New Pipe Question

[FoxGuy]

I am in the process of getting rid of the Aero baccy and going straight. Had anyone got any good ideas as far as bowl size and depth,straight bent etc in style that is better for say Sam G. BBF which I have found suites me quite well before I set out on a new pipe adventure? my ears are open and so is my mind

Thanks

[KurtHuhn]

Pipe shape has little to do with anything. What will suit you most is the pipe that you absolutely LOVE. Those are the pipes you should use with the tobacco you want to smoke.

I have a wide variety of shapes that I regularly use, and they are all excellent smokers with the tobaccos that I frequently smoke. The only common denominator is the fact that I know each maker personally, and I truly love the pipes.

[FoxGuy]

hmmmmmmm.............. "harmony" if you will then

[Sasquatch]

For best brown flake 13/16" diameter, 1 3/4" deep, bullnose rather than conical. This allows enough room for the tobacco to expand a bit after you light it, and won't wind up packing the larger type of flake into the airway at the bottom, which a conical bowl might. 1 3/4" deep is enough for substantial smoking time, allowing the smoke to grow from grassy to macho, but not so much as to lose the subtleties as you would in a much larger pipe.

Kurt, if you knew half of what I think you know I know half of, you'd know this kind of thing too.

Now look, the above sounds wonderful, and it's probably just about true, but it doesn't mean anything. Do you like big pipefuls that last 2 hours or do you like to smoke 1/2 hour at a time? I guarantee that an experienced smoker can look at the tobacco on hand, look at the pipe on hand, and load and smoke the thing successfully first try.

The specifications I gave are an absolutely mundane medium-large pipe. Which is what I happen to smoke about 90% of the time.

[KurtHuhn]

Kurt, if you knew half of what I think you know I know half of, you'd know this kind of thing too.

I don't claim to know anything - especially where pipes and tobacco are concerned. I may not even know what a pipe is....

[SimeonTurner]

I had a customer ask me a question like this the other day. He wanted to know what type of tobacco I recommended for the bowl size/shape in the pipe he had purchased from me. I told him I don't follow the "rules" when it comes to those sorts of things....I just smoke what I would prefer to smoke in a given pipe.

Maybe I'm an unwashed philistine in that regard, but I kinda doubt it. I can't imagine pipe smokers 100 years ago agonizing over what blend to put in their bowl depending on size and bowl shape...

[KurtHuhn]

I, however, am a washed philistine.

[Sasquatch]

I think there is a "best case" for most tobaccos, but the enjoyment aspect is completely personal. You can't tell me that a bowl of something light and subtle, Orlik Golden Sliced, say, tastes the same at the bottom of a 3" stack as it does first lit in a little Pete 303.

It's not objectively better or worse, but if you are looking for crisp sharp flavors, and intending to pick out all kinds of subtle nuance, a smaller bowl has much less tendency to build up strength and muddy out the flavors.

A big bowl will eventually kind of muddle the flavors up and meld things more. Now, does that make a big bowl for English tobaccos and a small bowl for virginias? I think the answer is still smoke what you like in whatever you like to smoke it in.

I like big pipes because I find the smoking experience in around the 45 minute mark (just where a little pipe is done) to be phenomenal - the bowl is up to operating temperature (luke warm) and the tobacco is just hot enough to burn with no moisture issues, the flavor is nice, I'm nice and relaxed.... it's very pleasant. Also I'm a big dude, so I feel very silly fiddling with a pipe I can't even get my pinky finger in . Gimme a Maxima Maxima and an ounce of that Best Brown, and I'm sailing.

[bluesmk]

Hmmm, I don't know anything, but I smoke thimble sized bowls........5/8, 11/16,
hell I have both a Danpipe and a Tsuge with 9/16 bored bowls. I smoke PS Twist, BBF, Haddo's hell I smoke everything in them and they smoke well for me!

Dan
Gabrieli Pipes

[KurtHuhn]

Some might accuse you of smoking something else in a pipe that small, Dan.

I've got a handful of pipes with *very* small chambers - 5/8 and 1/2, that are absolutely awesome for short smokes of very fine cut tobacco. Load a pipe like that with some Balkan Sasieni and it's awesome while watching over burgers on a charcoal grill, or something else that takes a short time to cook. Hell, load it up with some shag cut Zware, Turkish, or Stevige and life can't help but to be pretty darn awesome.

[bluesmk]

Some might accuse you of smoking something else in a pipe that small, Dan.

I've got a handful of pipes with *very* small chambers - 5/8 and 1/2, that are absolutely awesome for short smokes of very fine cut tobacco. Load a pipe like that with some Balkan Sasieni and it's awesome while watching over burgers on a charcoal grill, or something else that takes a short time to cook. Hell, load it up with some shag cut Zware, Turkish, or Stevige and life can't help but to be pretty darn awesome.

Oh, long ago, and far away yes I did.............doesn't matter they still do.
Old hippie with long hair and a ponytail and a pipe in my kisser yep I turn heads! LOL!
Yeah I love mine too Kurt!
Dan
Gabrieli Pipes

[FoxGuy]

I do have to say after some ponderment that the idea of a bullnose chamber does make sence especially if you fold the flake rather than rubbing it out and the 13/16" size is what I normally drill all my tobacco chambers with but most of them are drilled with a more conical bit that a bullnose so I think i'm going to drag out my Hong Kong Book of Kong Fu and try to find the pipe section since I personally know nothing about pipes and see what comes out in the end.....pics forth coming

Thanks to all for your imput
But I'm not listing since it's clear none of you know anything about pipes

Wow what a good place to start a place where people know something about pipes