School me on Stingers.

[Jbrewer2002]

I recently bought an estate and 3 of the pipes have stingers. I have never owned anything with a stinger.
1. What’s the purpose?
2. Is there any special care?
3. Are they aluminum?
4. Anything else I should know about them?

 

[mso489]

Stingers were a competitive innovation in tobacco pipes. Historically I'm not sure how far back they go, but they were big in the 1950's and linger on, though they are on fewer and fewer new pipes, almost all factory pipes.

Their purpose was to collect moisture and supposedly to somewhat filter the smoke, though that second claim is uncertain or unknown.

I think many are made of aluminum, but I don't know that was/is universal.

Your two examples on the left in the photo are screw-in stems combined with stingers, so the stingers are really not removable, but most stingers were/are removable just by sliding them out.

I have removed the several stingers that have come with pipes, but I have one Kaywoodie Drinkless with the screw-in stem/stinger, and I find it is a quick and easy clean, delivers a good smoke, and is an enjoyable pipe. Unrelated to the stinger, it has improved appearance over the years mellowing from a matte brown-gray to a more polished slightly reddish hue without any stain, wax, or polish. I just polish it with a cloth.

In estate pipes, I wouldn't avoid stingers, but some of them are troublesome, get clogged, restrict the airway, and don't improve the smoking. But if you find a winner, like mine, you are good to go.

 

[RustiePyles CPG]

Yes they are aluminum, they are more accurately condensers. Combustion creates moisture in the form of water vapor (steam), a condenser will cool that water vapor causing it turn back into droplets. The "stinger" does two things, it condenses and it puts the draft hole above the collection of said condensation.

Screw fitments like Kaywoody's also allow you to remove the stem during a smoke to shake the moisture off, negating the need for a pipe cleaner.

Some of them worked better in theory than in practice, some did exactly what they were designed to to do. Peterson still uses condensers (chimneys) on thier Deluxe System Pipes.

In my opinion there is nothing wrong with them, older KW's are great pipes. But if you intend to smoke sopping wet aros in one your gonna have poor smoke. The prewar pipes were not designed to deal with PG soaked bulk offerings of today.

 

[Searock Fan]

Chuck em....

 

[cosmicfolklore]

I pull them out. I believe it was George (and if I am wrong, I apologize) that told us that tobacco used to be sold with much less water than it is today, and they worked rather well with bone dry tobaccos as it used to be sold. But, nowadays, with companies adding water and humectants, these stingers just serve no purpose. However, even with bone dry, there will be some water as a natural biproduct of combustion, as rustiepyles has said. They probably work better for tobaccos dried to crunchy.

I have only had maybe three pipes come with one, and all three were removed.

 

[mso489]

I failed to mention that the current Kaywoodie Drinkless series comes with a push-bit and no stinger, following the current trend. This happened about three years ago, i think.

 

[camaguey]

Their object is to condense. For that very same reason , i suggest you to take them out and throw them away. Regarding the Kaywoodie there is nothing you can do. I have a very old flame grain kaywoodie to wich i made a new stem with no condenser.

 

[Doctor Chopper]

^^^^^^ I have a couple of pipes with stingers. They smoke fine, but not great. It may be because they are cheaper pipes, I know one is a Grabow (my only one). I find them annoying to clean and so they sit unused for the most part.

 

[TheIronMonkey]

If retaining resale value is a consideration, I recommend you not throw them out. Some collectors will want them intact.

 

[kcghost]

I see no reason to keep them unless you are going to resell them.

 

[tobakenist]

I have a tin full of them, definitely take them straight out of my Peterson deluxe's, see no point of them, Davidoff still uses them but it's black, like that makes a difference, a good pipe doesn't need them.

 

[Brendan]

Where people chugging the crap out of their pipes back in the 50's, when stingers were popular or what?

I can't imagine needing a condenser etc unless you are puffing like a freight train.
Mind you, back then I suppose you could clench and smoke all day, wherever you pleased.

 

[RustiePyles CPG]

I have a tin full of them, definitely take them straight out of my Peterson deluxe's, see no point of them, Davidoff still uses them but it's black, like that makes a difference, a good pipe doesn't need them.

