Starting Collection of Pipes
- Thread starter jiujitsubowl
- Start date
SmokingPipes.com Updates
Watch for Updates Twice a Week
PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor
Site Sponsors
PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor
PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor
PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor
PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor
- Status
Online retailers are great with so much to look at and choose from. In addition to new bought pipes, I have many estate ones and they are great smokers. From my own collection, I can heartily recommend Peterson, Savinelli and Stanwell. I can also recommend some artisan pipe makers, though these tend to be UK based (they deliver worldwide) -Northern Briars, Askwith Pioes, Blakemar Briars and Invicta Briars. Also, GQ Tobaccos.
More European sites - in Italy, Al Pascia is a good and very interesting site, well worth browsing. The Danish Pipe Shop is a great one for looking at hundreds of pipes both new and old. The 'old' are all refurbished, sanitised and polished ready for smoking.
Happy choosing and smoking.
More European sites - in Italy, Al Pascia is a good and very interesting site, well worth browsing. The Danish Pipe Shop is a great one for looking at hundreds of pipes both new and old. The 'old' are all refurbished, sanitised and polished ready for smoking.
Happy choosing and smoking.
I second the recommendation of Briar Blues. There may be no better dealer from whom to buy your first estate pipe. Their prices are as good as you will find from a competitor in their class, the restoration work is great, and Briar Blues customer service is first class in every way. If you are in the US, do not let their location in Canada steer you away. They personally take US-bound pipes through US Customs and then mail them via USPS Priority Mail service. They do sometimes sell on eBay, too, and great deals can be had in their auctions.
Haha so many choices. I will say this, my MM Corncobs do smoke awesome. Will probably hone my technique with those, then look into some of these others!
:Well, it seems you got the virus my friend....enjoy the adventure of collecting and smoking pipes.
I could never say that I bought a bad pipe, nor I could ever give one away. They are our babes to take care of and to enjoy.
Each one and no matter how big your collection will be, will be your best friend in good moments and bad moments.
I can assure you that if you see 50 pipes in a store in one day there will be always ' a love at first sight ' ....of course until the next visit to the next or same shop.
As we say, follow your heart and enjoy it my friend
I could never say that I bought a bad pipe, nor I could ever give one away. They are our babes to take care of and to enjoy.
Each one and no matter how big your collection will be, will be your best friend in good moments and bad moments.
I can assure you that if you see 50 pipes in a store in one day there will be always ' a love at first sight ' ....of course until the next visit to the next or same shop.
As we say, follow your heart and enjoy it my friend
Eric, only one Peterson? I've got two Irish Harps, a 221 and a 107, a Halloween Peterson, a St. Patrick's, and a bunch of the Draculas. In a pipe store, I can rarely walk by a Peterson. Now Josh above has me thinking about a Peterson churchwarden...the rusticated Prince looks interesting...
If you are going to spend more than $50 on a pipe, buy one that you like, because it's mostly a matter of style with briars (and certainly cobs). You did good starting with cobs, which don't foul easily, and Grabow is a great bargain in briar, and as fine a smoker as any briar you can get. I own a couple of more expensive makes, including Peterson - they're beautiful, but they don't smoke any better than my Grabows.
Pipes made of meershaum (not to be confused with MM cobs - it's a carved mineral which is rare, and mined in few countries other than Turkey from what I've read) are actually worth spending upwards of $50 on, because the meershaum cheepies aren't carved from solid blocks. You would want one which is carved from a pure block of this stuff, not crushed and mixed with adulterants which are less heat-stable and will impart a bad taste to your tobacco. To taste only the tobacco which you are smoking, and never, ever the taste of smoldering wood, or the ghost of a previously-smoked fruity and goopy aeromatic from your built-up cake (you only build this up in wood pipes), which would mix unpleasantly with your fine English natural-leaf blend is one of the reasons why people buy these pipes. Other reasons include that absolutely no breakin period is required, the outside of the bowl stays cool in the hand, the material can be carved into beautiful figures, and good ones which are taken care of become more valuable as they age. But you don't ever want to drop anything made of this material. It is very porous, therefore dirty fingers will leave their evidence forever, plus it scratches very, very easily (so I learned when I attempted to scrub mine clean). Pipes made from this stuff are easy to smoke, but they really need to be handled with care.
I also have a couple of pearwood pipes from Mr. Brog, which I read is an extremely popular make in Europe, and gaining ground on the West side of the pond through Amazon. I love them both, although the stems aren't quite the most stout (I now have rubber bits on the ends of all my pipe stems for protection and comfort when clenching, so I don't care). After dumping the filters, they are fast becoming fine smokers for around $23. They do impart a faint taste (sweet, like pears) before you build up cake, but I don't find that unpleasant. Pear wood is apparently easier to work with, in that there are some incredibly beautiful figure-carved pipes available (they tend to resemble the meershaum carvings, plus aesthetics are made more complex from the hardwood grain), without the meershaum price). It's therefore softer wood, but my pear pipes, when smoked with my all-too-often hard puffing during the break-in have proven to be as heat-resistant as my briars. I caught a thread on a pipe maker's forum where olive, apple, maple, and a few other woods were recommended, but keep in mind that some woods are toxic, and the scary thing is that people are selling pipes made from toxic woods. I've seen a number of companies which are making them from toxic rosewood, and ill effects have been reported from smoking them!
