2018 Pipe trials

[Shave_Rat]

I had initially thought to just smoke each pipe I had, with no repeats, till I had had a bowl in every pipe that is in the rotation, with the purpose of trying to narrow down which ones I just didn't care for in the end, and then do some letting go. As I was pondering the logistics of marking them or setting them aside, while staring at the pipe racks, I realized there were easily some I was already prepared to purge. So, I changed direction a bit.

I went through, and found 11 pipes I seem to really never reach for, and set them together to keep them easily separated. Starting Feb 1, I decided I will only smoke those 11, trying a variety of blends/blend types in each in case I missed one that seems to smoke lat blends great, but not so much others. Then I'll know at the end for sure which ones can be let go of.

Why start in Feb, and not now? Well, I have a few new and new to me pipes arriving (hopefully tomorrow), and want the month to get to know those well, just in case in the end any of them end up feeling like they need a better home than mine. While not extremely likely, it does happen.

To make it easier to find and read the posts about each pipe, I'll keep an index here going directly to each of those posts.

Frog Morton Cellar in the Scorpious
Corn Cob Pipe in the Viking rhodie
Dunhill dark Flake in the Bones billiard
Dunbar in the Dr Grabow Freehand
Woodbridge in the Molina Sera
Scottish Mixture in the LaRocca bent chestnut
Royal Yacht in the Kirsten
Ye Olde Signe in the Falcon
Dunhill Dark Flake in the Dr Grabow Freehand
Dorchester in the Kirsten w/ briar bowl
Dorchester in the Viking rhodie
Dark Flake in the LaRocca bent chestnut
Dunbar in the Molina Sera bent dublin
Stonehaven in the Molina Sera bent dublin

 

[Ponycarman]

Sounds interesting! I shall be watching.






And keeping an eye on the BST....

 

[Kentos]

Do those 11 have anything in common?

 

[Shave_Rat]

We shall see if it is interesting or not, I guess. lol If nothing else, there will be some pics of some pipes I most likely have not posted here before, or very rarely. lol

 

[Shave_Rat]

Do those 11 have anything in common?

Looking through them, not really. I can't see any commonality in any of the shapes or such.

 

[oc_in_fw]

Sounds like a tun thread.

 

[Kentos]

Looking through them, not really. I can't see any commonality in any of the shapes or such.

It will be interesting to see the pipes and see what it is that relegated them to the bench.

 

[Shave_Rat]

It will be interesting to see the pipes and see what it is that relegated them to the bench.

Exactly, since I currently am not sure of the reasons either for some of them, tho I have some guesses and vague recollections for a few of them.

 

[Shave_Rat]

First up is the very first artisan pipe I bought, was also the most money I'd laid out for a pipe by far at that point in time. I'm a sucker for symbolism, so being a Scorpio getting a pipe from Scorpious Pipes, with a scorpion engraved logo on the stem spoke to me as much as the actual pipe.

Pros: Very nice solid feel. Just a hefty piece of beautiful briar. Even as a beginner, I never managed to heat up the walls on this thick beast.

Cons: As one can imagine, not the best for a clencher pipe (tho, having much more experience now, it's clenching better than I recall previously). Much larger issue though was it never smoked well. The draw always felt way too tight, could barely pass a pipe cleaner through the stem, gurgled horribly. I started to recall why I almost never touched this pipe rapidly after the true light.

Being more experienced now, and braver, an idea hit me. I pulled the stem, used a very small drill bit on my dremel, and ran it through the stem (*very carefully*). Well, what do ya know, it's smoking the FMC like a well oiled freight train now.

I'll give it a few more smokes still, but looks like this one is going to land a solid place with the few latakia dedicated pipes I have now.

 

[Bk124tt]

First up is the very first artisan pipe I bought, was also the most money I'd laid out for a pipe by far at that point in time. I'm a sucker for symbolism, so being a Scorpio getting a pipe from Scorpious Pipes, with a scorpion engraved logo on the stem spoke to me as much as the actual pipe.

View attachment 849090

Pros: Very nice solid feel. Just a hefty piece of beautiful briar. Even as a beginner, I never managed to heat up the walls on this thick beast.

Cons: As one can imagine, not the best for a clencher pipe (tho, having much more experience now, it's clenching better than I recall previously). Much larger issue though was it never smoked well. The draw always felt way too tight, could barely pass a pipe cleaner through the stem, gurgled horribly. I started to recall why I almost never touched this pipe rapidly after the true light.

Being more experienced now, and braver, an idea hit me. I pulled the stem, used a very small drill bit on my dremel, and ran it through the stem (*very carefully*). Well, what do ya know, it's smoking the FMC like a well oiled freight train now.

I'll give it a few more smokes still, but looks like this one is going to land a solid place with the few latakia dedicated pipes I have now.

Nice!

 

[Ponycarman]

First up is the very first artisan pipe I bought, was also the most money I'd laid out for a pipe by far at that point in time. I'm a sucker for symbolism, so being a Scorpio getting a pipe from Scorpious Pipes, with a scorpion engraved logo on the stem spoke to me as much as the actual pipe.

View attachment 849090

Pros: Very nice solid feel. Just a hefty piece of beautiful briar. Even as a beginner, I never managed to heat up the walls on this thick beast.

Cons: As one can imagine, not the best for a clencher pipe (tho, having much more experience now, it's clenching better than I recall previously). Much larger issue though was it never smoked well. The draw always felt way too tight, could barely pass a pipe cleaner through the stem, gurgled horribly. I started to recall why I almost never touched this pipe rapidly after the true light.

