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W.Pastuch wrote: Hardness is just hardness, the shape of the bite zone is a separate topic.

Human senses are nortoriously unreliable when it comes to assessing the physical world.

For example, which horizontal line is the longest?



Answer: they are the same.

A tactile equivalent is briefly touching someone who is blindfolded with heated and chilled pieces of metal. They can't tell the difference.

I'm reasonably certain if a blindfold experiment was conducted where the subject was asked to determine the relative hardness of a group of popsicle-stick-sized pieces of pipe stem material using their teeth, they'd reliably say the thicker it was, the harder it was. (It's probably a survival trait that evolved to help avoid tooth breakage)

NathanA wrote: I know several collectors who won't buy a pipe with ebonite. Some because of the oxidation and some because they swear they can taste sulfur no matter how high a grade of german ebonite it is.

Yup. I have some regulars who insist that vulcanite has a detectable, unpleasant taste. At one time I would have dismissed such claims as being a bit precious, but since they are willing to spend money on a replica / replacement stem that no observer can detect, there's no "I have a superior tasting apparatus" snobbery involved. So, I'm starting to believe them. They no-kidding truly want the switch, anyway.

As for the never found on high grades / kills a pipe's value thing, Mike Butera is certainly an exception. He's never used anything BUT acrylic, and his work has been in high demand for a quarter century.

Thanks for the distraction from my jejune existence, George. Like so many things in the pipe world, I think this is preference. As far as workability goes, I find acrylic a little more challenging at the beginning of the making process (drilling, filing, funneling, etc.), but it sure does buff faster so to me it's a wash. As has been mentioned, the comfort is my problem with acrylic. I have made identical stems for pipes before (I'm sure it wasn't to the .001", but probably within .005" or so), and I definitely felt a difference in hardness. I may have sensitive teeth though. Regardless, I don't care for acrylic.

The comments on the market dictating what is used are interesting, and I'm sure that is the largest contributor here. I would be curious to know the history of the transitions between stem materials, and why/how ebonite became the preference.

e Markle wrote: I would be curious to know the history of the transitions between stem materials, and why/how ebonite became the preference.

I've always been curious about that, too. The most obvious possibility is that it was the first thing to come along that finally rescued pipe stems from nature-made materials like amber, horn, reeds, wood, & etc. AND did so in a spectacularly superior way. (Bakelite became practical at about the same time, but still had to be babied almost as much as the natural stuff.)

As for a jejune existence, I thought you were a full-time maker these days. Livin' the dream and all that. Not working out? Or did you find yourself having to return to the Financial World for a while?

LatakiaLover wrote:

e Markle wrote: I would be curious to know the history of the transitions between stem materials, and why/how ebonite became the preference.

I've always been curious about that, too. The most obvious possibility is that it was the first thing to come along that finally rescued pipe stems from nature-made materials like amber, horn, reeds, wood, & etc. AND did so in a spectacularly superior way. (Bakelite became practical at about the same time, but still had to be babied almost as much as the natural stuff.)

As for a jejune existence, I thought you were a full-time maker these days. Livin' the dream and all that. Not working out? Or did you find yourself having to return to the Financial World for a while?

I think you just answered your curiosity.

Yeah absolutely - vulcanized rubber was a new thing as of 1839. By let's say 1910, we are talking about flying machines as being viable, if just barely. It's pretty neat to think of pipes as essentially the tail-end or a by-product of the industrial revolution proper, and incorporating both technological advancements in machining and processing, as well as advancements of material.

LatakiaLover wrote: As for a jejune existence, I thought you were a full-time maker these days. Livin' the dream and all that. Not working out? Or did you find yourself having to return to the Financial World for a while?

So far so good. It's been a bit of a rat race (which is a bit ironic), but I'm enjoying it.