"...they have a soul and smoke impossibly well..."

[glpease]

And I thought the idea was to buy a pipe you liked, put some tobacco in it you liked and smoke it. Has worked for me all these years but I'm not as much of a real conesuer as most obviously are here Guess I've missed out on all the "good" stuff all these years

Actually, though coming at from rather the other direction, this is sort of what I've been getting at all along.

That intersection of two curves where flavour and smoking dynamics come together into a perfect smoke is an ideal to shoot for, but in the end, it's all about the enjoyment of the resultant smoke.

 

[Kyle Weiss]

I blame the Internet. Again.

8)

 

[asmoke]

Part of the enjoyment of carving pipes is the pursuit of creating an excellent smoking instrument, but as everyone can see, even if you carve the perfect pipe for one person, it may just produce tasteless smoke for another (just because of climate differences or smoking preferences).

I was not trying for snarkiness earlier. I studied all those fun math classes and fluid mechanics equations too long ago at this point to think they actually play any real part in this discussion.

As Greg said, the pipe is complex enough, adding all of the external elements to the equation makes the idea that there is a perfect pipe "equation" rather silly. However I think what most would assert is that a well engineered pipe has a much greater chance at producing the kind of experience we all strive for, a nice calm tasteful smoke.

I'm going to go smoke some Chelsea Morning in a brand new 55 now. I can only hope the smoke will be as fun as this thread .

 

[asmoke]

Yes, the pipe is well constructed. I'm almost hesitant to use the word "engineered", I don't think I did a single math problem to carve it... wait... yep, no math, just advice from more experienced carvers, personal experience and common sense (which I believe will be the guiding tenets of my carving days, long may they be).

 

[asmoke]

And I thought the idea was to buy a pipe you liked, put some tobacco in it you liked and smoke it. Has worked for me all these years but I'm not as much of a real conesuer as most obviously are here Guess I've missed out on all the "good" stuff all these years

Actually, though coming at from rather the other direction, this is sort of what I've been getting at all along.

That intersection of two curves where flavour and smoking dynamics come together into a perfect smoke is an ideal to shoot for, but in the end, it's all about the enjoyment of the resultant smoke.

I'll second that. Pipe dynamics will be the last thing on my mind tonight while I'm walking my dog inthe cool of the evening., it will pretty much be "heel!" and balancing on the flavor curve.

 

[glpease]

I'm going to go smoke some Chelsea Morning in a brand new 55 now. I can only hope the smoke will be as fun as this thread .

It really has been a fun thread, though it's a bit like looking for a black cat in a dark room. And, as with so many things, the answers are rarely as interesting as the questions.

 

[asmoke]

I think one of the things I enjoy most about this thread is the dialogue. It sounds a bit trite, but if the rest of the world was able to discuss things like they are discussed here, life would probably go much smoother for everybody.

 

[williamcharles]

Here lately I've found a few pipes that smoke so easily that I've had to rethink my definition of a good smoking pipe.
These old pipes stay lit so easily that they almost smoke themselves AND they smoke cool and dry.
None of them are Dunhills, Castellos or any other big name pipe but they are all old pipes.
One of them is a Lord Algro. I'd never heard of the brand but liked the looks of the pipe. It quickly became one of my favorites.
Most of the others are old Kaywoodies and one of them is an old Medico.
Go figure.

 

[Zeno Marx]

By 4.7mm, it became a beautifully designed incinerator of pipe tobacco that delivered little flavour, but huge volumes of effortless smoke. It was efficient, and useless.

This describes my estate Boswell to a T. But I cannot seem to get rid of it because of how great it feels in the hand. I smoke it very rarely...well, because, it's practically a flavorless smoke. I haven't measured the draft hole, but it feels like I'm smoking through something as large as a McDonald's straw. Last week, I read a poster on another board say something to the order of "there's no draft hole too big", and after getting over my immediate association with this Boswell, I thought, "This person obviously chases a different type satisfaction than I do." Not that their chase is lesser...but it certainly is wrong for me.

