How do You Know it's a Quality Pipe ?

[Buescher308]

Title edited. Rule 9! But more importantly welcome!

Totally new at puffin a pipe. What are the ways to tell it's a quality pipe?
A $25 Chinese Churchwarden vs a $250 Churchwarden?
I'm guessing name brand and country of origin? Also, by pipe maker style and materials?

 

[Chasing Embers]

Drilling, stem work, and shaping. Whose selling it can also affect the price. A $300 Vauen Auenland in the US can be ordered from Germany for $150.

 

[sablebrush52]

My litmus test for a high quality pipe is simple. Does it smoke well and give me great flavors.

 

[btp79]

My litmus test for a high quality pipe is simple. Does it smoke well and give me great flavors.

100% this. I prefer a looser draw so for me, a cob is about as good a smoker as one can get. If you're starting out, focus on what works for you, the rest will follow.

 

[Lianza]

See how well it smokes!
Just because a pipe is cheap doesn’t mean it’s bad. Same can be said for an expensive pipe… doesn’t mean it’s good.

 

[Streeper541]

I've had $25 Mr. Brog & Dr. Grabow pipes smoke just as good as a $100 big name factory pipe. I've had a couple $100 pipes smoke as poorly as a basket pipe from a vape shop.

The key to a good pipe is finding quality wood and getting it into the hands of a reputable carver/ manufacturer.

YMMV.

 

[Laurent]

I’m fairly a newbie also. Out of the six pipes I own and smoke everyday, it seems all pipes have different personalities lol. From packing to smoking. That was my first question, what is a good smoking pipe? I have a $45 savinelli and a $200 artisan that both smoke nice. I’m still learning and I just go with the flow and have a good time. I’ve found you can bring a small flash light and shine it up the stem to see if the bowl depth is the same as the air hole. If the light shines straight through with no break it’s a good drill. But, who knows maybe every piece of briar has its own characteristics.

 

[Grangerous]

Quality is in the performance.

 

[Streeper541]

View attachment 117820
Quality is in the performance.

Absolute truth!

I know alot of people knock cobs, but there's as reason Missouri Meershaum has been in business as long as they have; their pipes are cheap and they work!

 

[Chasing Embers]

For personal reasons I'll never buy another Missouri Meerschaum but their quality is on par with artisan pieces.

 

[hoosierpipeguy]

I would define quality in a pipe as fit, form and finish. That's from a purely technical and terminology perspective. It's possible for a pipe to be made flawlessly and smoke poorly. And vice versa. Again, purely speaking, how well a pipe smokes can't be the definition of quality as that is a purely subjective judgment. You can't measure it in any objective manner.

The reality is, most members here are primarily concerned about how well a pipe smokes.

 

[warren]

Cosmetics aside, by the fourth or fifth bowl I would think.

 

[trouttimes]

If it’s sold blister packed it has to be quality!

 

[jpmcwjr]

Title edited. Rule 9! But more importantly welcome!

Totally new at puffin a pipe. What are the ways to tell it's a quality pipe?
A $25 Chinese Churchwarden vs a $250 Churchwarden?
I'm guessing name brand and country of origin? Also, by pipe maker style and materials?

Well, not a cheap knock off from any country! But other than that, country, shaping and name don't make for quality or lack thereof. I believe there are levels of quality in briar, but also that virtually any block of briar can be cured into being all right, so it has to meet certain construction minimums, which most pipes I've encountered do. I hope this is wishy-washy enough to help you get to the point where you'll know by your own instinct if it's a pipe for you. Few pipes are really problems; it's the user that may introduce problems...

 

[cshubhra]

1. If you want to spend $25 you are better of buying a couple of corn cobs. A new pipe of any other material might be good (low probability) or bad (much higher probability). It is possible to get good estate pipes of eBay but may be a hard task for a beginner (So the probability of success is low)

2. For Briar / Meerschaum spending $60-100 from a reputable brand (Savinelli, Rossi, Peterson, Stanwell, etc…) will give you a very good chance of getting a good pipe

Anything which costs more will be because of aesthetics, artisanal, rarity, desirability, etc… That is where you need to go for splurging, but they generally smoke about the same as a $100 factory pipe.

 

[kcghost]

I usually buy from artisan carvers and have never been disappointed.

 

[dctune]

I like to keep my money. I’m not rolling in it or anything, but I do have a bit Scrooge McDuck in me. I like stacking it up and counting it. Spending it? Not so much.

“Get all you can, can all you get, and sit on the can.”

So the cheaper a good pipe, the better. However, I also believe you should “treat yoself” every now and then. And I do.

But in general, how well it smokes is what determines if it’s a good pipe or not for me. And in my experience, that can be a somewhat changing and evolving metric depending on technique, tobacco, age of pipe, or perhaps even season or state of mind.

My first pipe was a Grabow from Walgreens. It smokes great for me for a long time. And I still have it, and fill it from time to time just to remember where I came from. But after experiencing other (better pipes,) I notice I don’t particularly enjoy the draw of that one anymore.

I’ve also got a churchwarden basket pipe that’s an absolute dud. It’s like sucking a milkshake,regardless of how it’s packed. Pretty frustrating.

I’ve also got some el cheapos that smoke wonderfully.

 

[hauntedmyst]

Totally new at puffin a pipe. What are the ways to tell it's a quality pipe?

This is a question that man has asked since the beginning of pipe smoking. In a recent discovery in the Mayan civilization shows they cultivated tobacco. A hieroglyphic stone was found where the Mayan writer was complaining about the cheap import pipes making their way in from China just ruining the human sacrifice after celebrations. It would take another 5000 years or so before Alfred Dunhill in 1912 would solve the conundrum of how to identify a quality pipe. From 1912 onward, a quality pipe can be determined by if it has a white spot on the stem. If it doesn't have it the pipe is probably junk.



Or it could be the finishing, drilling, stem work, shaping and smoking qualities.

 

[Winterreise]

If you want a cheap briar you should take a look at Morgan Bone Pipe they are super fine smoker + you help creating job in USA

 

[mikethompson]

Everyone has a different definition of a 'quality pipe', so you will (and have) get different answers.

Its hard to know how a pipe will smoke buying it online though