pipemakersforum.com

I'm sure this question has been asked a 100 times so please forgive me for asking again. I leave my tabacco chamber as drilled, to ease break in. I have heard about pipes with polished chambers. My question is how do high end makers finish their tabacco chambers?

I don't. Since I coat the interior of all my bowls, I sand the chamber with some 150-grit to remove stain and make a nice surface for the bowl coating to adhere to. I use a dowel with a slot cut in it, and a strip of sandpaper slid in the slot. I mount the dowel on the lathe and spin at around 850 RPM. Works great, and most importantly it's fast.

I'm happy if I polish the stain/blood/tears etc off the sides of the chamber. Oh wait... the question was addressed to high end makers.

I know several high end makers polish the inside of their chambers. But many don't. Of all the things that make a high grade pipe, I think this one matters the least

That would be an interesting discussion for this forum. Just what are the things that make a high grade pipe? Are they quantifiable?

staffwalker wrote: Just what are the things that make a high grade pipe?

A high price, which is very quantifiable.

staffwalker wrote:That would be an interesting discussion for this forum. Just what are the things that make a high grade pipe? Are they quantifiable?

I don't really think that there has ever been agreement on what a "high grade pipe" is. There's easily quantifiable stuff like fit, finish, materials, craftsmanship, attention to detail, smoking quality, etc. Then there are more esoteric things like form, composition, and other stuff recently discussed in a recent thread started by Todd.

I'm with Kurt.

Craig,

Please take some time and look at the date of the posts you are replying to, specially if you aren't adding anything to the discussion. It is not a big deal, just I don't like opening five or so topics just to read some "me too" answer.

Regards,