Some Pipes Evolve

[workman]

A couple of years ago I bought a Dunhill pipe. A bent rhodesian, sandblasted, group 4 I think. When it arrived, I realized it was badly drilled, didn't pass a pipe cleaner, so I sent it back to the retailer. I got a full refund and bought a Peterson 999 instead, also a bent rhodesian.
It arrived, and the stem was clogged. After some work with a 2mm steel wire, I removed a piece of plastic that had been stuck in there. So I put a pipe cleaner in and it didn't pass. Fuck!
Since I absolutely detest people who complain too much, I couldn't bring myself to send it back. Stupid, I know. It's a spigot pipe, so I figured I could break it down for cleaning, while making a note to self that so far my most expensive pipes have also been my worst.
Well, after smoking a couple of bowls in it, I decided it was a good smoker. After a while it sort of dedicated itself to Royal Yacht, one of my favorite blends. It wouldn't pass a cleaner, actually the pipe cleaner would most often get stuck in the stem before it even reached the shank. So I would break the pipe down after a smoke, clean the shank and chamber and clean the stem from behind, which worked fine. The pipe rarely gurgles and never clogges up, so I was fine with this solution.
Tonight I smoked a bowl of the Yacht in it while writing out some bills and paying some more. Tedious work, yet demanding, so I smoked a little fast and got a gurgle. Grabbed a pipe cleaner and absentmindedly stuck it in there and it went straight through. Wow!
Finished the bowl and cleaned the pipe with a couple of cleaners that passed perfectly.
My 999 seems to give breaking in a whole new meaning.
I'm pleasantly confused.

 

[jaytex1969]

You had to prove yourself worthy to the pipe...

 

[bullet08]

999 is my favorite shape by far. I rarely run the cleaner without breaking the pipe down during smoke. The cleaner runs fine. I just like to clean everything else and soak up the moisture in the mortise.

 

[Chasing Embers]

Evolution at its finest.

 

[workman]

Evolution at its finest.

View attachment 43269

My wife is a plant saver. Whenever a neighbour has a dying plant, she'll adopt it and make it thrive. She has pots of different sizes to work with, none of them white dots, though.
I haven't got that skill. I can eat plants or smoke them, but if they want to live, they're on their own.

 

[Chasing Embers]

My wife is a plant saver. Whenever a neighbour has a dying plant, she'll adopt it and make it thrive. She has pots of different sizes to work with, none of them white dots, though.
I haven't got that skill. I can eat plants or smoke them, but if they want to live, they're on their own.

I started that one from a stem cutting. Family says I've got my great grandmother's green fingers.

 

[workman]

I started that one from a stem cutting. Family says I've got my great grandmother's green fingers.

I guess that's a gift. My wife gets lots of fun out of it. She even sings for them and is sure that it makes them grow. She sings well, so who knows...

 

[saltedplug]

workman said:

I can eat plants or smoke them, but if they want to live, they're on their own.

I like it! Eloquent!

 

[cosmicfolklore]

Soooooo... you were smoking Royal Yacht... in a flawed Peterson... I was smoking some Royal Yacht once, and I was pretty sure my pipe crawled up out of the primordial ooze and slapped the shit out of me.

 

[Chasing Embers]

Soooooo... you were smoking Royal Yacht... in a flawed Peterson... I was smoking some Royal Yacht once, and I was pretty sure my pipe crawled up out of the primordial ooze and slapped the shit out of me.

Mine committed briaricide.

 

[mingc]

A couple of years ago I bought a Dunhill pipe. A bent rhodesian, sandblasted, group 4 I think. When it arrived, I realized it was badly drilled, didn't pass a pipe cleaner, so I sent it back to the retailer. I got a full refund and bought a Peterson 999 instead, also a bent rhodesian.
It arrived, and the stem was clogged. After some work with a 2mm steel wire, I removed a piece of plastic that had been stuck in there. So I put a pipe cleaner in and it didn't pass. Fuck!
Since I absolutely detest people who complain too much, I couldn't bring myself to send it back. Stupid, I know. It's a spigot pipe, so I figured I could break it down for cleaning, while making a note to self that so far my most expensive pipes have also been my worst.
Well, after smoking a couple of bowls in it, I decided it was a good smoker. After a while it sort of dedicated itself to Royal Yacht, one of my favorite blends. It wouldn't pass a cleaner, actually the pipe cleaner would most often get stuck in the stem before it even reached the shank. So I would break the pipe down after a smoke, clean the shank and chamber and clean the stem from behind, which worked fine. The pipe rarely gurgles and never clogges up, so I was fine with this solution.
Tonight I smoked a bowl of the Yacht in it while writing out some bills and paying some more. Tedious work, yet demanding, so I smoked a little fast and got a gurgle. Grabbed a pipe cleaner and absentmindedly stuck it in there and it went straight through. Wow!
Finished the bowl and cleaned the pipe with a couple of cleaners that passed perfectly.
My 999 seems to give breaking in a whole new meaning.
I'm pleasantly confused.

What a heart warming tale (wipes tears from eyes)! ?

