Pipe type.
- Thread starter Geordie lad
- Start date
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Personal preference. Buy what you like otherwise you won't use it and then it's just sitting around doing nothing. Nobody wants that.
Also, I have neither one of the types of pipes listed and I am perfectly happy.
I'm going to take a different tack here. Just learn to smoke pipe tobacco with the pipes you own. The gained experience may direct you to certain preferences in pipes.
Making your pipe choices on what fictional characters smoked may not be a good substitution to study and reason. 
I must admit that I love to have pipes that remind me of revered characters in literature or real life. Sean O'Casey...Samuel Clemens....C. S. Lewis....Sir Douglas Bader....etc.Making your pipe choices on what fictional characters smoked may not be a good substitution to study and reason.
But, addressing yourself to learning how to smoke, may be a better idea in the beginning......
Going a different direction here but it seems as though your enamored with the lagend of the pipe. If that is the case then just having a LOTR pipe for even an occasional smoke might be worth the expense. As has been pointed out, this is a very personal choice. Good luck...
Obviously there are associations that attract us to certain pipes or tobacco. For myself, it's been more along the tobacco lines - Capstan Blue for Tolkien, Doblono d'Oro because someone said it most resembled the Three Nuns that C.S. Lewis smoked, Drucquer's Inns of Court for the Antarctic expeditions...you get the idea. Maybe pipes, it's been more the shapes - a pic of Julio Cortazar with a billard pipe or Paolo Becker with one of those thin stemmed Canadian pipes of his. I've bought three Blatter pipes because they're from Montreal, and I wanted to honor their heritage in the city. But obviously, tobacco is a little easier on the purse strings. At the end of the day, we're attracted to pipes for all different kinds of reasons. But what we want, no matter what, is that it's a good smoker.
…depends what on whether your more wizard or more detective.
I buy pipes based on their looks, as in "I really like the look of that pipe"
I do have a gourd calabash which I use mainly for nicotine heavy blends.
The air chamber gives a very dry, cool smoke. The air/smoke mixture ameliorates the Nic hit substantially.
The meerschaum bowl is quite small, but gives me a 20min smoke.
I don't use it a lot because its large overall size makes it cumbersome. You have to be sitting down.
I don't have a churchwarden. But I have a "semi" churchwarden (one with a longer than normal stem - just not of churchwarden length.
I found lighting it more problematic because of the length of the stem and the forward canted bowl.
Again not a favourite until I got a new, shorter stem made for it.
And yes, you have to get longer pipe cleaners for those - no mean feat in the 1970s before online sales and only a very limited number of B&M tobacconists in Sydney, Oz.
I did have a meerschaum trombone (long shanked) figural which I hardly smoked.
It had a very restricted draw due to its multiple nylon tenons.
The length made lighting a chore.
Smoked a few times before storing it for years and finally gifted.
Just my personal experiences.
Others may have much more positive comments.
I do have a gourd calabash which I use mainly for nicotine heavy blends.
The air chamber gives a very dry, cool smoke. The air/smoke mixture ameliorates the Nic hit substantially.
The meerschaum bowl is quite small, but gives me a 20min smoke.
I don't use it a lot because its large overall size makes it cumbersome. You have to be sitting down.
I don't have a churchwarden. But I have a "semi" churchwarden (one with a longer than normal stem - just not of churchwarden length.
I found lighting it more problematic because of the length of the stem and the forward canted bowl.
Again not a favourite until I got a new, shorter stem made for it.
And yes, you have to get longer pipe cleaners for those - no mean feat in the 1970s before online sales and only a very limited number of B&M tobacconists in Sydney, Oz.
I did have a meerschaum trombone (long shanked) figural which I hardly smoked.
It had a very restricted draw due to its multiple nylon tenons.
The length made lighting a chore.
Smoked a few times before storing it for years and finally gifted.
Just my personal experiences.
Others may have much more positive comments.
When the Lord of the Rings movies came out I was still in the pipe business and saw a flood of churchwardens hit the market. Almost without exception these were cheap pipes made for people who thought Gandolf was cool. I never tried one myself, but was told by others they all smoked terrible.
After fifty years of pipe smoking, I honestly believe a large Peterson System pipe #307 is the first pipe a beginner should buy.
Peterson System Standard Heritage 307 Tobacco Pipe https://a.co/d/iwSb9RK
It only costs $100.
It’s brand new, huge, beautiful, and made by a 150 year old famous maker.
It will need broken in, you must keep a system pipe clean, and folks will point at you and say
Heyyyy
Sherlock Holmes!!!
But try a Pete 307.
If you drop it in the lake while fishing you loose a hundred bucks.
Otherwise, if this isn’t a hundred dollars worth of pipe, what is?
He did not. And Sherlock smoked a Cherrywood and a clay black from use, not a Calabash like on stage productions. I would recommend a briar pipe that catches your eye, but from a reputable maker. Honestly, though, the best recommendation is to get a pipe that speaks to you so you'll want to smoke it. If that is a churchwarden or calabash, then go for it.
Prince is a great shape, Rossi makes a nice one too a bit cheaper , I have a Ropp churchwarden also ,tends to smoke pretty hot but maybe the walls are a bit thin.
A standard/common shape might be a billiard or if you prefer a bent billiard. Once you get into the hobby you might find different tobaccos go with different pipe shapes or you will find shapes that appeal to your specific personality stuff like that right now it’s wide open…
have fun and don’t spend too much until, you know you are committed then put a lean on your home….
I love LOTR and decided to go another direction with a churchwarden. I have a Mark Tinsky pipe I thought would work nicely with a churchwarden stem, so I sent it all to Mark and he made me the additional stem. I like it this way in that I can use that pipe with the original stem or the churchwarden.
Once all the fun of having few dozens of pipes wear off, you and up with few you always go back to. Problem is, going through crap load of pipes to find them. Or stick to Peterson and you won't regret much. Unless you don't like Peterson.
Stanwell Hans Christian Andersen pipes come with a long churchwarden as well as a short stem.
Best of both worlds
They also come with different bowl shapes.
Best of both worlds
They also come with different bowl shapes.