Best Friends

My first good pipe was a Sasieni four dot bent billiard – a Viscount Lascelles. I bought that pipe almost forty years ago, and it has remained a favorite. And not just for sentimental reasons.

In my early pipe-smoking years, I added a modest number of good pipes to my racks: several Charatans, a Savinelli churchwarden, five Preben Holms, a couple of Dunhills, and several Comoys. Some of these pipes were better than others, initially, but all of them came around eventually. Several of my pipes cost more, were better looking, and were more impressive than the Sasieni, but none shouldered it aside when it came to being a savory pipe.

Charatan DiplomatThe Charatans, in particular, cost more but were tougher to break in. My favorite of the Charatans – a Diplomat – initially delivered harsh overtones, no matter what was smoked in it. It finally yielded, becoming a go-to pipe in which I smoked Balkan Sobranie Original Mixture. It, too, has a permanent place on my rack.

A somewhat small sandblasted Savinelli churchwarden likewise grew into one of my favorite Virginia smokers, but nothing ever overtook my Viscount Lascelles in terms of a pipe that delivered a superior experience.

Some pipes are just better than others. Some are truly superb. Everything works better – the taste, draw, hand-feel, and look. It’s a wonderful thing to have a pipe like this.

I haven’t found it easy to predict which pipes will eventually rise to favorite status. That relationship comes only with time and use. We can know when we buy a pipe that we love how it looks and we like how it feels in the hand. By smoking it, we can discover its comfort in mouth and whether it delivers a cool, dry smoke. Without smoking it awhile, however, I can’t know whether it will bloom into one of those pipes that endows its smoke with extra measures of pleasure.

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Constant Craving

Chubby Billiard by Alex Florov, Image © 2010 Neill Archer Roan

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Some pipes are better smokers than others. Any experienced pipe smoker knows this, but I haven’t met anyone yet who can explain why this is true. It is a source of constant inquiry for me since every smoking experience seems to act as a reminder of the truth of this observation.

There is a discussion thread over in the Smokers Forums’ Common Sewers right now that is focused on the idiosyncratic impact of briar quality on how a pipe tastes when it is smoked. My friends Fred Hanna and Greg Pease have both concluded over the years that it is the briar itself – more than engineering or design – that influences just how good a pipe tastes when smoked. I confess that I’m not sure. Not that they are incorrect in their observation. The briar itself may be the difference that makes a difference. On its surface, it makes sense, but how do you prove it? How do you disprove it?

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