I’ve noticed my prettier pipes smoke a lot wetter than my others…but that’s mainly cos I’m drooling all over them while trying to smoke
Is Premium Briar Different?
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Yes, better briars smoke better than ordinary briars.
When you read the old advertisements and also what few books were written by pops makers during the golden age of pipe smoking, which featured huge pipe companies churning out millions of pipes year,,,
They assumed construction was good.
They knew there was prettier briar, than plain briar,
But the same pipe makers, sold identical shaped pipes in identical sizes, ranging in price from a dollar to ten dollars, and there are still scads of those pipes for sale today, the higher grades often unsmoked in boxes.
They knew how to select briar for a ten dollar pipe to sell to a sophisticated costumer who could buy a Dunhill for ten dollars, that smoked divinely.
Today, the artisan maker who’s selling a pipe for hundreds of dollars had better, I use better tasting and not just prettier looking briar.
The vast majority of briar pipes today are actually bought by the consumer, not as gifts. He smokes them, and he won’t buy a bad tasting pipe twice.
I know it does I’m about to do the eighth smoke on my new Grade 1 Nording and the more I smoke it the better that briar tastes.
If that pipe was a Lee, the first smoke would have been cool, sweet, and delicious instead of hot, bitter and downright bad.
I must have smoked a dozen or more brand new, but old three star Lee pipes.
Not one was a flashy, splashy, fancy straight grain like my Nording.
But I’m hoping my pretty Nording will pan out to be an excellent smoker like 100% of dozens and dozens of high grade Lee pipes I own are.
I’m not swearing off a Nording forever, but next new Danish pipe I buy is going to be a Stanwell.
When you read the old advertisements and also what few books were written by pops makers during the golden age of pipe smoking, which featured huge pipe companies churning out millions of pipes year,,,
They assumed construction was good.
They knew there was prettier briar, than plain briar,
But the same pipe makers, sold identical shaped pipes in identical sizes, ranging in price from a dollar to ten dollars, and there are still scads of those pipes for sale today, the higher grades often unsmoked in boxes.
They knew how to select briar for a ten dollar pipe to sell to a sophisticated costumer who could buy a Dunhill for ten dollars, that smoked divinely.
Today, the artisan maker who’s selling a pipe for hundreds of dollars had better, I use better tasting and not just prettier looking briar.
The vast majority of briar pipes today are actually bought by the consumer, not as gifts. He smokes them, and he won’t buy a bad tasting pipe twice.
Briar imparts flavor.
I know it does I’m about to do the eighth smoke on my new Grade 1 Nording and the more I smoke it the better that briar tastes.
If that pipe was a Lee, the first smoke would have been cool, sweet, and delicious instead of hot, bitter and downright bad.
I must have smoked a dozen or more brand new, but old three star Lee pipes.
Not one was a flashy, splashy, fancy straight grain like my Nording.
But I’m hoping my pretty Nording will pan out to be an excellent smoker like 100% of dozens and dozens of high grade Lee pipes I own are.
I’m not swearing off a Nording forever, but next new Danish pipe I buy is going to be a Stanwell.
Castello makes a great pipe. They do price them aggressively however. Try a Radice Rind at about a third of the price of a sea rock and /or a rinf E series with an ebonite stem for slightly higher cost.
No matter what answers you get, you'll never be satisfied until you take the proverbial "leap" toward a higher end pipe and see for yourself. If you're looking in the $300+ range, I'd go for an artisan piece, custom made to your specific dimensions and aesthetics.
A beautifully cut and finished symmetrical piece of well grained plateau briar will not smoke better than a pipe made with cheap ebauchons with fills, IF the drilling and stems are identical. They only difference is how they look, not how they smoke. The ultimate sweet smoking wood for pipes in my not so humble opinion is corn cob. That would be all I'd smoke except I'm too snooty to do that. I want my artisan briars because they look so pretty and I don't want to look like a banjo playing, corncob sucking hick if you know what I mean.
I think grading briar is sort of like grading two-year-old thoroughbreds. You may know the lineage and the horse farm, but you can always be amazed by the $3K horse bought in a claiming race without great prospects versus the coronated animal with every possibility of a triple crown. Morgen Johansen of Johs pipes keeps his prices moderate but gets some briar that is light as a feather and insulates like the best. Sometimes the buyer with a good eye is the best at grading what they select, and gets lucky. Like little Secretariat who didn't come with propitious papers and cinched the triple crown at Belmont literally leaving the pack and running his own race so the others were out of the picture. literally straggling far behind.
If you're going to open your wallet, go for an Asian pipe. You don't have to go far, Jack Howell is a member here and makes fantastic pipes. I have 4 and will undoubtedly by more from Jack. Can't guarantee they will smoke sweeter but I find his fit, finish and drills to be near perfect as well as his stem work. Here's a couple of.Jack's pipes . Priced very reasonably.
As already mentioned, Ryan Alden makes a superb pipe as well.
As already mentioned, Ryan Alden makes a superb pipe as well.
I'm sitting back to see shit fly after that last comment ?
Lee oil cures his pipes. That's why they smoke so well from the first puff. Ashton pipes are also oil cured and also smoke beautifully from the start, including new ones today.I know it does I’m about to do the eighth smoke on my new Grade 1 Nording and the more I smoke it the better that briar tastes.
If that pipe was a Lee, the first smoke would have been cool, sweet, and delicious instead of hot, bitter and downright bad.
I must have smoked a dozen or more brand new, but old three star Lee pipes.
Not one was a flashy, splashy, fancy straight grain like my Nording.
But I’m hoping my pretty Nording will pan out to be an excellent smoker like 100% of dozens and dozens of high grade Lee pipes I own are.
I’m not swearing off a Nording forever, but next new Danish pipe I buy is going to be a Stanwell.
