Yello-Bole Checkers, And Their Stems

[mso489]

Anyone own a Yello-Bole Checker, one of the Yello-Bole briar pipes? Any good?

What are the stems made of? The pipes look kind of homespun and crusty. Could be

great, or not. I don't want to load up my racks with lunkers, but I do enjoy my Dr. Grabow

Royalton and my Kaywoodie author (despite its akimbo stem/bit).

 

[yaddy306]

I have a Kaywoodie Chessman. I think it's very similar to the Yello-Bole.

I like it just fine.

 

[mso489]

Yaddy, nice pipe. One benefit of the Yello-Bole, if it is good otherwise, is that it has a stinger,

but it is easily removable, or is so advertised. I'm not sure the finish on the Yello-Bole is quite

as well done as your Kaywoodie. I have a Ruff-Tone author Kaywoodie, and except for not quite

screwing in so the bit is horizontal, it's a quality pipe -- nice heft, nice finish, sturdy look, not

much weight (the heft referred to is more a solid feel), etc. If Kaywoodie would fix the screw-in

stem angle problem, I might get another. Some are good, many not, on that score.

 

[yaddy306]

My Chessman is a little "under-clocked" - the stem screws in to about 11:30 instead of 12 o'clock. But from what I've heard, that's a simple fix with a heat gun.

 

[mso489]

yaddy, maybe we should take up a collection and send a heat gun to the Kaywoodie factory! Just kidding of course.

But if it's a simple fix, the good people at Kaywoodie should certainly fix it. Maybe a heat gun at quality control

would do the trick.

 

[yaddy306]

mso489, someone once suggested on this forum that the Kaywoodie was under-clocked on purpose, so if it was over tightened while hot it would straighten out. That doesn't sound too plausible to me; I chalk it up to less than stellar QC.

 

[winstonsmith]

Stems are rubber vulcanite, Thick, meaty, feels good to bite and clench sort of vulcanite. The Checker is probably the best value in all of pipedom if what you're looking for is a good smoking pipe with a nice thick vulcanite stem, not necessarily appearance. Just pull out the useless little "scoop" they come with and you have a decent unfiltered pipe for 2 bucks. I recently picked up a Yello-bole pug, Kaywoodie Saxon, and Campus. From what I can tell from looking at the drilling and fit on the new Yello-bole's is that they are made and designed, for all intents and purposes, to be an unfliterd pipe. The metal bit is simply there because it's always been there on the Yello-bole.