I like big pipes (see avatar, LOL) but the Ardor Giants are pretty intense. Tough to clench but if you've got a couple of hours, a comfortable chair and a good book, why not?
That big billiard (is it an Ashton?) is a beautiful piece, but I like a billiard that I can keep clenched. The price that it's accrued (I don't know f the auction is over yet) certainly suggests that there's a demand out there.
Of course, one dilemma we haven't addressed is the insidious specter of "Pipe Creep." Over the time I've been a pipe smoker, my bowls have grown (as has my girth, but that's another story). You know, you buy a nice group 3 or 4 sized pipe, then suddenly the 5 or 6's make sense. Then you outgrow your first pipe rack, which only holds medium sized billiards. Then you start to gravitate to a steady rotation of big bowls, and that largish billiard doesn't seem to weigh anything in your jaw anymore. Then you buy a big Boswell, which is the beginning of the end
.
There are, of course, worse problems. Like most of us, I find my larger bowls smoke much cooler (in general) and I stopped worrying about how they looked a long time ago. i still use my smaller pipes for flakes and such, they just don't seem to get smoked as much.
And it makes "just one bowl after dinner" a much more appealing prospect.