Pipes made of meershaum (not to be confused with MM cobs - it's a carved mineral which is rare, and mined in few countries other than Turkey from what I've read) are actually worth spending upwards of $50 on, because the meershaum cheepies aren't carved from solid blocks. You would want one which is carved from a pure block of this stuff, not crushed and mixed with adulterants which are less heat-stable and will impart a bad taste to your tobacco. To taste only the tobacco which you are smoking, and never, ever the taste of smoldering wood, or the ghost of a previously-smoked fruity and goopy aeromatic from your built-up cake (you only build this up in wood pipes), which would mix unpleasantly with your fine English natural-leaf blend is one of the reasons why people buy these pipes. Other reasons include that absolutely no breakin period is required, the outside of the bowl stays cool in the hand, the material can be carved into beautiful figures, and good ones which are taken care of become more valuable as they age. But you don't ever want to drop anything made of this material. It is very porous, therefore dirty fingers will leave their evidence forever, plus it scratches very, very easily (so I learned when I attempted to scrub mine clean). Pipes made from this stuff are easy to smoke, but they really need to be handled with care.
I also have a couple of pearwood pipes from Mr. Brog, which I read is an extremely popular make in Europe, and gaining ground on the West side of the pond through Amazon. I love them both, although the stems aren't quite the most stout (I now have rubber bits on the ends of all my pipe stems for protection and comfort when clenching, so I don't care). After dumping the filters, they are fast becoming fine smokers for around $23. They do impart a faint taste (sweet, like pears) before you build up cake, but I don't find that unpleasant. Pear wood is apparently easier to work with, in that there are some incredibly beautiful figure-carved pipes available (they tend to resemble the meershaum carvings, plus aesthetics are made more complex from the hardwood grain), without the meershaum price). It's therefore softer wood, but my pear pipes, when smoked with my all-too-often hard puffing during the break-in have proven to be as heat-resistant as my briars. I caught a thread on a pipe maker's forum where olive, apple, maple, and a few other woods were recommended, but keep in mind that some woods are toxic, and the scary thing is that people are selling pipes made from toxic woods. I've seen a number of companies which are making them from toxic rosewood, and ill effects have been reported from smoking them!
I forgot to mention this, but your interest in a churchwarden is also a good choice, and these are typically not very expensive, maybe so because the producer see this genre as a media fantasy-fed gimmick. The long stem is actually quite practical for cooling down hot smoke before it reaches your mouth, and it's likely to be hotter than is healthy while you are still developing your puffing cadence (which works best in delivering good flavor when you puff slow, as if you were sipping a fine wine). Just watch out for those which have ridiculously small bowls, or are made of a wood other than briar or pear wood. If you are shopping online, and the specifications for wood, bowl inner and outer diameter and bowl depth aren't available, don't buy it.
A found a nice solution to avoid taking my chances with the online churchwarden offerings by converting my MM Country Gentleman with a churchwarden stem, which has been offered by the Walker Briar Works site, and hopefully within a few weeks Dave Walker will be able to provide a link to the new company which he turned the stem part of his business over to. No, you can't expect any stem you buy on the market to fit any of your pipes, but these stems have been produced specifically with MM in mind. I own three other MMs, and while this one is the best, it seems to be also the best smoking, and best built, with a slightly harder and better-worked cob material than the standard stuff. Did I mention it's a plenty big, and now it's also a churchwarden?
A found a nice solution to avoid taking my chances with the online churchwarden offerings by converting my MM Country Gentleman with a churchwarden stem, which has been offered by the Walker Briar Works site, and hopefully within a few weeks Dave Walker will be able to provide a link to the new company which he turned the stem part of his business over to. No, you can't expect any stem you buy on the market to fit any of your pipes, but these stems have been produced specifically with MM in mind. I own three other MMs, and while this one is the best, it seems to be also the best smoking, and best built, with a slightly harder and better-worked cob material than the standard stuff. Did I mention it's a plenty big, and now it's also a churchwarden?
I tell every new smoker they should buy a new pipe and not an estate and that new pipe should be a Savinelli. For the money, you will get a great smkoing pipe with a nice open draw that makes smoking a pleasure and not a chore. It will be a cool dry smoker and the Italians use a nice wide open draw which makes the pipe smoke itself.
I would definitely stay away from Peterson due to their lack of quality control. You can get a pipe that has a restricted draw, poor drilling, stems that don't like up with the shank, a pipe cleaner that does not go all the way through, and a wet smoker. My first pipe was a Sav and I still own it 15 years later.
If you must get an estate pipe then Mike at Briar Blues is the way to go. He will not sell you a pipe that he does not feel will perform to it's optimum.
I would definitely stay away from Peterson due to their lack of quality control. You can get a pipe that has a restricted draw, poor drilling, stems that don't like up with the shank, a pipe cleaner that does not go all the way through, and a wet smoker. My first pipe was a Sav and I still own it 15 years later.
If you must get an estate pipe then Mike at Briar Blues is the way to go. He will not sell you a pipe that he does not feel will perform to it's optimum.
Savinelli and Stanwell. Both have huge catalogs, and both are well made for the money. You may like the looks of a churchwarden, but I am betting you won't like the way they smoke, especially as a beginner.
- Status