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I don't coat except in specific instances, and I prefer bare wood in pipes I buy. I can understand makers coating bowls though. Lots of buyers have no idea how to smoke a pipe without having it red-hot, and a nice thick pre-cake of something protective makes sense. I figure if a guy is...

To me, the biggest indicator in how a pipe will smoke is how the airway is contructed - how does smoke get from the bowl to the button? Are there snaggly edges on the tenon? Are the holes aligned well? Is the stem pinched from heat, or full of debris from drilling or casting? Generally...

The beauty of this is that there isn't one set of metrics. I have found a few really super smoking pipes, measurably better in terms of flavor, gurgle, ease of use, comfort.... and got rid of a Dunhill in the process. I realize I could have 2 Savinellis for every Castello I buy. Or 40...

Agreed. And time in the saddle as a user, getting to be pretty good at smoking a pipe, is probably required before someone is going to appreciate a real good pipe. But when you get there, good technique and a good pipe.... boy it's hard to go back.

In a very real sense, that's exactly WHY they are more expensive. If you want me to make a flawless pipe in a certain shape, I may need 2,3.. 4 pieces of briar before I get it. And that's buying real good wood. If you want a "pretty close" shape or a freehand where I can scrape a little...

It isn't clear what "prudent value" is though. Or should we all just smoke cobs? I have a couple Castellos I paid between 300 and 400 dollars for, not the top end of the Castello price scheme, but they are wonderful pipes which I like smoking a lot more than my Stanwells, which cost about...

I agree with some of what has been said - Dunhill pipes are well-marketed, and expensive... because they are expensive. However, a few things about manufacturing have been overlooked. They are really good quality pipes. The briar is good, the stem material good, and what I mean by that is...

Jobey has existed in so many forms and been produced under so many licenses that there really isn't anything consistent about the brand. I've had real decent Jobey pipes and one just awful piece of crap, and the "Jobey Link" should be called the Jokey Link. Stupid! But lines like the Jobey...

I bought a Dunhill for research purposes, a NIB '69 shell. While I didn't really think the build quality was up to snuff in terms of what I'd expect out of a modern top-tier pipe (drilling, no funnel on the tenon... just little stuff), what did strike me was how nice the draw was. Not tight...

Yeah that's pretty retarded stuff Jesse, why did you even bother?

It's amazing how many are still around in perfect shape... that's cool.

We need Miracle Max for those pipes. "It just so happens that your friend is only MOSTLY dead." :cheers:

Guys, look real hard ... there's a tiny fissure in the bowl in one of the pics! :suspect: I don't think it can be saved, I mean, I guess it depends on what you think "saved" would mean, but for that pipe to look like that on the outside, I can only imagine the inside. I'm sure it's...

Briar for me, don't mind meer or whatever, but briar is king for both beauty and durability. If I had to buy only one brand of pipe from now on it would be Castello. I don't mind lucite, I sure hate beat-up greeny/gray vulcanite, it tastes awful.... And I like bigger pipes generally, so...

Scoring pipe makers is really tough, and developing a stratifying set of criteria for certain "levels" probably even tougher. The so-called Pipemaker's Guild for example has a set of specific targets for each of their designations - a journeyman for them has to produce a certain pipe, with a...

Yeah I'm just playing around, man. I think for most solo pipemakers, a lot of the production means ARE pre-industrial or nearly so because in making one-off pieces having machines (which are by nature best at replication) isn't super helpful. There are machines that will make stems, but none...

LOL yeah we just pour blocks and rods in the machine, and out comes a pipe!

All these definitional kind of things are a little slippery. Can we assume that artisanal pipes are made by one maker? S. Bangs are made by two guys. So they are out. LOL I didn't get very far. Because I focus on basically traditional English, French, and Italian shapes, does that...

'zackly

If you sell a pipe with an acrylic stem, you make sure and say "no maintenance, never goes gray". If you sell a pipe with a vulcanite stem you make sure and say "Superior mouthfeel as opposed to that nasty hard acrylic".