Show Us Your Pipe Dan Shaped Reformed Pipes

[telescopes]

Several years ago, @alaskanpiper was taking a photo of the Northern Lights while smoking a Pipe Dan Shaped Reform pipe. Maybe it is the unusual glow of the Northern Lights, or maybe it was just the choice of such a magical looking pipe to be smoking during the Northern Lights, but I felt like I just had to have one.

Here is mine:
I purchased this one from Reborn Pipes - always a great place to get an older pipe that has been loving restored. This particular pipe had many patches made to its stem. Unfortunately, the patches are not holding up so well and I'll most likely have a new vulcanite stem made for it. One this is for sure, the pipe is not for sale.

There is another thread currently going about Chimney pipes, and the best known of the genre are those made by Pipe Dan.

Why a chimney? I have found them to be a bit temperamental and I believe the shape impacts the perceived taste of the tobacco due to how the tobacco is forced to burn in such a narrow bowl. But again, that might just be me. Regardless, it is an interesting shape and I pull the pipe out from time to time.

Do you have any Pipe Dan pipes?

 

[jpmcwjr]

No, but what the devil has been reformed? From what?

And is not the illustrated pipe a chimney?

 

[Briar Lee]

No, but what the devil has been reformed? From what?

And is not the illustrated pipe a chimney?

The bowl is definitely an extra tall and narrow bore chimney but look at the stem and shank. The Reform seems to have been a tall, narrow bowl with an equal length shank plus another equal length stem.

Compare my true, unreformed Chimney.

 

[telescopes]

No, but what the devil has been reformed? From what?

And is not the illustrated pipe a chimney?

Here you go...

 

[telescopes]

The bowl is definitely an extra tall and narrow bore chimney but look at the stem and shank. The Reform seems to have been a tall, narrow bowl with an equal length shank plus another equal length stem.

Compare my true, unreformed Chimney.

View attachment 279600

Ah, this thread is specifically about Pipe Dan: Shape Reformed pipes. Standard chimneys already have their own thread.

This would be like showing a Charatan's Make Bulldog in a thread for Peterson Bulldogs. Why do so? LOL

And to be equally clear, this thread is NOT about Algerian Briar.

Ha Ha

 

[telescopes]

No, but what the devil has been reformed? From what?

And is not the illustrated pipe a chimney?

Yes, it is a chimney. But this thread is about a specific brand of "chimney pipe, ones made by Pipe Dan. To quote, "... the classic pipe sold from Pibe-Dan was the Dan Shape-Reformed Pipe, which had a very tall vertical bowl, and were hand made of Corsican briar. Pibe-Dan claimed that the design was longer, drier, cooler and more even smoking. The Shape-Reformed was available in various lines including the Danois, Standard, Champion, Half Chimney and others." Pipedia.

And to clarify again, there is a thread already for chimney pipes. This one is regarding Pipe Dan: Shape Reformed pipes. If one is uncertain, just look on the stem for those exact words.

 

[alaskanpiper]

I own, and have owned, several Pipe-dan pieces. My favorites, though not “shape reformed” in the sense the catalog means regarding the angled stem, they were certainly a part of the mid-century Danish shaping revolution! Which I would argue had a much more significant and longer lasting “reformative” impact on the pipe world than the “shape reformed” series itself!

Both (along with the legendary carvers at the helm) are part of the reason that, IMO, the 1962 Pipe-dan catalog is one of the coolest catalogs to ever exist!

A Gert Holbek Polonius (1962) and a Sven Knudsen Swan (1967) straight out of the very catalog posted above. Also including a beautiful little svelte billiard made for Pipe-dan by Ib Loran, which is an excellent little smoker as well.

 

[alaskanpiper]

Here is a link to the full catalog for those interested. I strongly suggest perusing it for those who haven’t! It is wild as hell, even by today’s standards, let alone for 1962! Especially when you get down to the shapes carved by artists that today are rightly considered legendary such as Gert Holbek, Sven Knudsen, and Sixten Ivarsson!

https://pipedia.org/images/d/dd/Pibedan_61_62.pdf

 

[Briar Lee]

Yes, it is a chimney. But this thread is about a specific brand of "chimney pipe, ones made by Pipe Dan. To quote, "... the classic pipe sold from Pibe-Dan was the Dan Shape-Reformed Pipe, which had a very tall vertical bowl, and were hand made of Corsican briar. Pibe-Dan claimed that the design was longer, drier, cooler and more even smoking. The Shape-Reformed was available in various lines including the Danois, Standard, Champion, Half Chimney and others." Pipedia.

