What Kind of Pipes do you Like and Why?

[Doctor Chopper]

I like the variety more than any certain one.

Some are for show and others for utilitarian reasons.

There is a reason that the classic shapes have been around forever.

 

[Honkytonk Man]

Old Dunhill's. Bent or straight and preferably large. I have many sand blasts, so have started to collect some smooth too.
James Upshall are also a favorite of mine.

 

[vosBghos]

Beaters = Rossi Vittoria series, all black and rusticated, vulcanite stems, and cheap. Good Savinelli seconds Shape wise ? all of em.

Out and about pipes = Savinelli and Peterson , mostly Bings and B42's respectfully. They look good and smoke good.

Home and club Pipes = Ser Jacopo , the more Maximas stamped on em the better. They always pass a cleaner no matter how strange the bend and they smoke great with that open draw.

Birthdays/Holidays/Formal Outings = Dunhill Billiards whether Shell Briar Ruby or Dress , they make me seem ( if even to myself ) more sophisticated...

 

[mso489]

Briar has primacy on my racks, with MM cobs close behind, with an extra long clay as an option, and one treasured Meer estate given me by the late great fish'n'banjo for when I want that clarity in flavor.

Factory pipes predominate, with treasured artisan pipes in the mix, and the aforementioned MM cobs in abundance, retrofitted with Forever stems or bought with acrylic stems.

Brands most often are Savinelli, Stanwell, Johs, Kaywoodie, Peterson, Nording, and a variety of French pipes like Chacom, BC, Genod, and EWA represented.

Artisan pipes include Ser Jacopo, Ferndown, Camanneti, and Perry.

I like the variety of extra large pipes, a majority of medium sized, and several really small pipes, for a variety of moods and applications. I have one Falcon, a straight pipe with the bronzed stem.

That about sums it up, and I'm sure I'm leaving something out that I'll wish I had included.

I have many slightly bent, an equal number of straight, a number of full bent, including a Sav Oom-Paul/Hungarian my wife gave me that I greatly enjoy. My wife has given me a number of pipes -- also a Sav churchwarden that is the perfect pipe for smoking seated (pictured at left as my avatar).

 

[jwussow]

I may be in the minority here, but I like classic shapes and a smooth finish. I love seeing the grain, and I especially like contrast staining so the grain pops. I am not a fan at all of rusticated pipes, and frankly I don’t understand their appeal. Sandblasted pipes are a little better, but not much. The only non-smooth pipe I have is a meerschaum that has grape leaves and grapes carved on it, and I don’t consider that rusticated.

I think a pipe has to have a bend, even if ever so slight. I do have a couple of straight pipes, but only two of them. My other pipes have slight bends all the way to a full bend Ser Jacopo maxima. I also have one churchwarden, four clay pipes (two small and two full length tavern pipes), and one morta.

Italian pipes are gorgeous to me. I have a couple of Ser Jacopos, a Moretti, and a Paronelli. Also a Cristiano if you consider that Italian. I also have three Neerups which I think are the best pipes you can buy for the money, a Jeppesen, a non-marked pipe that I believe is a Larsen experimental shape, a Tinsky, and a Celius. I also have a couple of less expensive BCs and Chacom pipes.

 

[Jacob74]

I don't have many pipes, and don't really have any kind of coherent collection. I like what has caught my eye so far, and have a couple of cobs for trying blends that seem like they might be ghosty!

 

[Chasing Embers]

Blasted briar and lattice or figural meerschaum for the aesthetics and tactile feel.

 

[AroEnglish]

We need more pics in this thread! (I’ll post some myself in the next few days.)

 

[Lumbridge]

Cobs have been my go-to since I started with pipes 5 years ago. Though I have a dozen cobs and as many briars now in my rotation, I reach for one pipe about 9 out of 10 smokes - my MM Zenon Hardwood with a standard bent bit. It just smokes so damn well and easily that I have a hard time choosing a different pipe. It feels good in the hand, too. I like it so much that I bought several more as backups in case I ever break it or burn it out. For $18 a pop, I figured why not.

As for briars, I prefer rusticated/sandblasted for the pleasing feel in the hand (not usually a clencher). At first, I leaned towards bent pipes, but began to drift towards straights, perhaps for ease of passing a cleaner through. The feel, draw, and chamber size are all bigger considerations for me than how the pipe looks.

 

[FLDRD]

Well functioning.

