Selecting Your First Pipe
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I could easily go overboard but will restrain myself initially.?
I think I added just the right amount. I.e. don't worry about perfection or the unknowns. Just worry about the very basics.
we're here to help. Well and find out about stuff and talk to weirdos too.
After 49 years of pipe smoking the most important thing I can tell you is to make sure that there's an opening at both ends.
Not like there's not enough suggestions here already but, for the first time smoking a pipe I would get a cob.
Smoke it to death and take it to the limits finding out what you can do and shouldn't do with it. Then after you've destroyed that one get another and apply what you have learned in smoking it. Then when you think you have come close to mastering it buy another, there cheap......well they use to be but, still cheaper the a new briar pipe. Don't even think of buying a Estate because someone else has had it and got rid of it for what ever reason not to mention if it's cheap enough it'll most likely need a good cleaning and restoration. Once you can sit down and really enjoy a whole bowl in your cob then maybe think about upgrading to a briar. Don't buy a cheap meer cause that's exactly what you'll get "CHEAP" and it'll most likely gurgle and provide you with wet smokes. I think I covered everything, oh and get plenty of pipe cleaners, you'll be need'en em!
Smoke it to death and take it to the limits finding out what you can do and shouldn't do with it. Then after you've destroyed that one get another and apply what you have learned in smoking it. Then when you think you have come close to mastering it buy another, there cheap......well they use to be but, still cheaper the a new briar pipe. Don't even think of buying a Estate because someone else has had it and got rid of it for what ever reason not to mention if it's cheap enough it'll most likely need a good cleaning and restoration. Once you can sit down and really enjoy a whole bowl in your cob then maybe think about upgrading to a briar. Don't buy a cheap meer cause that's exactly what you'll get "CHEAP" and it'll most likely gurgle and provide you with wet smokes. I think I covered everything, oh and get plenty of pipe cleaners, you'll be need'en em!
Just read the article on airflow. Makes a lot of sense to me however it sounds like it requires some skill to rework the draft on a pipe without ruining it.
Personally I would not advise anyone to try and open up a draw on a stem of an expensive pipe.
As for quality hand made pipes there shouldn't be a need to. Sadly out all the pipes I've ever owned
I've never had a Ser Jacapo so I don't know how well or bad their stem work is. Just one thought though,
if a cob smokes better then a $300 pipe, someones buying the wrong pipes.
Before they went down a business path that I couldn't follow and I would still smoke them, Missouri Meerschaum's open airflow exceeded any Dunhill I have owned. They nearly smoked themselves.
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I've never been really impressed with Dunhills but, I know some swear by them.
Lots of advice so far, and stories of personal pipe journeys.
Question you have to answer is "What do YOU like in a pipe eg the shape, size and material (briar, cob or other) ?"
And how much you're happy spending on a pipe ?"
I've never smoked or owned a cob, so I disqualify myself from commenting on cobs.
There are members here who are more than satisfied with their 2-3 pipes. And there are members with their collections of several hundred pipes. Some smoke mainly cobs, others predominantly briars or meerschaums. Everyone is different, and have their preferences, which may not translate to yours.
When I returned to smoking pipes 3 years ago, I thought I'd clean up the 20+ pipes I already had and I'd be happy.
Then I discovered this Forums and went down the rabbit hole of a whole universe of pipes I did not know existed.
I read about morta and was intrigued by this material slowly transforming under water for thousands of years. I ended up with 9 mortas until I gave a few away.
Then I saw a few lovely grained olive wood pipes, and "had to" see what they were all about. And ended up with a few of them.
Then I came across threads on Britwoods and decided I had to have a few. I now have over 40 Britwood Bulldogs alone.
Choose a pipe that appeals to you, and do not overspend. Try it out first, and work out if you're happy with it. If not, work out what is it you're not happy with and go on from there.
What I'm saying in an extremely verbose way is that it can be confusing with all the advice you're getting. Just don't get a severe case of PAD trying out ALL those options. You need to keep some money for tobacco, and THAT is another rabbit hole
Question you have to answer is "What do YOU like in a pipe eg the shape, size and material (briar, cob or other) ?"
And how much you're happy spending on a pipe ?"
I've never smoked or owned a cob, so I disqualify myself from commenting on cobs.
There are members here who are more than satisfied with their 2-3 pipes. And there are members with their collections of several hundred pipes. Some smoke mainly cobs, others predominantly briars or meerschaums. Everyone is different, and have their preferences, which may not translate to yours.
