View attachment 47864
@hoosierpipeguy I mean, can we fault embers for not understanding the differences in bowl sizes and shapes. Just look at his collection.
The struggle should be obvious to most.
Effects and Properties of Pipe Bowl Shape
- Thread starter Effortlessdepths
- Start date
SmokingPipes.com Updates
Watch for Updates Twice a Week
PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor
Site Sponsors
PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor
PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor
PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor
PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor
The struggle should be obvious to most.
So on one hand, you post a pic of thirty of the exact same shapes to support your argument. Then, you show a pic of a painted boat anchor attached to a garden hose hanging out of your mouth to support another. Are you really wondering why you may have a credibility issue?
I haven’t had a chance to reply to my thread here, but I’d like to clarify a few things. I think it’s pretty obvious that there are other factors that have a much larger effect on smoking experience, like cadence and technique, moisture levels, dedicating pipes, etc. I know for a fact that chamber size does effect the smoke, as several of you have agreed, but I was simply wondering what effect the size and shape of the pipe/bowl walls would have on a smoke (even if it’s subtle, like I said), or lend itself better to certain blends, or how it would effect cadence. I am not arguing that it has some big effect, I just want to talk about those subtle effects, to “micro-analyze”. If you don’t micro analyze then don’t, I’m not advocating for everyone to analyze either, we all smoke for different reasons, nor do I think either kind of smoker is superior to another. Smoke however you want! I just personally want to go there, to the minutae.
I am to the point now in my piping journey where I’m getting into the minutae simply for the enjoyment of it, the 20 part of the 80/20 Cosmic was talking about.
Thanks to everyone who did answer my question.
I am to the point now in my piping journey where I’m getting into the minutae simply for the enjoyment of it, the 20 part of the 80/20 Cosmic was talking about.
Thanks to everyone who did answer my question.
I think the ember has always the same temperature but the thicker the walls the less you feel the heat.
Man, I answered this with some really cool graphics I made a few years ago, but with this new computer, I lost all of those. It's not an easy question, because of different angles that a cone can have from wide and shallow to deep and narrow. But, if you think about the cherry of the burn being a cone also, you have the cone of the cherry and the cone of the surrounding chamber. Most of the actual flavors come from the warmed tobacco surrounding the cherry. This is why a cigarette tastes so different from a cigar or pipe. So, in a U-shaped bowl, you get a more consistent flavor as the cherry burns and progresses down into the tobacco. In a cone, the size of the cherry is also reduced as you progress. The U-shaped bowl more evenly heats up the surrounding tobacco, but in a cone, the heat from the cherry more exaggeratedly releases the oils directly below the cherry.
The effect for me, is that as I smoke a cone shaped pipe, the flavor of the tobacco become a little bit sharper in flavor, almost focusing the "higher end" flavors, the sharpness, and even a little more of the biteyness. But, because of this focusing of flavors, i prefer to use my wide/shallow coned bowls for tasting new tobaccos. At the start, it is more mellow, and more quickly becomes sharper as the bowl progresses. It gives me the best ideas of what the tobacco will taste like in different bowls. In my narrow deep cones, they become more like a laser beam focus on the more delicate sharper flavors, especially in a more acidic blend like a Virginia.
Now, these are very delicate nuances. We aren't talking "it will taste like a dramatically different blend" here. If you can't taste hay and lemon notes without a cone shaped bowl, you're not going to taste with them. And, if I were going to guess a number for how different the effect will be, it would probably be in the 5-15% range, very subtle.
But, as I said, if you can't taste these delicate hints of flavors to begin with, the differences will be moot. On some days, I just don't pay attention. I just smoke. But, when i do want to set down and focus on flavors, I do consider the shape of the chamber, especially with a new to me tobacco, or when I am sampling tobaccos that I have just finished curing. I don't think that on a day to day smoking experience that it matters terribly much. It also may be that a cone shape seems to last longer for me, when smoking. In my first couple of years of smoking a pipe, the shape of the chamber didn't mean nothing, because I was still learning how to taste.
I hope this helps. I am not a scientist, but just a layman trying my best to answer your question from my own experiences.
May I ask what brought on these thoughts? It might better sway my responses.
I thought he first planed to post each pipe in a single post but then decided to put all in one picture and post it 30 times.
Ha, when I went did a Google search for my graphics I posted years ago, the first two rows were Chasingembers Savinelli collection, ha ha.
I couldn't find the ones I made, but here are some that others have posted on other blogs...
These illustrate somewhat how the cherry heats up the surrounding tobacco to give you the tobacco flavors.
@Effortlessdepths Is this all somewhat answering your question, or am I just wasting our time? I hope I am helping somewhat.
I couldn't find the ones I made, but here are some that others have posted on other blogs...
These illustrate somewhat how the cherry heats up the surrounding tobacco to give you the tobacco flavors.
@Effortlessdepths Is this all somewhat answering your question, or am I just wasting our time? I hope I am helping somewhat.
Well technically Cosmic, I was asking what effect the thickness of the walls of the pipe have on the smoke, and if that variable would affect choice of blend, and others have posited that it doesn't affect the heat of the tobacco but only how hot the outside of the pipe gets -- though I have a hunch that it has SOME effect, just not sure and can't say what that would be.
However, you have given me a fine and more detailed education in how chamber shape affects the smoking experience, which I appreciate very much! I knew about wide bowls for blends with many tobaccos but now I know exactly WHY folks smoke Virginia in conical, narrow, tall Chambers. I really like your analogy to tasting honey and mead making as well, my wife and I had that same exact experience tasting different honeys trying to decide which to use for our own batch of mead. What made me think of the original question was simply the shape of my newly purchased pipe, and wanting to utilize this forum to simply learn more and make a better informed decision on how to use the pipe. Thanks again for all the help!