It's an age old debate, and a good one. I'm always of the mind that between the two, the user is always of greater importance than the tool. A great bass player, for example, can make a cheap bass sound groovy, but someone with no aptitude for musicianship will make even the best bass sound horrid. At the same time, the tool is still very important. Using the bass analogy again, a great player can play and sound even better with a high quality setup. And if you give a bass player a, say, harpsicord, you gave him the wrong tool, and he will sound terrible regardless of his skill. The right tool, for the right job, for the right person.
That all being said, smoking a pipe isn't exactly a high-end skill like learning an instrument. Even so, good technique and good tobacco make a major difference. If you suck on the stem like a $10 hooker in Tijuana, then that tobacco will burn hot no matter the quality of the *ahem* wood.
I think the real sticking point of the debate, in my opinion, is a matter of diminishing returns. You see, a lot of smokers that invest in very expensive artisan pipes will make it sound as if their $1000+ pipe truly smokes better than a $100 factory pipe. Now, it almost surely does! But does it smoke ten times better to justify that cost? That determination is up to the buyer, of course; however, I do think that at a certain point, the differences in quality become less readily apparent as costs rise.
But that leads to another issue, i.e. most of us are inclined to treat our pipes as more than just tools. Their value to us is not just solely based in their performance, but also their aesthetic appeal, craftsmanship, shape, material makeup, etc.
That all being said, smoking a pipe isn't exactly a high-end skill like learning an instrument. Even so, good technique and good tobacco make a major difference. If you suck on the stem like a $10 hooker in Tijuana, then that tobacco will burn hot no matter the quality of the *ahem* wood.
I think the real sticking point of the debate, in my opinion, is a matter of diminishing returns. You see, a lot of smokers that invest in very expensive artisan pipes will make it sound as if their $1000+ pipe truly smokes better than a $100 factory pipe. Now, it almost surely does! But does it smoke ten times better to justify that cost? That determination is up to the buyer, of course; however, I do think that at a certain point, the differences in quality become less readily apparent as costs rise.
But that leads to another issue, i.e. most of us are inclined to treat our pipes as more than just tools. Their value to us is not just solely based in their performance, but also their aesthetic appeal, craftsmanship, shape, material makeup, etc.
