The Whole Set of Pipe Sizes

[mso489]

I think I now have all of the Group sizes, from Group 1 to Group 6. Group 1 is a Peterson Belgique

straight rusticated yacht; Group 2 is a Ewa smooth churchwarden fully bent; Group 3 is a Iwan Ries

house pipe compact smooth bent billiard. I have dozens of Group 4's. My Group 5 is a Iwan Ries

house pipe made in Italy (Savenelli?) bent billiard, and my Group 6 is a Johs 1/4 bent semi-rusticated

apple. Interestingly, they all have a use, and I smoke them all. Different pipes for different tobaccos,

lengths of smoke, and so forth. I'm not recommending this arrangement to others, necessarily,

but I just realized this was true. Anyone else have this situation?

 

[masterpython]

So how big are all those? No one seams to know what the group numbers mean.

 

[mso489]

I've learned the Group sizes by shopping a lot, over years, at Iwan Ries, so you pick it up by comparison,

like learning to play an instrument by ear. But there is a table somewhere that gives dimensions. It's

pretty subjective because different shape bowls really give you different capacities, regardless of width

at the brim and depth of the bowl. Iwan Ries gives a Dunhill Group size for every pipe it sells, and then if

you refer back to smokingpipes.com, Cup O Joes, 4noggins, etc., you get the relative sizes for many pipe

brands, series, shape sizes, etc. If I can dig up that table of Dunhill Group dimensions, I'll post it. I can

pretty much tell with my index finger what size pipe I am holding. Or for Group 5 and 6, my thumb.