Pipes you just never quite bonded with...

[Idlefellow]

Do you have any pipes in your collection that, for one reason or another (or maybe no reason at all that you know of) somehow just don't do it for you?  (I know: If they don't, send 'em down the road, right?)  You see them there, but for some reason, when you reach for a pipe, it's never that one?  But even so, you can't - or won't - let them go?

I was looking at my rack today, and I have these three..

The bent pot on top is a house pipe from an old home town shop now long gone called The Pipe Rack.  For one thing I have to twist the stem around to get it in and out of my rack :evil: .  It's a decent enough pipe but...dunno.  But John Ojile and his wife were great folks and I have many fond memories of them and that shop.  I expect it'll stay forever.

The other two are, obviously, Petes.  The large bulldog in the middle is a shape from their Sherlock Holmes collection called the Baker Street, but since it's in their less expensive Kinsale line it got demoted to shape #XL13.  It smokes fine.  I don't know what it is; maybe I'm just not a bulldog guy.  But I can't see letting it go either.

The big Dublin Millennium on the bottom is well grained and really smokes pretty well.  I just somehow never reach for it.  But they're never be another, so...

Anybody else have an orphan or two they'd like to share?

 

[Brewdude]

Got a few that follows that philosophy. Yet I just remind myself that they may have yet to discover what 'baccy makes them come alive.

That said, there clearly were a few that I *knew* would never be something that I'd reach for. Those are now history.



Cheers,

RR

 

[MisterE]

I have a couple of pipes here that I really want to like, but just don't. Every now and again I'll get them out and see if something's changed. New tobacco, etc. They usually end up back in their boxes after a smoke or two. I suppose I could sell them, or give them to a bro, but  knowing they don't really work keeps them in storage. They won't cause anyone else headaches there either.

 

[Fr_Tom]

I have a couple of pipes here that I really want to like, but just don't. Every now and again I'll get them out and see if something's changed. New tobacco, etc. They usually end up back in their boxes after a smoke or two. I suppose I could sell them, or give them to a bro, but  knowing they don't really work keeps them in storage. They won't cause anyone else headaches there either.

I got stuck in in a diocesan thing once and had no pipe with me. A fellow smoker suggested we take a smoke break and I told him that due to the transportation, I had ended up pipeless. He went to his car and fetched a JB Special bullmoose. Apologetic, he said he had just never bonded with it, and it did not seem to be a very good smoker. He observed that it would be better than nothing, and gave it to me.

I have actually found this to be a pretty good smoker. So... You never know.

 

[riff raff]

I have 84 pipes in my "Past Pipes" photobucket folder.

Two Rad Davis, they just did not click for me.




(both snapped up by folks who loved them)


My one and only Barlings, I just don't get the hoopla.



One and only Cavicchi



Radice nosewarmer



This one was tough to sell, it was so beautiful, but too darn big



Two Castellos that were too big (are you starting to see a pattern here?)

G-Sea Rock


4K Sea Rock - why can't I find this in a 2 or 3K size??? Mike G @ Briar Blues owns this one now.




A giant Ashton



Two Jimmy Craig Ashtons, I didn't like the stem work.




A nearly unsmoked, 1960's Peterson 999.  But, oddly, it had an acrylic stem.  This one will be in the upcoming Peterson book.



David Jones Poker, you guessed it.



First nosewarmer, a Jake Hackert




My first Boswell, what a funky shape, not a great pipe.

 

[Brewdude]

This is the one I got from you, Al and it's a fine smoker for me-

Plus, you were kind enough to give me it's history which I also appreciate!






Cheers,

RR

 

[KevinM]

Pipes that make an after-smoke clean up take more than a minute are on thin ice with me.

Sometimes buying a pipe is like buying a couch. The scale looks okay in the store, but once you get it home it looks too big when compared to your other stuff.  Large pipes often look ungainly, and, worse, make my other briars look delicate, they're too much trouble to carry, offer no benefit (all this is JMHO,  I should add) and they're only half done when I'm about ready to go on to something else. For me, a bowl with an elapsed time of thirty minutes is usually just about right. Maybe a little more on a nice, starry summer night.

 

[Stick]

Just goes to show that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. To me Al's first pipe pictured, the chubby looking fellow by Rad, looks fantastic.

 

[riff raff]

This is the one I got from you, Al and it's a fine smoker for me-

Plus, you were kind enough to give me it's history which I also appreciate!






