Ideal bowl size?

[cosmic]

Hello Pipes Magazine. I trust this finds everyone (ever) to be well and lucid.
I'm something of a new member and I apologise if this is a common public pontification on these forums, but I was curious on bowl size for one's pipe. My most recent purchase - an ash hardwood 16" churchwarden of no name - is a stunning piece of work. Very smooth, very cool. Yet the bowl is a lot smaller to another pipe I have been using a considerable amount of for a good few years now. I can't quite tell whether or not my quick smokes are due to my low skill as a piping practitioner, or if the bowl is just indeed too small for my taste, or perhaps too small in general.
So I put out the question, is there a specifically 'good' or recommended bowl size for a pipe? (Wide/shallow? Narrow/deep? Wide/deep? Narrow/shallow?) Or is this solely down to an individual preference and always is such? Perhaps this is the blandest of bland examinations, and perhaps this newbie is overanalysing~

 

[blueeyedogre]

Most of my pipe chambers are just under an inch in diameter and around an inch and a half deep. I have bigger for nice long smokes and smaller for flakes.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

Hey hey Cosmic, ha ha, I like your name.
It's is completely personal as to the size you prefer. I have a variety from .5" to just a tad over an inch with different depths. When I started, I preferred all of my pipes to be .75, and I could slow smoke those small bowls for 30 minutes to an hour. Mostly, I still go for the smaller bowls, because of time. But, I grab the larger bowls for long hikes, fishing trips, or the largest for movie nights, when I want to kick back for 2-3 hours with my pipe.
I also have mine sorted and devoted to blend types, with my taller chamber for Virginias and VaPers so that they'll stove in the chamber as I smoke them to give me a drastic change in taste as it progresses. And a couple for aros, which I've found not to matter how large they are, IMO. And, a pot and couple of larger chambers for mixes, like the few lat blends that I can tolerate and things like Haddos Delight. However, some may disagree with my choices, because of their own preferences.
It just depends on what you like.
Welcome to the forum Cosmic.

 

[tuold]

Just a personal preference, but I like larger bowls for English blends and smaller ones for my aromatics. I guess I don't like to overindulge in "dessert".

 

[mso489]

Small bowls have a definite place. I just ventured into a Group 1 pipe after mostly medium and extra large.

Small bowls are perfect for strong tobacco, "appetizer" or "dessert bowls" around smoking a larger bowl

pipe, or a shorter smoke. In a rotation of at least five or six pipes, this smaller bowl will find a useful place.

 

[bryanf]

For me, big bowls for ribbon cut tobaccos, small bowls for flakes, whether stuffed or rubbed out. Both last about the same length of smoke. I like a pipe to smoke for 30-40 minutes MAX. I f I want more, I'd rather load a fresh bowl. I smoke slow, my pipes stay cool, so I will often load one bowl after another in the same pipe. Doing so right now in fact.
My preferred dimensions are .72 x 1.3 deep give or take. I mostly smoke flake tobacco rubbed out, but sometimes fold and stuff for a longer smoke or if it's windy.

 

[judcole]

It's a personal preference. The conventional wisdom is large bowl for lat blends and aros, small bowls for Virginias. I follow that, as a rule, but also find that some blends don't work well in certain bowls.

 

[mikeklumpp]

I keep a wode variety of bowl sizes for different smokes - amount of time i have to light up - heat - type of tobacco i am smoking - i find the size affects many things and that there is no one size fits all for me

 

[sfsteves]

I've got both large and small bowl pipes ... the choice, for me, is a mood thing combined with the time available.

On about 3 (sometimes 4) nights a week, my #2 son comes by and brings his pipe and we chat or maybe watch TV over a smoke ... he's a slower smoker than I and often I go with 2 smaller bowl pipes to his one, smoking a different blend in each ...
One other thing that hasn't been mentioned is that many guys go with smaller bowls due to the cost of tobacco ... years ago, before costs (and taxes) on tobacco were lower, larger bowls were generally more prevalent ...

 

[lordnoble]

As with everyone else, it's a personal preference, but I like a Group 3 for most latakia and Virginia blends and a Group 4 for aromatics.
-Jason

 

[numbersix]

I like small bowls for short smokes (which is what I am forced to have most times) and larger bowls for those rare moments I can linger for an hour or two. This means I usually reach for a group 1 or 2, but for longer smokes, a group 4-5.
If I had to choose one size to fit most occasions, I would lean towards a group 3.
My small group 2 Dunhill:

My large group 5 (technically a "6") ODB Dunhill:

And my "middle of the road" group 3 Dunhill:

 

[billypm]

Like bryanf, I choose a bowl size by the cut of the tobacco I'm going to smoke in it, not the style of blend. Ribbons in large bowls, flakes in smaller ones.

