The best smoker on your rack that shouldn't be the best...

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Hater

Hater

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This is a fascinating subject to me and I have been doing a lot of thinking about this. I have a caminetto, Mastro De Paja, Castello, a couple Celius', a Neils Bro, a couple JHWs, a couple Karl Eriks and you what the best smoker on my rack is? A freaking $99.00 Design Berlin #6 full bent. It smokes like a charm, cool and clean, doesnt gurgle and gives volumous smoke even when mainly sipping. I absolutly LOVE to smoke that pipe.

I see a lot of talk about GBDs and Dr Graybows and it just begs the question whats the one on your rack that shouldnt be your best smoker but is?
 
I don't want to make you feel bad, but i've got 1 particular MM Diplomat that is a terrific smoker. I don't know what they (MM) did differently or accidentally with this one, but it's a wonderful Cob.

It smokes nearly as good as my Savinelli's - and I don't say that lightly. Now it's seen some use and abuse, but just keeps truckin on. In over 19 years i've never had a Cob that smoked quite as good as this one. And it cost me $8.00 at the B&M - figure that one out...

:scratch:
 
I picked up a rusticated Mario Grandi 1/4 bent for a whopping 57 dollars off eBay and it smokes like a dream. Anyone who hasn't grabbed one should think about it, they are one heck of a pipe for the money. I am in the process of cleaning it now because it spent a rainy night in the bed of my truck on accident but it will be back in the rotation soon.
 
When I first started smoking (about 10 years ago), I was a college kid on a very tight budget...the second pipe I ever bought was a $35-40 Calabresi half-bent. It it ridiculous how well this thing smokes...now, I don't have any super-pricy pipes (nothing I own is over $175), but it easily beats out pipes 3 or 4 times its price.
 
This tired, crusty GBD was a gift from another a member on another forum. It cleaned up well (since been restained and polished the top). It doesn't pass a cleaner, but smokes dry and cool. I'm always amazed at how well it smokes, for an old GBD (70's), I guess that I shouldn't be surprised.

 
I have an Arlington Imperial Custom Briar I picked up on Ebay for $2.50 and it is without question one of the best smokes I've ever had. Smooth, cool, very little gurgling even in damp weather with an aromatic. Feels great in the hand and in the mouth. I absolutely love that pipe.
 
One of my favorite pipes, which is one of my best smokers, is a French-made "Noymer" leather-wrapped straight bulldog. I got it used, with a story, and it belonged to a friend of the friend that gifted it to me, who has since passed. I use it for Latakia mixtures, it has never once gurgled, smoked hot or given me problems. It's tough enough to take with me out in the field, it looks good enough to take with me to social events. I honestly wish I had six more of them.

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I have a tapered bit Squat Bulldog Edwards that I bought when I went into their old store here in Dallas back around 1970. It was not expensive, in fact it was on the bottom of their grading, has 4/5 fills in it and I think I paid around $18.00 for it back then. I've smoked everything from Amphora to Red Rapparee to St. Va flakes in it since and it is probably THE BEST smoking pipe I own!! I can finish a bowl and have to consciously put it in the rack so that I don't just refill it and smoke another bowl it smokes that good. I have many much more expensive good smoking pipes but this one truly almost smokes itself when I fill it and light it up!! Needless to say it still is smoked VERY often! :p
 
I laughed when I saw this post. I was thinking this the other day as I enjoyed a smoke from a premier selection Peterson that I picked up from an estate sale in Chattanooga, TN back in '87 for a buck. Of course it and the Dunhill billiard I also purchased (for a buck) started me down the estate pipe/pipe collecting road. Having PCI (Pipe Collectors International) headquartered there at the time probably helped a bit, too.

But among all my Dunhills, Petersons, Caminettos, and meerschaums, it smokes the best.
 
On my walk last night, I was thinking about starting a thread about "what are your surprise best smokers?" I was hoping to hear about steals and deals that you obviously liked because you bought them, but yet they still surprised you how well they smoked and became a favorite pipe in the process.

I picked up a Charatan private label 1/8th bent saddle bit tan sandblasted bulldog for $20. I honestly didn't have a lot of hope for it. I liked the shape. I liked the blast. I liked the price. I have to fight myself from smoking it every day. Everything about it ranks in the top of my pipes except for the lower grade vulcanite that yellows so quickly and easily. I'm tired of buffing the thing.
 
I bought a Bjarne Viking bent Dublin on ebay. The prior owner had attempted to expand the draw but accidentally drilled through the shank. He attempted to plug it himself but to no avail. I didn't actually pay for this one, I bought two others from him and threw this one in for free. I didn't even have to replace the plug, I just sealed it a bit better than he had. It was a fifty dollar pipe that was mauled and with less than 5 minutes of work she's turned into my best smoker. At first she was just my knock around pipe, one that I would bring with me when I traveled - so that I wouldn't damage or lose one of my "good" pipes, but now I find I reach for her more often than any of the my others.
 
If this thread keeps going, we're probably going to keep seeing "Peterson" show up in it. It usually does in discussions like this one.

That said, "Best" smoker is a shaky idea when you've a number of candidates for that title.
It does change from day to day.

A few of the keepers here are named Parker, Drury Lane, Made in Denmark, Bollo and a Wally Frank (USA-made) BBB.

Love is where you find it ;)

:face:
 
I guess I am stereotypical. My Castellos smoke like Castellos, and my cobs smoke like cobs. I really wish it was otherwise.
 
Yak":12aamjq6 said:
Love is where you find it ;)

:face:
Click to expand...
We love you too, Yak. :heart:

...in addition, there's something pretty nifty about a pipe that beats all the odds and smokes like a champ even though its pedigree, style, condition or configuration would suggest otherwise.

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This old savinelli Mr. G is my best smoker. In fact Im smoking her as we type. I picked it up off ebay 2 years ago for 21 bucks. Stem was brown and needed some TLC. Who ever had it before me enjoyed it. The bowl was about closed with cake.
 
Basket pipe from TB I picked up maybe 10 yrs ago.
I have beat and abused it to no end, it smokes great most everytime, as long as I do my part.
In the yard, at work whatever.






As was mentioned in another thread, Smoke the Hell out of it!
 
I don't have a big collection yet and havent really been smoking too long to make a good determination, but I have a Grabow that was gifted to em that I think smokes pretty damn good if you ask me.
 
In the mechanical design world there is no such thing as a perfect part. That's why you have tolerances. If you somehow wind up with a perfect part it's by accident. So, my thinking is perfect smoking pipes are accidents. That's why some one can buy a pipe for a few bucks and it's there best smoker. By some freak accident a really good piece of briar was used, buy some accident the perfect bowl is drilled, breather hole place perfectly, wall thickness just right. And any number of little accidents in it's creation. Then a particular person buys it puts in his favorite tobacco and Magic! The perfect smoker for that person.

That's how you have $3.00 perfect smokers and $100.00 perfect smokers and so on and son on. A bunch of perfect little accidents.
 
desertpiper":71dtpwrw said:
So, my thinking is perfect smoking pipes are accidents.
Click to expand...
...I liked this thought until the evil and inevitable pipe smoker's variables started to surface: and the interpretation of what a "perfect smoking" pipe is suddenly relies on the debate on whom, exactly, is a perfect smoker. :)

Probably two very lucky accidents. :lol:

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If you think about it, that's a good thing. A very good thing. Because that gives you infinite possibilities. Think of all the different pipe designs that are out there, and designs yet to be thought of. This gives you a reason to buy more pipes!
 
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