 

[anotherbob]

A couple of years ago I bought a Dunhill pipe. A bent rhodesian, sandblasted, group 4 I think. When it arrived, I realized it was badly drilled, didn't pass a pipe cleaner, so I sent it back to the retailer. I got a full refund and bought a Peterson 999 instead, also a bent rhodesian.
It arrived, and the stem was clogged. After some work with a 2mm steel wire, I removed a piece of plastic that had been stuck in there. So I put a pipe cleaner in and it didn't pass. Fuck!
Since I absolutely detest people who complain too much, I couldn't bring myself to send it back. Stupid, I know. It's a spigot pipe, so I figured I could break it down for cleaning, while making a note to self that so far my most expensive pipes have also been my worst.
Well, after smoking a couple of bowls in it, I decided it was a good smoker. After a while it sort of dedicated itself to Royal Yacht, one of my favorite blends. It wouldn't pass a cleaner, actually the pipe cleaner would most often get stuck in the stem before it even reached the shank. So I would break the pipe down after a smoke, clean the shank and chamber and clean the stem from behind, which worked fine. The pipe rarely gurgles and never clogges up, so I was fine with this solution.
Tonight I smoked a bowl of the Yacht in it while writing out some bills and paying some more. Tedious work, yet demanding, so I smoked a little fast and got a gurgle. Grabbed a pipe cleaner and absentmindedly stuck it in there and it went straight through. Wow!
Finished the bowl and cleaned the pipe with a couple of cleaners that passed perfectly.
My 999 seems to give breaking in a whole new meaning.
I'm pleasantly confused.

There is a simple inexplicable knack to get a pipe cleaner through a pipe like that. I have one pipe that won't take a cleaner easily (my most expensive.)

 

[Chasing Embers]

There is a simple inexplicable knack to get a pipe cleaner through a pipe like that. I have one pipe that won't take a cleaner easily (my most expensive.)

The inability for the straight Dunhill to pass a cleaner is the reason it became a bonsai container.

 

[mawnansmiff]

I've found that when it's awkward to get a pipecleaner down a mouthpiece, gently twisting said cleaner like one would a screw often helps.

Regards,

Jay.?

 

[mso489]

Workman, my 999 is my only P-lip and a decidedly likable shape, just the right size and sturdy. I'm glad yours proved out. I have a Pete author that was a satisfactory smoker that then expanded after a few years into something much better. I can't understand what happened, but it certainly evolved. On a different subject, I relate to your wife singing to her plants. I am sufficiently stricken with imagination to assume that they not only hear her but respond. It makes perfect sense to me. I don't sing to plants, but I want their respect. I had some African violets I rescued from the trash at my work place that bushed up and didn't bloom for years. Then I moved to an office with better windows and they bloomed continuously for years ... and years. Their doing, not mine.

 

[anotherbob]

Workman, my 999 is my only P-lip and a decidedly likable shape, just the right size and sturdy. I'm glad yours proved out. I have a Pete author that was a satisfactory smoker that then expanded after a few years into something much better. I can't understand what happened, but it certainly evolved. On a different subject, I relate to your wife singing to her plants. I am sufficiently stricken with imagination to assume that they not only hear her but respond. It makes perfect sense to me. I don't sing to plants, but I want their respect. I had some African violets I rescued from the trash at my work place that bushed up and didn't bloom for years. Then I moved to an office with better windows and they bloomed continuously for years ... and years. Their doing, not mine.

plants are alive and sensitive and responsive. What it's like for them to be those things I have no idea. Though it takes more the dirt and light and water to keep them happy.

 

[workman]

Workman, my 999 is my only P-lip and a decidedly likable shape, just the right size and sturdy. I'm glad yours proved out. I have a Pete author that was a satisfactory smoker that then expanded after a few years into something much better. I can't understand what happened, but it certainly evolved. On a different subject, I relate to your wife singing to her plants. I am sufficiently stricken with imagination to assume that they not only hear her but respond. It makes perfect sense to me. I don't sing to plants, but I want their respect. I had some African violets I rescued from the trash at my work place that bushed up and didn't bloom for years. Then I moved to an office with better windows and they bloomed continuously for years ... and years. Their doing, not mine.

Incidentally I have one more Peterson, a system pipe, that has gone from being mediocre to good. Good enough for me to have another one on the way.
Whether these changes are actual physical phenomena within the pipes or some subtle changes in our way of using or perceiving them, or maybe a combination of these things, I'm not sure. I'm not sure I want to know either. It's such a pleasing mystery, I think.
On the plants. I'm hopeless. 4 years in a row I planted potatoes. Worked for days, back breaking work. Getting them out of the ground, drying them for storage etc. It never worked for me. They got some nasty fungus, or they rotted from the inside, like in Ireland in the 1840ies, and even when they didn't get sick the crop was only a third of what it was supposed to be. House plant either die of thirst or drown under my hands. I consider myself stupid in that area, retarded even. So be it. My wife has the skills for both of us.

 

[Duke of Erinmore]

I also have experiences with "evolving" pipes. One reason is the use of break-in paste. Some producers use paste that contains gum arabic which makes all tobaccos taste awful.

After a couple of bowls when a decent cake has been built up, the paste taste is gone and the real tobacco taste kicks in.

 

[jmill208]

It’s not a phenomenon at all. Once the courting process is over and you commit, the betrothed tends to grow larger.

The honeymoon is over, you’re stuck.

 

[anotherbob]

It’s not a phenomenon at all. Once the courting process is over and you commit, the betrothed tends to grow larger.

The honeymoon is over, you’re stuck.

and people wonder why I'am against getting married.