New Dunhill Owner - Shape 56 Stem Issue?

[steele888]

Picked up new to me Dunhill 56 from mid 1960s. First one I've owned and new to them - stem appears original to me, but is it cut for a filter? Seems to have a really large draw hole in stem. Didn't know if any other Dunhill owners could weigh in or have seen this type stem - my issue is that, because hole is so large, pipe cleaner doesn't hit the sides to clean moisture, etc. and taste seems bad after having it sit for a while and picking it up again. Any ideas on this? Pics:

 

[sasquatch]

Dunhill bents of that period were cut with a very large draft hole, they look like that, it doesn't quite take a filter (or none that I found anyway), and tapers inside quite significantly. Take your pipe apart and clean it properly once it's cooled down.

 

[pitchfork]

Dunhill bents of that period were cut with a very large draft hole, they look like that, it doesn't quite take a filter (or none that I found anyway), and tapers inside quite significantly. Take your pipe apart and clean it properly once it's cooled down.

That's really interesting. Never knew that before.

 

[daveinlax]

Looks to me like it was drilled for a filter. It should smoke fine with or without a filter. I think I saw some Dunhill filters sitting in a pipe shop in PHX yesterday. They must be gathering dust as I think the box had a Royal Warrant.?

 

[sasquatch]

It does look a touch bigger than factory spec but it's really hard to tell the actual size in the photo, it could indeed have been drilled out bigger to take a filter of a certain size.

 

[sasquatch]

Well of all the crazy pipe-nerdery, here's a photo of a Peterson, a 69 dunhill stem, a Sav autograph (6mm) and a Castello, left to right.

 

[sasquatch]

(The Castello and the big Pete 140th smoke circles around the Dunhill and the autograph).

 

[BROBS]

Why in the hell would they do that?
The Dunhill sure looks damn close to taking a 6mm. I wonder if it fits a paper dr Perl?

 

[tfdickson]

I’ve owned two Dunhill 120 (deep bend) pipes from the late 60s and still have one. Both have a much larger than usual drilling in the tenon but it tapers rapidly and about 3/4” of the way up the draft is normal. The tenon in both is also shorter than usual. Both are (were) excellent smokers and pass a pipe cleaner easily. I always thought it was Dunhill’s way of getting around the drilling challenges of a bent pipe.

 

[lightmybriar]

Yes as others have stated, that’s perfectly normal for that shape. ??????

 

[steele888]

This was my first post to the forum and what excellent info - thanks for all of the input!

 

[sasquatch]

Why in the hell would they do that?
The Dunhill sure looks damn close to taking a 6mm. I wonder if it fits a paper dr Perl?

Technicalities of pipe making - when you make a bent pipe, the draft hole in the stummel is often (usually even) not centered in the floor the way it would be on a straight pipe, the angles just require that to be the case. So if your tenon ends in a "plain" drilled hole, basically you have two holes (airway and tenon) which don't line up. Won't smoke. Open that hole in the end of the tenon, chamfer it or deeply widen it like the dunhill, and you don't have airflow problems. Bents can be made with little or no adjustments to the airway drilling, but it requires short, wide mortises, and pretty simple shapes, as soon as you want something slim, graceful, curved, etc, you start needing to cheat the drilling just a bit.