In my teenage years I was part of an FFA dairy products judging team. I was a smoker even then, and in spite of that I have an award somewhere where I was 3rd individual at the 1973 State FFA judging contest.
Is all milk and cottage cheese good, fresh and wholesome as it comes from the grocery store, yes it is.
I must be graded 5 to get out the door.
4 and below is made into commercial cheese, or flavored dairy products.
Back in the days when briar production might have been a hundred times what it is today, I believe there were people who could not only grade a briar block on how tightly grained and pretty it was, by sight, they also could sniff and taste the briar to see how high quality of a smoke it would deliver.
Before I’d swish around a tiny sample in my mouth and spit it out, I first smelled it.
The lowest grade was 5 because they weren’t about to poison a kid in an FFA jacket.
A 10 was so rare I only found one sample at State contest.
And as further argument, that higher grade briar imparts a better taste, during World War Two American pipe makers used “mission briar” from the State of California.
Look at your American factory smokers.
After WW2 they all say
Imported Briar
They weren’t salable otherwise, is why.
Is all milk and cottage cheese good, fresh and wholesome as it comes from the grocery store, yes it is.
I must be graded 5 to get out the door.
4 and below is made into commercial cheese, or flavored dairy products.
Back in the days when briar production might have been a hundred times what it is today, I believe there were people who could not only grade a briar block on how tightly grained and pretty it was, by sight, they also could sniff and taste the briar to see how high quality of a smoke it would deliver.
Before I’d swish around a tiny sample in my mouth and spit it out, I first smelled it.
The lowest grade was 5 because they weren’t about to poison a kid in an FFA jacket.
A 10 was so rare I only found one sample at State contest.
And as further argument, that higher grade briar imparts a better taste, during World War Two American pipe makers used “mission briar” from the State of California.
Look at your American factory smokers.
After WW2 they all say
Imported Briar
They weren’t salable otherwise, is why.
Just taking this off topic a bit -
Years ago, shortly after I became interested in wine, a well-known wine connoisseur and writer put on a tasting of all four of 1st growth Bordeaux from 1978, 1966 and 1945 plus 1976 and 1945 Ch d'Yquem. Only problem it cost more than a week's wage. My wife's response was "if you're going to learn about wine, you need to go".
God bless her - she didn't realise the tsunami of WAD (wine acquisition disorder) that ensued ?
Coming back to the OP's query - if the itch is intense - scratch it. Just be prepared for the PAD that may ensue ?
Years ago, shortly after I became interested in wine, a well-known wine connoisseur and writer put on a tasting of all four of 1st growth Bordeaux from 1978, 1966 and 1945 plus 1976 and 1945 Ch d'Yquem. Only problem it cost more than a week's wage. My wife's response was "if you're going to learn about wine, you need to go".
God bless her - she didn't realise the tsunami of WAD (wine acquisition disorder) that ensued ?
Coming back to the OP's query - if the itch is intense - scratch it. Just be prepared for the PAD that may ensue ?
If you are planning to fork out big money just to chase this ‘sweeter tasting pipe’ you are likely going to be sorely disappointed. As others have said, there is no guarantee that paying more money will get you this outcome.
Dunhill can charge these high prices purely due to marketing hype, not objectively proven improved smoking characteristics.
I enjoy smoking my higher end pipes, a Bruce Weaver and a Werner Mummert, but don’t expect any magical smoking abilities. I bought these purely for aesthetic reasons.
The one pipe that seems to never be fussy, regardless of what I put in it, is a Stanwell estate pipe that I bought for 35 Euro. And I don’t think that has much to do with the briar its made from either.
Dunhill can charge these high prices purely due to marketing hype, not objectively proven improved smoking characteristics.
I enjoy smoking my higher end pipes, a Bruce Weaver and a Werner Mummert, but don’t expect any magical smoking abilities. I bought these purely for aesthetic reasons.
The one pipe that seems to never be fussy, regardless of what I put in it, is a Stanwell estate pipe that I bought for 35 Euro. And I don’t think that has much to do with the briar its made from either.
Myth governs pipe smoking as much as honestly-related experience. Imaginative windbags propel the myths, one of which is "sweet" briar. But if sweet then mustn't there also be bitter? How then is one to choose? Do you write Castello or Savinelli and ask them to shape your pipe from among the "sweet blocks"?
No, what you do to find the sweet briar is to smoke for years, and out of your burgeoned pipe sagacity, identify a fancied experience that you deem "sweet." Then you cozy up to your invention, awaiting the time that you can spring it on the unwashed masses so that they to can sing praise to yet another pipe smoking myth, of your invention, as has happened in this very thread.
No, no, no! The magic is real! Life would be so dreary without it.
Well I just punished my poor wallet and pulled the trigger on two NOS Ser Jacopo pipes. I'm eyeing 2 or 3 Castello pipes now and drinking while scouring E-Bay. This shall be a fun and expensive evening in the pursuit of a sweet smoke. Truth be told my pallette probably wouldn't even know a sweet smoke I'm just trying to get my fix on this PAD for the day lol.
There are many reasons to buy a pipe that are beyond just how it smokes.
But if you are after taste, you won't find anything that tastes much better than a corn cob.
I have tons of cobs, I have cheap 5 dollar ones, I have country gentlemen and even the emeralds and generals. I enjoy them alot when I'm in bumkin mode but to my pallette my meerschaums put them to shame. I'll admit they smoke as good as alot of my briars. But they are alot easier on my wallet with this PAD.
Check out Old Dominion cobs, some of *the* best tasting pipes.
Yeah, trigger control is a tricky discipline to master!
My other suggestion is to put the majority of your money into tobacco and build a cellar. Pipes will be around and the same or similar price when pipe tobacco is much more expensive or unavailable altogether.
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