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I took a hopelessly poorly built pipe and made it better within the realms available. It was a tiny, tiny pipe, and I couldn't do all the tricks I like, but I did get the thing to smoke better, apparently.

Yeah I have no idea what the "average" Castello is built like. Really what I learned is that if you spend 300 bucks on a Peterson it's a better pipe than Dunhill or Castello. :pirat:

I compared the engineering of a Dunhill 120, a Castello 65, a Sav autograph, and a high grade Pete. The Castello's engineering was the best by a long shot I thought.

I can't add a great deal of overview or insight into 100 years of briar-cutting traditions. I think a couple points could be addressed though. One of the things people ignore is that the actual process undergone at the actual mill has far more effect on the wood than its origin. Case in...

If you are trying a new-to-you tobacco and a new-to-you pipe, that's too many variables to control. What shape is the pipe? It's possible it's not built real well but with a Pete of that quality, I'd suspect user-error before I'd blame the pipe. Are you talking about Mac Baren Navy...

Dunnies have an excellent smooth draw, don't they?

The reverse calabash is like a Peterson system pipe in a way - there's a large chamber in the shank of the pipe where the smoke can sit and cool and swirl around. It's taken to an extreme, and the chamber sizes range up near 50cc on some of these things. Almost everyone who has smoked one has...

Let's go back to basics here, and talk about theoretical ideals, and then move to whys and why-nots. There are two basically accepted notions for engineering a pipe. One is the idea that the airway should be smooth and uniform, with basically no changes of volume (cross-sectional area if you...

And fat, lumpy, and poorly shaped became the new "handmade".

One thing I miss about the whole is the experience of walking into my B&M, looking over the tins and bulk, buying one or another, and smoking it. When done I bought another. There was a personal connection with the shop staff that doesn't exist (and no longer does exist in my town) when making...

All well and good. I will develop a well thought out response while smoking a XXL bowl of heavily processed Danish tobacco which I find tastes best if I dry it out just a little before I smoke it. I think most of what Yak has written is actually objectively fairly accurate. Trouble...

Kitty Scoop Plus is a major part of the Gawith secret recipe. I'm sure of it.

The cat stays in the bag for about 20 hours, but after that freshness becomes an issue.

I was thinking up a long detailed reply but I just remembered that Yak's block is still soaking in the boiling manatee urine, and I don't wanna over do it.

Tall bowls allow flavors to build up and intensify as you move down into tobacco that has had smoke pulled through it for a half hour or so (at the bottom of the bowl). Some guys really like this. I think most people prefer a shorter chamber because the flavors remain more consistent. I...

Some kind of clear finish might fill clearer/better than superglue if they are large holes. Nail polish or some kind of urethane finish might do the trick, but I think you are on the right track.

Classic shapes are very, very easy to make ugly. It's far harder to cut a really good billiard than a mediocre "Danish inspired" lump of an acorn. Put a Mammoth-Ivory ring on the lump and it's a high-grade? There's some nice stuff being cut right now in both "schools" but there's also...

Yes. :D

I actually think acrylic offers a better tasting pipe. Rubber stems influence the taste of a pipe in any number of ways (from the sulphur component of the oxidation process, for example). I think even a clean and waxed rubber stem has an influence (carnauba has a taste too come to think of...

And for anybody who actually bothers to read either of those, my frequent denigration of Ernie Markle is part of a running joke between he and I. It makes him feel notorious. :pirat: