To Clay or not to Clay....
- Thread starter Choatecav
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I know that, I picked 4 Peterson Clays from a boot sell for £4.00 last year, I'm a Peterson collector, what a buy ? so they are still findable, I have many in my collection that found over 50 years of collecting Petersons, my second cousin worked for KP and she remembered helping making them in WW2 and my first Clay from KP came from her, they are still available but rare.
@tobakenist I never knew Peterson made clay pipes; one of the Redcoats at Avoncroft Festival of Living History shared his tin of Peterson Connoisseur's Choice with this fellow clay pipe smoking Redcoat. A good smoke in the King's Clay; the Clay King will have to get a tin of it!
Some great comments on this thread. I have learned a ton about clay pipes that I didn't know before.
Someone said earlier that you clean clays by placing them in a fire. Does that mean that you just lay the entire pipe in the coals of a fire to burn out the impurities? Seems a bit drastic. Of course, I know you could not place the vulcanite stem in the fire should it have one.
Someone said earlier that you clean clays by placing them in a fire. Does that mean that you just lay the entire pipe in the coals of a fire to burn out the impurities? Seems a bit drastic. Of course, I know you could not place the vulcanite stem in the fire should it have one.
You would want to have a long stem with an ember that close to your face. We have an old French fort here in Indiana, where people come from all over to reenact that time period. Wonderful time.@Fuelman I've noticed a cooler smoke with a long stem clay pipe; I think a long stem is much better for lighting with an ember from the blacksmith's forge
Clays are cheap. Why not give them a try? Another aspect of our hobby with a lot of history behind it.
From what I understand, that's exactly what you do. Just lay the pipe on some hot coals and let all the tar burn off. Once cool, pack it back up and start smoking again.
I like my clays very much. I use nail polish (lacquer) on the end to prevent sticky lips. Yes, the bowl can get warm (or hot) but it's not really a problem. A few have had unfortunate encounters with hard surfaces. They’re good smokers and easy to clean, so what’s not to like?
I don't understand why anyone would want to smoke a clay pipe, so I'll stay out of this.... 
You are a step ahead of me. I have an unused short old clay pipe I bought off eBay for about twenty bucks. I haven’t smoked it yet. All I hear about the purity and dryness of the smoke made me curious.
I think two things that dissuade me from using it are the sticky lip and notched tooth. If I need both hands to do something while I’m smoking, I like to be able to clench or hang the pipe.
I have seen a nice looking old porcelain pipe online and I didn’t know they also impart no flavour. They sound easier to clean than having a small inferno on hand. @OzPiper
I think two things that dissuade me from using it are the sticky lip and notched tooth. If I need both hands to do something while I’m smoking, I like to be able to clench or hang the pipe.
I have seen a nice looking old porcelain pipe online and I didn’t know they also impart no flavour. They sound easier to clean than having a small inferno on hand. @OzPiper
I have not broken in my Franken-clay yet (less than 5 smokes so far) and it imparts a discernible clay-ey taste to the smokes
On the other hand my porcelain pipe is very neutral.
And getting the walls back to bare porcelain is easy - no cake and no ghosts
Porcelain pipes come up quite frequently on EBay
PM me if you’re interested in a Royal Copenhagen one.
The Danish Pipe Shop has a few listed in their estates section.
I can put you onto a couple of other sites but don’t wish to do so here, as they are not Forums sponsors
Could the clay pipe be the reason why George Washington had false teeth? To many notches in his teeth.
There is one in particular I had my eye on. I don’t know if I’ll get it though since it might just sit around like my clay…
But a cheap one and use a softie bit or wrap it in friction tape. This will let you try it to see if you like it. I have several, they smoke good but the draught hole is a PITA. I can't remember this brand, somewhere in the NE. The bit is mediocre and they're more money.
My two clays have pretty tight draws. Maybe this isn't true globally, but it does mean I haven't fallen in love with the concept yet.
If you do the googles on “Viennese Coffee House Clays”, you’ll often find boxes of six of these bowls, along with a bamboo stem. Very easy to get stems made for them, and you get the best of both worlds.