Something you might consider trying is installing an "inner tube" of sorts. Many hobby and hardware stores sell aluminium and stainless steel tubing in small gauges with thin enough walls to do the job. Just cut the appropriate length of the right diameter tubing to fit snugly into the draught hole, and long enough to kiss the stem's airway where it tapers down. I've done this to a couple of pipes with surprising results. Despite the introduction of metal into the airway, they were transformed in a positive way. It's an interesting experiment, if nothing else, and reversible if you don't like the result. And, since they come in sizes that can fit within each other, you could play with different internal diameters and see the effect this has on the taste and smoking characteristics.

I'll give that a try. Thanks.

It seems the pipe community at large has become overly obsessed with the smoking dynamics of their pipes, and have not paid as much attention to how they taste, which for me has always been the most important dimension of the experience.

There's a lot of strange stuff happening in the pipe world now compared to way back when; lots of rhetorical unnecessary particulars from my vantage point, but they fit in awfully well with the times.

 

[monbla256]

All this talk about "engineering" and such got me curious about two pipes that I have in my collection so I got them out to measure all this airway stuff. They are two Charatan Special Pot #4148DC 's that I bought back in 1973, and 1974. They are two of my favorite smoking pipes and being identical in size, shape, finish etc you would think they would smoke the same as both are "engineered" identically by the same firm presumeably within a year of each other, but this is far from fact. Smoking the same tobacco in one is usually a one clnr smoke till done, the other usually will take 2/3 till done, with the same tobacco in both, smoked inside etc. The taste and smoothness and enjoyment of the tobacco is almost IDENTICAL just one smokes a bit "wetter" than the other. I love 'em both and the fact that one is a bit wetter of a smoker does not bother me, that's just how THAT pipe smokes! My personal experience over the years I've smoked is that the briar, it's age, it's curing etc are what is the MOST important aspect of a pipe . But I don't make 'em nor am I an engineer so what the heh I just smoke a pipe

 

[Brewdude]

All this talk about "engineering" and such got me curious about two pipes that I have in my collection so I got them out to measure all this airway stuff. They are two Charatan Special Pot #4148DC 's that I bought back in 1973, and 1974. They are two of my favorite smoking pipes and being identical in size, shape, finish etc you would think they would smoke the same as both are "engineered" identically by the same firm presumeably within a year of each other, but this is far from fact. Smoking the same tobacco in one is usually a one clnr smoke till done, the other usually will take 2/3 till done, with the same tobacco in both, smoked inside etc. The taste and smoothness and enjoyment of the tobacco is almost IDENTICAL just one smokes a bit "wetter" than the other. I love 'em both and the fact that one is a bit wetter of a smoker does not bother me, that's just how THAT pipe smokes! My personal experience over the years I've smoked is that the briar, it's age, it's curing etc are what is the MOST important aspect of a pipe . But I don't make 'em nor am I an engineer so what the heh I just smoke a pipe

Ya, there will always be those who want to over-analyse everything to the enth degree.

The proof of the pudding is in the way it performs for you. All other claims are just fodder for the geeks....

<ducking>



:joker:



Cheers,

RR

 

[J Soshae]

Well finally home from work and this is one of the first threads that I read.

My brain hurts.

Geek level is climbing near red line.

A Sheldon Cooper quote belongs in this brainiac thread.

Sheldon: But then some poor woman is going to pin her hopes on my sperm, what if she winds up with a toddler that doesn't know if he should use an integral or a differential to solve for the area under a curve?

Leonard: I'm sure she'll still love him.

Sheldon: I wouldn't.

