Brigham Vs Careys

[Dave1066]

Hello Folks,

Thought I would ask for your collective wisdom.

What are your thoughts on which is the better filter pipe? The Brigham maple rock? or the Carey Magic Inch? What I'm interested in is :- which pipe provides the coolest, driest, flavoursome smoke, with little to no tongue bite.

I'm looking at which is the most effective. It would help if somebody commented who owns and smokes both.

 

[monbla256]

Hello Folks,

Thought I would ask for your collective wisdom.

What are your thoughts on which is the better filter pipe? The Brigham maple rock? or the Carey Magic Inch? What I'm interested in is :- which pipe provides the coolest, driest, flavoursome smoke, with little to no tongue bite.

I'm looking at which is the most effective. It would help if somebody commented who owns and smokes both.

I don't have either of those brands but I do know bite is TOTALLY due to the 'baccy smoked and how the SMOKER smokes it ! That being the case, I'd say either would be a good choice :twisted: :twisted:

 

[Brewdude]

Dave, ontariopiper has much experience with Brighams. Don't know about his experience with Careys though. You might pm him, but he just left for a hol in sunny Cancun so it might be a little while till he gets back to you.

Regardless, what monbla says is spot on. Bite isn't in the pipe, it's in the 'baccy and the way it's smoked. HTH.



Cheers,

RR

 

[Sasquatch]

Throw Savinelli into the mix too - their balsa insert is the brigham system inside out - the Brigham being a tube of wood, the Sav being a little triangle that sits in the airway.

None of them will reduce bite a heck of a lot. The Brigham won a filtered pipe shootout of sorts in P+T magazine a few years back, the reviewers felt that it was the least obtrusive and most effective with respect to sharper virginias.

But the "correct" answer has been given here - bite is not a pipe thing, it's a technique thing.

 

[Dave1066]

Thanks for the replies guys. Yes tongue bite is smoking technique and the tobacco.

I only mentioned it simply because both Careys and Brigham mention it in with regards to their filtering system. Just intrigued.

 

[Sasquatch]

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".

 

[puros_bran]

Hey, it's one of those rare big foot sightings... Must be cold up north again.

 

[Richard Burley]

Excluding hookahs, calabashes, and churchwardens because I have no experience of them, I would say that the only pipe that cuts down on whatever might be perceived as "bite" is the corn cob. There are times when I wonder why I smoke anything else.

 

[Sasquatch]

Hey, it's one of those rare big foot sightings... Must be cold up north again.  

'zackly

 

[Dave1066]

Thanks for the insight guys. I don't own a filter pipe. Well accept my Dr Plumb has a condenser. That does help a little. No gurgling with aromatics.

Some Savinelli balsa filters and Dr Plumb paper filters turned up today. I had hoped it would fit my Stanwell Bamboo pipe. But it doesn't. In fact they don't fit any of my pipes! Good excuse to get a Savinelli pipe now!

 

[SpeedyPete]

Excluding hookahs, calabashes, and churchwardens because I have no experience of them, I would say that the only pipe that cuts down on whatever might be perceived as "bite" is the corn cob. There are times when I wonder why I smoke anything else.

Yes sir!!

If I knew about cobs before I bought any briars, I wouldn't own any briars today.

 

[Dave1066]

I'm going to buy a cob, be interesting to compare it to meerschaum and clay pipes. All of which produce dry smokes because of there porous natures.

 

[Brewdude]

Excluding hookahs, calabashes, and churchwardens because I have no experience of them, I would say that the only pipe that cuts down on whatever might be perceived as "bite" is the corn cob. There are times when I wonder why I smoke anything else.

Yes sir!!

If I knew about cobs before I bought any briars, I wouldn't own any briars today.

Ya know, there's a lotta truth in that!

:!:



Cheers,

RR

 

[Dave1066]

Well guys I have picked up a Missouri Meerschaum bent cob from my regular pipe shop. I have read this guide https://www.brothersofbriar.com/t12942-the-corncob-primer-3-03-2012 . The pipe came with a medico 6 mm filter. The pipe had a good draw, but some wood in the draw grove. So I removed the wood. There was some varnish also on the inside of the bowl. Just like it says in the guide I sand papered the varnish away. My Savinelli balsa 6mm filters fit and so do my 6mm Dr Plumb filters fit. So I have a great experimental pipe, I am looking forward to braking this pipe in.

 

[Dave1066]

Well gentleman, I have just smoked my first break in smoke in my MM cob pipe. I fitted the cob with a balsa filter. I could not believe the quality of the smoke! Especially as it was the first smoke in the pipe! The tobacco blend I smoked was Danske Club Black Luxury. It smoked dry, sweet, and flavoursome! All the way to the bottom. I had nice coffee taste from mid smoke. No gurgling, no tongue bit, the pipe stayed very cool. Quite frankly I am wondering how anyone ever managed to burn one of these pipes out.

 

[ontariopiper]

Sounds like your cob is a winner, Dave. Congrats!

I didn't weigh in earlier in this post as I don;t own any Careys so couldn't give a comparison versus Brighams.

I do know from experimentation that the rock maple insert makes a big difference in how the Brigs smoke. I'm not a filter pipe guy, overall (hate the 9mm carbon filters and the Grabow paper filters gross me out when they get soggy), but the Brigham inserts do catch a lot of the moisture in the smoke, thereby reducing the chance for tongue bite. A nice side benefit is that they also catch a lot of the tars that would otherwise gum up the insides of the pipe.

 

[Dave1066]

Thanks for the information ontariopiper. I will consider picking a Brigham up. However they are very hard to find in the UK, I have found one or two shops that stock the filters..but not the pipes.

 

[ontariopiper]

Thanks for the information ontariopiper. I will consider picking a Brigham up. However they are very hard to find in the UK, I have found one or two that stick the filters..but not the pipes.

Let me know if I can help source a Brig for you. They are pretty easy to find here in Canada.

 

[KevinM]

I recently bought a Brigham Chinook bulldog. Handsome little pipe, for sure, and I would tell you that the famous rock maple insert does alleviate bite and other woes, except I don't have that nasty problem, for whatever reason.  I would say, though, that the Brig insert tends to muffle taste. For example, I enjoy the slight taste of milk chocolate in the background of Prince Albert, but the Brigham insert seems to absorb it. Another annoying thing about the inserts is that they are rough inside and rake little clumps of cotton off pipe cleaners. You'd be surprised how little cotton it takes to clog a Brigham insert and put a Stop! to an otherwise enjoyable smoke. There has to be some simple remedy to this problem, but so far I'm missing it. When a #£!¥#DYZ bit of steenkin' cotton isn't plugging up the airway, a Brigham is a serviceable pipe, I'd say. Pipes & Cigars is having a Brigham sale, I believe.

Added:   I should add that the rock maple insert is very good at keeping the pipe dry.  So there is less reason to use a pipe cleaner during the smoke. Maybe I just need to break the habit of automatically reaching for the cleaner every ten minutes or so.

Added 2/21: After a bit more experience, I'd say it's possible that my initial problem with cotton clogs in the Brigham insert was due to a defective insert. The original insert seemed to have some loose wood fibers inside the tube that aggressively stripped cotton fibers off cleaners. After swapping out that insert and using a thinner brand of cleaners, I haven't had the same clogging problem at all. Interestingly, my Brigham smokes very well and bone dry without the insert, though this seems to be a hack that undercuts the whole idea etcetera.

 

[SpeedyPete]

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".....  

........but in a little while, the stem will turn yellow or even brow