Is Premium Briar Different?
- Thread starter Sharp_tungsten
- Start date
- Status
Can you find anyone who advertises their drilling specs?
I suppose I could e-mail every carver until I find one who does drill to my standards but without running a mass information gathering campaign there is no way to know who makes their pipes to what standards.
This is a universal problem with the pipemaking industry as a whole.
Here's what I suggest you do. Start spending time at Pipe Makers Forum, where people actually do discuss this sort of information. Do a little digging into past threads. Contact a few carvers whose work you like and ask them about your needs. I've commissioned pipes to my specs. So can you.
What a weird thing to say, my dude. In the first place, unless your standards are very, very weird, most carvers are probably quite capable of hitting them. Most American carvers work with an airway at 5/32" or very near that +-. Then the question is how open the stem is. Some guys hew a hugely deep slot seeking constant-volume flow, some of us run things with a slight restriction, imposing a bit of venturi effect in the pipe (old Peterson P-lips did this). But we're talking about a maximum difference of maybe 3/32" between the biggest and smallest. So I mean, unless you want a pipe drilled at 3/8" or something, it's just a matter of selecting a different drill bit for most of us. I'm set up to build pipes from 11/64" to 1/8" at the very smallest, and I think 1/8" is too small for most applications, the tendency to gurgle is high, any drop of water totally obstructs the airway. 5/32" is by far the most common because it works just beautifully. I've handled probably a hundred pipes from other carvers and brands, and the only surprise in the lot was that Ser Jacopo frequently does curved drilling and at a very large bore, like 5/16" kinda thing.
If pipemakers expect customers to get this information off the pipemaker's forum that only proves my point.
I have to question the validity of your statements.
Go to Smokingpipes.com and try to find a pipe with a wide bore.
Mark Tinsky Sandblasted Bent Dublin (B) (One Star) | Buy Mark Tinsky Tobacco Pipes at Smokingpipes.com
Smokingpipes.com is your one stop shop for Mark Tinsky Sandblasted Bent Dublin (B) (One Star) Tobacco Pipes and all your tobacco smoking needs. From new tobacco pipes and estate tobacco pipes to tin pipe tobacco and bulk pipe tobacco, we have everything you need
www.smokingpipes.com
What we're looking at here may as well be a $330 Rossi.
Wide bore stems are clearly not standard in artisan pipes.
A few months ago on a whim I bought an "S. Klein Design" pipe from Scott's Pipes.
Website: S. Klein Design - https://scottspipes.com/s-klein-design/
Review: Scott's Pipes: S. Klein Design Technical Breakdown :: Pipe Talk - https://pipesmagazine.com/forums/threads/scotts-pipes-s-klein-design-technical-breakdown.85629/
Scott's Pipes with the "S. Klein Design" series appears to be making some of only Brairs in the world that are drilled differently from anything else, but they still have the same problem as the rest of the industry that there is no advertising anywhere to say what their stem design is, I only found this by sheer luck because I was willing to gamble on an $80 pipe and I had every intention of returning it if the design wasn't above average.
Of course now that we have this data point the pipes are all out of stock.
Funny isn't it? When people are empowered with information they are more willing to spend money.
Website: S. Klein Design - https://scottspipes.com/s-klein-design/
Review: Scott's Pipes: S. Klein Design Technical Breakdown :: Pipe Talk - https://pipesmagazine.com/forums/threads/scotts-pipes-s-klein-design-technical-breakdown.85629/
Scott's Pipes with the "S. Klein Design" series appears to be making some of only Brairs in the world that are drilled differently from anything else, but they still have the same problem as the rest of the industry that there is no advertising anywhere to say what their stem design is, I only found this by sheer luck because I was willing to gamble on an $80 pipe and I had every intention of returning it if the design wasn't above average.
Of course now that we have this data point the pipes are all out of stock.
Funny isn't it? When people are empowered with information they are more willing to spend money.
FDA and similar regulatory bodies should require this information be etched upon, or otherwise permanently affixed to, each newly carved, machined, and pressed pipe made for tobacco consumption.
Nothing new about wider airways. 5/32 = 4mm, which was the stahdard drill for Charatan. Charatan bents were drilled at 4.7 mm. My big ass 1906 Barling was estimated to be 7mm.