 

[cigrmaster]

Welcome to the site Cosmic. I smoke flake tobacco exclusively and prefer pipes that are in the group 4-5 sizes. A typical group 5 sized pipe is a bowl height of about 1.95 " a bowl depth of about 1.6" and a bowl width of .75-.82". This gives me a good 1.5 to 2 hour smoke with my flakes. If I was to smoke a ribbon cut in that size pipe, I would get 45 minutes max from it.

 

[sablebrush52]

is there a specifically 'good' or recommended bowl size for a pipe? (Wide/shallow? Narrow/deep? Wide/deep? Narrow/shallow?)

Despite the need of some pipesters to brag about their bowl size and staying power, there really is no ideal bowl size. Different chamber shapes work well with some tobaccos and not so well with others. Sometimes I'm in the mood for a long, long smoke while walking. Other times I'm looking for a shorter smoke.
Mostly I find that a medium sized bowl, a group 4, does well for me.
Welcome to the forums.

 

[cosmic]

Thank you, everyone, for your welcomes and your in-depth and wonderfully informative responses. I understand much better now about certain techniques and combinations. May you all have a wonderful Saturday

 

[mso489]

Bowl size is highly negotiable when you consider that many of us will pack and smoke the beginning of

a bowl, then let it go out, get busy with something else, and come back and relight several times, as

time permits, or alternately, pack a partial bowl for a shorter smoke, if we want to smoke in a larger bowl

but don't have the time. A full bowl in the right size is always "the best," but the other options work.

 

[petes03]

I prefer my pipes about the same dimensions as Harris, which cover all types of blends very well for me. That being said, I have pipes with bowl diameters of less than .500" all the way to nearly 1.125"! With bowl depths ranging between .500" to nearly 2.000". But I've found that bowls that are somewhere in the middle work well for just about everything.

 

[cortezattic]

I think chamber diameter is analogous to a carburetor, with wider bowls engaging more of the fuel, and requiring more oxygen.

The bowl's depth, and the amount of toasting, or stoving that occurs during the smoke was discussed above.
Additionally, I've always noticed that pipe chamber geometry affects the pipe's performance with various tobaccos.

The various bowl geometries I've encountered are U-shaped, V-shaped, and in smaller bowls -- especially calabash cups,

something more ovate or hemispheric.
The relationships between size and shape should be considered in light of Neill Archer Roan's excellent blog, The Thermodynamics of Pipe-Smoking.
But for maximum enjoyment, I try not to over think this stuff. ::

 

[virginiacob]

From a manufacturer's perspective, we have worked mostly with smaller bowl sizes due to the nature of the heirloom Indian corn cobs that we use for making our pipes. We have experimented with bowl chamber sizes ranging from 3/4" in dia. down to 1/2" dia. Our "Virginia Planter" has a chamber diameter of 5/8" and the bowl itself averages about 1-3/4" in height (we start with a 2" long blank and shape the bowl from there so with natural imperfections in the cob and sanding/shaping we do get a slight variability in bowl height). Width also varies due to cob shape and size. Our "Laughing King" has a chamber diameter of 9/16" and the bowl is approximately the same height as our VA Planter but is rounded more around the rim and base to give the pipe a "barrel" shape for aesthetic purposes.
I mostly smoke Virginia and Burley tobaccos in my cobs so my observations are based solely on smoking these tobaccos in these smaller diameter bowl chambers. I'm currently enjoying a fine Virginia tobacco blended with a smooth black Cavendish. In all honesty, I've found very little difference in smoking these Virginia & Burley tobacco blends in our cobs in relation to longevity of the smoke (average 20-30 minutes smoking time) or difference in flavor. After experimenting with 1/2" - 3/4" bowl chamber sizes, we chose to go with a 5/8" and 9/16" simply because they seemed to work best with our particular cob sizes and offered a practical balance between adequate bowl size and sufficient wall thickness. 3/4" proved just too large for our cobs and often made too thin of a wall thickness. 1/2" diameter was initially considered to be too small by us; however, we are working with a new prototype that if we bring to market will be an inexpensive small cob pipe with a 1/2" diameter chamber. This pipe would be marketed as a "party favor" pipe, tobacco testing pipe, or dessert pipe. I've tried smoking one of the 1/2" dia. bowl prototypes and found that other than being a quick smoke (15-20 minutes), it was actually a nice little smoker and there was little difference in the flavor of the tobacco as compared with smoking the same tobacco in our Virginia Planter and Laughing King pipes.
Anyway, just my thoughts.
Bob Savage

Old Dominion Pipe Co.

 

[hobie1dog]

Bigger is better