Hey all, here are some questions for all you Pipemakers or general know-it-alls (Sasquatch might be both of these).

1.
I have heard much talk about larger airways in a pipe's engineering making for a better smoke, which I find to be true. My pipes that pass fluffy cleaners with ease tend to smoke better than the ones I have to buy regular Longs' for.

Really the only way I can know if a pipe has a wider or smaller airway is with the pipe cleaner test...

So how can I actually measure and find out how wide my airway's are in my pipes?


2.
Where is the best place to get your airways widened? I have looked at a few repairmen that charge as much as 35$ (eesh) for this service. Are there are BoBs that are willing to help a fellow brother out? Not for free, of course. Monetary or tobacco compensation I will be glad to fork up... but not 35$ worth .

-mike.

If your pipes smoke OK, leave them alone. Don't get caught up in the "size thing" like it is stereo wattage or car horsepower. Bigger is not necessarily better. Every pipe is different.

Also---and this NEVER seems to be understood no matter how many times it gets said---if enlarging the airway is indicated, OPENING ONLY THE SHANK IS WORSE THAN DOING NOTHING. The stem must be opened too.

Opening stems is risky and quite difficult to do well. It requires specialized tools, lots of patience, and lots of practice. (I regularly get sent broken stems to replicate courtesy of kitchen table opening attempts.)

Ahhhh the details. Everything LL posted is right. In terms of measuring, I don't know if there's a specific method. If it's a straight pipe, pop the stem off and have a look through it - you'll see where the round airway meets the rectangular slot, and that's the tightest part of most stems.

If you take a set of drill bits and insert them into the shank of the pipe, you can quickly find out what size the airway is drilled at. Somewhere bewteen 1/8" and 5/32 is pretty common.

I am a proponent of large/open airways and a restriction at/near the button. The specifications Rick Newcombe offers in his essay "Your Pipe Should Have an Open Draw" are basically correct in my opinion. This is outside the norm, and has, in some senses, helped to create a culture of "bigger is better" for airways, for good or bad. The comments I get on pipes that I build like Newcombe suggests (which is basically 11/64" or so for airways, tapering in the stem and flairing out again at the button) always get positive reviews and sometimes are received with pleased astonishment.

I would suggest however that the QUALITY with which a pipe is contructed, how well it is engineered internally, will have more of an effect on how it smokes than the actual size of the airway.

Hey Maiser,
I just had a Castello opened up by Tinsky for waaaay less than $35, and he did one hell of a job.

Hit him up and see if he'll do it.

Thanks for the suggestion Mattia,

I remember you talking about Tinsky's expertise on such matters. However, I have contracted one of our own BoB's to do the job.

Keepin' it in the family.

-Mike.

Thanks, good info.

Thanks for the response. Something like that was my hunch, but I've no real idea, so I'm glad you let me know!

I think he's just saying you know what you are talking about.

Yes LL, it was a compliment of sorts. Your statement was a succinct phrasing of what I consider to be possibly the most important factor in pipe design. There are smooth-airflow "guts" and condensing system "guts" and you must pick one or the other, as anything in between is going to be inferior.