Being more experienced now, and braver, an idea hit me. I pulled the stem, used a very small drill bit on my dremel, and ran it through the stem (*very carefully*). Well, what do ya know, it's smoking the FMC like a well oiled freight train now.

I'll give it a few more smokes still, but looks like this one is going to land a solid place with the few latakia dedicated pipes I have now.

Awesome!

 

[Shave_Rat]

And... it smoked to almost no dottle left at all even at the bottom. It really handled the Frog's offerings really well, which for me is a thing. The chunky sort of cut of FM often gives me issues in most pipes I try it in. I'm excited to give Pembroke a try now in this pipe soon.

 

[Hirsute]

Awesome! Nice work, Dustin.


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[cursethis]

First up is the very first artisan pipe I bought, was also the most money I'd laid out for a pipe by far at that point in time. I'm a sucker for symbolism, so being a Scorpio getting a pipe from Scorpious Pipes, with a scorpion engraved logo on the stem spoke to me as much as the actual pipe.

View attachment 849090

Pros: Very nice solid feel. Just a hefty piece of beautiful briar. Even as a beginner, I never managed to heat up the walls on this thick beast.

Cons: As one can imagine, not the best for a clencher pipe (tho, having much more experience now, it's clenching better than I recall previously). Much larger issue though was it never smoked well. The draw always felt way too tight, could barely pass a pipe cleaner through the stem, gurgled horribly. I started to recall why I almost never touched this pipe rapidly after the true light.

Being more experienced now, and braver, an idea hit me. I pulled the stem, used a very small drill bit on my dremel, and ran it through the stem (*very carefully*). Well, what do ya know, it's smoking the FMC like a well oiled freight train now.

I'll give it a few more smokes still, but looks like this one is going to land a solid place with the few latakia dedicated pipes I have now.

It's funny that your Scorpious had a tight draw. Mine's drilled wide open to the point that it smokes like a freight train. Was yours an earlier pipe of his? Because he made it a point to tell me that he drilled it wide, and kind of emphasized that as a selling point.

 

[Shave_Rat]

It's funny that your Scorpious had a tight draw. Mine's drilled wide open to the point that it smokes like a freight train. Was yours an earlier pipe of his? Because he made it a point to tell me that he drilled it wide, and kind of emphasized that as a selling point.

I've had it for probably close to 5 years. I tried to go back in my messages archive to find the date on them, and it was log ago enough they aren't archived in my FB message history, which goes back to like 2013.

 

[oc_in_fw]

First up is the very first artisan pipe I bought, was also the most money I'd laid out for a pipe by far at that point in time. I'm a sucker for symbolism, so being a Scorpio getting a pipe from Scorpious Pipes, with a scorpion engraved logo on the stem spoke to me as much as the actual pipe.

View attachment 849090

Pros: Very nice solid feel. Just a hefty piece of beautiful briar. Even as a beginner, I never managed to heat up the walls on this thick beast.

Cons: As one can imagine, not the best for a clencher pipe (tho, having much more experience now, it's clenching better than I recall previously). Much larger issue though was it never smoked well. The draw always felt way too tight, could barely pass a pipe cleaner through the stem, gurgled horribly. I started to recall why I almost never touched this pipe rapidly after the true light.

Being more experienced now, and braver, an idea hit me. I pulled the stem, used a very small drill bit on my dremel, and ran it through the stem (*very carefully*). Well, what do ya know, it's smoking the FMC like a well oiled freight train now.

I'll give it a few more smokes still, but looks like this one is going to land a solid place with the few latakia dedicated pipes I have now.

Having to force a pipe cleaner is a big turn off for me. If you can’t pass a pipe cleaner, it is too tight.

 

[Alejandro Salemandro]

awesome thread! Looking forward to the rest

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[Senshi]

What a great idea. I like this systematic approach you’ve got going on. I’ll be keeping my eyes on this thread.

 

[Shave_Rat]

Here we have a Bjarne Viking Classic rhodie. I've also had this one for 5 years, give or take a month or 6. It was a surprise PIF from a BL'er (sadly, I can not for the life of me recall who ). From what I do remember, some samples were being sent, and this pipe was also in the box, new and unsmoked. As such and in that spirit, if this one doesn't make the cut, it will pass on as a PIF.

Smoking some Corn Cob Pipe in it.

Pros: Clenches easy, good draw, smokes dry with this blend. So far, build wise, it's smoking really well.

Cons: I can honestly say I can't find any real cons on this. So why does it not get reached for more? Over all, as I ponder, it comes down to several things. It feels ok in my hand, but not great. It looks OK, solid finish, interesting grain, nice accent ring, cool Viking logo (recall I'm a sucker for symbolism stuff)... but at the end of the day I have a good many pipes where all those factors are more of "Great" instead of just "ok/nice". In the end, as my collection expanded (and continues to), it just doesn't have the "Wow" factor a lot of others do for me.

If it had shown up as a free throw in from like an IPSD bonus box, or free addon to an order, it would have likely landed in the knock around pipe rotation. Mowing the yard, camping, etc.. Since it came to me as a PIF, it sat a bit higher in esteem for me than just a "beat it up and not worry" pipe. So, it landed on the pipe rack, caught in between not wow'ing me on any factor, and the generosity by which it landed here.

I really don't see my opinion on it changing with other blends, but just in case, I will run a bowl of Stonehaven through it, since I don't have many pipes that really bring the most out of that blend for me yet.

 

[cursethis]

I've had it for probably close to 5 years. I tried to go back in my messages archive to find the date on them, and it was log ago enough they aren't archived in my FB message history, which goes back to like 2013.

Ahhhh... mine's about 1-2 years old, so I guess he received a bunch of negative feedback and is overcompensating for the tight draw.