When I returned to smoking pipes 3 years ago, I thought I'd clean up the 20+ pipes I already had and I'd be happy.
Then I discovered this Forums and went down the rabbit hole of a whole universe of pipes I did not know existed.
I read about morta and was intrigued by this material slowly transforming under water for thousands of years. I ended up with 9 mortas until I gave a few away.
Then I saw a few lovely grained olive wood pipes, and "had to" see what they were all about. And ended up with a few of them.
Then I came across threads on Britwoods and decided I had to have a few. I now have over 40 Britwood Bulldogs alone.
Choose a pipe that appeals to you, and do not overspend. Try it out first, and work out if you're happy with it. If not, work out what is it you're not happy with and go on from there.
What I'm saying in an extremely verbose way is that it can be confusing with all the advice you're getting. Just don't get a severe case of PAD trying out ALL those options. You need to keep some money for tobacco, and THAT is another rabbit hole
If that's the case you'd better just give up on pipesmoking altogether.
Across 50+ pipes, Ashton, Ferndown, Big Ben, Blakemar, Nording, Peder Jeppesen, Peterson, Rossi, Rattray's, Radice, Ser Jacopo, Savinelli, Tsuge, and then an assortment of basket pipes, all of them are drilled to a 3mm draft in the stem.
In terms of air flow they're all virtually identical, which is to say it's pretty poor compared to a Missouri Meerschaum 80 cent plastic stem.
Unfortunately while Brebbia and Vauen do use a 3mm draft through most of the stem, they like to finish the button with a single 2mm hole only the height of the button slot, which is pretty bad, but you only need to slightly extend the slot to restore the industry standard 3mm airflow.
Beyond the most basic drilling with a 3mm draft intersecting with the button slot, there are three exceptions I've found.
First is an old "Icarus" brand bent egg from Briarworks, the drilling on that pipe is truly impressive (very deep slot) but from the glimpses I've seen of clear stems on recent Briarworks pipes it seems they've given up on the style of stem with an extended slot.
The draft on the old Icarus is only slightly larger than standard at 1/8" or 3.125mm, which doesn't seem like much, but when virtually every other pipe in existence is 3.0mm it's noticeable, plus the extended slot significantly amplifies the effect.
Next just recently I've found a Viprati Lumberman and "S. Klein Design" from Scott's Pipes that were also drilled to 1/8" (3.125mm) instead of the standard 3mm.
The S. Klein Design pipe in particular has an extra deep slot like the old Briarworks Icarus. The stem on the Viprati is a little rough, clearly "hand made", but at least some extra effort was taken to slightly improve airflow.
I will say here that both of these pipes are Lumberman shapes, and that means the stem is really short and that makes drilling really easy, I have no idea if bent shapes or longer stems from either brand take the same steps.
We all know Castello is renowned for maintaining very open airflow, but that reputation has inflated their prices to the point where you're paying 2-3x more for the simple luxury of a pipe made with a slightly larger drill bit.
It's really astounding that there is so little variation across the entire pipemaking industry.
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Almost as astounding as the unification of the industry around a 3mm draft in the stem, is that of the people doing anything different none of them advertise it.
If you're looking for pipes with more airflow it's a total crapshoot, thus I've got enough tools now to be able to completely ignore whatever standards a pipe was manufactured to and buy pipes purely based on looks, which ironically means I'm reinforcing the principle that pipemakers just spend all their effort on making better looking pipes, but I assume running around asking pipemakers to change their drilling standards would be received about as well as asking a car manufacturer to pull an engine block off the factory line and make one engine with slightly larger cylinders.
If you're looking for pipes with more airflow it's a total crapshoot, thus I've got enough tools now to be able to completely ignore whatever standards a pipe was manufactured to and buy pipes purely based on looks, which ironically means I'm reinforcing the principle that pipemakers just spend all their effort on making better looking pipes, but I assume running around asking pipemakers to change their drilling standards would be received about as well as asking a car manufacturer to pull an engine block off the factory line and make one engine with slightly larger cylinders.
Wasn't the diameter of the airway a complete thing with Rick Newcombe? That achieving the magic size was nirvana. Now, I believe, he's backed away from that as a panacea.
Me too, about 40 years ago now. I remember picking it from it's clip on the metal display board. A small straight apple with a stinger.
I’m another cob fan. Started with one cob and a selection of tobaccos and now have several cobs and a couple of cheap briars.