Pipe Shape Preferences Over Time

[hoosierpipeguy]

I started out over 40 years ago with traditional shapes. I was young, fresh out of college with not a lot of disposable income. When I started back with pipes 25 years ago, my tastes ran to large free hands, mostly Castello Great Lines and Hawkbills. The majority of the pipe I now own are 1/8th to 1/4 bent. My favorite shapes are Bulldog, Rhodesian, Dublin and Hawkbills. However, my collection is somewhat eclectic with a variety of other shapes. In general, I don't care for purely traditional shapes unless they have some type of modern slant to it. If a pipe catches my eye it catches my eye. Often, I don't know exactly why, I just like it.

 

[DesertDan]

I have a strong preference for bents (mainly apples and billiards) and have only recently begun adding straight stem pipes to my collection. I have also gained an appreciation of the Dublin shape.

 

[BingBong]

I don't own one, but I have grown to have an unsettling attraction to squashed tomato bowls. A session with a psychotherapist might help.

 

[mpjetset]

I've moved from heavier to lighter pipes.

 

[mpjetset]

What hasn’t changed are my dislikes - Castello Shape 55, hawkbills .. SNIP ...It would seem that I have a much longer list of likes than dislikes

Hawkbills... are repulsive for some reason to me. I'm glad for pipe smokers who can appreciate them but I don't even want to look at one.

 

[Sigmund]

I like the looks of other smokers billiards but I have a hard time warming up to the shape. I did bid (but didnt win) a lovat yesterday. It was a nice pipe but not nice enough for me to keep bidding. It was an experiment to see if I liked them. Also holding and smoking a billiard just seems stiff and rigid to me. Its probably all part of my warped perception.

My straightest pipes still have a slight bend. It just feels and looks right to me. That said, I dont hate any specific shape but I dont love every pipe.

 

[AroEnglish]

Used to love stout chubby pipes, the bigger the better. Then it went to small chubby pipes. Now it's small, slender, and lightweight pipes. Shapes preferences have always leaned towards the classic but have gone from interest in the French-English to the Danish and now the Italians.

I suspect I'll eventually like every shape, maybe except the hawkbill.

 

[lukifer]

In the beginning I had no idea what I liked. Over the past couple years I have gravitated towards billiards. I like billiards, particularly with thinner walls, as I have a habit of smoking too hot particularly when I am reading or playing chess. I find some other shapes can mask how hot I'm letting the bowl get. A quick grasp of the bowl and I know if I need to cool it. If you happen to own a "self control" that may not be an issue for you.

I prefer saddle bits and bigger shanks as I tend to handle my pipe like a cigar. My favorites are a Grabow Starfire, a Grabow Belvedere and a Rattray Goblin with a Maestro Gepeddo Exemia stem. #ballinOnABudget

My perfect pipe is a short little nose warmer billiard with saddle bit, fat shank and a bowl big enough to fold and stuff a gawith flake. Haven't found it yet and my wallet doesn't want me to keep looking.

 

[sparker69]

I have a preference for straight or with a slight bend, but then I went and bought a Peterson 68, so it goes to show you! I think it has to catch my eye first and then have bowl dimensions that I like - I usually go for medium bowls, (at least I think I do...) - nothing too big. Attracted to billards and zulus. Didn't like Canadians then fell in love with them. Have a couple pots as well. I guess it just depends on my mood and which one is drawing me to it.

 

[VDL_Piper]

I have gravitated to straight pipes more than bent and I’m lucky that I have found a maker and pipe shape that smokes every blend I’ve smoked exceptionally well, open draw and enough “quirky” within the shape to not venture away from it. So it‘s a chubby Canadian for me nearly always when I’m at home or around the house.

 

[Doctor Chopper]

I too like variety, but classic shapes have been popular forever for a reason.

 

[68748Joe]

Slightly bent bulldogs and rhodesians. Rustic or sandblasted. My favorite styles. Bigger the bowl circumference the better. It’s what suits my style of smoking best. Being a pipe holder in my left hand as I sit and ponder life’s mysteries. And relaxing in my lawn chair while watching the wife hoe the garden . Doesn’t get any better. May need to try a freehand or author shape though.

 

[didimauw]

My longest streak was straight billiards. Went hard into them.

Now I'm starting to enjoy bent billiards. The more bent the better. I like them to hang like they aren't even there.

 

[Chasing Embers]

My longest streak was straight billiards. Went hard into them.

Now I'm starting to enjoy bent billiards. The more bent the better. I like them to hang like they aren't even there.

Being adentata, straights hang like that for me.

 

[didimauw]

Being adentata, straights hang like that for me.

Good to know that will be next for me someday soon! That's how I hold em anyways, but with my front teeth still intact atleast for now...

 

[RookieGuy80]

Please read Rule 9 for title formation. Capitals!

Has your pipe shape or style preference changed over time? Did the first pipe you buy end up being the last pipe you get out? The first pipe I bought in March was a big LOTR churchwarden. After smoking pipes I can clench (not nose warmers, but normal sized bent or half-bent billiard and bulldog pipes), the churchwarden seemed awkwardly clumsy yesterday. I'm actually considering looking for a nose warmer now for lighter easier clenching.

Yes and no. I started off loving the looks of a smooth Canadian, and I still do. I started off not caring very much for rusticated briar, I don't care much for the looks. I haven't changed my mind there either. I have a couple carved briar that smoke wonderfully, and that I do each for on occasion though. I've always thought bent pipe look better than straights for no other reason than the bent ones just appealed to me.

Notice a pattern? It's all looks that I based my preferences. It took smoking a while and getting my grubby mitts on rusticated straight billiards and bulldogs and everything else to appreciate what they brought to the table.

My preferences have changed in that now I like bulldogs and zulus and other shapes and finishes. My preferences have changed that I'd rather have an ugly pipe with characteristics I like (like a wide open draw or lack of filter) than a pretty one that doesn't smoke how I want it. But it took that experience to get there.

To me pipes are tools. Your churchwarden is great at its job (probably). If you're sitting down smoking, that cw is probably a great tool for the job. If you're out walking around, not so much. There's a lot to be said about ergonomics, as you're seeing. But in my world, it's been more adding tools to my toolbox rather than replacing them.

 

[AJL67]

Short answer yes. Replacing all of my shapes with meer, never owned a bent egg before but bought one because it was a steal, turns out it's one of my favorite shapes now, doesn't hurt that the pipe smokes like a dream.

 

[Copperhead]

If I am sitting and relaxing, I like to hold the bowl, and I always tend towards straight pipes, Canadian or Dublin.

If I am working and need my hands I tend to choose half or full bent, it just feels more comfortable to me.

That might be bass ackwards, though...

Also, there are a lot of pipe types I've never tried so my ignorance is my superpower.

But, I prefer large bowls....some of my pipes with smaller bowls only smoke for 15 minutes, and that is frustrating. On a breezy day the pipe smokes itself and it's over before I even start to enjoy....

 

[Manawydan]

I started out very partial to bent pipes, and usually bulldogs/rhodesians. But having collected a few of them now I find myself looking to get things that are different from that. Getting another bulldog at this point isn't as interesting to me as getting something I really don't have. I even just bought my first straight pipe!

 

[irishearl]

While there are a few shapes I do not like, I no longer have shape preferences per se-it depends on how a maker executes a shape along with matters of finish and the like. Do have way more bent billiards than any other shape.. Do not buy small pipes, however.