Puff Daddy
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- Dec 9, 2007
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I think the first nosewarmer mention I recall was many years back when Greg Pease posted photos on his website of the Castello shape 10, and then in the forum buzz that followed. I really liked those but never managed to get one (back when I was buying pipes of that pay grade). Since then it seems everyone has put out a nosewarmer. Some very nice, some failed mutations (imho). There have been some I really admired but a lot of them fell quite short of the mark. Most artisinal carver nosewarmers I couldn't afford anyhow. A couple years ago I noticed Peterson had put out some Outdoors pipes (as they called them) which were just their standard bowls but with short stems. I didn't like them, thought they looked like a weak attempt. There are still some of those around today on the big US Etailer websites. Big bent billiards, brandys and pots with weak little looking, too small stems, everything out of proportion. I didn't really pay them much mind.
I forget where it was but I saw a few comments somewhere about the Petersons released in the EU markets as being of much higher quality than the pipes released here in the states. This has been a bit of a sore spot for me because I truly love the look of a lot of the Petes and have purchased quite a few of them, but they always fell short of the mark in smoking quality once the honeymoon period had worn off and I sold almost all of them. Forget the gripes about dip stain and paint coming off the colored pipes and the deep well on every pipe and the off center airways in the stummel. With a well made mouthpiece that allows for a good airflow a lot of those other sins can be forgiven in pipes selling in the price range the US Petes were selling for (not that you couldn't get a better pipe for that kind of money). But the mouthpieces Peterson was making were drilled with an airway too small and the bents all seemed to constrict badly at the bend, they were not fluted at the end or with a decent V cut into the bit and inevitably the pipes would gurgle from turbulence and a too tight draw. Add to that the fact that most mouthpieces were cheap vulcanite, and finding a nice acrylic one with a good draw was like trying to hit the lottery. I basically gave up and was down to just a couple Petes in my collection.
But as I said, someone had mentioned the better quality in the EU market and I went looking. Lo and behold, there were straight nosewarmers on a couple of Italian websites that looked good, the pipes and stems were to scale, and they had very nice sandblasts on them. Very, very nice sandblasts! I couldn't help myself. I bought a Peterson Outdoor pipe in shape 87 (straight apple) in the black and tan sandblast with military mount stem. When it arrived it was lovely, but I was almost certain it wouldn't smoke good. Wrong! Been smoking it for some time now. I take it to work and smoke it in the truck while driving. It's a little jewel, a treasure! The fit and finish is better than most of what I've seen in the US Petersons, the stem, though ebonite, is holding up wonderfully and the pipe does not gurgle at all. It smokes wonderfully. This led me to searching more and I found that Peterson had released other nosewarmers in Italy that bear the stamping of totally different pipes here in the US. The Hunter, the Golfer, the Fisherman - not the same shapes and styles of those samely named pipes here, but all nosewarmer sand blasted pipes (Golfer and Fisherman having acrylic stems) and all head and shoulders above the pipes sold in the US as far as quality of build, finish and level of sandblasting goes. I had to get one of each, and all I can say is, Peterson, if you're listening, why haven't you been doing it like this all along?
Finally, as to the nosewarmer trend, I like em. Mine are all straight, the length isn't an issue, in fact I prefer it. They travel better whether in my Maxpedition bag I carry to work or in a small pipe bag I carry when I go out.
Here's a little slideshow of them.
https://s1113.photobucket.com/user/briarsmoke1/slideshow/Peterson%20nosewarmers
I forget where it was but I saw a few comments somewhere about the Petersons released in the EU markets as being of much higher quality than the pipes released here in the states. This has been a bit of a sore spot for me because I truly love the look of a lot of the Petes and have purchased quite a few of them, but they always fell short of the mark in smoking quality once the honeymoon period had worn off and I sold almost all of them. Forget the gripes about dip stain and paint coming off the colored pipes and the deep well on every pipe and the off center airways in the stummel. With a well made mouthpiece that allows for a good airflow a lot of those other sins can be forgiven in pipes selling in the price range the US Petes were selling for (not that you couldn't get a better pipe for that kind of money). But the mouthpieces Peterson was making were drilled with an airway too small and the bents all seemed to constrict badly at the bend, they were not fluted at the end or with a decent V cut into the bit and inevitably the pipes would gurgle from turbulence and a too tight draw. Add to that the fact that most mouthpieces were cheap vulcanite, and finding a nice acrylic one with a good draw was like trying to hit the lottery. I basically gave up and was down to just a couple Petes in my collection.
But as I said, someone had mentioned the better quality in the EU market and I went looking. Lo and behold, there were straight nosewarmers on a couple of Italian websites that looked good, the pipes and stems were to scale, and they had very nice sandblasts on them. Very, very nice sandblasts! I couldn't help myself. I bought a Peterson Outdoor pipe in shape 87 (straight apple) in the black and tan sandblast with military mount stem. When it arrived it was lovely, but I was almost certain it wouldn't smoke good. Wrong! Been smoking it for some time now. I take it to work and smoke it in the truck while driving. It's a little jewel, a treasure! The fit and finish is better than most of what I've seen in the US Petersons, the stem, though ebonite, is holding up wonderfully and the pipe does not gurgle at all. It smokes wonderfully. This led me to searching more and I found that Peterson had released other nosewarmers in Italy that bear the stamping of totally different pipes here in the US. The Hunter, the Golfer, the Fisherman - not the same shapes and styles of those samely named pipes here, but all nosewarmer sand blasted pipes (Golfer and Fisherman having acrylic stems) and all head and shoulders above the pipes sold in the US as far as quality of build, finish and level of sandblasting goes. I had to get one of each, and all I can say is, Peterson, if you're listening, why haven't you been doing it like this all along?
Finally, as to the nosewarmer trend, I like em. Mine are all straight, the length isn't an issue, in fact I prefer it. They travel better whether in my Maxpedition bag I carry to work or in a small pipe bag I carry when I go out.
Here's a little slideshow of them.
https://s1113.photobucket.com/user/briarsmoke1/slideshow/Peterson%20nosewarmers
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