What is Castello’s Great Line?
- Thread starter heissa
- Start date
I have a giant one I use to drive tent stakes when I go camping. Just kidding. I always felt it was Castello's version of a freehand and some are really beautiful. Actually, the shape is probably about the easiest to make because you can get away with making an error or finding a flaw and it's easy to work around. As Stan would say to Ollie, "No one will be the wiser". 
I'm not an expert but, as I understand it, Great Lines and Big Lines are ostensibly not the same. Castello made Big Lines in the past but only started making them again in quantity in the last couple of years. Now they have both Big Lines and Great Lines. Most of the recent Big Lines I've seen are huge (110 grams or more), whereas Great Lines can come in a range of sizes—including huge! The distinction between a regular Big Line and a giant Great Line seems to be arbitrary. Both can be rough, or have excellent grain, and both can receive the Pezzo Unico (unique piece) designation. I guess the only sure thing is that Big Lines are always super-sized.
I have no idea why Castello resurrected the Big Line designation (other than to sow confusion) unless they discovered a stock of giant stummels they wanted to make use of but didn't want to saturate the Great Line market.
I know a lot of people would disagree, but I’m in love with this bold intimidating shape.
I used to hate the 55 but now I see why people like them. It's still not the pipe for me though I've been tempted to buy one a few times. Yours is a pretty beefy example, Jay Leno would be proud.
I’d be curious to hear what made you see the appeal of the 55; aesthetically, I find them off-putting and very clunky looking and have a tough time getting past that (there are a number of Castello shapes and lines that have come across as bloated and awkward to my eye). I love their squat Bulldogs and like their more traditional shapes quite a bit. Help me understand the appeal of the Leno chin.
It still looks like a Leno chin to me but now I like it. Maybe I've just been looking at too many Castellos or maybe I now have a thing for Jay Leno.
Looking up some examples I think it's pipes shaped like the one below that made see some beauty in them. The curve from the chin to the shank face has a nice gentle curve and the front is more vertical than angled. I think it's these versions that I find attractive and can see beauty in.
These older ones from Pease's collection are other examples of less extreme Leno chins.
I thought so too, at first. The 55 was the clumsiest Castello in my eyes, and in any case I saw many shapes that were a bit awkward, unlike Dunhill which instead, with the purity of its lines, fascinated me more.
But the Castellos have the charm of gaudy, excessive things, and this is perhaps their strength, that of excess, of those who know how to dare and take their ideas to the limit because they believe in them.
In the end I think the trick is to buy one, the big ones; in the smaller shapes the magic doesn't come out, but in the larger ones it gives you a sensation in your hand that few other brands can do.
It's something that I can't explain better than this and that doesn't necessarily apply to everyone.
This is how it happened to me.
P. S.: I would have already bought a 55 if I didn't already have another Pot.
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