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From a pipe making point of view, the grain on the pipe in the OP is pretty awesome, and pretty rare. A block that long, yielding straight grain in the right orientation to get that pipe.... very rare. There was a boxed anniversary-type Castello on smokingpipes a few months ago, with better...

Clearly more "Red Delicious" than "Roma". Lots (all) of these shape names kind of move on a sliding scale. It isn't exactly clear when a Dublin becomes a Zulu (or flares out to be a Calabash shape or rounds out to become a horn). It isn't exactly clear when a billiard becomes a brandy...

The issue for the site is that I'm unhappy with the hosting and want to go in a slightly different direction with the whole site, so I'm just going to blow it all up and start again.

The advantage I have is that I'm only responsible to turn out a great pipe.   If I do so at a profit, great.   If not, no biggy.   A proper company can't operate on a loosey-goosey margin like that.   I do however find it surprising how many larger operations pay basically no attention to...

Tell you what.   I'm having issues with my site - I seem to have locked myself out, but I'll post a couple pipes for sale in the Towne Crier below.    Just for you.

Those are a blast from the past, Andy!   Appreciate the kind words Yak.    On one hand, pipes are dead simple, and on the other, it's way easier to have them turn out poorly than perfectly.

In short, yes, the 316 is very wide and very tapered, and both these things mean you need to sort of pack a "plug" and just sort of put it in the pipe (packing hard downward will just restrict things I find).   It's a weird pipe to smoke but once going, much like a typical "pot", you can simmer...

There's a tobacconist in Calgary??? :cheers:

That's awesome.

Top pipe is drilled as any normal pipe I guess - where the two sections meet is where the airway goes through at an angle. Bottom pipe is clearly not one piece of wood all the way so there's part of the secret. It might have been drilled from "outside" and repaired or camouflaged in some...

Yeah I really should have stipulated that the pipe be of even halfway normal size and regular materials. This one just about beat me because I ordinarily drill the airway bigger than the entire diameter of the tenon on this pipe, so lots of stuff went out the window.

Agree about Castellos - I was really surprised at how inferior their stem work is compared to Ser Jac, for example. I'm not super fussy - I think a light straight pipe needs can take a different bit than a big Oom Paul quite easily - they are held differently, present different...

Their Brown Flake is pretty good too, and goes unheralded in discussions of such things.

Uncle Tom's didn't move me much either. And Mixture 7 is abominable.

One of the things that I like to do is order tobaccos that no one seems to like over much, and see if they are actually crappy or if I can coax them to life. Not just any tobacco though - there truly are too many absolutely mundane or low quality blends that I'm not going to necromance -...

I pick out that 105 and think "perfect". Blows the Dunhill away in my opinion.

LOL that is insane. :cheers:

"Clear" for Radice is more of a briar grade than a finish, in a sense. Clears are flawless and basically always have awesome grain. They are stained for contrast for sure. Briar ain't that color.

Natural patina for sure. Briar browns up some as it ages, and certainly with smoking. But for heaven's sake, smoke that pipe! Radices are great.

The briar that I've been buying lately is just that way. Adds absolutely nothing, seems to subtract nothing. Some of the Italian wood seems to be almost like a filter - takes out the highs. My Castello was pretty earthy for the first dozen smokes (I suspect a certain Greek supply there)...