Pipe Groups?

[SteelyJ]

I sometimes see people refer to pipes as "group 1" or "group 4" pipes, etc. Just curious what are the different groups?

 

[SpeedyPete]

It refers to the size of the bowl. A group 1 is a very small bowl whereas a group 5 is very large. Of course with all the other numbers in between. A group 3 pipe is your average medium size pipe.

I believe this comes from Dunhill but I might be wrong.

 

[daveinlax]

The group sizes are Dunhill's guide to the size of a pipe bowl (I believe specifically the chamber) one being smallest and 6 largest. Most of use the group sizes to describe the size of the whole pipe. After you see a few, say group 5 pipes you can picture that size in any pipe. Like with Dunhill there can be a wide range within a group size.  :shock:

 

[DireWolf]

I just dug around for this.

They refer to Dunhill's bowl sizes - somewhere along the way someone decided that Dunnys shapes and sizes were so right proper, that they be the "standard", and they got people to listen to them.

Sizes seem to reflect Dunhill's pipe numbering system and have stuck.

Keeping in mind that people use the numbers, but are not faithful to the dimensions that I can tell.

The numbers seem to be relative to me, after reading 8 threads on different forums.

Some hint that it's bowl size, some hint at overall size.

Conclusion - bigger the number, bigger the bowl.

But I am probably wrong.

:lol:

 

[monbla256]

As has been so well illustrated in previous replies to your question, it was Dunhill and their usage of the phrase "group size" to denote the size of a specific pipe it was as can be seen from Dunhill's own shape chart to be a somewhat arbitray thing that was really established on the shop floor prior to stamping to establish the selling price for each pipe. Over the years there was some consistancy in this method and many folks use it as a general reference for sizing other pipes. Just to add another wrinkle in all this, Charatan used a similar numbering system and reffered to heir pipes bt grp sizes as well only Charatan's sizing was approximatly 1 1/2 times LARGER !! A Charatan grp 4 is slightly larger than a Dunhill grp5 and depending on the shape can be as big as a Dunnie grp6!! Ah the PRECISE SCIENCE of pipe smoking !! :twisted: :twisted:

 

[Hermit]

Yeah, it ain't like buyin' shoes;
sizes are sorta arbitrary.

 

[SteelyJ]

Thanks guys. I had just seen it pop up a couple times and didn't know what it meant, but this makes sense!!!