Why?
Because buying "cool looking" pipes with my untrained eye in the beginning only got me so far...

Let's see, do I have time to ramble...?

Began by purchasing carved pear pipes on Etsy. They were a little cheaper, looked cool, I was spending time on the site. Eventually I purchased a briar on Ebay and it was all over from there. Not really sure these days which one started it all, but now I mostly purchase estate briar, with a few new purchases here and there.

These days I've got cobs, meers, churchwardens, straights, bents, pots, apples, dublins, brandys, freehands, pokers, etc. Multiple brands. A couple of them are even by American artisans (Marvic, Tinsky, Wiley) I even have 1/2 dozen or so new pipes I'm waiting to gift myself at some future point. Weird? Sort of, but I like the idea that I've got new ones to choose from any time I like.

Most all of my recent purchases are Peterson systems; that naturally includes the P-lip. And while I love the older Peterson versions available, I prefer the newer acrylic stems.

What kind: full bent Peterson system with acrylic P-lips
Why: the function they provide to me.

Cheers

 

[JimRoseLV]

It's probably because I'm still a beginner at pipe smoking (been smoking in earnest for a year in a half) that I prefer a pipe with a balsa wood filter, i.e. mostly Savinellis. I don't like a wet smoke, that taste you get when moisture fills the bit of the stem. I also tend to go for an acrylic stem so I can avoid oxidation. So again, mostly Savinellis and a few Petersons, a meerschaum, and some corn cobs.

 

[Ghines04]

I'm not even at 6 months yet, but right now I like bent apples and bent bulldogs. At the moment I choose pipes based on their visual appeal. I'm sure in time I'll have a more refined reason to choose the pipes I choose, but for now I'm letting the eyeballs drive.

 

[Chasing Embers]

At the moment I choose pipes based on their visual appeal.

That one will likely last. If I can't stand the looks of a pipe, I'm not going to smoke it and I've been at it since the early '90s.

 

[RonB]

I prefer the Italian makes such as Savinelli Autographs due to their larger bowls.

 

[Pooh-Bah]

My most highly desired feature is the ability to fit my index finger in the chamber and have a little space left over, because I like to just bend a pipe cleaner around my finger and rotate it a couple times.

 

[Michigan_Bill]

My favorites are clays, they are convenient and smoke so well. Then I have two MM hardwoods which are quite enjoyable. They just somehow "taste good." The hardwoods are also "sitters," which is convenient sometimes. So the clays and the hardwoods are what I smoke most often.
I have a few briars. Briars are pretty but I don’t smoke them much. My travel pipe is a Morgan Bones which fits perfectly into my travel case and is indestructible. (Indestructible is best for going to the farm.)
Finally I have a Savinelli which is so pretty and I love its feel in the hand. But it ends up collecting dust. So then it gets smoked, too .

 

[Sir Yak]

I like looking at all kinds of pipes. I browse the updates at SP twice per week bc I just love looking at pipes. I like classic English shapes but I also like (and prefer) Italian pipes. I figured out a long time ago that I find Ser Jacopo’s shaping and finished especially appealing. But I like smoking smaller pipe and Italian pipes tend to run on the larger size. So I am particularly drawn to smaller Ser Jacopo pipes. I’ve been smoking a pipe for 20 years and I only have about a dozen pipes. There’s about 9 that I smoke regularly: 7 SJs, 1 Peterson and one Becker.
I routinely look at pipes online but I rarely buy one. Tobacco on the other hand…

 

[AppalachianPipe92]

Usually a billiard or a lovat, 5 to 5.5", short stems, 1.5" deep. But I get a real kick out of bents and danish shapes. Straight grain or sandblast. ~30 grams.
This makes artisan pipes perfect for me.

 

[TN Jed]

Pipes of all shapes, sizes, origin and material. I prefer vulcanite stems but have plenty of acrylic. I own more Lovats and Bulldogs than any other shape. My favorite pipe changes like the wind. My current favorite is the Pete Iora Canadian I'm smoking now. I smoke every pipe in my collection at some point, some more than others with no rhyme or reason other than whim. I always purchase pipes on an aesthetic response, so they are all attractive to me.

 

[DesertDan]

I have briars, meers and cobs and like them all. I have never had a clay pipe but it does interest me.
My one idiosyncrasy is that I do not like smoking straight stemmed pipes and do not own any.