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Jun 18, 2020
3,799
13,538
Wilmington, NC
There are quite a few other golf courses that'll cost more like an entry level Savinelli rather than a rare estate pipe!

Do you smoke while playing? I do, but too much. I go through 4-6 bowls over 18 holes, and need to cut back.
Can you get a full 18 holes complete in under 8 hours? With all that pipe smoking, it must be hard. rotf
 

HawkeyeLinus

Lifer
Oct 16, 2020
5,580
40,853
Iowa
There are quite a few other golf courses that'll cost more like an entry level Savinelli rather than a rare estate pipe!

Do you smoke while playing? I do, but too much. I go through 4-6 bowls over 18 holes, and need to cut back.
I'm a little too repressed Methodist about my golf - no smoking or drinking until after a round, but ask me to play and I'll bring a casserole!
 

Briar Lee

Lifer
Sep 4, 2021
4,760
13,785
Humansville Missouri
This is why it is so dang hard for me to pull the trigger on one of the expensive pipes when you can get something like this Savinelli handmade estate pipe (from SP) for $85...I just bought it...don't care about Carmel Pipe Shop, who they are or what they are and never will, it's just a nice looking pipe for a measly $85. I'll most likely treat this pipe like crap like I do all my pipes, but who cares at this price?

View attachment 64065

Italian Estates: Savinelli Hand Made Smooth Bent Billiard with Silver (for Carmel Pipe Shop) (6mm) (Unsmoked)​


Product Number: 004-006-30345​

While clearly a bent Billiard, this handmade rendition from Savinelli displays design cues that speak strongly of the Italian marque's penchant for the dramatic. The bowl rises proudly past two inches in a steady, nearly straight taper, and is joined to an uplifted shank boldly rotund and crowned with a sterling silver band. It is wearing a handsome mahogany stain over smooth finish, illuminating a stunning vertical grain and flecks of birdseye on the slightly inflated and chamfered rim. Unsmoked.
-Joel Balyeat
In 1974, when the federal minimum wage was $1.60 (and as a summer worker at a Marina they legally paid me $1.25 an hour) there was no way under the sun a minimum wage worker could buy a genuine Savinelli smooth bent billiard with a sterling silver band for a day’s pay,

Tonight I’ll take my wife out to a little restaurant in Olean Missouri where I’ll spend $80 (with $20 tip) for a delicious full 14 ounce ribeye steak with fixings and salad bar dinner for two.

I couldn’t afford a couple of ribeye dinners in a restaurant forty five years ago, or that Savinelli either.

Has there been some kind of improvement in computerized CNC milling technology that allows a perfect, name brand, gorgeous pipe to be retailed for about $80 today?

Or are pipes made now like they were then?
 
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Has there been some kind of improvement in computerized CNC milling technology that allows a perfect, name brand, gorgeous pipe to be retailed for about $80 today?
I've been told by one of our sponsors that CNC milling is just way too expensive for any of the pipemakers that they carry. However, prices are dropping. I've kicked around the idea for my own work, but I know that spending the time to learn the CAD side of things would just eat into time I could spend actually making things. They make more sense than using a lathe if you are wanting to reproduce something like a pipe. But, as of right now, I don't think there are any CAD/CNC created pipes... but some of the German pipes look suspiciously high tech-ish to me, ha ha. But, the German designers seem to do that.
 
Mar 2, 2021
3,476
14,247
Alabama USA
There are quite a few other golf courses that'll cost more like an entry level Savinelli rather than a rare estate pipe!

Do you smoke while playing? I do, but too much. I go through 4-6 bowls over 18 holes, and need to cut back.
I haven’t played in several years, but now retired, I hope to have time.

When I enjoyed golf the most was at a course that didn’t survive the recession. I used a push three wheeler that made walking to course a breeze. image.jpg
 

mso489

Lifer
Feb 21, 2013
41,210
60,433
I don't consider my interest in U.S. factory pipes and other lower cost pipes the antithesis of higher end pipes. I have a few of those too. But it is true that Kaywoodie, Dr. Grabow, Rossi, Genod, Chacom, Stanwell, and other similar outfits make some amazingly fine smokers that cost remarkably little, and if you buy them as estates, they are low cost indeed. I think I have a Kaywoodie or two that smoke about as well as anything. You go high-end because those pipes are works of art, elegant craft, and bragging rights, all good. Just keep your equanimity when some pipe that costs little smokes as well, or a little better.
 

Briar Lee

Lifer
Sep 4, 2021
4,760
13,785
Humansville Missouri
The reason I wonder if there’s been some kind of technological breakthrough, is that La Rocca Italian made pipes are fifty bucks, for these.

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I own a couple of these, bent smooth pipes, and you can turn the stem all the way around and not notice much if any difference.

The sellers of these have, enough markup to keep selling them.

These aren’t the old varnished and stained factory smokers of years ago.

Italy is a high wage nation.

How Dey do Dat?.:)
 
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Mar 1, 2014
3,646
4,916
To be perfectly honest if I could go back and start over I'd probably smoke nothing but Cobs and Rossi.
Especially the pipes available in the Lucca line, I keep hunting for pipes that are bigger than these and it's extremely difficult.