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Now THIS is what a pipe should be like

AimlessWanderer

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Upright! Interesting! Cheap! 🤣

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This cluster of Mr Brog pipes arrived today, and I wanted to show them off.

The Puella (Pattern #45) has a very similar sized bowl to my Mizzou. Dia 16mm x 30mm deep. I thought this might feel a little awkward in hand, but it doesn't, and the rusticated swell around the bottom sits securely between the index finger around the bowl, and the middle finger beneath. It's quirky, but I like it. It comes fitted with a stinger, but that will be discarded.

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The Leader (#46) has a Dia 20mm x 38mm deep chamber. The mouthpiece is rather wide on this one, but doesn't feel spoiled by it. I imagine the crests or the rim detail will pick up some charring quite quickly, but I would expect that to add the the character, rather than diminish it. A very stable sitter. Another stinger pipe, but that's easily fixed.

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The Chochla (#48) is a quirky squashed tomato style, with a Dia 20/21mm x 32mm bowl. I love the lumpy carved texture on this. It's quite a wobbly sitter, but always upright. I'm fancying this for English blends if it smokes them well.

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The Cent doesn't have a patter number, but it has a Polish coin inset in the base. It has a generous Dia 20mm x 42mm deep chamber. Due to the nature of the bend, this one is drilled a little higher in the bowl, but appears to break through at the right point for a steeply bent shank angle.

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All these are pearwood with a hard plastic stem, although Mr Brog also doea briar, clay, olive wood, acacia, and possibly others too. I don't expect them to be as long lasting and hard wearing as briar, but I would expect them to last as long as a cob, which is what they are essentially priced as. This whole shipment cost me pretty much the same as what 4 Mark Twain cobs would have cost, and the most expensive - the Cent - only cost around the same as a Dagner poker or Charles Town Cobbler.

Aside from the Cent, with it's fitted coin, they are all light too. In the order I listed them, they are 29g, 42g, 58g, and 70g respectively. I'm looking forward to getting them broken in.
 
That last (the cent) looks VERY cool. Frankly, they all have a certain attraction.

But I am curious . . . how long do you expect them to last? A few years of weekly use? A decade?

Longevity is not something I have really considered with respect to pipe purchasing.
 

AimlessWanderer

Remember to forget me!
That last (the cent) looks VERY cool. Frankly, they all have a certain attraction.

But I am curious . . . how long do you expect them to last? A few years of weekly use? A decade?

Longevity is not something I have really considered with respect to pipe purchasing.

Thanks. Yeah, I'd easily expect a decade of working life from them. They might even outlive me if cared for. They just might be a little more prone to failure if dropped, smoked hot, or smoked with too thick a cake. If any of them do fail though, at least I'll have a legitimate reason to buy another pipe 🤣
 

brandaves

With a great avatar comes great misidentification
Thanks. Just something I never thought about. I guess it just makes sense that different materials have longer lifespans (briar, morta, etc.).
A well cared for cob can easily last a lifetime. Even with daily smoking. The bits may need replacing but the bowls a pretty hardy for bit of corn cob!

That's a well cared for cob mind you...and I'm relaying what I've heard, as my lifetime thankfully isn't complete 😉
 

AimlessWanderer

Remember to forget me!
I forgot to mention... the Chochla and Cent are both 9mm pipes. They came with the cartridge type filters, but I will likely switch these for the 9mm Savinelli balsa. It's nice to have a couple more filtered pipes in the array, for smoking the wetter/gunkier tobaccos.
 
That's a nice set of sitters, Al. They really look like they'll work. And that Puella looks exactly like the kind that would catch my eye at an antique shop and jump into my hands. And I wouldn't worry about longevity. The care you take added to the amount you smoke, they'll last as long as you're smoking.
 

AimlessWanderer

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Cheers Rookie.

I had a bowl of Jamaican Flake in the Leader earlier, and the bowl got quite warm/hot. I set it down a few times to cool off. I'm sure that'll settle down once I've got a layer of cake in the bowl. Other than that, it was a very nice smoke.
 

AimlessWanderer

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After my second pearwood pipe smoke yesterday, Germain's Plum Cake in the Puella, I'm coming to accept that they get hotter than briars. I'm also noticing that it seems to be accepted and accommodated in the pipe designs. The wider base on the Leader, and the rusticated ring on the Puella, give a cool spot to hold, while the rest of the bowl is dissipating heat like a clay would, and like a clay, they benefit from a slightly firmer pack.

Other pipes in their range, also have either a wider spot nearer the base, or particularly thick walls too. This is in no way a detriment to the smoke though. Both those inaugural smokes were cool smokes, and far more pleasant in taste than the first smokes of a MM hardwood. I still think it will ease off somewhat once shielded with cake, but also continue to be hotter than an equivalent shaped briar would.

I think it is fairer to consider these...

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... in comparison to these...

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... than it is to briar. On that footing, the Brogs win. They are more equivalently priced to the MM hardwoods than briar, but have better aesthetics, a fully and correctly formed bowl bottom, a better taste and greater diversity. They can both get hot, but the Brogs are designed to accommodate that.

Mr Brog does have briar pipes too, and at briar prices. If I wanted to compare Brogs to my Parkers, that is what I should choose for that. Maybe I'll be able to snaffle a second or other cheap Brog briar below my price threshold at some point, and make that comparison.

I did see one that was very nice, but outside my purchase price range. It was approaching £70. The Royal, or Royal Bulldog (pattern 171) has a bulldog carved bowl, but the stem is rotated 45 degrees so it sits. A bulldog bowl on a foursquare panel shank. They also have some nice looking Champions, which seem to be essentially the Leader pattern, but in briar. Again, outside my price range at around £50-£55. Maybe I'll cave at some point.

In the meantime, I'm very happy with the pearwoods (thus far), and I'm sure they'll only get better with use.
 

AimlessWanderer

Remember to forget me!
I have a brog, similar to the squat fat one in your pic, but smooth, decent smoker, and if my pipes run hot as I smoke fast at times, I just wrap my finger over the stem to hold it until I put it down.

Yup. That's what I did with my clays when I had them.
 
My first was a Brogg churchwarden. I still have it in the bottom of a box. I should drag it out. The finish went wrong and I sanded it back, oiled it up and it looked even better than when I bought it. Lovely collection you have there.

I should add, if you want a REALLY good smoking pipe (that smokes like a dream) get your hands on an unfinished cobb pipe. No finish, raw. They're amazing.
 

AimlessWanderer

Remember to forget me!
My first was a Brogg churchwarden. I still have it in the bottom of a box. I should drag it out. The finish went wrong and I sanded it back, oiled it up and it looked even better than when I bought it. Lovely collection you have there.

I should add, if you want a REALLY good smoking pipe (that smokes like a dream) get your hands on an unfinished cobb pipe. No finish, raw. They're amazing.

The three cobs I currently have are a Rob Roy Legend, a Washington, and a Mizzou. All good smokers. The mizzou is the one that gets the most use by far
 

AimlessWanderer

Remember to forget me!
Having had a few more bowl in these pipes, I have notice that they tend to favour a firmer pack, just like clays. Maybe that's due to the conductive nature of pear wood and clay, and heat is being sapped away from the coal.

Also, the pipes get hot in different areas, which I assume is due to the grain flow of the wood. None of which takes anything away from them being good smokers. They just need using a certain way to get the best from them.
 
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