Then why buy a Deluxe system? The whole point of a deluxe system is for the condensate to run off the condenser into the trap. Without a condenser the trap is useless? Peterson hasn’t been putting them in pipes for 130 years because they don’t work.

 

[RustiePyles CPG]

Where people chugging the crap out of their pipes back in the 50's, when stingers were popular or what?

I can't imagine needing a condenser etc unless you are puffing like a freight train.
Mind you, back then I suppose you could clench and smoke all day, wherever you pleased.

Pipe cleaners were not widely available until after WWII. The stinger was a solution to a very real problem, and it worked. It kept the moisture out of the smoke and in the pipe where it could be taken care of buy simply twisting the stem out and giving it a shake. In the absence of pipe cleaners, a wet pipe gets to be a bit of a problem.

It worked so well that the largest briar pipe empire ever to exist was built upon it. Kaywoodie did not sell more pipes than anyone by selling snake oil.

Viewed through the modern lens of readily available pipe cleaners they seem kinda silly, but they served their purpose until they were no longer needed and faded into history.

 

[mingc]

Pipe cleaners were not widely available until after WWII. The stinger was a solution to a very real problem, and it worked. It kept the moisture out of the smoke and in the pipe where it could be taken care of buy simply twisting the stem out and giving it a shake. In the absence of pipe cleaners, a wet pipe gets to be a bit of a problem.

It worked so well that the largest briar pipe empire ever to exist was built upon it. Kaywoodie did not sell more pipes than anyone by selling snake oil.

Viewed through the modern lens of readily available pipe cleaners they seem kinda silly, but they served their purpose until they were no longer needed and faded into history.

That's an interesting theory although I'm not entirely convinced. First, I've not seen anything in the literature that indicates that the stinger is supposed to be used in the way that you suggest, i.e., removed and dried mid-smoke (a half measure anyway which leaves the moisture in the shank right where it is). Second, fuzzy pipe cleaners were supposedly invented in the early 1900s and, therefore, would have made stingers redundant far earlier than the demise of the Kaywoodie stinger in, what, the 70s? See

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pipe_cleaner.

 

[RustiePyles CPG]

That's an interesting theory although I'm not entirely convinced. First, I've not seen anything in the literature that indicates that the stinger is supposed to be used in the way that you suggest, i.e., removed and dried mid-smoke (a half measure anyway which leaves the moisture in the shank right where it is). Second, fuzzy pipe cleaners were supposedly invented in the early 1900s and, therefore, would have made stingers redundant far earlier than the demise of the Kaywoodie stinger in, what, the 70s? See

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pipe_cleaner.

I didn’t say the pipe cleaner didn’t exist, I said they weren’t widely available.

The Synchro Stem replaced the push tenon Drinkless because the push tenon version trapped moisture in the shank with no way to get it out. The synchro stem allowed the smoker to remove the stem to deal with moisture without causing damage to the tenon.

 

[OzPiper]

I am awaiting delivery of a LHS Sterncrest with a chimney condenser instead of the more common stinger.

I wonder which predates the other ?

I have seen relatively few pipes with chimney condensers (mainly in Peterson Deluxe Systems) compared with the ubiquitous stinger

Ideas anyone ?

 

[renfield]

I remove them. Probably hurts resale but not a consideration to me.

 

[mingc]

I didn’t say the pipe cleaner didn’t exist, I said they weren’t widely available.

The Synchro Stem replaced the push tenon Drinkless because the push tenon version trapped moisture in the shank with no way to get it out. The synchro stem allowed the smoker to remove the stem to deal with moisture without causing damage to the tenon.

How do you know when pipe cleaners became widely available?

I could have sworn that the Synchro Stem was designed so that the stem would ultimately overclock and get all wonky.

 

[RustiePyles CPG]

How do you know when pipe cleaners became widely available?

I could have sworn that the Synchro Stem was designed so that the stem would ultimately overclock and get all wonky.

You can look at any number of old trade publications, trade catalogs, Wally Frank Pipe lore, Roger’s imports, pipe lovers magazine, and see that ads for pipe cleaners while sporadically presenting are not really prevalent until into the 50’s.

Wally Frank even often prints “tips” sections in Pipe Lore urging smokers to use pipe cleaners instead of a piece of wire or something because it wasn’t something that most pipe smokers troubled themselves with.