Luck With Petersons

[markus]

I have 16 Peterson pipes that I have ordered over the last 6 years and I have only had 1 issue with 1 pipe. It was a Derry army mount XL90 (beautiful pipe BTW) and the acrylic stem was pointed slightly to the left as you looked at it from the back, so I heated it up in boiling water and re-bent it to be more centered. It's still not perfect, but better than it was for sure.

 

[instymp]

I have had a dozen or so, down to 4 & ordered another yesterday
No problems. Some do take a bit to "Break" in
but my Burren 999 smoked great out of the box.

 

[daniel7]

I bought all of my Petersons from big online retailers (official Peterson retailers and from Peterson factory directly). I have had bought 6 pipes totally and I had (and still have) issues with 3 of them.
- The first one was a Donegal Rocky (80S) bent bulldog which whistled like a steamtrain with every sip. I tried to carve the ends of the airway in the stem but couldn't get rid of the sound. Sold it already.
- My second Peterson is a Sherlock Holmes Watson model (smooth). It is a beautiful pipe which I love for its appearance and the beautiful flawless grain and stain. Unfortunately I can't tell the same about the smoking capabilities. It is a little bit underdrilled, so it gurgles as a shisha. This is my only gurgling pipe among all. I thought about selling it but it is a beautiful piece and I would miss it from the rack.
- The third I bought is a Rosslare Classic (smooth) Canadian (264) which I like really much. It is a real beauty and smoke very well. The only flaw is that the "Peterson" logo is not in the top middle of the silver ring, but I think it doesn't really matter.
- Fourth one is a simple Aran with a nickel ring, a smooth Lovat, shape 53. This was the most surprising one when I opened the box. The grain is perfect, no fills, it really looks gorgeous. Not bad from a relatively cheap pipe. And next surprise came at the first bowl; This one smokes perfectly! So far since then this is my absolute best Peterson, I love it.
- My fifth one is a 2019 St. Patrick's day edition System 314. It provides a very cool smoke, the P-lip is a champion for me, the only small issue I had with it was with the bowl covering - it started to be uneven immediately after the first bowl but fortunately for now after some use I could smooth out this inner surface.
- The last (sixth) piece of my Peterson "collection" is a Specialty series smooth Belgique. I bought it for short latakia smokes. It is a good smoker but it has some issues again why I don't use it too much. The stain comes off, making my hand orange. The stem is not sraight and is a bit off-center. These are again not major problems and still possible to smoke it but I expected a little bit more from it.

Plus, I have already ordered a Standard System (smooth) 313, I hope that it will be as good as my other System pipe. Even though these pipes have the most quality issues, they still look beautiful and I can't resist buying one here and there.

 

[mso489]

I think the quality issues might have sunk a younger brand with less visual appeal. There's just something about Petes that overcomes many customer reservations. My hesitation now would be, I don't want to end my roll of success with the brand with a real clunker. Just now, I'm a happy Peterson smoker.

 

[mordy18]

I have two. A system pipe shape 307 which smokes and looks great. I also have a fairly inexpensive "dublin" smooth lovat which is meh -- smokes fine, can't remove the stem, grain is virtually non-existent. I good beater pipe.

 

[yaddy306]

I have two - Christmas pipes from 2014 (B35 rusticated zulu) and 2015 (68 sandblasted brandy).

They both took a long long time to break in. The 2014 zulu had excess stain in the mortise that took a while to clean out. Both have very tight acrylic stems.

The 2015 doesn't pass a pipe cleaner well, but it's bent and I can forgive that. The biggest problem is the first time I used the water method to clean out the bowl, I inadvertently got some water on the outside of the bowl. To my dismay, this washed some water-based stain away, and exposed four large fills that were hidden in the sandblasted finish. It now has big beige bowl blotches.

Maybe I'm just unlucky, and maybe quality control is better in the last couple years, but I am not going to risk another Peterson purchase.

 

[BROBS]

Water will take the stain off or lighten the stain on most pipes. That’s why I don’t see why it keeps getting recommended.

 

[BROBS]

Take a brand new $500 pipe and wipe the outside all over with a wet paper towel. Unless it’s a virgin pipe the paper towel will have stain all over it.