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Ten years on, I can make a high grade pipe (whatever that is). So. One normative definition offered to me years back was this: No one knows exactly what a high grade pipe is or isn't, but if you are making 400 dollar pipes and there's a line up, you are making high grade pipes. I think...

Al Pascia lists tax in and tax out prices - a 220 euro pipe is 180 euroes tax out (taxes being thus 22% of the price you see).   Take this to TabacheriaCorti, a kkkk sea rock is listed at 260 euroes tax in.  knock 57 off for tax you aren't paying.   That's 203 euroes = 250.67 USD today.   So...

They probably just get sick of making 55s. Castellos are, in some senses, over priced. Seeing a smooth apple with great grain, you think, okay, 500 bucks? Nope, 1100 EUROES! Holy heck. But at... 350 USD... you can get a Sea Rock or an Old Antiquari, and they are great smokers, period...

Very very easy to order pipes out of Italy - tax free so the prices are less than you see advertised, by a lot. http://www.pipeshop-lanzola.it/en/109-pipa-pipe-castello https://tabaccheriacorti.com/gb/29-castello

I mean... it could be, yeah, but most likely it's nothing to worry about. I burned the hell out of a pretty new Castello about 5 years ago, spider-webbed that sucker... it's still going strong.

Give it another week.

Sometimes packages come through, sometimes not. I'm in Alberta, I've never had anything from smokingpipes NOT get taxed at the border. Pipes, tobacco, anything. I've had better luck with other vendors in this regard. But mostly I think it is just luck. I don't think it's that much...

Customs has a week to deal with any package that comes in. My experience with SP is that it takes about 10-15 days usually, and usually anything I buy from them is hit for every penny of taxes and duties that they can find at the border.

Yup, sometimes you just get unlucky and find a big old run like that. :x

Not a remarkable pipe shape, but that's an unusually great piece of very large briar. It's hard to come by big stuff that isn't all flawed.

Rainer Barbi at one point declared that he always knew he had an extra-special pipe in the making if it smelled like baking bread when he drilled it. This has become a little mythic at this point, but the trouble is, he was German. And if you've ever worked a trade with a German, they find...

BRUYERE GUARANTIE :lol: GERMAN EBONITE! (I suppose it could be japanese now too, to be fair) SECRET INGREDIENTS! :cheers:

I hunted magic briar for the first five years of my pipemaking. It was fun. I've smoked pipes made basically identically, with briar from Spain (2 mills), Italy (4 mills), Greece (2 mills) and Algeria. The pipes are not identical in flavor right off the bat. I think I could tell you...

I tend to think that a huge chamber with a tiny airway is a silly arrangement, and I think the opposite also applies - a big-bore airway in a tiny flake pipe is probably not going to do much help. That said, I am very much in the crowd who believes that 5/32" is "right" for just about...

dbl post

I just took a quick shot of 4 pipes in a range of sizes, all the same brand, all simple-built (no stinger, no traps).  Top is the smallest pipe I own, it's around 5/8" in the chamber, the stem is drilled at less than 1/8".   I feel that it is too small in this regard.  Gurgles easily, seems to...

Manufacturers range from something like 1/8" at the small end, with 9/64" being standard in a lot of pipes, especially older British stuff. I think the American handmade standard is 5/32", and a few freaks even go as far as 11/64" (although when I do that, I do restrict the stem somewhat near...

It's probably impossible to give a reply here that doesn't have a bunch of exceptions, but I think what the last 20 years or so have seen is that if you build a pipe with special attention paid to the construction of the airway, making it smooth inside with very little in the way of open spaces...

You smoke a ton of stuff I like - Capstan, Club Blend, Dark Twist... but I never see you mention Reiner Long Golden. If you haven't tried that one... get 100 tins. :cheers:

I thought it was always Castello time. Now I'm confused. :joker: