Are you a straight or bent bit/stem person?

[Aussiemike]

I am just asking as I have been smoking some of my favorite straight pipes lately and it could be because I'm a slack yaw dude but the straights fall out of my mouth regularly if I am doing stuff. Usually drops ash on my "smoking tshirt" with no bother. I am just a bent bit fan as it just feels right in my mouth. I'm not really a clencher (unless I was a passenger while with timbo was at the wheel) but if I clench a straight it sometimes falls out. I pretty much only enjoy the bent bits on my rotation now.
Just would like to know your preferences.

 

[Idlefellow]

When I started with pipes I was all about the bent shapes. Later I decided that I was a straight or slightly bent guy. Now, most of the last few pipes I've acquired are bents. Go figure .

 

[Manawydan]

I was 100% on mediumish bent pipes. Just bought my first straight pipe -- a Vauen 150 Topas, and have found that I love those too. Now I just look for pipes of any shape that catch my eye.

 

[dtswebb]

Primarily bent pipes. I do have a few straight stemmed pipes that I smoke on occasion but the collection is over 90% bent stemmed.

 

[Singed]

Both. Mine range from straight to 3/4 bent. No Hungarians in my collection.

 

[Balisong]

My pipe collection has a bit of everything from a Savinelli Oom Paul to straight acorn and apple shaped pipes. My cobs are roughly 80% bent and 20% straight.

 

[Zeno Marx]

Can't say I have a preference. A couple of my favorite feeling pipes are both Charatans, with 16th bent stems on pipes normally seen as straight designs. One is a prince, and the other is a handmade billiard. So I guess I do have a thing for crooked straight pipes. Oh, and I do like my Legend cob that is similar in being a slight bent.

 

[WetPipeDreamer]

I use both, love both. Mood dictates choice. My pipe racks are about evenly mixed.

 

[asowen]

I am just asking as I have been smoking some of my favorite straight pipes lately and it could be because I'm a slack yaw dude but the straights fall out of my mouth regularly if I am doing stuff. Usually drops ash on my "smoking tshirt" with no bother. I am just a bent bit fan as it just feels right in my mouth. I'm not really a clencher (unless I was a passenger while with timbo was at the wheel) but if I clench a straight it sometimes falls out. I pretty much only enjoy the bent bits on my rotation now.
Just would like to know your preferences.

I like a slightly bent, like 1/4. The draw is too compressed in my opinion, but I like the ease of seeing the bowl for lights. I used to have 20+. At that time, I had maybe 3 straights, a few past 1/4 and the rest quarter bent

 

[Timbo]

Generally a little bent at least (just like me), I have similar a issue with the comfort of smoking straight pipes as you do Mike. They don't behave as nicely as bent pipes in my book.

 

[Bud Savoie01]

I have both and like both. I prefer half bents, since fully bents have a malicious habit of sending smoke into my eyes, often when I am reading. Most of my churchwardens have bent stems, easy to hold with the bowl on my chest, and no smoke in the opticals.

 

[DrT999]

Like others here, I prefer slightly to maybe 1/2 bent; they just feel better. Of course I smoke when out walking, so that might make a difference; if I was sitting and smoking, I might prefer something else.

 

[Swede]

I am just asking as I have been smoking some of my favorite straight pipes lately and it could be because I'm a slack yaw dude but the straights fall out of my mouth regularly if I am doing stuff. Usually drops ash on my "smoking tshirt" with no bother. I am just a bent bit fan as it just feels right in my mouth. I'm not really a clencher (unless I was a passenger while with timbo was at the wheel) but if I clench a straight it sometimes falls out. I pretty much only enjoy the bent bits on my rotation now.
Just would like to know your preferences.

I started liking bents at first, and still do, but find I have a tendency to let the bit rest more on my tongue sometimes resulting in more irritation. I have to consciously avoid this, so it's a little less relaxing.

 

[Carl]

I have both types, too, but I am becoming a bit more attuned to the straights. Most of my bent types are less than half bent.

 

[fireman11]

Church warden and bent. I do need a straight to keep handy for goin outdoors.

 

[Aussiemike]

Church warden and bent. I do need a straight to keep handy for goin outdoors.

Fiery straight for outdoors because better in the pocket?

 

[fireman11]

Fiery straight for outdoors because better in the pocket?

Small case or pocket is what I'm thinking but i'm no expert. I'll start with a cheap one in case I break it.

 

[Timbo]

I prefer bent pipes for putting in my pant pockets as the bowl stays upright and doesn't spill anything generally.

 

[Ranger107]

Out of 60+ pipes maybe 10 are straight. The rest are bent of some kind, 1/2, full, and a couple of oom pauls, which I like to smoke but a bitch to clean. Out of 7 or 8 cobs only 1 straight, a gift from MikeM.

 

[Trout Bum]

I started this game with an immediate affinity for pipes with a bend. And at first I was enamored with freehand shapes over the "boring" traditional shapes. At the beginning, even the idea that a 3/4 bent billiard could be a desirable shape was foreign - my eye was on the big Danish freehands. This is an arc that I was told by a pipe shop owner that is common for a pipester to follow - many of us as young pipe men are drawn to exotic/creative/out of the box shapes at first but as time passes and our tastes develop and mature, often the evolving pipester is drawn back to the traditional shapes after exploring freehand shapes or shapes that tend to riff on the trad shapes and their endless variations. As time passed I acquired a straight apple here, a straight billy there - which is funny because at the start my eye could just not get to the place of being able to admire the lines of a straight vs the lines of a bent. Especially if it was a "boring" billiard shape. The majority of my 20 or so briars are bent so I guess you could say from a macro level I tend to lean towards the bent. Which is fitting, somehow lol.

Overall, I would venture to say I have very much learned to enjoy both bent and straights - with the enjoyment coming from the noticing of the differences. There is a lot of subtlety and nuance to pipe smoking. I find the variation of pipe shapes to be endlessly fascinating and literally commanding its own sphere of enjoyment. I love approaching the pipe shelf and asking myself - which pipe FEELS right... for today, for my mood, for this moment. And I have found a certain growth and maturity in my ability to appreciate the different design cues and stylistic choices a pipe maker employs. I sometimes think how boring it would be if I was limited to just smoking bents, or just smoking straights. I get a lot of satisfaction from smoking both - the comparison by juxtaposition reveals hidden strengths and weaknesses in a pipe's design, as well as highlights my own preference for noticing the degree of difference in hand feel, smoking characteristics, a pipe's "character", ability to dangle and/or clench, the way a particular pipe's lines can please the eye, the hand, and the palate today, but it'll be a different pipe that hits those marks tomorrow. (Based on solar flare gradients and the relative super positioning of the planets at that exact moment) To sum this little ramble up, the freedom of choice is indeed freeing.