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mingc

Lifer
Jun 20, 2019
3,976
11,065
The Big Rock Candy Mountains
@condorlover1 asked me about the pipe in my avatar in a separate thread, so I thought I'd post here the pics from the ebay listing where I got it from:
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It's about 8 inches end to end. No fills as far as I can tell. All in all, a pretty extraordinary unit. The most extraordinary thing about it is probably where it's from and the price. It's an HS Studio, made in China by an anonymous artisan, clearly very talented. And it cost me a little over a C note. I haven't smoked it yet and, frankly, I'm not sure if I ever will. These days I take days to smoke a bowl and my preference is for small pipes. But there's something about big pipes that I find attractive and this one was so unusual that I just had to have it. And so I got it.
 
Aug 1, 2012
4,587
5,131
That's a looker there. I wouldn't hesitate to smoke it as I've got a pipe from that factory and it smokes like a champ. I figured it'd be crap from the East but it was a pleasant surprise.
 
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chopper

Lifer
Aug 24, 2019
1,480
3,317
That's one cool looking pipe.

There's some rather nice pipes in the HU Studio collection. After getting ripped off by the seller on postage buying 6 Road Town pipes [plus no promised tamper arrived] I'll give them a miss.

If you do fire her up Mingc, you might want to sandpaper off the 'carbon' lining first. My Poker tasted so toxic that I had to dump the bowl, then sandpaper back to bare briar.
 
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mingc

Lifer
Jun 20, 2019
3,976
11,065
The Big Rock Candy Mountains
That's one cool looking pipe.

There's some rather nice pipes in the HU Studio collection. After getting ripped off by the seller on postage buying 6 Road Town pipes [plus no promised tamper arrived] I'll give them a miss.

If you do fire her up Mingc, you might want to sandpaper off the 'carbon' lining first. My Poker tasted so toxic that I had to dump the bowl, then sandpaper back to bare briar.
That's a bummer on the postage. What happened? I've bought two and had no problems, knock on wood.
 

chopper

Lifer
Aug 24, 2019
1,480
3,317
That's a bummer on the postage. What happened? I've bought two and had no problems, knock on wood.
My first order of three pipes I was charged a flat rate. Absent the promised 'free tamper with every order'.
Then when I ordered three more pipes, I was charged postage, PLUS $5 for each extra pipe. [Again no promised 'free tamper']

Upon looking more closely at the ebay ad, the seller did say $5 extra postage per extra pipe.
Polite inquiries elicited a rude, arrogant response [The SheWitch was probably mad that I won the pipes for a very good price]

Lifes too short than to deal with things like her. Although I had my eye on quite a few of the pipes, I don't NEED anymore pipes. So in a sense the seller did me a favour.

The 'carbon' lining on the pipes is foul. If the Chinese are willing to poison tens of thousands of their own kids by putting formaldehyde [melanin] in infant milk formula, then they wouldn't think twice about the health of Westerners.
 
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mingc

Lifer
Jun 20, 2019
3,976
11,065
The Big Rock Candy Mountains
My first order of three pipes I was charged a flat rate. Absent the promised 'free tamper with every order'.
Then when I ordered three more pipes, I was charged postage, PLUS $5 for each extra pipe. [Again no promised 'free tamper']

Upon looking more closely at the ebay ad, the seller did say $5 extra postage per extra pipe.
Polite inquiries elicited a rude, arrogant response [The SheWitch was probably mad that I won the pipes for a very good price]

Lifes too short than to deal with things like her. Although I had my eye on quite a few of the pipes, I don't NEED anymore pipes. So in a sense the seller did me a favour.

The 'carbon' lining on the pipes is foul. If the Chinese are willing to poison tens of thousands of their own kids by putting formaldehyde [melanin] in infant milk formula, then they wouldn't think twice about the health of Westerners.
I'm sorry that happened. It looks like pretty hard water glass on mine. From previous experience, they can be difficult to sand out; I'll try, but might give up. I've always wondered why China isn't discussed more when people talk about unregulated markets.
 
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briarbuck

Lifer
Nov 24, 2015
2,287
5,492
Considering it came out of China I would wash the crap out of it and to make sure to sterilize the pipe. Better safe than not.
 
