To choke up, or not to choke up.....

[E.A. Fumare]

That, apparently, is the question.

I have to admire Marty Pulvers. Even though he's in the business of selling pipes - all kinds of pipes - he's got the credibility and self respect to call a spade a spade. He's publicly calling out the pipe making community on the matter of poorly constructed or constricted airways, and I applaud it!

Or to be concise, he's calling out those within the pipe making community who will sell a pipe that is not right. This is not a matter of opinion on aesthetics or of taste or of preference, but of fact. A pipe that is either drilled with a too small draft or an airway that doesn't line up cleanly between stem and shank is destined to be a poor smoker, period. As Marty states, ".. to be smoked, tobacco has to be packed into the chamber, further restricting the air flow. If the draft isn't wide open to begin with, it will never be a good smoking pipe." [pulversbriar.com June 29, 2008]

The dimensions of what constitutes an open draw are up for debate, but for me it's clearly an aligned, unobstructed airway sufficient to draft air easily from a filled chamber, through the constrictions found from bowl to button, and still produce an easy pull of smoke when puffed on. This airway also must be smooth enough in the transition areas where the inner dimensions neck down so that turbulence is not a bi-product of the reduction, as this turbulence produces excess moisture which gives the owner a pipe that gurgles. In my own experience, these 'Proper' dimensions depend on the pipe itself, it's bore size and length of stem. One would assume that this would be dogmatic rote in the process of creating a pipe, much as a uniform, smooth bore would be expected. Who would hack out a bore with a whittling knife in rough semblance of a round chamber and call it good? Who still would carelessly pass a drill bit through a shank or stem and simply be satisfied with whatever the outcome may be? Apparently a significant number!

I've had experiences with factory pipes where stem and shank did not line up well, mostly due to angles needed in creating airways in bent pipes. You remove the stem and a pipe cleaner passes easily through the stem, and then just as easily through the shank right through to the chamber. But once the stem is placed back into the pipe the sharp angle where the flat tenon face meets the downward reaching path towards the chamber, a constriction has occured from the poor alignment that prevents a cleaner from passing. This also, now, is a pipe that has a constricted airflow and a place of turbulence in it's airway. It will likely be a wet smoker, you'll likely not be fond of the pipe.

In a hand carved high grade pipe of significant cost this is totally unacceptable. No matter the aesthetic appeal of a pipe, if it is not engineered well and does not smoke well and good, it is not a high grade pipe, it is an expensive low grade pipe. I believe this to be the crux of Mr. Pulvers commentary. Pipes are to be smoked, even the ones that are so expensive we may feel the need to put them on a pedestal for a while first; to frame them and show them off in their pure virgin beauty before they become scarred by their lover.

I cannot qualify any of this beyond the accepted belief of friends and acquaintances, as there are so many old, highly collectible briars of fine pedigree which, by a standard, were manufactured with what today would be considered constricted airways. In my own pipes I have had many of these opened, a few did not need to be opened and smoke well because (I believe) I am a slow, patient smoker. Nonetheless, the great pipes of old were not 'Open Airway' pipes by todays definition, so I'm not quite sure how to tackle that position, but as it comes into argument for todays carvers I can only say that shortsightedness of the past does not excuse it in the present.

As Rick Newcombe preached in his book "'In Search of Pipe Dreams', "Your pipes should have an easy draw". I believe he should have put a very large exclamation point after that line.

[XYZZZ]

If a tobacco costs less than $1/oz, then, surely, it can not be a good pipe tobacco, according to some.

Such it is, it is not the case, as everything we smoke, be it good or bad, has the same dimension of taste to them, as our taste buds work as sensors. Even when we taste something that our mind rejects, our taste buds are still operating at the full and our mind simply chooses not to discern what our buds are sending to our brains. Compare this to a decent tobacco, where one takes the time to memorize and explore the smoke, it's quite obvious why something will taste better, but it surely isn't the character of the smoke that has more taste, as such a comment is, quite simply, absurd.

My whole point here is, because something sits on a druggist's shelf or in a store on Fifth Avenue, it simply doesn't matter. Arguing taste is one thing, but to argue that, because of a tobacco's idiosyncrasies, one must make excuses, in order to establish its hierarchal value is absurd. We can make broad statements of what makes a decent tobacco a solid one. And, if a $14/lb tobacco smokes cooler than one that runs $60/lb, then that, too, as with pipes, is unacceptable.

As a long gone friend of mine, a former mixologist of fine tobaccos, one said, "if not every pipe smoker can smoke my blends without fear of scorching all the flesh from their mouth or if they have to modify their decent smoking habits to enjoy my blends or if they have to rest a tobacco for time before it becomes enjoyable, then something is seriously wrong with the way I create blends".

[E.A. Fumare]

I would agree with you Mr. X that there are plenty of expensive tobaccos that do not measure up to their cost, and that perhaps a good number of smokers convince themselves that it is good because it is top shelf. The same can be said for a host of things, you do not necessarily get what you pay for, and if you find an inexpensive blend that satisfies you you have beat the system.

I find that a few British imports satisfy me very much and thankfully they can still be had for what represents an inexpensive amount.

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