Zeno Marx
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jun 26, 2010
- Messages
- 3,265
- Reaction score
- 1,809
I do not care for the dublin shape, or anything resembling that classic shape, tapering down to smaller. For example, within the dublin family is the calabash. I do not care for how they look, but in particular, I do not care for how they feel in the hand. It's not as if I have a death grip on my pipes, but I feel like the pipe is going to pop upwards and out of my grasp, like popping the top off a dandelion, at any moment. It both feels funny in my hand, but it also gives me a little anxiety that something unexpected is going to happen. A lack of control or something, though I've never lost control of a pipe. Dropped plenty of lighters and tampers, but never a pipe.
Here's the rub, though: of all the pipes I've owned, I've never had any pipe from the dublin shape family that didn't rank in the upper echelon of smokes. My belief is that it is the conical shape of the chamber. That same tapering down to smaller also seems, at least for me, to be a major element in performance. It's too bad more chambers aren't drilled like a cone.
One of the best smoking pipes in my collection is an Italian briar, informed by the general calabash shape, and it has never provided less than a 9/10 smoke. I rarely smoke it because I think it is ugly and doesn't feel right in my hand, but it is a smoking machine. I only bought it because it was a Buy It Now for 1/3 market value. A deal too good to pass up. It was not the inspiration for this thread. The inspiration for this thread was a Radice Rind Bamboo dublin I owned in the 90s. One of the few pipes I miss that I no longer have.
Here's the rub, though: of all the pipes I've owned, I've never had any pipe from the dublin shape family that didn't rank in the upper echelon of smokes. My belief is that it is the conical shape of the chamber. That same tapering down to smaller also seems, at least for me, to be a major element in performance. It's too bad more chambers aren't drilled like a cone.
One of the best smoking pipes in my collection is an Italian briar, informed by the general calabash shape, and it has never provided less than a 9/10 smoke. I rarely smoke it because I think it is ugly and doesn't feel right in my hand, but it is a smoking machine. I only bought it because it was a Buy It Now for 1/3 market value. A deal too good to pass up. It was not the inspiration for this thread. The inspiration for this thread was a Radice Rind Bamboo dublin I owned in the 90s. One of the few pipes I miss that I no longer have.
