Article Acquisitions: Water pipes from China
Check out our unique tobacco pipes for sale to find your new favorite smoking pipe. Calabash gourds (usually with meerschaum or porcelain bowls set inside them) have long made prized pipes, but they are labour-intensive and, today, quite expensive. Because of this expense, pipes with bodies made of wood (usually mahogany) instead of gourd, but with the same classic shape, Fashion tobacco pipe are sold as calabashes. Both wood and gourd pipes are functionally the same (with the important exception that the dried gourd, usually being noticeably lighter, sits more comfortably in the mouth). They consist of a downward curve that ends with an upcurve where the bowl sits. Beneath the bowl is an air chamber which serves to cool, dry, and mellow the smoke.
This draught hole (3), is for air flow where air has travelled through the tobacco in the chamber, taking the smoke with it, up the shank (4). At the end of the shank, the pipe’s mortise (5) and tenon (6) joint is an air-tight, simple connection of two detachable parts where the mortise is a hole met by the tenon, a tight-fitting “tongue” at the start of the stem (7). Many of these Chinese water pipes are signed, not by the maker but on request of the shopkeeper or trader who sold the pipe. The fashion for these pipes emerges in the 1820’s and doesn’t disappear for a century. Thereafter production continues for the tourist market, even nowadays, although the craftsmanship is no more than a shadow of the past.
However, a huge percentage of them are, if not junk, then at least not to be recommended. Purchasing pipes or anything on Ebay can be fun and the possibilities of finding a bargain on a jewel are frequent, but such purchases are best postponed until one has gained the experience to be a savvy buyer. Pipe smoking, as contrasted with cigar and cigarette smoking, is considered a more relaxed and contemplative pursuit. Cigar smokers may dispute this, but I’ve never witnessed a group of pipe smokers standing in a knot in animated discussion, as is common at cigar events.
Patience and perseverance are also necessary to pass through the nearly universal challenge of the beginner’s “ tongue bite” period. Just as with fine liquors and wines, there is a brief period of adjustment required in order to totally appreciate the consumption of fine tobaccos. It is therefore very important that mild, unflavored or Fashion tobacco pipe lightly flavored tobacco blends that are not too moist be the the choice blend for introduction to the pipe. These two factors alone recommend that a beginning pipe smoker seek advice from an experienced piper when setting out to acquire a first pipe and blend. The first recorded use of meerschaum for making pipes was around 1723.
Systematic review of cigar smoking and all cause and smoking related mortality. Because I am a North American pipe maker, I shall not even try to list all of them in fear of leaving out a deserving friend. I may be able to dedicate a future posts just to North American pipe maker’s, so stay tuned.
There are several methods used to help prevent a wood pipe from burning out. These generally involve coating the chamber with any of a variety of substances, or by gently smoking a new pipe to build up a cake (a mixture of ash, unburned tobacco, oils, sugars, and other residue) on the walls. Plug tobacco is maintained in its pressed block form and sold in small blocks. The plug will be sliced into thin flakes by the smoker and then prepared in a similar fashion to flake tobacco. It is considered that plug tobacco holds its flavor better than rubbed or flake tobacco.
Though adequate, clay pipes were fragile and were frequently broken, often leaving the smoker with tobacco and no way to enjoy it. By the early 1700’s, meerschaum from Turkey and Africa was beginning to be employed to Filling cut tobaccos. A pipe cleaner can be used to dry out the bowl and, wetted with alcohol, the inner channel. The bowl of the pipe can also become uncomfortably hot, depending on the material and the rate of smoking. For this reason, clay pipes in particular are often held by the stem.
And best of all, it is far more durable than either clay or meerschaum. The history of the tobacco pipe is long and quite fascinating and could fill many volumes. As it is the purpose of this piece to cover many and several aspects of pipes and pipe smoking, a limited and general look at that history seems the practical course here. Matches, or separately lit slivers of wood are often considered preferable to lighters because of lower burning temperature. Butane lighters made specifically for pipes emit flame sideways or at an angle to make it easier to direct flame into the bowl.
Clay pipes were once very popular in Ireland, where they were calleddudeens. The stem needs a long channel of constant position and diameter running through it for a proper draw, although filter pipes have varying diameters and can be successfully smoked even without filters or adapters. Because it is molded rather than carved, clay may make up the entire pipe or just the bowl; pipes made of most other materials have stems constructed separately and detachable. Stems and bits of tobacco pipes are usually made of moldable materials like Ebonite, Lucite, Bakelite, or soft plastic. Less common are stems made of reeds, bamboo, or hollowed-out pieces of wood.