 

[Kyle Weiss]

This thread is far from over--another time, another place, we just happened to win it here via civility and discussion rather than rhetoric and argument. It's why I like it here (hell, even when it turns into a verbal food fight)... :lol:

I read somewhere, "The only thing simple about smoking a pipe is acknowledging the enjoyment." Hell, I might have wrote that someplace in my own stupid waffling. :lol: Meh. It still seems to ring true, more now than ever.

8)

 

[Anonymous]

Being able to carry on a productive discussion is, IMHO, a collective learned behavior. People get better at it with practice, and through having watched previous boards go up in flames & expire.

It's something people assumed they could do. But history shows they couldn't. People imagine all kinds of ridiculous things about "people" and their capacities.

IMHO, again, it isn't about "civility" at all.

Smokers Forums is so flipping Civil it's offputting. They might be decent enough individuals (and I know some of them are). But as a collective with its own agreed-on style and tone, it's a bunch of transparently insincere ballpolishers.

BoB's about caring enough about what the other guy has to say to listen to him.

And that hinges on the other guy actually having something interesting to say.

And that's BoB in a nutshell. It's the people. Not any of that other stuff.

:face:

 

[Anonymous]

The above written while sipping Union Square in a 1970s basket pipe that smokes impossibly well and has a soul. Two Dunhills (new), a Winslow, a Linea Piu, several Cavicchis etc. have come and gone. But the "P&B Collection" (Puff-&-Brouse chain) has been enjoyed, off & on, since 1974.

:face:

 

[Zeno Marx]

Smokers Forums is so flipping Civil it's offputting. They might be decent enough individuals (and some of them are). But as a collective with its own agreed-on style and tone, it's a bunch of insincere ballpolishers.

Indeed. It's a commitment to being unwilling to commit. Maybe I'm in the wrong, though; because congeniality can really wear thin on me, particularly when I know it is inhibiting the interaction. I have a real difficulty learning and getting to know people in that form.

I had a post removed from there a couple weeks ago, and even after discussing it with the Mod who pulled it, I had no clue of the infraction, nor did I understand how I could have worded it differently and still made it sound like actual human conversation. I guess I can't act myself, but I can act like I'm at a funeral.

 

[Kyle Weiss]

IMHO, again, it isn't about "civility" at all.

BoB's about caring enough about what the other guy has to say to listen to him.

po-TAY-toh, po-TAH-toh. *shrug* If "civility" means something forced, reckoned-with or via fear from powers-that-be, fearing what the neighbors think, blah blah, you're right. There's a different definition of "civility," and it's just being good folk and/or being cool. If that means BoB, so be it. Civility is being able to tell someone to shut the eff up when necessary, all the while, respecting and loving the hell out of the guy who needed it said to him.

Anything else is sterility (and an artificial one at that), not civility.


8)

 

[Anonymous]

Civility is being able to tell someone to shut the eff up when necessary

Not at Smokers Forums.

:face:

 

[Anonymous]

It is, in my unsolicited and probably somewhat unwelcome opinion, the same problem this place had for a while until everything settled in :

All the muscle & soft skin without hard bones would be a blob.

We're too much taken with appearances and not enough with what shapes & enables them.

No light without darkness ; no warmth without cold. &c.

:face:

 

[Kyle Weiss]

Yak, let's both STFU about all of that, as much as I don't mind talking about the nuances of online community building.

My mind has been yanked back into the realm of the original intent of this thread with the first pipe I ever carved. A pre-drilled number, block ebauchon that had been sitting at this local cigar shop for probably 10 years or more. I carved it and was proud, even if it took weeks for the unique cigar reek to work its way out of the briar.

The bowl is wider than I like now, the stem sits a little lower than the draft hole in the shank, there's about a 2 - 3 mm gap between the end of the tenon and the bottom of the mortise, and finally, I think the draft holes in the shank and stem are two different diameters by a little (and yes, the stem matches a nice fit, at least on the outside). It has never gurgled, and if it weren't for the cigar odor I'd smoke more delicate, subtle things in it than mild Latakia mixtures.

8)