Cobs are ok in my experience but a big obnoxious reverse Calabash or larger size meerschaum helps me greatly. Most of my big meers have a 1.75 or 2 inch deep bowl. When smoked to the bottom the bowl is dry to the touch even with wet aromatics. Cobs are relatively dry but never this dry and a briar pipe would be gurgling and soaken wet on the bottom of the bowl.
Is Premium Briar Different?
- Thread starter Sharp_tungsten
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No; NO and no! There are differences in raw briar to begin with, then there's how it's cured and treated before shaping begins. Then there can be different steps past initial shaping that'll make a difference.
The above you will note, has nothing to do with looks.
I agree with Mark. What is the state of your cellar? If you are comfortable with how much tobacco you have then go all out on pipes. If your cellar is not complete then grab just a few pipes and then spend the rest on tobacco. How many bowls a day do you smoke?
I suspect it’s all subjective if the pipe is made well. I have a NOS Algerian briar that I like the way it looks, feels, and smokes .
Yeah but how much tobacco can you safely store? I've given up on tins and started ordering bulk by the pound but after 10 to 15 pounds what does one do? I got it in quart jars. I smoke 3 to 4 bowls a day on some days only 1 to none on others. So I go through roughly 2 oz a week or less.
1. The drilling and fit and finish is virtually identical on any pipe over $100.
You need to find the best artisans to get better than a factory job, and I've never seen any information to tell who is selling pipes based on marketing alone or who is actually selling a superior product so I don't even bother looking at high price artisan pipes.
I personally have found some brands better than others through sheer trial and error, Missouri Meerschaum being a standout for near perfect stem design in their standard 80 cent plastic stem, but out of the 50+ Briar pipes in my collection ranging from $50 to $300 almost all of them are the same in terms of craftsmanship.
2. The seasoning of the briar is virtually identical on all pipes being sold today, every Rossi was at one point optimistically going to be a Savinelli Puto Oro until something went wrong with the finish.
Is there anything to say Savinelli is sourcing worse briar than anyone else?
In a blind test it's virtually guaranteed no-one would ever be able to differentiate between new or aged briar by smoking it, and even if you could, there are enough half century old stummels being sold for under $50 you can never say that a more expensive pipe is going to have better Briar.
Has anyone ever tried to messaround with vacuum kilning the briar or do really old briar pipes dry better to create better smoking characteristics? I like buy old NOS pipes. Preferably over 20 years old. O like nostalgia and tell myself they were made better back then lol.
Really old ones can be dry to the point of cracking when smoked.
Like old gun stock wood? You drop them they usually break not dent or scratch like modern guns.
I had a shank split vertically on a 100 year old unsmoked KB&B during the first smoke.
Ouch sir. You have my condolences.
There are people sitting on literal tons of the stuff. They're bat shit crazy, but they literally store tons of tobacco.
Actually, there are differences in how airways are constructed in higher end artisanal pipes, and the chamber shape plays a role in how tobacco burns. So, there are differences in handmade pipes. Might not be noticeable to every smoker, but a number of smokers appreciate the difference. And leave us not forget the button, bit, and slot. That part of the design can have a significant effect on the msoker's level of comfort, as well as how the smoke gets spread out, and that also is different.
All briar is not cured the same. Oil curing is different than air curing.
Twice-baked briar, stuffed (briar), buffet briar, a la carte (briar), poached, par-baked, roasted, boiled, fried, sauteed, spit-roasted (briar), struck-by-lightning, by thunder (thunderstruck), illumined by lightning, run down by horses (wild), root (ed), deadroot (briar), best friends, enemies, cutthroat, saintly, sinner, drunken, angry, fearful (briar), lustful, ugly, beautiful, radiant, sunny, cloudy, rainy, snowy, occluded, self-actualized/realized (briar), never, never never, once-in-a-lifetime, Icarus, Juno, Neptune, Vishnu, Devadatta, Mars, Athena, (briar), briar, briar, briar, briar, briar, briar, briar, briar,
briar, briar, briar. . .
briar, briar, briar. . .
I think you overlooked a couple, Briar Diane and Key Lime Briar.
What, no pumpkin spice briar?
Trader Joe's says it will be in stock next week.
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