Sell me a Dunhill.

[mustanggt]

Of all the Dunhills I own, my 1935 group 3 billiard smokes the best. Flakes are outstanding in it. I've now taken to doing the birth year collecting. 1935 is in between my mom and dad's birth years my sisters and myself as well as my oldest daughter have been obtained. I have many Ashtons a Ferndown, Northern Briars that all smoke as good as the Dunhills. I'm a collector by nature so the Dunhill appeals to me in that regard. The fact that you can date them so easily makes it easier to collect them and know what you have or what you are hoping to buy. Their classic shapes and their classiness appeal to me as well.

 

[danielplainview]

Someone in this thread said they own some Dunhill's, but forgot to mention they own Al Hitchcock's private collection of Dunhill's. I not trying to pressure Mr. Anonymous, but I'm sure everyone would love to see them. ::

 

[Chasing Embers]

@Nate

You found me out! Seriously though, the bad drilling on mine just put me off of them all. My favorite artisan is also an avid Dunhill collector.

 

[ssjones]

On Ashton 2 digit dates = Taylor (he is dead...) and 3 digit date codes = Craig. Craig had a rough patch with stem fitment, but appears to have improved. I examined dozens on his table at Richmond in 2013 and was unimpressed with those (and my Craig pipes from 2010+) Taylor drilling was all over the map, so chose those carefully, but I treasure my Taylor pipes.

 

[crusader]

Hopping Fitzy comes through

 

[fitzy]

Nate I'll certainly ask. I'm going to swing over there on my lunch break.

 

[neverbend]

Hi George (@GeorgeD),
You mentioned, regarding, America's Young Lions,"They are technically lightyears ahead of factory Britwood."
Can you explain their technical superiority?
Thanks,
Pete

 

[sablebrush52]

Can you explain their technical superiority?

I'm sort of curious about that as well.
To be able to produce a flawless smooth by hand, repeatedly carving to the fine tolerances required to produce such a flawless smooth matched to a shape model pattern, while producing a very high percentage of flawless firsts, with the efficiency to turn out thousands of such flawless pipes a year, requires an enormous level of skill. And that was the norm. I love my artisanal pipes, but I've yet to see the merest suggestion that any of our young lions could begin to hit that level of expertise.

 

[agnosticpipe]

You want to know why you should buy a Dunhill? Here's why.

You can take a Dunhill that looks like this...

and fix it to look like this...

and it will still smoke as good as new. Dunhill, there is no substitute!
Of course that's just my sales pitch, I only have two Dunhills, that I smoke about as much as any of my other pipes, actually maybe a little less. :mrgreen:

 

[iamn8]

I suspect that the Dunhill CSR will know little, if anything, about pipes and will claim that their "pipe guy" is off today.

 

[dmcmtk]

The gentleman I once talked to by phone at the NYC Dunhill shop about lighters was very helpful, of course......he was an Englishman! :wink:

 

[fitzy]

Alright I'm fresh back from the Dunhill store.
The sales person was named Sookie. I did not make any comments on the name and True Blood.
With the exception of special edition pipes the majority of their pipes are in a locked wooden cabinet. They have a drawer for each line of pipe. Sometimes the drawer is split between two lines.
The first pipe she showed me was a special edition Titanic pipe made from part of one of the life rafts or some such nonsense. When I asked the price she said it was very affordable at $4k.
Anyway after handling a bunch of pipes I asked her the big question. Her first initial response was the white dot then went on to say some people buy them for the history of the brand and that others buy them because of their uncompromising quality. She told me that you will not find a new Dunhill with a fill or any form of blemish as those are discarded.
She then summarized saying it's mainly for the history and quality of the brand.
As a joke I thought I'd ask her if she had a pipe around $400 and she said no sorry they start at around $580.
What's interesting is there were no group 5 sized pipes. The majority of what they had were pretty tiny. I saw a few that I don't think my pinkie would even fit in the bowl.
Also I think the reason why I thought they no longer sold pipes was because they no longer sell tobacco there and gave me the name of a shop nearby that sells their pipe tobacco and cigars.

 

[agnosticpipe]

@guyrox: Well, the truth is I did the restoration on it. I bought it because it looked to be a fun project and a learning experience. It was fun, and I also learned that it's not something I would like to do all that often. But like I said it smokes just fine, but because of the thin bowl walls, I have to watch not to over heat it. :roll:

 

[iamn8]

Interesting Fitzy... Thanks for doing that!

 

[fitzy]

Glad to help.
The sales person's official title is "Aftersales Specialist".

 

[cosmicfolklore]

Has anyone mentioned the THE DUNHILL WHITE SPOT GUARANTEE?

Yeh, Dunhills are great Savinellis. ...I mean, they are great pipes, but the thing that really separates them from all of the other pipes is that they guarantee their pipes. Sure, sure, you might get Peterson or Stanwell to exchange out a bunk pipe if you haven't smoked it, but these other companies are under no obligation to do so, as we hear every day on the forums in dealing with their bunk pipes. But, Dunhill feels so strongly in their Savinellis, I mean pipes, that they will give you their contract to stand behind their Savinellis, I mean, their work.

 

[jpmcwjr]

My experience in the London store was parallel to fitzy's in NYC.

 

[seacaptain]

If you inhale the smoke from a Dunhill, it will actually cure lung cancer.

 

[crusader]

Thanks for going the extra mile Fitzy! Cosmic, Are you saying Dunhill farms to Savinelli? If so, what makes you think so?

 

[georged]

You mentioned, regarding, America's Young Lions,"They are technically lightyears ahead of factory Britwood."
Can you explain their technical superiority?

I'll give it a shot. :D
First, by "America's Young Lions" I was referring to a group of carvers that began to emerge in the early 2000's who were inspired by the artistic and technical standard of collector pipes that had been made in (primarily) northern Europe for several decades. A dozen years on, and the group has grown steadily larger. I also refer to this lion pride as "perfection chasers", because what makes them tick is an unquenchable desire to make the pipe they're working on better than the last one. They are relentless.
I emphatically was not referring to a more recent wave of American pipe enthusiasts who produce/import low and mid-grade pipes intended primarily as tobacco access devices. Chasing perfection, and visual and technical artistry is not what they're about.
Second, by "technical superiority" I meant the totality of execution. Fit, finish, tolerances, symmetry (when applicable), difficulty, and so forth. Maybe "precision" is a good summary word.
I'm confident about making such a statement because I work on pipes for a living---especially high grade collectables---and being able to copy the work of the world's top Scandinavian and American masters is necessary to achieve an "invisible" repair or re-stem. Once I was able to do that, I discovered to my surprise that I had to deliberately "throttle back" when working on British pipes like Dunhills. Making a stem that is too precise, for example, made the whole pipe look wrong. (The top collectors of English brands want period-correct workmanship, not today's "perfection chaser" workmanship.)
Please don't misunderstand. I ABSOLUTELY LOVE old British pipes. I adore them. They are (virtually) all I own. I simply don't let that emotional connection interfere with my objectivity when it comes to their technical execution.