What Well Established Pipe Makers Have Not Gone Down The Tubes?
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I thought the reason some members here don’t wear pants is to show off their sock garters.
I have only Stanwell's made since they moved production to Italy, so I can't compare, but I find the Italian-made versions very good, well crafted, precise in quality, and pleasantly open in draw. The Danish-made pipes have a certain status, but these are excellent to me. Maybe proletariat, being factory pipes at moderate prices, but the design and smoking characteristics pass muster. I'm one who has had consistently good experiences with Petersons, about eight of them, for which I would credit the retailers I've used, keeping an eye on the incoming products, and I suppose pure luck. Again, I've had excellent experiences with Savinelli, and their sub-brand Rossi, Johs pipes by Mogen Johansen, and with the rare and beautiful hand carved Jerry Perry pipes of Mountain Laurel, briar, and cocobolo. By in large, pipes are some of the more dependably good products I know. I've had a few disappointments, but not many.
I think the restricted draw is something, one can handle by smoking technique. But one of my Sea Rock pipes, which is supposedly from the 70ies has some weird kind of lacquer on it, which starts to throw bubbles, when getting hot, and I mean not extremely hot, but regular pipe-hot. To me it's a miracle how they could use this type of staining on a pipe.
Peterson seems to be the one that comes up most often as declining in quality. However, I am not sure how much that has changed with its recent change in ownership. One of the most common complaints I have heard about Peterson is their drilling being off (not referring to system pipes here).
Yes! You need to mousey over right now to the forum sponsors' sites and clear them out. Or all you'll be left with to smoke will be cobs!!
New Ropps are made by Chacom and some of the line consists of Chacom old stock stummels. They are pretty great, imho. Compared to the original Ropps, which were just a drilled out chunk of cherry branch kind of like the French equivalent of a MM Cob, I think they may actually be better.
Funny you should mention that Faux News had an article on:
"Can your Amazon packages give you the Coronavirus?"
I can just see the lemmings donned with latex gloved hand and a N95 on baptizing their packages in Purell & alcohol before ripping into them...
Had to laugh, but nervously so, my son is a Postman....
personally what I've noticed is that on the low end pipes have gotten much better. The options for a good smoker that doesn't cost much has improved greatly. And frankly I think that makes the high end pipes not seem as special. I hope that makes sense, cause I don't feel like elaborating more at the moment.
Did you buy the pipe in the 1970’s? Stains from that era are phenomenal. One of the highlights in the world of pipes at that time. Nobody did it better. In all likelihood, you have an estate piece Many of those have made too many trips to the buffing wheel and have been restrained. I see them all the time.
Until the advent of Alt smokers pipes in the 1990’s, I never heard of Castellos having a “restricted draw. ” Then certain West Coast loudmouths with lots of money started in on the issue, influenced by Danish pipe makers who had to have some way to justify their exorbitantly priced “studio” pipes. Of course, Alt Smokers Pipes was largely populated by refugee cigar smokers who spent large sums of money on cigars, so why not pipes?, even though they didn’t know how to pack them.
Don’t get me started?
Who hasn't gone down the tubes? Jess Chonowitsch is making his pipes out of Torlon these days. I'm pretty sure Peterson has switched to an all Balsa model. Savinelli is still using hardwood, not briar mind you, but their airbrush graining is still first rate. Even Dunhill is slipping in ceramic liners into their briar bowls as a money saver.
It's not just the pipe makers. Cornell and Diehl uses mostly corn husks for Virginias these days and Cyprus is using Duraflame logs for Latakia since they can't afford hardwood. We don't know what Sutliff is using in their aromatics but lets be honest, we've never really know. I'm guessing vanilla, pork anal glands and aspartame. When it come to GH&Co, much like Sutliffe, we don't know but in this case we don't want to know - why ruin the happiness. After all, would you smoke any less of it if you found out it was seasoned with steamed and pressed kittens? I wouldn't.
It's not just the pipe makers. Cornell and Diehl uses mostly corn husks for Virginias these days and Cyprus is using Duraflame logs for Latakia since they can't afford hardwood. We don't know what Sutliff is using in their aromatics but lets be honest, we've never really know. I'm guessing vanilla, pork anal glands and aspartame. When it come to GH&Co, much like Sutliffe, we don't know but in this case we don't want to know - why ruin the happiness. After all, would you smoke any less of it if you found out it was seasoned with steamed and pressed kittens? I wouldn't.
I'm fine about the draw. It's just been unusual, as I did only know newer Castellos before I got into older ones.
The said pipe was bought NOS last year. It's a brown colored Sea Rock... Probably it's not visible in the photo, but there are definitely some bubbles.
Yes, both sides. And the surface of that lacquer is quite soft to the touch. It feels as if one could scratch it off the pipe with a fingernail.
That's a good suspicion. Though I have already tried to brush or wipe that off - no success there. I just shot a pic through a magnifying glass. Not very good, but I guess, it shows what I'm talking about:
Thanks! I'll try that one on occasion! And of course I'll let you know if it worked out.
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