I have one. Beaten and battered but it remains one of my favourite pipes. Ebony does tend to crack over time( I just filled in mine with pipe mud) if you smoke them too often in a single day as it’s a short grain hard wood which does not cope all that well with the thermocycle of pipe smoking . Other than that they make fine smoking pipes.
Ebony pipes
- Thread starter SunriseBoy
- Start date
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Me too!Shows what I know. When I heard "ebony" pipe I thought they were just talking about the color.
I know ebony is an African hardwood that is extremely dense. I think it would make for a bad substitute for briar with the health risks that it would have.
In the interest of clarity:
1. Ebony is a very dense, hardwood that may or may not be legal/suitable for pipe making (especially given the risk of toxicity).
2. It's said in this thread that pipe makers may use a material called ebony, which may or may not be wood (likely not).
3. Ebony is the name of a finish used by Peterson for some of its pipes. These pipes are made of conventional briar wood with a unique finish called "ebony" which is described <at this link> (a worthwhile read). Dunhill makes a similar finish called "dress." Other makers use it as well, I gather.
"Ebony" isn't a one-size-fits-all topic.
1. Ebony is a very dense, hardwood that may or may not be legal/suitable for pipe making (especially given the risk of toxicity).
2. It's said in this thread that pipe makers may use a material called ebony, which may or may not be wood (likely not).
3. Ebony is the name of a finish used by Peterson for some of its pipes. These pipes are made of conventional briar wood with a unique finish called "ebony" which is described <at this link> (a worthwhile read). Dunhill makes a similar finish called "dress." Other makers use it as well, I gather.
"Ebony" isn't a one-size-fits-all topic.
Just got an ebony pipe from Muxiang as a goof. I'll let you all know if it gives me hives when it arrives some time in 2025.
Last Christmas I got a Scotte ebony pipe and some Captain Black from my aunt. I just texted her a thank you and put it in a cabinet. I certainly appreciated the thought, there's no way she would've known of any reputable pipe brands or that there's better quality blends. I don't trust Chinese pipes from Amazon like Scotte, Joyoldelf, et al. However there are some Danish trained Chinese pipe artisans who make amazing work I'd definitely buy if I could afford
there are several types of pink eye. Bacterial, Viral, and Allergic. Allergic pink eye sucks it feels like someone glued sand paper on the inside of your eyelids and you have to put cold packs on your eyes to keep everything from getting super blurry.
Two years ago as a newbie who didn't know hardly anything more than the everyday person on the street about pipe quality, I bought an "Eclipse" pipe on Amazon that came with the "Chang Feng" brand pine tree logo. The description said that it was made of "durable wood." I still see this kind of pipe sold widely online. I don't know what it was made from, but the dark varnish/lacquer was quite heavy, so that it was hard to visually identify the wood. Similar-looking inexpensive Chinese wood pipes seem most commonly advertised as using ebony or pear wood. May I please ask if anyone here knows what these are made of?
I used a torch light on it because the lighter's button didn't scrape my thumb like Zippo and BIC lighter wheels do. It scorched the chamber rim. At the end of my first bowl with the torch light, I got serious nausea. The next day that I smoked it with the torch light and got serious nausea after just a few puffs. Somewhere between the lighter and the Chang Feng pipe's material, I was feeling sick in the stomache. So I switched to a soft flame lighter and the stomacheache from smoking the pipe went away.
Another problem with the pipe was overheating. On a normal, solid brand name briar pipe I like to light a bowl solidly so that it has a decent burn going, and then I sip it with a relaxed slow cadence. But with the Chang Feng pipe if I gave it a strong burn, that chamber lit like a furnace. The tobacco turned a steam engine red and the chamber's inner walls shined. The outside of the chamber got quite hot to the touch in the course of a bowl or 2. But when that I didn't start it with a solid burn, I found that the pipe easily went out after a few puffs.
Naturally this led to the third problem: Serious tongue bite and canker sores. Practically every time that I smoked that pipe, within a few days a serious canker sore/mouth ulcer showed up. I had to stop smoking until the canker sore went away, which sometimes lasted a few weeks.
I actually loved the look of the pipe. It reminded me of grandfathers relaxedly smoking full bent curvy fat pipes by a fireplace in the winter. I liked the nice dark color, and the low price was great. I didn't want to reach the conclusion that the pipe was causing me the ulcers: I figured that it could be because I loved to drink espresso, often drank apple cider vinegar for health, ate a solid fruit salid that was quite acidic. One by one I stopped doing those things until by process of deduction I had to conclude that it was from the pipe.
I was reluctant to get a much more expensive full bent pipe, but finally went for a full bent Grabow as a Christmas present that my family encouraged me to get. The overheating stopped and so did generally the problems of tongue bite and canker sores.
Another problem with the pipe was overheating. On a normal, solid brand name briar pipe I like to light a bowl solidly so that it has a decent burn going, and then I sip it with a relaxed slow cadence. But with the Chang Feng pipe if I gave it a strong burn, that chamber lit like a furnace. The tobacco turned a steam engine red and the chamber's inner walls shined. The outside of the chamber got quite hot to the touch in the course of a bowl or 2. But when that I didn't start it with a solid burn, I found that the pipe easily went out after a few puffs.
Naturally this led to the third problem: Serious tongue bite and canker sores. Practically every time that I smoked that pipe, within a few days a serious canker sore/mouth ulcer showed up. I had to stop smoking until the canker sore went away, which sometimes lasted a few weeks.
I actually loved the look of the pipe. It reminded me of grandfathers relaxedly smoking full bent curvy fat pipes by a fireplace in the winter. I liked the nice dark color, and the low price was great. I didn't want to reach the conclusion that the pipe was causing me the ulcers: I figured that it could be because I loved to drink espresso, often drank apple cider vinegar for health, ate a solid fruit salid that was quite acidic. One by one I stopped doing those things until by process of deduction I had to conclude that it was from the pipe.
I was reluctant to get a much more expensive full bent pipe, but finally went for a full bent Grabow as a Christmas present that my family encouraged me to get. The overheating stopped and so did generally the problems of tongue bite and canker sores.
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No one can tell from that photo
It could be molded plastic or anything else.
I wont smoke from any odd brand from china.
It was probably cheap enough to throw away.
Im not anti any country but they have about zero regulations and it doesnt matter to many what they sell you.
FWIW that is the cost of the current world anti reguation movement.
Sure, I dont love lawyers but regulations keep you from smoking plastic.
If in doubt dont buy
It could be molded plastic or anything else.
I wont smoke from any odd brand from china.
It was probably cheap enough to throw away.
Im not anti any country but they have about zero regulations and it doesnt matter to many what they sell you.
FWIW that is the cost of the current world anti reguation movement.
Sure, I dont love lawyers but regulations keep you from smoking plastic.
If in doubt dont buy
I threw it away soon after my full bent Grabow came in the mail to replace the Chang Feng "Eclipse" pipe. The mouth ulcers were bad enough that I didn't want to risk anyone getting more problems from it.
I talked about it on Reddit and found a list of woods that are toxic, especially for pipe smoking. Ebony was on the list as a wood with toxic irritants. Greysmoke referred to its toxicity in Message #26 earlier in this thread.
So I recommend pipers avoid pipes made of ebony wood.
Based on my own experience with what was a nonbriar wood pipe, I only want to use woods pipes if they are from briar. I don't know of a better wood for pipe smoking.