[GreatBonsai]

So, I've just started in on Pipe-smoking, and I have to say, I feel right at home smoking my 5" Briar Dublin. I actually managed to get a full bowl going today, until I was interrupted by the thought of dinner about halfway through the bowl....

Anyways, my question is this: What is everyone's opinion on a churchwarden? I've read they give a cooler smoke, but do you lose some flavor along with it? Do they require any special cleaning (other than longer pipe-cleaners)? Just wanting to get a feel for other smokers' experiences. I'll probably end up getting one for my own experience, but I'd like to be prepared for something unexpected.

 

[Wolfgang8810]

if you smoke in public be ready for the Gandalf pipe comments lol Enjoy. Also you may need super long matches if you have short arms!

 

[Mister Moo]

http://www.clubstogie.com/vb/showthread.php?t=152212&highlight=churchwarden

http://www.clubstogie.com/vb/showthread.php?t=156480&highlight=churchwarden

http://www.clubstogie.com/vb/showthread.php?t=131967&highlight=churchwarden

http://www.clubstogie.com/vb/showthread.php?t=13528&highlight=church+warden

The Myth of the Cooler Smoking Churchwarden:

Not wanting to piss off any hobbits or wizards here, I honor them and their smoking choices, but I think the idea of 4" more stem making "cooler" smoking pipes is mostly imagination. They're cooler looking (for sure) but not inherently cooler smoking. Longstemmed pipes, to look in balance, have smaller bowls in general; smaller bowls seem to attract hotter smoking virginia tobacco which, after a few fried tongues and red-hot bowls, is smoked slowly and patiently or discarded. I suggest folks who favor churchwardens have learned to smoke them s l o w l y and, as a result, rightly claim their long pipes smoke cool. I get the same effect from s l o w l y smoking hot virginia tobacco in almost any conventionally stemmed pipe.

My precious classic calabash - now there is a humungous heat-sink of a pipe if ever there was one. It's a big hunk of clay, twisted into a large hollow gourd, plugged with a long, heavy bit. It really ought to soak up the hot. So is it really cooler and drier to smoke? Dry for sure. Cooler? In my imagination.

 

[Mad Hatter]

Well I would say that a pipe 6" long smokes cooler than a pipe 4 1/2" long so it would stand to reason that a CW would smoke cooler. The two I have do not. One issue I have with a CW is that I don't have a drill bit long enough to open up the stem. Maybe I should look for a CW cob 'cause everybody knows:

"...a cob lays a long ways......" etc and so one. Read the sig line

 

[Mister Moo]

... a CW would smoke cooler. ...two I have do not.

Very Moo-esque and proving thought provoking.

So, from two entirely different two perspectives M'atter and I reach the same conclusion. He has churchwardens that don't smoke cool and, wardenless, I would also deduce this to be the case. They are cool looking though - lovely in the hand, graceful, classics. Not necessarily cooler burning yet, who cares. When they call to you, you will reply.

 

[GreatBonsai]

Thanks for the input guys! And I feel like if i smoke it in public, I won't get so many wizard comments as hobbit comments. I'm 5'6" after all. Still, I'll probably end up with one by the end of the month...

 

[Slow Triathlete]

I have a Nording dual stem and I have never put the small stem in. I love the length on that one. I never smoke it away from the house mainly because I'm afraid of breaking it and also because it would be a pain in the arse to carry around.

I will probably get another one someday but for right now the one that I have does the job well.

This one has been catching my eye for a long time:

http://www.cupojoes.com/cgi-bin/spgm?dpt=H&srch=KW&item=stahca1s

as well as this one

http://www.cupojoes.com/cgi-bin/spgm?dpt=H&srch=KW&item=petcwcs

 

[Mister Moo]

I have a Nording dual stem and...

...you're in perfect position to make a solid cooler vs. not-so-cooler call, Scott. Love that pipe, BTW. Virginia dedicated? Hmmmm?

 

[paperairplane]

Any pipe can be a blazer - maybe not a welldrilled Rhodesian, but that's another topic.

I love the look of a CW, but to me, the only real pipe to have in that shape is an old-skool Va clay pipe.

Maybe to temper the heat, you need to smoke BuPers... "nutty nutty joy joy, nutty nutty joy joy.."

 

[dogsplayinpoker]

I wind up drawing harder and more frequently to keep the bowl going that I heat the bowl up too much. CW's are more of a novelty, imho. A cool, furry-footed, long-bearded magical noveltyp:tu

 

[Mister Moo]

I wind up drawing harder and more frequently to keep the bowl going that I heat the bowl up too much. p:tu

Do you think this is the result of inexperience with the pipe(s)or, perhaps, a restricted airway like Mad Hatter mentioned? That is, do you put the problem down to a personal or mechanical problem? I ask because most of the pipes I thought were "hot burning" a year or two ago (none of which are CWs) are now anything but. The problem with most of my pipes has been my experience, not them.

Does a longer, easy to restrict and (more?) difficult-to-clean airway tend to make these pipes more cantankerous than shorter pipes? Or is this poppycock? Are there dozens of CS pipers out there cheerfully smoking churchwardens week-in and week-out? Maybe the churchwarden discussion has been done to death but I'd ask experienced CW-pipers to offer their conclusions on hotter/cooler, harder/easier, etc., just one more time. This topic keeps coming up but nobody has nailed it down.

