Dunhill draw

Brothers of Briar

Help Support Brothers of Briar:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Bugsahearn

Bugsahearn

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 5, 2015
Messages
443
Reaction score
0
Hey what do you hear what do you say!

I've never owned a Dunhill, but I'm curious about the draw on them. I don't see it mentioned to often, although I've seen some say the draw is nice and open and others find them constricted. What is the draw like on the Dunhill's you have smoked? What about the draw on the new dunhills?
 
Can't speak to the new one. I have two older Tanshells and both draw quite well.
 
I bought a Dunhill for research purposes, a NIB '69 shell. While I didn't really think the build quality was up to snuff in terms of what I'd expect out of a modern top-tier pipe (drilling, no funnel on the tenon... just little stuff), what did strike me was how nice the draw was. Not tight, not wide open (I have a Ser Jacopo you could snorkel with). It smoked nicely but not to my mind exceptionally. But the draw was really smooth, and the stem work was responsible for it - a nice deep slot, well cut, no sharp edges or weird transformations of shape.

 
I'm far from being an authority on Dunnies but I have this to say about that-

Back in '01 I was at the Dunhill store in London and picked up a nice looking Shell Briar straight billiard. Classic looking with a silver band. Paid waaaaay too much (about $450 iirc), the most expensive pipe I've ever acquired. But hey, I was on vacation and thought I'd splash out just this once.

It turned out to be the absolute worst investment I'd ever made in a pipe!!! The draw was far too open and I never could get it to smoke good, despite trying different packing methods. It got hotter than the hades of hell even when trying to sip and still keep it lit.

I even considered trying to modify a Savinelli balsa filter and insert it into the stem, but never did.

Ended up sending it to SP for their estate sales and took pennies on the dollar. It put me off Dunnies from that point and I figured lesson learned!

A few yrs ago, bro Nathan at Viking Pipes had an older estate Dunnie Shell Briar straight 'dog that caught my eye (I forget the year) and I asked him about the draw. Once bitten, twice shy they say. He said it was fine so I took a flier on it. And it turned out to be fine in all regards. Very reasonable it was too!

Conclusion - not sure if I have one except to say that perhaps the billiard was overdrilled and not representative of the line. Yet for that kind of dough it damn well should have been perfect!

I've read various things about the quality control of Dunhill and fwiw it seems that the best pipes were the old oil-cured briars from before a certain year. Can't remember that year right now but monbla will be along anytime to edumacate us all.

:cherry: 


Cheers,

RR
 
I've got 12 Dunhill pipes that range in age from 1919 to 2012. Most of them have a draw that is acceptable to nice and open. As a general rule, the older ones have better draws in my experience. Advice, if you purchase one try the draw first. If ordering online make sure the seller has a good return policy.
 
Just checked three group 4s of mine. All draw differently, from quite open to mildly restricted. The one that's open is a '62, the others from the '70s.
Conclusion: zip, or even less.
 
I have three Dunnies one from '46, one from '55 and one from 2009, all blasted and they all seem to be the same draw wise to me. Nice easy smoking pipes really nearly the same as most of my other Brit pipes that I have. Just like any other manufactured product, there were days when good stuff came off the line and daya when it was just crap !! That's life !! :twisted: :twisted:

And BD, they stopped using the oil cured Algerian briar for their shell and Bruyere series pipes around 1969 :twisted: :twisted:
 
Another thought, if you are in love with a specific Dunhill pipe but don't like the draw a professional refurbisher or repair man can alter the engineering to your liking. This is easy to do with Dunhills. I do it every so often for customers.
 
Ocelot55":qg4fpdd6 said:
Another thought, if you are in love with a specific Dunhill pipe but don't like the draw a professional refurbisher or repair man can alter the engineering to your liking. This is easy to do with Dunhills. I do it every so often for customers.
Click to expand...

Wish I would've known this back then Jesse. But wish in one hand.......


Cheers,

RR
 
My only Dunhill, a 66 Shell Briar Billiard, has what I would call a good draw. I have a few pipes that are a little more open, my GBD's come to mind. Nonetheless, my Dunny is a fantastic smoker.
 
