Straight pipe or Curved pipe?

[lordofthepiperings]

I'm more partial to bents than straights as well.

 

[pentangle]

Strange question ,whould say a question rhetorical.Guess barely we could meet a person that own only bent or only straight.Of course the choice depends on many things but if we all own both................. :wink:

 

[withnail]

I know what you mean Maurizio, but I think most of us have more of one kind than the other. When looking at pipes, my eye is always drawn towards the straight stem examples first.
Romeowood - I would love to add a Dunhill pipe to my collection but they are a little out of my price range at the moment! I also wonder at what stage you are paying for the Brand Name? I mean, you can buy two hand made pipes made by an independent artisan pipes for the cost of a single Dunhill. Although I do take your point about them keeping their value.
Back to the main topic - Those of you who prefer bent pipes, do you prefer full are part bent? I quite like the look of a quarter bent stem on some bowl styles EG Bulldog, but I think I will always have more straight pipes in my collection.

 

[pawpaw]

15 pipes and only 3 bents

 

[irish2fish]

Three bent and two straights. I tend to take my straights out with me in public more and smoke my bent ones at the house. No particular reason for it, but I realized it after reading this thread. :puffpipe:

 

[romeowood]

I also wonder at what stage you are paying for the Brand Name? I mean, you can buy two hand made pipes made by an independent artisan pipes for the cost of a single Dunhill. Although I do take your point about them keeping their value.

Point taken, definitely. Dunhill has, since its inception, positioned itself as a luxury goods purveyor; to that end, of course their quality control is very high, but--again, in my opinion only--after the first couple hundred bucks you're only paying for the brand name. That being said, the fact that their appeal to collectors is consistent and high, largely owing to the ability to date them rather precisely, is something to consider. If you can justify the expenditure, they're an investment. Regarding other artisan carvers though, there are likewise a broad range of price points there--many leaving Dunhills in the bargain bin by comparison. So it's a matter of aesthetic, in the end.

Regarding ease of cleaning, I've never considered it any different in bent versus straight stems, other than one army-mount Castello that is bent to such a degree that a pipe cleaner simply won't make the turn past the lip. That's never been a problem though.

Regarding my personal aesthetic preference to straights over bents...well, my first pipe, a gift, was a Sasieni straight billiard, which to me will always be the quintessential pipe shape. Perhaps a lot of it boils down to people's personal mental image of a pipe--connecting it with Basil Rathbone's Holmes and a calabash makes that the 'ideal' shape for some, or Magritte's Dunhill LC, or Twain's (or MacArthur's, Frosty's, Santa's, or Mammy Yokum's, or...) corncob, et cetera. Still an interesting question, and a fun topic to ponder over a bowl. :puffpipe:

 

[withnail]

....you can justify the expenditure, they're an investment

Romeowood - I'm gonna quote that to Mrs Withnail! (She need never know that the sentence originally started with the word "if" :-D )

 

[romeowood]

Aha, diplomacy! Relate it to her love of shoes (all women love shoes, for some reason); I'm sure she'll understand. :wink:

 

[tobakenist]

I like Straights, bents, quarter bents, half bents, full bents and any other shape.

 

[ohin3]

"Personally, when buying a pipe or picking one from the rack to smoke, I don't think about whether the stem is straight or bent."
I couldn't agree more. That being said, I seem to be more attracted to straight pipes because the majority of my pipes are straight. I do like a 1/8 bent or even 1/4 bent, but I have never been attracted to a full bent pipe. No reasoning behind it, I just seem to be attracted to straight light pipes.

 

[juni]

Mostly straight and straigtish pipes in my collection.
I think pre-70s or even earlier Dunhills probably are far superior to their new offerings. Maybe because of the fact that they have survived for so long - thus weeding out the crap ones in the process of pipesters using them.

 

[rigmedic1]

Never thought about it much, really. My collection has grown to 64 in the past few months, and I have been on a straights kick here lately, buying a Peterson X105, Shamrock straight apple, a straight cob, and a couple of straight Edwards from cypresspipe. He also sold me a quarterbent Edwards, and I bought a half bent Comoy volcano and a fullbent Barling this year. After 30 years of pipesmoking, I recognize that I go through phases.

I guess I have no real preference. If the pipe is attractive to me, doesnt matter if it is straight or how bent it is.

FB: 4, 3/4B: 5, 1/2B: 11, 1/4B: 16, Straights: 23, Churchwardens: 5

 

[vroomfondel]

Mostly bent pipes so far. The only straight ones I have (except for my Stanwell featherweight Poker) are the self carved ones.

 

[ace57]

I like the bent pipes but have and smoke both.

 

[yuri66]

For me it depends on the baccy I want to smoke, I enjoy certain tobacco's more in a straight than a bent, even though I am more partial to the bent, I prefer the feel of the bent more.

 

[nbpiper]

Excluding the cobs (2/3 are bent) I have 2 straight piped and the other 4 are bent to some degree or another. When I started out a couple of months ago I didn't really like the straight pipes, but I've started to come around and my next pipe or two will most likely be straight.

 

[colorduke]

5 bent 100+ straight,i guess i like straight pipes.

 

[philip]

All my briars are bent. The only straight pipes I have are cobs.

 

[iowamike]

50/50 here.

A quote I heard for cigars is the same for pipes to me. There are 2 kinds of pipe/cigars, lit and unlit.

Straight or bent I like them Lit!

 

[baronsamedi]

I have mostly straight with a couple 1/8 and 1/4 and only recently have owned full bent pipes. Can't say I have a favorite shape or bend yet. A little easier to type while clenching a full bent though