Help With Buying A Calabash
- Thread starter kamikaze
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My concerns would be the gasket's condition and yes, seller's rating and return policy. Other than that, fit and finish. I'm not personally familiar with Butz, pressed or block meer bowl, honest to goodness gourd?
Most nice Calabash pipes go for around $100. That one didn't look so good. The cork inside looks cracked to me and not sure what the black spots are on the outside of the bowl but that would give me pause.
Looks like a POS to me. Gourds are quite absorbent...good for smoking, bad for sitting around in someone's garage or attic for decades getting moldy. I buy estate pipes, but only from reputable dealers who have had them cleaned professionally. That would be especially true of a gourd calabash. I bought one off fleabay years ago and although it looked good it stank and was unsmokable. I gave it the alcohol-and-salt Tx and the friggin bowl cracked right down the center. Superglued it, smoked it, figured it would fall apart once the glue got hot. To my pleasant surprise the crack disappeared. I guess the meer welded itself together. It's one of my favorite pipes now, although a PITA to smoke as I have to hold it all the time, too heavy to clench.
Those ^ are not calabashes, they're meerschaums fit to mahogany pipes shaped like a calabash. Calabash is a kind of gourd, that's why calabash pipes are called calabashes, because they were made from calabash gourds.
So what would you call the pipe shaped like a calabash made of mahogany with a meerschaum bowl? In any case they are good smokers. I have one of those too.
For what it is worth, I use a lower case "c" for anything calabash shaped. A Calabash (capital C) pipe for me is one made with a gourd. Just a personal quirk.
The same thing I would call cubic zirconia shaped like a diamond: a fake made for people satisfied with appearances rather than authenticity.
A mahogabash? It's like cubic zirconia shaped like a diamond: a fake made for people satisfied with the appearance of authenticity.
I think the Calabash terminology is pretty confusing. The "real" Calabash are made from gourds. There are briar "Calabash" that simply have a domed rim that faintly resemble the gourd pipes but are really just briar pipes with domed rims (I have one of those, probably really a plump Dublin shape). Then there are other pipes called Calabash that are made from briar or something else, not gourds, that have a chambering system whereby the smoke is drawn through a secondary chamber before going to the shank and stem. I wish Calabash could be used only for the gourd pipes, and the others could develop terminology of their own, but I don't have my diction police badge, so I just try to keep track of it and explain as best I can. Correct me where I'm wrong if necessary.
kamikase, do not give up your quest for a real Calabash. Nor should you stop searching eBay for one. One bad pipe does not a search make! That pipe you looked at was very heavily smoked--- you can tell by all the staining in the lower part of the gourd. IMO, the Calabash is the king of the pipes! Others will disagree, but I have all types of pipes and when I smoke my tobacco in one of my Calabashes, it just plain smokes better, cooler, smoother and more flavorful.
Sure, you might not want to try to clench it in your teeth while sawing wood, but do you do your serious smoking while working? The Calabash is ideal for being seated, resting and relaxing, focused on the tobacco as you read a book or watch TV--- you can hold the pipe by the bowl or rest the bottom of the gourd on your chest and just grip it with a few fingers there. I was just smoking my main Bash last night with a Meer bowl (O.D.) about 3 inches in diameter. The pipe barely warms and is so so pleasant to smoke.
You want a real block meerschaum bowl and a real Calabash gourd. Meerschaum is an excellent pipe material, but all-meerschaum pipes are generally too fragile and easily broken, aimed mainly at being decorative. The Calabash uses the meerschaum for where it best serves, as the bowl material, while the gourd gives the smoke room to cool and develop its flavor. If you look at a lot of Calabashes, you will see a lot of variety in styles in how they are made!
These newer pipes made with mahogany or whatever, some of them look nice and probably smoke well, but the main reason is cost and availability--- growth of Calabash gourds is very scarce now and few farmers grow them for pipes now but just mainly for decorative pieces; if you want a good gourd suitable to make a nice pipe, you will probably have to go through HUNDREDS of gourds to find a suitable one, and that is what I think is driving the wooden calabash lookalikes. You can make anything on a lathe.
Making a perfect Calabash pipe is very difficult and a real art-form that is quickly disappearing--- keep up your quest to find a good used one. They will not be cheap, but the $70 in the eBay ad would have been a good price had the pipe been in better condition. It had chips on the bowl and bad staining. Some of them may include a storage case or even a stand to sit the pipe in. Keep looking until you find the right one for you. When you find it, go after it and get it--- consider it a good investment in your piping future!
I too have been looking for a Calabash pipe. I would prefer a real African calabash solid block meerschaum, I know they have shut down mining in Africa for meerschaum. Finding something is hit or miss on eBay in my experience.
Recently I found what appeared to be a great meerschaum calabash, which is what it was titled, but upon further investigation into the sale, they described the pipe and casually mentioned at the end, "this is a porcelain bowl". How they can tout it as a meerschaum in the title, I am not sure, but the price was driven up to $90 last I checked. It was very nice looking, maybe they planned to replace the bowl. I would feel a bit as if I was smoking out of a toilet..
Kamikaze, I would be interested to find out if you ever purchased one of the mahogany ones or not.
Personally I think I will keep searching for a African Meerschaum Calabash, after all, isn't the thrill of the chase almost more fun than actually smoking the pipe?!
If anyone has better advice on where to find one, I would appreciate the information. Thanks!!
Recently I found what appeared to be a great meerschaum calabash, which is what it was titled, but upon further investigation into the sale, they described the pipe and casually mentioned at the end, "this is a porcelain bowl". How they can tout it as a meerschaum in the title, I am not sure, but the price was driven up to $90 last I checked. It was very nice looking, maybe they planned to replace the bowl. I would feel a bit as if I was smoking out of a toilet..
Kamikaze, I would be interested to find out if you ever purchased one of the mahogany ones or not.
Personally I think I will keep searching for a African Meerschaum Calabash, after all, isn't the thrill of the chase almost more fun than actually smoking the pipe?!
If anyone has better advice on where to find one, I would appreciate the information. Thanks!!
Thanks Alex, those may be too nice, but I will keep on my someday list just in case.. I thought this post was too old, I appreciate the info.
I only had one calabash, and it was over 50 years ago. But here is my two cents. They are difficult or impossible to clean inside the gourd and quickly become a sticky mess. Mine had a pressed meerschaum bowl. It was an awful pipe. I simply threw it out.
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