@drac2485, that's interesting. I wonder why more big name pipe makers don't make multiple stems for a pipe or maybe some sort of device that lest you swap them out easily.
@drac2485 It hasn't been that bad of a wet mess which I though was weird. I guess I'll have to smoke it some more and just see. Most of my bent pipes never gurgle...maybe it's just a weird circumstance in my cadence or what have you.
@thesubcon To me it sounds like it's your pipe, but try try try... If you had a goopy mess left at the bottom of the bowl I would assume condensation, wet tobacco, or drooling
@CretinDan A possible reason is that the straight pipes might be a more narrow bowl, Virginias and Va/Pers seem to do better in them, and the bent may have a wider bowl as it opens up more of the English blends for more flavor. Just a thought.
@drac2485 That could be it, for anyone else. For me it is far far more simple. My first briar was an Aldo Velani bent dublin that I had Nightcap in, and the second briar was a Savenelli unfinished straight billiard, and that bad boy was broken in with SG FVF.. and that just became my habit.
Smoking a latakia blend? Grab the Velani, No lat? Straight pipe...
@cretindan That's not that odd. or else I am an odd duck too. I have enough pipes that I have a few dedicated, at least one bent and one straight to some of those SPECIAL blends and normally I just grab the closest one. Special being blends that are known to ghost.
Each additional pipe was acquired to balance the other out. Got the second bent, had to get the straight etc. I just got a pair of Petersons on eBay for $50, one bent and one straight. After a cleaning and whatnot, I have high hopes for them in my little collection.
@cretindan I think my collection evolved similarly until I just started buying pipes that I liked the look of and then my collection turned more into a collection of a few shapes, several of each shape, and then a few random shapes here and there as I go that looks cool and the price isn't to bad
You gotta love variety! I've vacillated between preferring either straight or bent. My churchwarden isn't high quality so it's not my favorite go to. I'm looking forward to purchasing a poker. I love the look, size of the bowl, ability to run a cleaner through, and having the bowl closer to the nose for aroma.
I prefer a bent as well even though most of my aromatic blends can get wet and goopy causing the pipe to gurgle. I always have a few pipe cleaners at the ready. And it tends to be the time I find myself cursing at my cheap basket pipes because improper drilling makes it impossible to get a pipe cleaner completely through to the bowl.
My main thought process is to not have ash in my face; it has happened before and it wasn't a pleasant experience. Long straight stems and bent stems are the way I roll. Short stubby stems will never be in my collection.
It depends on the mood I'm in and what I will be doing when smoking my pipe. Half of my pipes are bent to some degree - from Oom Paul shape to just a slight bend in the stem.
I don't know for sure that some tobacco is better for a straight pipe than a bent, but I do know that I enjoy some tobacco in one more than the other.
I suppose that I tend to gravitate towards straight pipes, because I expect a straight pipe has less chance of turbulence and subsequent gurgle than a bent pipe. This is especially true in an older production pipe, where quality control standards might have suffered due to a high volume of pipes being produced.
Also, I tend to cringe, when running a pipe cleaner through a full bent pipe, and can feel the wire in the pipe cleaner gouging the inside of the stem. However, some pipe carvers employ great engineering, and have figured out a way to design a 1/8th bent stem in a full bent style pipe.
I suppose my preference really depends on the individual pipe, it's design, and how it was produced.
I absolutely love the look of my Peterson Jekyll & Hyde bent pipe - but boy it sure is a gurgler. I'm not sure if it has the Peterson system, but you can't run a pipe cleaner completely through it to sop up the excess moisture unless you pull off the stem- and I hate doing that while the pipe is hot ... so I usually just smoke and gurgle.
My only bent is a quarter bent Carey setter. The other four pipes are two apples, a pot, and a large billiard (the one with a Latakia ghost I'm trying to exorcise.) All but the pot are Careys. The pot is a Duncan Hill Aerosphere.
@motie Sounds to me like you better send that large billiard with the ghost problem over to our resident paranormal investigator @Wolf41035 for a proper exorcism. I was looking at estate pipes in a second hard store the other day and the ghost of Latakia was so bad in one pipe in particular that the wooden box the storekeeper kept all the pipes in smelled like the bowl of the pipe. The moment I opened the lid the smell oozed out and permeated the air around me. It only took me a second to locate the source of the smell.
Bents make up 90% of my pipes, from a slight 1/4 bent to a full bent in my Oom Pauls. My straights are smaller sized bowls. Interesting to read the other posts and the why of individual preferences.
@ghostsofpompeii -- You got it exactly. When I walk by my pipes that are on the bookshelf, I can smell the ghost from a yard away. A real stinker, but a beautiful pipe. I'm gonna try reaming it down to the wood and giving it the old 91 proof black rum treatment -- again. The first time, I left a thin cake. That was my mistake; even after rum treatment it reeked of Lat Bomb.
Motie2: I tried the damp coffee grounds on a strongly Ghosted Edwards Poker. I left them in for 24 hrs., knocked them out and rinsed the bowl, let it dry and even with a thin cake, the ghost is gone. I didn't have ozone treat at all. Pappyjoe has a real; winner with this treatment. I don't use K cups so I packed it with grounds from the filter and really stuffed them in.
@Woodsman -- Much obliged!!! If I fail this time (I've reamed it down to the wood and the rum is in for @12 hours so far) I'll try the @PappyJoe coffee treatment.
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But I'm weird.
Short stubby stems will never be in my collection.