From: ??????????????????????????????? Subject: Picking a perfect pipe My cousin just purchased his first pipe and wrote for some suggestions on picking out his best buy. What follows is some of my response. Hopefully it will provide other newbies some information that will help them make a wise purchase. The names have been changed to protect the innocent. /\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\ Have you ever heard of the brand name X? I saw a couple of these pipes at Low Joe's. (a cheap tobacco shop here) The prices range from $15-20. One pipe was meerschaum lined. Do you think they sound a little too cheap? They seemed to be alright appearance wise. ++++++++++++++ More potential pipe smokers have been lost because they started w/ a poor pipe so let's instead talk about what makes one pipe better or worse than another. The first is cheap materials. Plastic is cheap. Corncobs are too, but they can absorb moisture and are disposable. Briar is a hard wood that dissipates heat well by allowing a carbon cake to build up on the bowl and transfer heat to the wood around it. Other woods are also used, but are not as common. Meerschaum is also a good conductor of heat but doesn't burn like wood so a carbon cake never builds up. It simply isn't needed. That's the the Yugo, Chevy, Cadillac hierarchy of materials. Perfect materials are expensive so pipe makers patch. Meerschaum isn't patched but are graded by color and quality of the stone. Briar can be filled w/ putty. IMO, it doesn't change the quality of the smoke, but fills can color differently than the wood as it ages. Fills in the heel [where the stem joins the bowl] get hot so I try to avoid them. Plastic is poured as perfect so patching isn't a problem. The other sign of workmanship is that the bottom of the draw hole exactly meets the bottom of the bowl. This way all the tobak is smoked and acts as a filter where all the components can be burned. Cheap pipes are made w/ larger draw holes followed by condensers to compensate. They also can have filters to complete the job the tobak should be doing. After a couple of draws the filter becomes saturated, and then worthless. True cono-sewers like meerschaum. It ages gracefully, smokes well, and can have a rare shape. They also are fragile, and the wax coating can be discolored when handled improperly. The briar is more rugged and are more traditional. They also tend to be in standard shapes. Meerschaum lined pipes are an attempt to combine the best of both worlds. The only problem w/ this compromise occurs when the lining cracks. The powder created can be inhaled and is HIGHLY irritating. The pipe should be discarded if this happens. With all this in mind, let's get back to the original question. What are you getting for your money? [Rep pipe shop] probably carries seconds in that same price range that are all briar. If you're lucky, they also carry cheap meerschaum's in that range too. And if you don't find what you want, ask. I have found pipe smokers to go out of their way to help another out. Compare that seconds w/ the X from Low Joe's. or where ever. My personal opinion is that you will get MUCH more pipe for you money from a reputable pipe shop than the discount shop. And as far as bulk tobak, the name may be different at the discount place, but it's probably the same blend at the wholesaler. -------------- Neil Flatter Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology Chemistry - Math (CMA) Department of Chemistry Stockroom Manager Novell Supervisor 5500 Wabash Avenue 73 (812) 877 - 8316 Terre Haute, IN 47803-3999 FAX: 877 - 3198 ??????????????????????????? ~\U ~\U ~\U ~\U ~\U ~\U ~\U ~\U ~\U ~\U ~\U ~\U ~\U ~\U ~\U ~\U ~\U
