My AeroBilliard

[alfredo_buscatti]

There's plenty to like about Mr. Morgan's pipes except the price. Not any higher than those of many other makers, so I'm not throwing any stones here, but certainly a good bit higher than I'm prepared to spend. It's unfortunate that pipe makers need to make a living, too.

The Briar Cigar as an RC probably costs less, but it's too cute/avant-garde for my tastes. I like a defined bowl and stem. He has one called the "Wasp" whose design, although more accessible than many RCs produced by the trendy Russians, that basically look like two circles/blobs, is about as far as my traditional sensibilities can stretch. If I had a grand right now to spend on another RC, I'd probably go for one of the Eltang or Negoita tubos (I think they're RCs), whose clean, straight lines I find quite appealing. But then again I'd probably be more tempted to buy 4 cheap AeroBilliards. I'd have to have a lot of disposable income to spend a grand on a single pipe.

 

[alfredo_buscatti]

It's hard to say where pipe design will go. I was looking at Russian RCs months ago and had no idea why anyone would want to put that much craft into such unappealing (for me, underline that) designs. Now that I know how much they cool the smoke I'm a convert. We're talking about hand-held pipes, right? From the little I know hookahs are the king of cool smokes. But hookahs don't easily travel. What about two cooling chambers? How far do you want to morph the traditional shapes to accommodate an inverse chamber?

 

[MisterE]

An economical alternative?

 

[alfredo_buscatti]

That a huge bong! And as they probably stole it, very economical.

 

[Anonymous]

Back when I had teeth... I could gobble up cheap stems in short order. Never would use one of those rubber things and there was a pipe shop in the area at the time so I could get them replaced. Chomping is a hard thing to stop. Never really succeeded. No advice here; just commiseration.

 

[acme]

For those wondering where the double chambered pipes might go, too late, they already went.

I have been making these for a little over two years.
I picked function over form. You can see some of the consequences.

I took a guess at the measurements of the aeroBilliad's internal chamber:
If 3/4 inch diameter at 1.5 inches long, then it turns out to be just shy of 11 cc
(Cubic Centemeters).

Important to me was the distinction between simply catching moisture and actually cooling the smoke. Most of the condensation in a regular pipe happens in the stem, you know.

I have been testing for a while, I started out measuring and testing calabash, and have found that the magic doesn't really start happening until aboiut 40 cc..
Also important is the distance the smoke travels across the chamber. I have not tested for this as carefully, but I know that there is little profit if the smoke crosses the chamber in a single puff. The smoke from a puff has to swirll inside for at least a little while for the chamber to do its work.

I have been smoking 35cc to 240 cc volume pipes for a couple of years, and bigger is better.

The first image is a rain drop with a 50 cc chamber. You can see that I have paid at least a little attention to form. It weighs 2.5 ounces.

[/url][/img]

The second pipe is a complete abandonment of what might be considered normal, and I chose to emphasis the chamber. Its volume is a hair over 300 cc.
240 cc. This one weighs 4.75 ounces.

[/url][/img]

anthony

 

[Dutch]

For those wondering where the double chambered pipes might go, too late, they already went.

I have been making these for a little over two years.
I picked function over form. You can see some of the consequences.

I took a guess at the measurements of the aeroBilliad's internal chamber:
If 3/4 inch diameter at 1.5 inches long, then it turns out to be just shy of 11 cc
(Cubic Centemeters).

Important to me was the distinction between simply catching moisture and actually cooling the smoke. Most of the condensation in a regular pipe happens in the stem, you know.

I have been testing for a while, I started out measuring and testing calabash, and have found that the magic doesn't really start happening until aboiut 40 cc..
Also important is the distance the smoke travels across the chamber. I have not tested for this as carefully, but I know that there is little profit if the smoke crosses the chamber in a single puff. The smoke from a puff has to swirll inside for at least a little while for the chamber to do its work.

I have been smoking 35cc to 240 cc volume pipes for a couple of years, and bigger is better.

The first image is a rain drop with a 50 cc chamber. You can see that I have paid at least a little attention to form. It weighs 2.5 ounces.

[/url][/img]

The second pipe is a complete abandonment of what might be considered normal, and I chose to emphasis the chamber. Its volume is a hair over 300 cc.
240 cc. This one weighs 4.75 ounces.

[/url][/img]

anthony

Anthony, it's great to see that you are posting on BoB. I enjoyed reading about your work with second chamber pipes in Pipes and Tobacco's Magazine.

Your findings are exactly as I suspected, and that the real advantage to the standard second chamber pipe, is to trap moisture and resins, simply because the chamber is not large enough in most pipes to actually cool the smoke before it passes through the second chamber.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, have you found that there is any substantial flavor loss from the tobacco being burned in the 4.75 ounce pipe? The reason I ask, is because in my medium sized calabash, I need to smoke very full bodied blends, as the flavors always seem muted to a certain degree.

 

[acme]

You know, the risk of losing flavor has always been one of the questions raised. I may not be the person to ask because of the problem I was having.

For me, I have been smoking for a little over thirty-five years, but I learned something from these pipes in the last two. I smoked mostly matured virginias and I suffered from tongue bite. Made me miserable. Two bowls in a day and I was really done. I had almost exclusively swithched to calabash. I carried them around in a grocery bag. They were easier on my tongue, but not that much easier.

I don't get tongue bite with thiese. What did happen was that I noticed new flavors in the tobacco I had been smoking. It gave me something new to look for when I smoked. That is what I meant by learning something. I still smoke virginias, but they are different ones now. I am getting a lot out of them.

I don't know if this bears on your question or not. You can smoke this and that cigar, and then smoke a Te Amo. Te Amo has a rough quality to its smoke aside from the actual flavor. I notice that kind of a change for these pipes - they smooth things out for me. I can smoke Hados in them.

Six months ago, I would have also said, unlike the calabash, the heat source and cooling chambers are seperated, and that increases the cooling. I still can't say it ain't so, but I started making some Captain Warren style pipes with large air chambers, and they smoke better than I remember my calabashes.

anthony

 

[alfredo_buscatti]

Anthony, I'd love to hear what you've been up to re: double-chambered pipe since your last post.

My secret is that after smoking my AeroBilliard regularly for the last 4 months, I don't believe it either cools the smoke or enhances the flavor. But it's a good idea. I wonder if what's been said about them is true, that the smoke has to spend some extra time in the second chamber for it to have any effect. It would seem so. Maybe the chamber has to be bigger as it is in some of Anthony's pipes?

 

[acme]

There isn't really much that I can say that I haven't said in the earlier posts. When it comes to chambers, bigger is better.

Here are a couple of Captain Warren types that I made recently.
The second one is sold already.
They are both fairly large. The first one is about two ounces. I left it natural because they color up nicely due to the moisture that collects.

Sorry if you have been looking at the website; I don't think that I have any of the pipes on it any more. It just isn't very interesting to work on, and I like making pipes a lot more.

I am going to be at the Richmond show next month and the Las Vagus show in November.

anthony

 

[alfredo_buscatti]

Doesn't happen with every bowl but I get 2 or 3 drops of condensation in the second chamber. So the smoke is staying in that chamber long enough to condense. Therefore it must be cooler, but not noticeably so to this smoker.

 

[BigCasino]

very intersting, that first one looks like it has bad case of elephantitus, but really interesting tho

 

[juanmedusa]

I was at the Richmond show and I saw some of these interesting pipes.  Per the original post, The pipe tart had two of the radice brand pipes at the show. I think you can still see one here, http://www.thepipetart.com/radice/Luigi_Radice_pipes.htm  ,at the bottom of the page.