Question re Plateau-Topped Rims

[irishearl]

Many years ago before eBay was a thing and you could find decent pipes in second hand shops at least once in a blue moon I bought a nice looking no name/no COM, largish pipe with plateau top. It large resembles a bent billiard but with a plateau rim. Are all plateau rim pipes considered to be free-hands or would it simply be considered a plateau topped billiard? it has a saddle stem.

 

[dmcmtk]

I would base the term "Freehand" on the shaping of the pipe, and not necessarily a Plateaux rim.

 

[mso489]

From the description, I'd say you have a billiard shape pipe with a plateau rim. Freehands come in many various shapes, and many look a bit like overgrown Dublins with their conical format, but none of them look like billiards. I'd say.

 

[daveinlax]

Are all plateau rim pipes considered to be free-hands or would it simply be considered a plateau topped billiard?

No. You can have freehand pipes and standard shape pipes with plateau tops. Note that many times, mostly on freehands plateau tops are tipped to favor a right or left handed light. 8O

 

[irishearl]

It seems that the most common form of free-hands is vaguely Dublinesque or hard-to-characterize, but have never seen a largely billiard shape referred to as a free-hand. Now my pipe's rim isn't of uniform height around the rim as there is some slight differential going around it.

 

[Chasing Embers]

A good freehand will be shaped following the grain of the wood, and really won't resemble a classic shape, much less a billiard. Most likely, you have a pipe whose carver left the plateau intact for aesthetics.

 

[cigrmaster]

This Rad Davis Dublin has a plateau top. I am not a fan of these plateau tops as I would much rather see a finished top.

 

[irishearl]

Given this information, I now realize that, rather than thinking I have 5 free-hands in my collection, I now know I only have 1. 2 of my Nordings have now become a large, paneled Dublin with partially rusticated rim and a large paneled, partially rusticated tomahawk, (thanks to a great pipe shape chart I recently discovered on-line I have a better understanding of what a tomahawk shape is). Also, thanks to that chart I now know that those chubbie Rhodesians I love are considered to all be bullmooses, bullmeese, bullmices. :D

 

[cosmicfolklore]

Hmmm, maybe look a lot of other pipe charts too. Different makers have different names for pipes. Like Rhodesians. They are all in the bulldog family, with double coned bowls. But, depending on the shank, the size of the cones, the width of the bowl, they can becomes sub-genres; Rhodesian, bullmooses, even eskimos or saucers. A Tamahawk is pretty close to a pickax or even an acorn shape. But, like I said, different makers, different books, different countries all have different names for different pipes. Too bad we don't have one set of Latin names to use, like we do in science. But, I guess this is what keeps us talking and discussing such things. ::