A Pipe, By Any Other Name

Would smoke as sweet.

It has been a busy week at work, I was only able to shoot three of my new pipes. I try to squeeze a shot for a pipe in when I am taking a break, but those can be few and far between.

In my last posting about pipes, I mentioned two styles for the surface of the pipe, smooth and sandblasted. Both, are pretty much what you might expect with those names. Here, I will show you examples of “Rusticated” pipes.

Erik Nording Freehand

The shots for this pipe are a bit dark. I do like how they turned out, but I might try a different set-up.

Here, you can see that some parts of the pipe are smooth, some parts are rough. The rough parts are not sandblasted, they are intentionally worked with a tool, to give the impression of a “Rustic” quality, the equivalent of pre-distressed denim jeans. As with the sandblasting process, it is used when the grain is perhaps not the best quality.

There are many different names for the shapes that pipes can take, I have no idea what the shape of this Erik Nording pipe might be. I will tell you that it’s a “Bent” pipe, which is to say that the shank does not come straight out from the body, it is bent up, at a slight angle. All of the differences in the design of the bowl, the angle of the shank, and even the length of the mouthpiece can effect the way the smoke tastes when you light the tobacco. It has been an interesting thing for me to smoke the same tobacco, in different pipes, and notice that I enjoy a specific tobacco more with one pipe over the next.

Which brings me to the word, “Stummel”. Time to improve your pipe vocabulary.

Lorenzo VIP Model 30Y83

In the world of tobacco pipes, the “Stummel” is everything that is not part of the mouthpiece (which is called the stem). The stummel, consists of three parts, the bowl, the shank, and the transition area the connects the bowl and the shank. This pipe has a two-part shank, the briar wood, and the piece of horn that fits the stem.

When I saw this pipe up for auction, I wanted it for two reasons: First, I have wanted to add a Lorenzo to my collection, and second, I would look good smoking it. The first characteristic that a pipe smoker looks for in a pipe is its utility. Certain pipe designs are reputed to be better for smoking certain styles of tobacco, so a pipe smoker, wanting to smoke a specific type of tobacco (and JESUS, there are plenty to choose from!) would buy a pipe that favored that certain tobacco.

If utility is the first characteristic, how the pipe feels in the hand is the next issue. In the same way that the wand picks the wizard, the shape of the pipe picks the hand of the pipe smoker.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, how good you look smoking the pipe is the ultimate factor in deciding which pipe to buy. I chose this Lorenzo pipe because, I can’t disrespect this level of sexy!

And now we come to my new, unsmoked, Meerschaum.

I am not sure who made this Meerschaum, which is not unusual, most Meerschaum makers do not sign their pipes. This is nice and white (it’s made whiter than normal before it’s carved), and it will begin to take on a honeyed color as I touch it, and as I smoke it. You can see what the looks like in my other post, Suck On This!

This style is called a “Church Warden”. A CW pipe has a long stem, placing the bowl well away from the face. The length of the stem also helps to “cool” the smoke, so that it has less of a sting, or bite, on the tongue. Look through the previous post and you will see the first CW pipe that I bought at auction, also made by Erik Nording, as was the first pipe seen in this post. If anyone tells you that they know why this style of pipe is called a CW, don’t believe them - they’ll lie to you about something else.

And now, a peek behind the scenes…

We all know the first rule of Fight Club, somewhat less well-known is the first rule of product photography: If you can’t see it, it doesn’t exist.