Cheers,

RR

Ah-ha, I forget sometimes who I sell to! That one should be in in the upcoming Peterson book, out soon. That one came to me via Dave Jacobsen. He'll be glad to know it landed somewhere safe!

 

[riff raff]

Just goes to show that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. To me Al's first pipe pictured, the chubby looking fellow by Rad, looks fantastic.  

Both of those Rads sold in a nano-second. I thought the sandblast took forever to break-in and I just didn't like the way it smoked, but the new owner loves it.

 

[Zeno Marx]

I used to run into this a lot, but because of uniqueness or rarity, I would keep them. I overcame that albatross and sold all of them. I'm finding myself in that situation again, but from a different angle. I wanted an inexpensive, group 3 or so, saddle bulldog out of the Charatan factory for a yard work or rainy walk pipe. Yes, it is specific and entirely utilitarian, but it is what I wanted. I found just about a perfect example, but I look at it every night and never want to smoke it. It's a good smoker, too. There's simply no passion there.

I think back and remember a gorgeous, fantastically shaped full-bent egg Nachwalter, a stunning rhodesian Boswell that felt worldly in the hand, and a Jacono apple freehand thingy. All these pipes were disappointing smokers, but the makers hit their shapes spot-on and uniquely. I looked at and admired them. I constantly picked them up and moved to pack them. And then I would remember how they were worthless smokes every single time. Exercises in futility. "why did I even bother?" experiences. It's the worst. You're really in the mood for a smoke. This device is so special in a secondary way. And then they fail to perform on every other level. For me, the most frustrating thing to occur in pipes.

 

[babysinister]

I think that, being a clencher, it was not a good idea in retrospect that I acquired a couple of group 6s in the Savinelli Hercules line, a billiard and a poker/cherrywood. Not the pipes' fault; both are fine smokers. I just find them a bit uncomfortable and unwieldy given my preferred smoking style.

 

[Richard Burley]

Yup. The pipe in the middle below I once thought had personal holy grail status. It's my second favorite shape after the billiard, a quarter-bent bulldog with tapered bit, it's a Castello, it's of usable size, etc. I thought buying it was the deal of a lifetime, the last pipe I would ever need to purchase, all PAD cravings extinguished forever. I have no idea why I seldom reach for it. It's very prominently displayed on my rack, there is nothing wrong with the way it smokes, it just doesn't say "smoke me" when the eye searches the briarly harem. I've smoked it about a half dozen times in the same number of years. (My only guess is that I now have a strong preference for sandblasts, rather than smooths--but then how does that explain my smoking cobs 10-to-one of briar?)  

" />

 

[ftrplt]

Oh heavens, my collection includes just a few that have never "worked" for me. An old Yellow Bowl that should be a great smoker gurgles no matter what I smoke in it!! Then there are two bulldogs, off-brand seconds with good looking wood, that smoke hot no matter the 'baccy! Fortunately, none of my "better" briars fall into this category One of the hazards of this wonderful hobby of ours is that every once in a while, you will get a pipe or tobacco that just doesn't "do it" for you. You know...Kinda' like women and cars :cheers: FTRPLT

 

[Idlefellow]

Ha! I thought this old thread rose to the fore with a new comment so I clicked on it, but I guess not. Don't know why I noticed it. But since it's here it's kind of interesting to note that the two Petes at some point became valued members of the rotation. For one, I guess I realized that I am in fact a bulldog kind of guy as I have since acquired 4-5 others (though I do prefer slight bends). For another, I realized that what I didn't like about the Dublin was the fit in my mouth - it just never felt comfortable. I stuck on a softie and viola! It's all good! Just goes to show ya: wherever you go, there you are . Oh; the poor old Pipe Rack pot still hasn't made it, but ya never know!

 

[Corncobcon]

I have several that I pass over. Mainly because I just don't like them anymore. One I don't smoke because I get nostalgic when I look at it. That
pipe was given to me by a boss I had years ago. I was leaving my job to move back to Kansas and on the last day my boss and the whole department
took me to lunch. At lunch they presented a pipe (Sanremo) to me along with a pipe tool and a pouch of Sail tobacco.. It is a full bent tall bulldog with rustication. My boss passed away after he retired in the 1980's. Imagine having a pipe rack on your desk and flakes of tobacco and smoke all around!
Can't do that in today's world.

 

[ftrplt]

I'm starting a major pipe and 'baccy re-org this weekend! Gonna' find out which pipes I truly haven't "bonded" over the last few years!! FTRPLT