Ser Jacopo's Leonardo - a missed concept?

[eon]

Has anyone had a chance to try out one of the Leonardo pipes by Ser Jacopo?

Having recently given in to the call of what might well be the best looking Rhodesian in the world (photos to follow in due time) and which happens to be my first Ser Jacopo (indeed, my first Pesaro pipe), I got interested in the make and discovered the Leonardo series.

Some of them are downright gorgeous and it seems to be a fascinating idea, crafted after the blueprints of the great Renaissance polymath himself. Leonardo Da Vinci was comissioned by Louis XII to invent a pipe that would not get hot. With briar pipes still couple of centuries away, Da Vinci envisioned a pipe made from terracota that would have an air canal between the smoking chamber and the outer bowl:

You can read the story here: A fascinating discovery: the pipe which does not get hot

Ser Jacopo has apparently risen to the challenge and copied the original designs, the only difference being that they use briar instead of ceramics. Seems like a grand idea.

However, there is something that troubles me with the whole concept. Namely that, instead of terracota, briar does have a tendency to char and burn. With a clay pipe, the whole idea would have been to keep the smoker from burning his or her hands - an issue quite irrelevant in the case of briar. Not only that but the design actually seems counterproductive. As we all know, the only sure way of checking if a pipe is burning too fast is to feel the bowl walls (a five second technique apparently borrowed from car mechanics). With the air canal separating the walls would one not stand at a greater risk of a burn out, not to mention a wet, tasteless smoke?

So as much as I like the idea of a great Renaissance heritage, the change in materials seems, in this case, to have missed the logic behind the original design, creating quite an opposite to the desired effect. Surely, though, the great minds at Ser Jacopo would have thought about the issue in a similar manner.

Hence my initial question, has anyone tried a Leonardo and if so, how did it fare?

 

[howellhandmade]

Hmm. I didn't think there was enough time for tobacco to make its way to France before both Leonard Da Vinci and Louis XII died. I went to the Ser Jacopo site to check out the pipe. I think the scholarship behind it is rather thin. Like you, I see no benefit to it. Briar doesn't get too hot to hold unless you are smoking too fast, in which case it's a good thing to have some warning before you set your pipe on fire.

 

[Harlock999]

Does sound like an unnecessary, though interesting, gimmick.

 

[Rad Davis]

From Wikipedia, however reliable that is:

The Spanish introduced tobacco to Europeans in about 1518, and by 1523, Diego Columbus mentioned a tobacco merchant of Lisbon in his will, showing how quickly the traffic had sprung up. Nicot, French ambassador in Lisbon, sent samples to Paris in 1559.

Louis XII died in 1515. Leonardo died in 1519.

Rad

 

[dougc905]

I have a Ser Jac Domina 2004 with this treatment. I bought the pipe because I liked the silverwork without any knowledge of the dual bowl treatment. Turns out that the silverwork on top of the bowl hides the cut that creates the dual bowl. To me the pipe smokes just the same as any other. My pipes don't get overly hot so I haven't noticed any difference. Nice pipe although a bit heavy. An interesting touch is that the 6mm filter adapter has a o-ring on it so it doesn't slip when running a cleaner through the pipe.

Doug

 

[Buddy Springman]

Here is the concept in clay. I've owned a handful - they work great.

LePeltier

Buddy