Would you keep an ugly pipe that smokes really well?

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MisterBadger

Part of the Furniture Now
Oct 6, 2024
622
4,549
Ludlow, UK
If I think a pipe is ugly, why would I buy it in the first place?
But if I got it somehow, without looking, blind tested it, and it smoked great, I'd keep it.
Well, I once acquired a beat-up old Meerschaum in a job lot of 6 estate pipes, of which there were only a couple I really wanted, and this Meer that came with them was a right old codger pipe. I couldn't resell it on its own, and I kind of felt sorry for it, because it had at least been loved, if roughly, a long time. So I cleaned, sanded and waxed it, smoothed off its chips, then filled it and lit it up: and it's a great little pipe.
 

Sir Sooty

Lurker
Jul 27, 2024
1
0
Maybe a follow question - can you smoke a lousy pipe into submission? Anyone with ‘ugly duckling pipe’ stories out there?
 

Snook

Can't Leave
Oct 2, 2019
356
1,225
32
Idaho
The smoking experience would have to be transcendental. I'm too particular about aesthetics, otherwise.
 

AndyNJ

Might Stick Around
Jun 20, 2023
79
962
NJ USA
Ugly pipes: I get rid of, great smoker or not
Pretty pipes that smoke bad I get rid of
Real pretty pipes that smoke exquisitely well: I keep and collect
There are simply too many real pretty pipes that smoke really great.
Why spend time relaxing with an ugly pipe regardless of how it smokes is what I'm thinking
 
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AndyNJ

Might Stick Around
Jun 20, 2023
79
962
NJ USA
But Falcons are jolly useful. They please the engineering side of me and have a singular aesthetic.

you need a Radiator or that Dunhill that is built like one, or the Dunhill motorist that is bent 90 deg so the ash flys around the side when you take the open top Bentley out
 

telescopes

Pipe Dreamer and Star Gazer
My two Pipe Maker pipes are not particularly ugly, but they are 5's at best. However, because they are such reliably good smokers, I keep them. I bought them as artifacts of days gone by - examples of working men's pipes for my American drug store pipe collection. That said, because they smoke great, I keep them even thought I have found and acquired better examples since purchasing them.