 

[Mad Hatter]

I wind up drawing harder and more frequently to keep the bowl going that I heat the bowl up too much. CW's are more of a novelty, imho. A cool, furry-footed, long-bearded magical noveltyp:tu

Do you think this is the result of inexperience with the pipe(s)or, perhaps, a restricted airway like Mad Hatter mentioned? That is, do you put the problem down to a personal or mechanical problem? I ask because most of the pipes I thought were "hot burning" a year or two ago (none of which are CWs) are now anything but. The problem with most of my pipes has been my experience, not them.

Does a longer, easy to restrict and (more?) difficult-to-clean airway tend to make these pipes more cantankerous than shorter pipes? Or is this poppycock? Are there dozens of CS pipers out there cheerfully smoking churchwardens week-in and week-out? Maybe the churchwarden discussion has been done to death but I'd ask experienced CW-pipers to offer their conclusions on hotter/cooler, harder/easier, etc., just one more time. This topic keeps coming up but nobody has nailed it down.

I can see where Dogs is coming from and it does make sense. A CW having a longer stem just might require a different approach tosmoking. Maybe a CW is best smoked using the breath-smoking method. I'm sure airway has something to do with the problem also but a lot of guys disagree with the 5/32 drilling opinion and if narrower airways work for them then obviously they must be workable. Either way it sounds like the first approach to this CW problem would practice, practice and practice....... but only for those who are interested.

 

[Mister Moo]

I can see where Dogs is coming from ... it sounds like the first approach to this CW problem would practice, practice and practice....... but only for those who are interested.

IIt seems like a lot of new pipe smokers are immediately to a churchwarden. I was - didn't ever buy one (or smoke one) but I still love thier look.

If what we say above is true then I imagine there are a lot of undersmoked CWs sitting around in desk drawers. They should be showing up on ebay in great numbers by now. I must be wrong. :hn

Thus, where are all the happy, regular-rotation churchwarden smokers? Halllllllooooooooooo? Come out come out wherever ye are.

Root?
Physiognomy?
Parris?
Subotaj?
Erratum?
Other throngs of CW'ers standing by quietly?

Is the smoke REALLY cooler? Is the maintenance really harder? Do the slender stems tend restrict airways creating hotter bowls and/or slower puffing?

I say lets get all the experienced CW guys in one place and say how it is.

 

[Guest]

I may have a Savinelli CW but i must profess in having it over a year i've not put 5 bowls through it. Much of this is to the lack of good place to smoke it and the steady amount of moving i've done. The wall are paper thin and i have to hold it like one would a claypipe. Really i wouldn't mind if it burnt out on me. I'm still looking for one that really strikes me which i find to be really hard. As for the smoking of my CW, in the bowls i've had in it, i can't say the smoke is any cooler but that may be me with the bowl a shade below red hot.

 

[parris001]

IIt seems like a lot of new pipe smokers are immediately to a churchwarden. I was - didn't ever buy one (or smoke one) but I still love thier look.

If what we say above is true then I imagine there are a lot of undersmoked CWs sitting around in desk drawers. They should be showing up on ebay in great numbers by now. I must be wrong. :hn

Thus, where are all the happy, regular-rotation churchwarden smokers? Halllllllooooooooooo? Come out come out wherever ye are.

Root?
Physiognomy?
Parris?
Subotaj?
Erratum?
Other throngs of CW'ers standing by quietly?

Is the smoke REALLY cooler? Is the maintenance really harder? Do the slender stems tend restrict airways creating hotter bowls and/or slower puffing?

I say lets get all the experienced CW guys in one place and say how it is.

In all honesty, my Churchwardens smoke as good as my regular pipes. They have a propensity to gurgle a little more than the rest, but just a little more drying time under the desk lamp takes care of that.

But in all honesty I smoke my non-Churchwardens more just because they are easier to handle. You'd think chicks would really gravitate towards Churchwardens if size truly matters.........

 

[Mister Moo]

In all honesty, ... chicks would really gravitate towards Churchwardens if size truly matters.........

So the count is:

(2) smoke hot (Root; Mad Hatter)
(1) smokes for hotties (Parris001)
3 experienced CW smokers

 

[parris001]

So the count is:

(2) smoke hot (Root; Mad Hatter)
(1) smokes for hotties (Parris001)
3 experienced CW smokers

:tu .....oh you know, chicks dig it.

 

[dogsplayinpoker]

My one and only cw experience was a Stanwell HCA which came with the smaller stem as well as the cw stem. I smoked the pipe a good bit with the shortie, so the pipe was sound and broken in. When I approached the longer stem, I found it to draw only mediocre and required many relights or heavy drags to keep the bowl lit. I would assume then, Oh Moo-dy One, that the stem and it's construction was the down fall for me.

 

[Slow Triathlete]

Yes, Moo, mine is reserved for Virginias.

I'm not sold on the whole "smokes cooler" belief in this. I've actually had tongue bite with my CW. Of course I smoking MacBaren at the time. I really don't think that the extra 1.5 seconds (estimated) that the smoke stays in the stem actually makes a big difference. I really think that it all comes down to the normal factors. Humidity of the tobacco, smoking speed, packing, etc.

 

[Mister Moo]

Churchwarden 50-60 Year Old News Flash: http://www.clubstogie.com/vb/showthread.php?p=1765804#post1765804