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mingc

Lifer
Jun 20, 2019
3,976
11,065
The Big Rock Candy Mountains
It's briar, box wood, horn and hard rubber. I'm smoking a known carcinogen in it, not licking it like a lollipop. How in the world is sterilization going to help?! What do you recommend, an autoclave? ?
 
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briarbuck

Lifer
Nov 24, 2015
2,287
5,492
It's briar, box wood, horn and hard rubber. I'm smoking a known carcinogen in it, not licking it like a lollipop. How in the world is sterilization going to help?! What do you recommend, an autoclave? ?

You are aware that there is an epidemic in China right now that has been going on for a year and it's viral? Most of the guys on this forum are older and probably with respiratory issues. They do not even have a handle on how this is transmitted yet.

Knucklehead.
 
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mingc

Lifer
Jun 20, 2019
3,976
11,065
The Big Rock Candy Mountains
You are aware that there is an epidemic in China right now that has been going on for a year and it's viral? Most of the guys on this forum are older and probably with respiratory issues. They do not even have a handle on how this is transmitted yet.

Knucklehead.
Corona virus from a pipe? Shit, I'm a dead man. Oh wait, I just died from the flu. Never mind.
 
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chopper

Lifer
Aug 24, 2019
1,480
3,317
It's briar, box wood, horn and hard rubber. I'm smoking a known carcinogen in it, not licking it like a lollipop. How in the world is sterilization going to help?! What do you recommend, an autoclave? ?
An autoclave? It would probably melt the stem [but I do like the idea in principle, lol]

In my youth an older friend watched me pop a piece of hash into my mouth before he could react.
He then explained how he watched an old guy in Pakistan collecting cannabis resin & rolling it into hash. As he rolled the ball of hash the old bloke stuck it in his armpit for moisture & would also spit on it. Hmmm.

Another mate who worked at a confectionery manufacturer had a party where a few of his workmates had attended. These Pacific Islander girls were telling us of how their Chinese colleagues, who handled the confectionery, would refuse to wash their hands after going to the toilet. Or how they'd shove a finger up their nose to pick out a stubborn booger after an attempt to blow it onto the floor had failed, then go right back to packing chocolate.

Then there's the countless stories over the years of the Asian restaurants that were closed after the staffs lack of basic hygiene had caused mass food poisoning.

I could go on but the point is that I've learned that 3rd world countries often have a completely different standard [or should I say the lack of] when it comes to basic hygiene.
No way will I eat food that was made in China, Pakistan, India ...... well, it's a long list, lol.

So for my peace of mind alone, I gave all of my pipes from China a thorough scrub with alcohol before putting them anywhere near my mouth.

P.S. There's a huge difference between good ol' tobacco & cigarettes.
The studies, as far as I'm aware, that determined that 'tobacco' was a carcinogen, did their tests on chemical laden cigarettes, not on unadulterated tobacco itself.
 

mingc

Lifer
Jun 20, 2019
3,976
11,065
The Big Rock Candy Mountains
1. I think you'll enjoy watching this American (or maybe Canadian?) dude smoking hash with the locals in Afghanistan:
Looks like a good time though I'd have been concerned that there were pieces of the old guy's lungs on the mouth piece.
2. I grew up in the third world. I agree that there's a direct co-relation between the level of public hygene and the affluence of a country. Money buys a lot of good things, like cleanliness. Back in the old country, my father took me to visit a cookie factory once. Among their products were cookie icing sandwiches (like oreos). After I saw the number of flies on the icing, I never ate one of those cookies again. The ice drink sellers on the streets did not wash their glasses. They did rinse them in water, which if you were lucky, was the first time they were being so used (they recycled, you see). These days, everyone's richer, so food and drinks are served in throw away containers. Progress.
3. I think we're kidding ourselves if we think tobacco, even pipe tobacco, does not contain carcinogens. I enjoy the pipe, but I try to keep my use down as much as I can.
 
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musicman

Lifer
Nov 12, 2019
1,119
6,052
Cincinnati, OH
With all this talk of Chinese goods/pipes not being safe, it bears mentioning that it is nearly impossible in the US to avoid goods from China, and if you shop at nearly any mainstream department store/target/walmart etc. you are definitely buying Chinese goods. It would seem to me that they have improved on consumer safety in the past few years, to the extent that they are at least aware and have enacted some level of regulation.

As for the “carbon” coating inside of these HS studio pipes, I cleaned mine out with alcohol when I received it and it came right off.
 
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