian Tobacco Group, a publicly-traded Danish multinational that owns the Orlik factory in Assens, Denmark, where the tobacco is produced (where most Peterson tobaccos prior to 2018 were produced and all of them subsequent to 2018, and where Dunhill has been produced since the closing of the Murray and Son's factory in Belfast in 2006). STG bought the rights to the blend names from BAT (Nightcap, Early Morning etc) and rebadged them Peterson following that transaction.

The rest of the Peterson business--the factory in Dublin, the accessory brand, the shop on Nassau St--was sold to Laudisi Enterprises, Inc., a small (tiny, by the standards of the above companies) American company that also owns Smokingpipes.com, Laudisi Distribution Group and Cornell & Diehl (which I founded and run).

Peterson and Dunhill manufacturing are completely and totally unrelated.

so basically you're saying that the tobacco and pipe brands having nothing in common beyond being good? But C&D and Peterson pipes are owned by the same company, might explain why their stuff smokes so great in my Petersons.

 

[phornbein]

My new Dunhill is dip-stained and it tastes terrible. The taste is bitter, chemical-like, and also burnt-hair-like. I did not know about dip-staining before I smoked this piece of shit. After the pipe's first bowl I came online to figure out what I was tasting. I am pretty sure it is the stain, but I welcome comments on this point. I am familiar with the taste of bare briar, and this is nothing like that. This Dunhill is a shell briar.

The bowl had a black coating, but underneath I could see the red stain. I swabbed the bowl with an alcohol-dampened cloth and tons of red stain is coming off. Same with the mortise area.

I have been smoking through this to try and get rid of this stain. Smoking it seems to help to lift the stain out of the briar. After I smoke a bowl, I wipe it with an alcohol-soaked cloth and even more red stain comes off. My guess is that the heat and fire help to lift the stain and then the stain gets trapped in the oils and tar.

I don't want to just build cake over this crap to hide it. I want to remove this taste so that the pipe tastes normal without a layer of cake.

This is my first Dunhill. Unless a very good explanation comes to light, I will never buy another product from Dunhill, pipe or otherwise. This is by far the most disappointing purchase I have ever made. If anyone has the contact information for Dunhill please give it to me. I would like to write them a letter.

I will admit that the stem work on this pipe is very good. But next time I will buy another Savinelli. The one thing that Dunhill seems to be doing right is that they still use vulcanite stems. It is too bad that so many makers are moving to acrylic. Acrylic stems are too hard on my teeth.

As for this disaster of a pipe, I am determined to fix it. I will continue to try to smoke-out this bad taste. I will just keep smoking it and rubbing out the stain with alcohol. I will continue to update this thread with my "progress" on this front. Of course, I also hope that other members will offer their own advice and experience.

 

[phornbein]

Just figured that out on my new Dunhill, same red stain on my hand (I tend to put my hand over the bowl). Haven't really noticed an awful smell, but I read this and swabbed it out with just a cleaning rag, no alcohol, and boy did I get some red stain.

From reading through here, it sounds as if I (we) should stop smoking the pipe and continue to swab it out with alcohol until there's no more stain, then start to rebuild the cake. Has anyone contacted Dunhill? I mean this was an expensive pipe, but damn. My Petersons, Savinellis, and Meerschaums are more pleasant.

 

[rmbittner]

HUH? Peterson is not making Dunhill pipes.....

Peterson bought the Dunhill tobacco blends and are made by Scandinavian Tobacco Group for Peterson. The pipes are still made in England, not Ireland.

I think you may have missed the joke...

 

[rmbittner]

On a serious note: Why don't you just return it?

Yes, this.

Wow…I hadn’t realized this was such an old thread…

 

[PaulTheScandinavian]

Just figured that out on my new Dunhill, same red stain on my hand (I tend to put my hand over the bowl). Haven't really noticed an awful smell, but I read this and swabbed it out with just a cleaning rag, no alcohol, and boy did I get some red stain.

From reading through here, it sounds as if I (we) should stop smoking the pipe and continue to swab it out with alcohol until there's no more stain, then start to rebuild the cake. Has anyone contacted Dunhill? I mean this was an expensive pipe, but damn. My Petersons, Savinellis, and Meerschaums are more pleasant.

Allow me to repeat myself, pipes in this price range should be flawless and problem free in every aspect, I definitely would contact the vendor, and most probably folks at the Dunhill White Spot factory customer care ,if there is any

 

[sablebrush52]

I've heard different things, that Peterson is making and staining the bowls is one of them. Any way about it whoever is making them now isn't putting the attention to detail one would expect at the price point.

What I heard is that Peterson is dip staining the tobaccos for C&D, while STG has taken over manufacturing of White Spot pipes, using their patented steam jacketed press processing.

 

[sablebrush52]

So given the aforementioned problems what is the "universal" cut-off date for vintages of Dunhill?

Around 1980.

 

[RustiePyles CPG]

What I heard is that Peterson is dip staining the tobaccos for C&D, while STG has taken over manufacturing of White Spot pipes, using their patented steam jacketed press processing.

I believe Sparta Industries has taken over production of the White Spot. You can only get them in 6mm filter pipe now...

 

[kgs]

An update: I did eventually get rid of the POS Dunhill. Sold it at quite a loss, but I am glad to have it gone from my life. It is surprisingly difficult to find good pipes. I now really try to avoid pipes that have bowl coatings. I look for pipes that have bare unstained bowls and shanks. Genod and Ropp do this well, but they don't always have the best drilling.

I have a little Musico pipe that came with some kind of black stain inside the bowl but thankfully it was no problem at all.

 

[bullet08]

Wait.. Wait.. I thought only Peterson did that. Amazing.