Oval bowls

[Bub]

As we all know, most pipe bowls are round. The opera shape, however, has an oval bowl. As I understand it, this shape was designed for the gentleman who wanted to carry a pipe in his vest and smoke it during an intermission.
How do these pipes smoke?
Are there any problems using a tamper?
How do you clean a pipe with an oval shape?
Thanks,
Bub

 

[LL]

Smoking, reaming, cleaning, etc is no different than any other pipe. Their lack of popularity speaks more to the difficulty of making them than smoking them.

I restored one just last week that was the best specimen I've seen in a while. A lovely little thing... A nosewarmer with a purpose, as opposed to just being trendy:

 

[Sasquatch]

Geez LL it's hard to believe that's the same pipe in the before and after pix. :lol:

 

[LL]

Geez LL it's hard to believe that's the same pipe in the before and after pix. :lol:

Amazing, innit? :lol:

Just too lazy to crop the other one out, actually. I notify people their order is ready with attached pics, so usually have something on my HD that matches any thread subject. (The count is now in the thousands.)

 

[Sasquatch]

If you scrub those real good that white blemish on the stem comes right off too. Just a little tip. :tongue:

 

[puros_bran]

If you scrub those real good that white blemish on the stem comes right off too. Just a little tip. :tongue:

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Seriously though: Why would an oval shape be preferable to a round shape for vest carry? I wouldn't think it would matter due to the bowl size.

 

[LL]

PB actually likes white dots just fine... it's all in the application:

 

[Sasquatch]

PB I think the argument for the oval is that if you want a bowl with capacity of X volume, then you could achieve it with a skinnier pipe (a pipe that is less obtrusive in a pocket) by elongating the bowl. Bit of a stretch I'd say, but pipe collectors are suckers for that kind of nonsense.

I myself am working on a bowl coating that is a mixture of briar dust and a special thermoplastic. Er, no, wait a minute, that's been done too.... :shock:

 

[puros_bran]

Straying a bit off topic but I have to.

Sas.. Have you ever noticed the expensive pipes DON'T have bowl coatings? I'll be honest I never noticed if yours do or not... One day maybe the pipe fairy will leave me a check and I'll know first hand.. Anyway.... I understand why the carving houses do it, I've never understood why the handcrafters do...Seems like if someone wanted to be rich and famous like the pipe making masters they would mimic as much as possible (well with the exception of maintaining individuality)

 

[Sasquatch]

I don't coat bowls. Most of the best pipes in my collection came bare. There are exceptions (Peterson 140th, Wiley) but I don't feel the the coating on those pipes is what made them good. Rather, the coating wasn't enough to make them bad!

So why do it.....

First, some pipes look really really sharp with a contrasting bowl color. Particularly pipes with a light finish.

Second, occassionally you'll find a pit or some streaking or something where you drilled the bowl. Rest of the pipe is fine, and let's assume the thing is not bad enough to cause concern in terms of pipe life. Cover it up and ship it (if you are Peterson, Savinelli, Nording, Stanwell, etc). No artisan I know would use a coating to hide a bad piece of briar.

Third, if you aren't totally sure about the experience level of a pipe smoker who might be buying your pipe, the extra level of protection, the "idiot proofing" of the pipe only makes sense. I try to gauge my clients' experience and smoking style, and usually offer some tips for a new pipe when I ship it. But selling in a more open market, I might coat a bowl.

4th if you choose your ingredients carefully you can make a bowl coating that is at worst neutral in flavor and at best quite pleasant. So the first couple of smokes are not unpleasant. Now, the briar I use, I don't find requires much break in at all, it's never unpleasant. But that's just my good luck, innit?

 

[Bub]

I hate to bring up high school geometry, but I would have thought that for a given amount of briar a round hole would hold more tobacco than an oval hole. Am I correct or did I fail tonight's homework assignment?
Bub

 

[Doc Manhattan]

You are correct, but the volume will depend on the height, too... a slightly taller oval bowl could compensate for the "lost" volume.

But I think that if you're building an oval pipe for an entr'acte smoke, being a short smoke is a feature rather than a bug.

 

[Sasquatch]

Area of a circle is pi x r x r where r is the radius

Area of an ellipse is pe x a x b where a and b are half of the minor and major axes, which is to say that an elliptical pipe of the same width but a longer bowl than a round pipe, will have a larger volume.

Or, an elliptical pipe would have to be less wide than a round pipe to have the same volume.

Pedantry, I know, but....

 

[Doc Manhattan]

I think it comes down to the practical design purpose of an elliptical pipe. The pinched billiards I've seen tend to keep one major axis similar to an equivalent rounds billiard, and reduce the length of the other axis.

(All circles are ellipses, so the ellipse area equation proves that for an ellipse with the longest major axis q, the largest possible ellipse is a circle with diameter q.)

One could certainly scale up the size of a bowl of any shape, and it would hold a lot of tobacco, but the gimmick is portability, innit?