Have We Reached 'Peak Pipe'?

[RonB]

The intense competition among well-capitalized companies will not come again. There is competition among artisans, but not so much on an industrial scale. There are unlikely to be teams of competing engineers testing different airway technologies for a drier smoke.

The same thing has happened with fountain pens: there is competition between small artisans, but no one will make a snorkel pen again, which requires an industrial scale.

So we get different shapes and finishes, and some modern materials like polyester. There’s money in the beauty of pipes in this smaller, partly collector market. But there’s no money in technological innovation in pipes.

The analogy to fountain pens is a good one. In the 1950’s, most people wrote with a fountain pen (if they wrote with a pen) and many men smoked a pipe. Today both are niche products.

 

[cigrmaster]

Ok after twom dumbass posts by me I believe that people will always try to make different shapes and I think they should try. I personally only smoke the classics but I do have two pipes that are totally different than the rest of my collection. They are both from Trever Talbert and I thing he was beeming when he made them.
I call this pipe my Alien pod pipe because it reminds me of the pods in the movie Aliens.
This next one is just cool as it very different and it caught my eye which normally it wouldn't.

 

[Sweet Home Alabama]

Neither would I, but both of those are non toxic.

Who say?

 

[fireground_piper]

Yes, and your post not withstanding, I still don’t want to smoke elmers glue or carnuba wax.

You realize you probably eat Carnauba wax on any given day in your life as it's used on all sorts of coatings for food and suppliments that are regularly consumed. Pills, vitamins, candy, etc. popularly use Carnauba wax for their shiny protective coatings to make sure it goes from manufacture to your mouth without deteriorating.

 

[Sweet Home Alabama]

You realize you probably eat Carnauba wax on any given day in your life as it's used on all sorts of coatings for food and suppliments that are regularly consumed. Pills, vitamins, candy, etc. popularly use Carnauba wax for their shiny protective coatings to make sure it goes from manufacture to your mouth without deteriorating.

Arent we talking about smoking? I don’t usually eat my pipes.

 

[fireground_piper]

Do you burn the outside of your pipe and inhale the result? I've never heard of a pipe having melted Caurnuba wax dripped inside it by a maker.

 

[Chasing Embers]

How can you improve a straw?

 

[fireground_piper]

Flexible neck!

 

[Chasing Embers]

Al

Flexible neck!

Already been done.

 

[anotherbob]

depends. I think that's just not where pipes are right now. In a large part because we have figured out what works and what doesn't and because of the internet. Back in the day you had to know someone to get the 411 on pipes now you just need access to the internet. So anyone can learn why the pipe burns their tongue and ways to fix that. I think both of those equal no real advantage to making a pipe that is easier to smoke without fear of bite. You can get a system pipe, a falcon, or a filter pipe but those pipes own their share of the market or at least they seem to.
And another thing you might notice is all those crazy innovations came about at the same time that cigs started to become way more popular and people started to see tobacco as a morbidily unhealthy (as in will kill you, not just make you somewhat out of shape) if you notice lots of those stingers and yada yadas advertised as safer and healthier. Now people either see tobacco as deadly or cigarettes as deadly. So no one is going to think a piece of paper tube is going to make a pipe safe or they either already see the pipe itself as the safer alternative. That's my thoughts on all that. Though there is also a really good chance of innovations coming down the pike. Why because pipes are a collectors thing (fewer people are buying them but buying them in some quantity) which means there is a reason to make very different pipes so that we'll have to have one of those two.
Or that's my uninformed thoughts on the subject.

 

[anotherbob]

Ok after twom dumbass posts by me I believe that people will always try to make different shapes and I think they should try. I personally only smoke the classics but I do have two pipes that are totally different than the rest of my collection. They are both from Trever Talbert and I thing he was beeming when he made them.
I call this pipe my Alien pod pipe because it reminds me of the pods in the movie Aliens.
This next one is just cool as it very different and it caught my eye which normally it wouldn't.

That is weird I am also in the camp of liking the classic shapes but also find both of these pipes appealing. Then again they're kind of classic shapes mutated. That's the funny thing about funky pipes they really don't need broad appeal. What they need is one person really liking them.

 

[jguss]

But have we seen the end of that now? Has the market basically accepted what a pipe is and we are now just talking about different shapes and finishes?

Not even close. Recent patent activity by Musk includes Level 6 autonomous pipes that smoke themselves; Nest has an IoT app to initiate a char light on your favorite pipe while you're on your way home; Apple has a prototype that is particularly secure from hackers and uses solar combustion for ignition; and I have one that uses proprietary AI architecture that learns from successive bowls to eventually develop the perfect smoke (I could tell you how blockchain plays a role in the outcome but I'd have to kill you).

We're nowhere near the endgame. As long as there are people there will be innovations whether they're fads or genuine improvements. So whip out your bitcoins and belly up to the bar.

 

[cigrmaster]

That is weird I am also in the camp of liking the classic shapes but also find both of these pipes appealing. Then again they're kind of classic shapes mutated. That's the funny thing about funky pipes they really don't need broad appeal. What they need is one person really liking them.

I was in the car business years ago and we had a saying.
"There is an ass for every seat." It was so true we would take in cars that were junk and we sold them all. We had a guy go to Detroit and he would by rehashes. These were accident cars put back together with glue. We also had cars with frame damage. Back then you could sell anything. We would male 3-4 thousand dollars grosses on these cars. I just remembered the guys first name it was Jerry. I can't remember his last name but we made great money. Now things like broken frames or water damage and other things have to be disclosed.

 

[anotherbob]

I was in the car business years ago and we had a saying.
"There is an ass for every seat." It was so true we would take in cars that were junk and we sold them all. We had a guy go to Detroit and he would by rehashes. These were accident cars put back together with glue. We also had cars with frame damage. Back then you could sell anything. We would male 3-4 thousand dollars grosses on these cars. I just remembered the guys first name it was Jerry. I can't remember his last name but we made great money. Now things like broken frames or water damage and other things have to be disclosed.

So not that different then some of the pipes on ebay

 

[Sweet Home Alabama]

Do you burn the outside of your pipe and inhale the result? I've never heard of a pipe having melted Caurnuba wax dripped inside it by a maker.

I realize I responded inappropriately to your post and have no need to argue or make you feel you need to justify what you chose to do or smoke. My bad.

 

[sablebrush52]

Who say?

You can find that out yourself. I did.

 

[hoosierpipeguy]

Since there's minimal money in it, I don't see motivation or justification for much innovation. However, there's a number of artisans out there getting pretty creative with shapes.

 

[sasquatch]

The "Space Race" in pipes, having a gizmo, a whatsit, having magic briar or a carburetor or some replaceable filter... this crap sold a lot of pipes in the last hundred years. From Dunhill's claim about his Calabrian briar not going sour the way other briar does (I mean, does it?) to the various Kaywoodie drinkless stingers... I think the pipe companies realized that having something replaceable was a cash cow, Brigham and Savinelli probably make more money on little wooden filters than on pipes.

In the last 20 years I think we've seen some pretty neat new ideas, the big "reverse calabash" chamber is one. Lots of pipes being made super carefully to constant-volume specs etc. Lots of good comes out of it. You just have to decide what's "good" for you, what you care about as a consumer. I like Castellos because they have a nice pile of old wood, and they make very simple pipes that smoke good. So I buy those.

 

[Chasing Embers]

I think it's more about the smoker reaching a peak. If many would learn how to smoke the things and stop looking for magic pipes to correct poor technique, gimmicks wouldn't have gained any ground.

 

[bullet08]

Nano technology to control the temperature and the air flow. Nah.. That sounds too much like vape.