My Leeds era Ben Wades all feature wide draws. Of the 100+ Family Era Barlings that I own, airways vary slightly in diameter depending on the size and length. As far as all pipes being the same, this is ridiculous. Maybe in lower line machine made product, where simplifying the process leads to lower cost per unit, but not all through all lines of pipes. Moreover, a little effort made to searching patents will disspell that notion.
My Leeds era Ben Wades all feature wide draws. Of the 100+ Family Era Barlings that I own, airways vary slightly in diameter depending on the size and length. As far as all pipes being the same, this is ridiculous. Maybe in lower line machine made product, where simplifying the process leads to lower cost per unit, but not all through all lines of pipes. Moreover, a little effort made to searching patents will disspell that notion.
I have to question the validity of your statements.
Go to Smokingpipes.com and try to find a pipe with a wide bore.
Here's a clear stem Mark Tinsky which clearly has no taper in the airway, at either the button or the tenon side, at best that's a 1/8" constant bore and that in a very thick tapered stem, and it's an expensive pipe.Mark Tinsky Sandblasted Bent Dublin (B) (One Star) | Buy Mark Tinsky Tobacco Pipes at Smokingpipes.com
Smokingpipes.com is your one stop shop for Mark Tinsky Sandblasted Bent Dublin (B) (One Star) Tobacco Pipes and all your tobacco smoking needs. From new tobacco pipes and estate tobacco pipes to tin pipe tobacco and bulk pipe tobacco, we have everything you need
What we're looking at here may as well be a $330 Rossi.
Wide bore stems are clearly not standard in artisan pipes.
Try a step up in stem quality, jump from Tinsky (or Wiley) to Ryan Alden, Scottie Piersel, or as you mention, Scott Klein's handmades proper. What you'll see is only minor differences pipe to pipe in hand made stems (which Tinsky nor the Scott's Burners are). The stem in your link is getting close to an ordinary Amercian artisanal standard inside. Again, the pipe in your link is really not different at all than what I suggested in my post - 4mm airway is very close to 5/32" by my reckoning. Deep slot.... what am I not seeing there that you are?
You're looking in the wrong places if you think that the pipe in your link is unusual for an artisan stem.
Last edited:
No, not machine made pipes.
Ashton, Ferndown, Peder Jeppesen, Radice, Ser Jacopo, all drilled with a 3mm bore in the stem.
The $200 "Radice Collect" that I recently acquired was also restricted to 1/8" in the shank due to an ebonite shank embellishment, thankfully not too difficult to rectify.
Luigi Viprati managed to give a 1/8" bore instead of just 3mm, but other than that it was still an ordinary stem.
The entire pipemaking industry is a colossal failure in communication, at least by modern standards.
But if the pipes sell and people don't complain then what difference does it make?
I'm sure Castello is incredibly thankful, the black hole of ignorance that is pipemaking industry herds hundreds of people to their pipes every day because Castello is the only widely known pipemaker who actually does consistently create wide bore pipes and has enough volume of pipes on the market for people to know about it.
If those makers are the best options for decent drilling in artisan pipes then I guess Castello deserves all the praise because Castello pipes are a bargain in comparison.
Thus the S. Klein Design series from Scott's Pipes is a revolutionary development at 1/4 the cost of the nearest competitor.
Sorry, I'm confused, I thought we were talking about design, you are now talking about price. That's different shit.
This is unreadable and I’m worse off for having even attempted.
I’d love to ignore this thread but the misinformation, bullshit theories and fucked up assumptions are just too much.
Time to go away for a while, before my common sense and lack of tolerance for ignorance gets me banned.
I’d love to ignore this thread but the misinformation, bullshit theories and fucked up assumptions are just too much.
Time to go away for a while, before my common sense and lack of tolerance for ignorance gets me banned.
I don’t enough to have an opinion and unwilling to spend money to find out, but my Peterson Derry Rustic and a Chevalier Armand Algerian briar to appear to provide an enjoyable experience.
Agreed! Take everything you've read before this and throw it out the window. The secret to a cool, clean, wonderful smoke can be had with one word my friend......."Brylon!" Smoking engineering at it's finest. It's hard to find but easy to love.
- Status