I currently only have one right now that I received for Christmas. It's a 2014 shell briar 5102 and the draw is great. The dunhill I have had in the past back in 05 and 06 were also great draws. They were 5108's in the 4 smooth finishes. Eventually I will have more to go with my other British pipes.
 
I have thirteen Dunnies from the 1920's to one '69. Most are 30's-50's. All are excellent smokers with absolutely no "draw" problems. Have no experience with DHs made after 1969. :cheers: FTRPLT
 
Thanks for your answers. So the consensus seems to be that Dunhills have a somewhat open draw
 
I have two Dunhills, a tanshell 413 billiard and a 3105 Dublin, both group 3, I'd say. The draws seem identical, not too tight, not too open, just right. The standard Long's cleaner seems like a perfect match for the draw -- it fills the air shaft just enough to take out any moisture on the first pass without forcing.
 
I have collected Dunhills for many years, dating back to the mid 1970's and one of the most overlooked advantages of a superior quality pipe is the quality of the mouthpiece. As far as I am concerned the Dunhill fishtail mouthpiece which is hand crafted from a single high grade piece of vulcanite produces a perfect draw, that is , of course assuming the draft hole as been properly bored through the shank. The oil curing process, rumor has it, was discontinued in the late 1960's and the pipes that were produced prior to that do seem to have a different smoking quality about them, sort of a nutlike under taste which I love. So the bottom line for me is that, yes Dunhills made before 1970 are discernably superior smokes, at least for me. Is it psychological? Maybe but so what? If pipe quality was the same for all pipes we would be all smoking varnished drug store brands.
 
So, all you folks with Dunnies - it doesn't appear that you've ever had the issue I had with the first experience of one with too open a draw? And of course the one I purchased in '01 was probably manufactured sometime around there as well. It certainly couldn't have been one of the older oil-cured models.

:| 


Cheers,

RR
 
Brewdude":mmv00z5h said:
So, all you folks with Dunnies - it doesn't appear that you've ever had the issue I had with the first experience of one with too open a draw? And of course the one I purchased in '01 was probably manufactured sometime around there as well. It certainly couldn't have been one of the older oil-cured models.

:| 


Cheers,

RR
Click to expand...
I think a lot of this has to do with YOUR definition of "too open draw" as all of my Dunnies , Charatans, GBDs, BBBs etc seem to have the SAME draw to me! But then I'm an old codger smoker and not as discerning as you younger guys !! :twisted: :twisted:
 
monbla256":iry7jq6o said:
Brewdude":iry7jq6o said:
So, all you folks with Dunnies - it doesn't appear that you've ever had the issue I had with the first experience of one with too open a draw? And of course the one I purchased in '01 was probably manufactured sometime around there as well. It certainly couldn't have been one of the older oil-cured models.

:| 


Cheers,

RR
Click to expand...
I think a lot of this has to do with YOUR definition of "too open draw" as all of my Dunnies , Charatans, GBDs, BBBs etc seem to have the SAME draw to me! But then I'm an old codger smoker and not as discerning as you younger guys !! :twisted: :twisted:
Click to expand...

Draw is expressed subjectively (open, closed) or objectively (the drill used). Another way to communicate the idea is the fit of a pipe cleaner -- though this is a bit of a compromise and may have nothing to do with the larger question of whether the draw is / isn't satisfactory to a the pipe's owner. One of my pipes is a handsome Ehrlich Supreme bulldog. I bought it as an estate pipe and was immediately impressed by its taste-friendly "open" draw. Unfortunately, getting a cleaner through it was a struggle, which I at first blamed on some obstruction in the air passage. Trial and error showed me that the standard thickness Long's cleaner took very patient jiggering, but a skinny Falcon cleaner slipped through. I have a notion that pipes with a narrow draw can be IDed by a whistle when gently puffed while empty and cold, but I'd make no claims for the universality of this personal observation.
 
Not to derail the OP's thread, but my Shell Briar Billiard's draw was about the same as sucking through a straw. IOW much too open.

My bad that I didn't recognize this at the time of purchase. There again the store didn't allow mouth contact with the pipe (as far as I'm aware). So I bought it on reputation alone and didn't get the opportunity to smoke it until I was back home.

Perhaps I should've pursued a course of action with the Dunhill store. But back then WTF did I know. What's done is done. I've moved on.



Cheers,

RR
 
Top