Reverse Calabash

[ofafeather]

Neither is a good way to cool the smoke.

That’s why it doesn’t make a huge difference. ( I think)

 

[Chasing Embers]

Somehow the heat has to go somewhere besides up the stem, which is the physics problem I am trying to wrap my head around. I know how the system pipes and the regular gourd calabashes do it (they both precipitate the steam, removing the heat in the water from the smoke) but I don't see the physics principle that makes the reverse calabash work without also condensing the steam. it doesn't matter how much time the smoke spends within the chamber if there is no good route for the heat to escape, and I'm just not seeing one. Wood and lucite are both thermal insulators, and thermal conduction from a gas to a solid (e.g. briar) is notoriously inefficient. so gas to solid conduction doesn't seem like it's a likely candidate (also the high volume to surface area ratio in all the reverse calabash designs are all wrong for conduction anyway).



The large chamber is helpful if the design is leveraging the ideal gas law PV=nRT, or in this particular application T2 = T1(V2/V1). and system pipes with larger condensation chambers like the gourd calabash and Peterson House pipe all exhibit better cooling properties. The absorbency of the gourd and meerschaum also help .

But if the pipe isn't using condensation as the primary means of cooling the smoke, as is being posited for reverse calabashes, then a chamber with a large internal volume and relatively small surface area and insulating, non-absorbent walls is not going to do a whole lot. Volume goes up roughly by r^3, surface area goes up by r^2 - the larger the chamber the lower the percentage of gas that will contact the walls, or the shorter the contact time. Neither is a good way to cool the smoke.

Too much thinking for smoking for me. I just fill a pipe to relax and not think. Smoke slowly enough and moisture and heat won't be any issue for any pipe regardless of its features.

 

[mparker762]

Any recommendations for a reverse calabash pipe? i've got several gourd calabashes and pete's, and I've got coloring bowls for my meers which turns them effectively in to a calabash configuration, but I don't have a pipe that is designed and marketed as a "reverse calabash". Who makes the best one, or alternatively which reverse calabash design is considered definitive? Some of the ones on smokingpipes look more or less like a 9mm filter pipe without a filter, which I suppose is also technically a reverse calabash but I wouldn't think that would be properly representative of the genre.

 

[coming to_falling too]

Any recommendations for a reverse calabash pipe? i've got several gourd calabashes and pete's, and I've got coloring bowls for my meers which turns them effectively in to a calabash configuration, but I don't have a pipe that is designed and marketed as a "reverse calabash". Who makes the best one, or alternatively which reverse calabash design is considered definitive? Some of the ones on smokingpipes look more or less like a 9mm filter pipe without a filter, which I suppose is also technically a reverse calabash but I wouldn't think that would be properly representative of the genre.

The one I got yesterday was a Chacom. SP has a few, ive heard from another member theyre decent smokers

 

[Chasing Embers]

Any recommendations for a reverse calabash pipe?

The Al Pascia Curvy pipes get good reviews.

 

[coming to_falling too]

The Al Pascia Curvy pipes get good reviews.

View attachment 76307

I really would like one of these, but I'm hesitant to order from Italy and something happen to my package. Ive eyed a number of pipes on Al Pascia that I would love to order but dont for that reason. Anyone have any luck ordering to the US?

 

[maduromadness]

I definitely can't speak to the physics involved as I majored in biology. I always thought of it as an area of "cooler" air as long as I'm not actively pulling through smoke. Not necessarily cooling my smoke because it's a "cooling" chamber

 

[bullet08]

I really would like one of these, but I'm hesitant to order from Italy and something happen to my package. Ive eyed a number of pipes on Al Pascia that I would love to order but dont for that reason. Anyone have any luck ordering to the US?

Just don't order tobacco with it, if they let you. Ordered a tamper tool from Italy before, not the same shop, worked fine.

 

[jewman22]

If it ain't made from a Calabash gourd, then it ain't a Calabash.

 

[olkofri]

No problems ordering from Italy. The parcels actually get here faster than when I order from the US. (Of course, when I order from the US I choose regular post, and ordering from Italy means courier always, so there's that.)

I ordered my Curvy from Al Pascia and my Vauen Almar from bollitopipe.it. Both got here within the week.



No pics of the Vauen yet, though.

 

[olkofri]

If it ain't made from a Calabash gourd, then it ain't a Calabash.

The "reverse calabash" designation was never meant to mean actual calabash. The term was chosen to convey the notion of a cooling effect similar to that of a calabash, except by means of different engineering, hence the "reverse" part.

 

[Merton]

Radice makes very nice RCs for around $250.