And to clarify again, there is a thread already for chimney pipes. This one is regarding Pipe Dan: Shape Reformed pipes. If one is uncertain, just look on the stem for those exact words.

What strikes me about the Pipe Dan reformed shape us how much larger burls would have been needed.

The Reformed is a much classier and expensive pipe.

 

[jpmcwjr]

I'd suggest you don't need to control this thread so vigorously.

My inquiry was/is close to the topic you started.

 

[telescopes]

I'd suggest you don't need to control this thread so vigorously.

My inquiry was/is close to the topic you started.

Oh, I know and appreciate that. I need to start using more emojis and thinking about more effective forum communications. I get too much in a hurry.

 

[Briar Lee]

This is fascinating as all get out to me.

I’ve heard of Pipe Dan. They marketed and sold all of their pipes to Danes, or vistors to Copenhagen, at least in that catalog.


So what was the exchange rate on US dollar to the kroner in 1962?

Wikipedia is our friend. My mother would have had me fetch her the World Book Almanac and Book of Facts when I was a little boy.

Xxxxxx

Denmark returned to the gold standard in 1924 but left it permanently in 1931. Between 1940 and 1945, the krone was tied to the German Reichsmark. Following the end of the German occupation, a rate of 24 kroner to the British pound was introduced, reduced to 19.34 (4.8 kroner = 1 US dollar) in August the same year. Within the Bretton Woods System, Denmark devalued its currency with the pound in 1949 to a rate of 6.91 to the dollar. A further devaluation in 1967 resulted in rates of 7.5 kroner

Xxxxxx

So, a 70 kroner pipe would have been a $10 pipe in the USA, and the cheapie 20 kroner about $3. This is a Danish equivalent to America’s own Carl Weber.

Men do not change all over this world, they never have and never will, human nature is the same.

The first reason a man buys a damned thing is he hopes he’ll impress a girl with it.

Style sells everything.


So our Danish customer in 1962 gets to buy a hand made reformed shape pipe from 20 kroner ($3) to 150 kroner ($21).

Multiply by ten for today’s dollar prices.

The Kroner still exists at near the same exchange rate.








It’s reformed because the bowl is vertical, it’s high, it’s narrow, and somehow easier to smoke all the way down (betcha it has a large draft hole)

And it’s made out of selected matured very old Corsican briar, likely ancient when the French Emperor was in exile.

The bore is a very narrow 12mm (.470”) to a narrow 17mm (.670”). He’s making reformed chimney pipes, without any doubt.

Put some Danish shag in those and it’s a reloadable briar cigarette.

 

[ThermionicScott]

Here is a link to the full catalog for those interested. I strongly suggest perusing it for those who haven’t! It is wild as hell, even by today’s standards, let alone for 1962! Especially when you get down to the shapes carved by artists that today are rightly considered legendary such as Gert Holbek, Sven Knudsen, and Sixten Ivarsson!

https://pipedia.org/images/d/dd/Pibedan_61_62.pdf

I feel like someone messed up the aspect ratio when I flip through that catalog!

 

[alaskanpiper]

It’s reformed because the bowl is vertical, it’s high, it’s narrow, and somehow easier to smoke all the way down (betcha it has a large draft hole)

The “shape reformed” mostly refers to the angle at which the shank and stem come out of the bowl (sort of like a check mark rather than a 90 degree angle).

Their theory being that when clenched, the bowl remains more vertical as the pipe hangs, ideally leading to a more even burn, and less likelihood of and/or lack of burnout on one side of the bowl.

Chimney high stummels and smaller diameter bores were not terribly uncommon, but the check mark shaping was a “new thing” (supposedly ).

 

[Briar Lee]

Look at the “Half Chimney”

It’s got its own slot in the line up, why was that?



The Half Chimney was high dollar.

The regular sandblast Reformed was half the cost.

What I think is there’s a Dutch thing going on in the translation to English.

Half in Dutch must mean “Mild” in English.

That’s mildly a true Chimney. Has a saddle bit, not as much a check mark, shorter shank.

 

[Toast]

I only have one Reformed pipe - a Nate King interpretation: