Bowl Coatings: the Debate Rages On

[d.huber]

Some folks don't like bowl coatings at all. I'd count myself among them.

I don't like bowl coatings as a collector because, initially and over the long run, the pipes that started out with bare walls just taste better. I've had the debate with plenty of folks about the advantages and disadvantages of bowl coatings, but in my personal experience a bowl coating doesn't really do anything except separate the briar from the tobacco and encourage (but not guarantee) a neutral smoking experience. In the case of the later, if I wanted a completely neutral smoking experience, I'd be a meerschaum collector. I've had pipes with bowl coatings that just tasted awful from the first bowl so I never picked them up again and later sold them. Any pipe that started without one has become a quick favorite and remains steadily in my rotation.

After all that preamble, the question I'd like to pose here is this:

Do those of you who are selling regularly find that people are willing to pay more for a pipe with a bowl coating or without? Have any of you ever lost or made a sale because you were using a bowl coating? Because you weren't?

[RadDavis]

Have any of you ever lost or made a sale because you were using a bowl coating? Because you weren't?

No.

Hope this helps.

Rad

[d.huber]

Hope this helps.

Rad

Actually, it does. Thanks Rad!

[caskwith]

Also no, a handful of people have requested no coating but that is all.

[Sasquatch]

I've coated I think 3 pipes out of however many I've sold, and those at the request of the buyer. When I coat, I use a sugar-based mixture that penetrates the briar and will burn in.

I was a pipe smoker long before I was a pipe maker. I have bought many pipes, smoked them without a second thought right out of the box. Lots were coated. I had an "uncoated" (but stained.... puke!) smooth peterson that was awful to break in, I had a couple uncoated MdP pipes, an uncoated pipe from Wolfgang B, etc, coated Stanwells.... I came to loathe the coatings, sanded them all out. Overall, what happens if you smoke a pipe with an artificial coating that isn't sugar-based is that eventually, a huge big chunk of cake just flakes off the wall and you're left with a bare-ass piece of wood in an otherwise evenly caked pipe, and suddenly you are breaking the pipe in again (after reaming....). It's stupid.

So I've got ... I dunno, two hundred pipes sold, maybe 300, I don't keep track. One burnout reported, and that one was an absolutely balsa-light piece of briar, it may have burned out no matter what, I just don't know. Briar can take it, if it's any good.

Coated bowls LOOK really nice, they offer a color contrast, a "professional" finish, they photograph well, and the coating will hide the occassional bit of stain that might penetrate or if you're a clown like me, you sometimes have a stain applicator (read: pipecleaner) that goes "boing" and flicks a little stain into the chamber (I don't use a pipe dildo as I have found that they actually help to wick stain down into the chamber). So it's a nice aesthetic touch. I don't hardly sell aesthetics though - I sell pure unadulterated smoking pipes for smoking in, and I believe that the best smokers come from carefully building a proper cake on good briar. So that's what I sell. That's the great thing about this - I can believe what I want, and sell what I want. And if somebody wants to do it some other way... that's great.

There's a hundred other reasons people might not buy my pipes - bad sales pitch, bad photography, anti-communist... whatever, but if anyone has ever left my site thinking "I wish that guy coated his chambers" then I haven't heard about it. And I never sell a pipe thinking "Geez I hope that thing doesn't catch fire because I didn't coat the chamber." I'll sometimes have a quick conversation about break-in with the client. But that's about all.

[Bryan Johnson]

As a smoker, and not a maker, I'd say that I wouldn't expect a pipe to come with a bowl coating. In fact, a coating smacks a little too much of a Medico-cheap-pipe sort of thing -- something that I'd expect from a mass-produced pipe for amateurs. Just my biased attitude, for whatever that's worth.

[Sasquatch]

Also to Rad's helpful point:

~(A->B)and~(A->~B)and(~A->B)and(~A->~B)

breaks down to the logical fallacy of A->~A

which indicates that Rad is wrong. Which is to say, I think some people probably have bought a pipe because it wasn't coated.

Hope this helps.

[d.huber]

Which is to say, I think some people probably have bought a pipe because it wasn't coated.

Lol! I know I have!

[d.huber]

As a smoker, and not a maker, I'd say that I wouldn't expect a pipe to come with a bowl coating. In fact, a coating smacks a little too much of a Medico-cheap-pipe sort of thing -- something that I'd expect from a mass-produced pipe for amateurs. Just my biased attitude, for whatever that's worth.

Bryan, thanks for sharing your thoughts and thank you to everyone who's responded so far.

I pose this question because there are high end makers who coat and those that don't, but all of the ultra-super-duper-magnifico pipe makers out there coat their bowls (unless I'm missing something). Eltang, Teddy, Toku, Lars, Jess, Revyagin, Grechukhin, Johnson, Gracik, Florov... these guys all coat. Todd made a great point about a pipe's appearance with a bowl coating, which leaves me wondering if the ultra high enders are coating for a more "finished" appearance. Thoughts?

So far, it sounds like customers (in general) don't seem to care that much. If customers are relatively indifferent, why have these camps emerged?

Chris, what led you to coat your bowls at first and what is your reason for coating now? I ask because I know that, at some point, you made the choice to coat and, having immense respect for your opinion, am interested in learning what lead you to make that choice.

[wdteipen]

One thing to keep in mind is that not every person who buys a pipe from you know how to properly break in a pipe. Carbon coating offers a slight bit of protection for the pipe and thus the pipemaker. I recently had a pipe returned to me with the start of a burnout. There's nothing wrong with the pipe. The owner just didn't take care in breaking in the pipe. The purchaser chose to remove my precarbon coating.

The other reason I coat is because it looks more attractive. I personally don't care one way or the other in pipes that I purchase although I find a more natural coating recipe breaks in easier.

[The Smoking Yeti]

I'm still torn on whether or not to coat- the main reason being I haven't found a recipe I like yet. The biggest reason for me to coat is actually aesthetics. I take great pains when I photograph my work, and sometimes I find myself going "damn, the pale bowl just looks bad against that stain" etc. So methinks my main reason would be aesthetics. People can always remove the bowl coating if they so desire.

[caskwith]

Chris, what led you to coat your bowls at first and what is your reason for coating now? I ask because I know that, at some point, you made the choice to coat and, having immense respect for your opinion, am interested in learning what lead you to make that choice.

I started quite early on. My main reason was that I was mostly making rusticated pipes, when stained these would often wick it through and cause spots inside the bowl. I hated how this looked so I coated to hide it. As time went on I found many features of coating that I liked. It covers those stain spotches, covers dribbles (no matter how hard I try I always seem to make a mess when staining) and covers little sand spots inside the bowls which though don't cause problems are unsightly in my mind. I also happen to like the finished look it gives the bowl. I am not really sure how much protection a coating provides against poor smoking technique but I know it can't hurt things.

As far as I am aware i have not lost any sales due to me using a bowl coat, no-one has ever complained about my coating, not to my face anyway. As I mentioned before a few people have asked me not to coat, and I have happily obliged.

[d.huber]

Chris, what led you to coat your bowls at first and what is your reason for coating now? I ask because I know that, at some point, you made the choice to coat and, having immense respect for your opinion, am interested in learning what lead you to make that choice.

I started quite early on. My main reason was that I was mostly making rusticated pipes, when stained these would often wick it through and cause spots inside the bowl. I hated how this looked so I coated to hide it. As time went on I found many features of coating that I liked. It covers those stain spotches, covers dribbles (no matter how hard I try I always seem to make a mess when staining) and covers little sand spots inside the bowls which though don't cause problems are unsightly in my mind. I also happen to like the finished look it gives the bowl. I am not really sure how much protection a coating provides against poor smoking technique but I know it can't hurt things.

As far as I am aware i have not lost any sales due to me using a bowl coat, no-one has ever complained about my coating, not to my face anyway. As I mentioned before a few people have asked me not to coat, and I have happily obliged.

Good food for thought. Thanks a lot for your detailed response!

[caskwith]

Good food for thought. Thanks a lot for your detailed response!

No problem. I should have added also that I think there are arguments both for and against bowl coatings and I do honestly believe there is no correct answer. For mysef bowl coatings work for me, will they always, I don't know but at the moment I use them.

[Sasquatch]

Well I was just about to but an Askwith pipe.... am I ever glad I read this thread.

[caskwith]

Well I was just about to but an Askwith pipe.... am I ever glad I read this thread.

Yeah like you werent already blacklisted

[Sasquatch]

I buy through proxy agents in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan.

[SchmidtN]

That's weird, I buy jackets from Moosejaw...

[andrew]

I coat by default unless someone requests otherwise. It's for aesthetic reasons. Makes for pretty pictures

[Charl]

I found that if customers want no coating, they specifically ask for it. I've had 2 only (and one fella that read an article re Peterson coatings and went forth with sandpaper to remove it ).