On another board I made a comment that my Stans smoke as well as any high dollar pipe I own. Strangely enough my contoversial comment was all but ignored. I found this slightly curious but theorize that folks who spend $500.00+ on a pipe have a bit of a hard time coming to grips with the fact that a $70.00 pipe could EVER smoke as well as their collector's pieces. A statement like this doesn't make ya' a real popular guy in high grade circles.

Here's the thing, I've taken a few puffs of a friend's Bo Nordh, briefly owned and smoked one crappy performing but MEGA famous maker's pipe and currently own a host of what most would consider high dollar and "drool worthy" briars. I now honestly believe that a properly engineered hunk o' wood with a wide open draw will smoke every bit as well as any pipe on the market! It also kinda bugs me that the folks who can't afford the big money pipes aren't taken as seriously as those who can and are lead to believe that they somehow can't know the true joys of pipesmoking as they own no Castellos, Dunhills or Cooke's. Take it from someone who knows, this is nothing more than pure bullshit!

Haven't we all had enough with all this smoking quality stuff! The bottom line is: when you buy an expensive pipe you're paying for 90% in pure astetics as well as the rep of the maker! You're paying for a great design, a brilliant sandblast and the luck of a perfect straightgrain.

I seriously wonder if given a blind taste test would I know the difference between one of my well broken in Stans or one of my S.Bangs?

I can almost guess which forum... I don't like Stanwells myself, but respect your opinion and will probably give them another chance. My HCA is nice though. I may have never broken mine in properly or just got some that weren't great.

Do you go with the handmades? Any shape you recommend? I am more into American carvers but I do have an Etlang which rocks and some other Danish. I want to get a Jorgen Larsen one day and kick myself for passing on some in the past. I love his straight grain.

I also wouldn't mind an S Bang. The Stanwells I had I got for 70 new, so they were probably lower end. I would imagine they are like my Petes, which take a long time to break in , but once they do... Wow daddy!

My one Stanwell was what kept me comin back to the pipe, I had other basket pipes and cobs but the stan was always a good smoker even durring my misguided Capt Black days. Its not my fav shape and I cant clench it but damn it smokes nice, sepcialy with english blends. I stick to straight pipes for the most part and the stan is the only bent pipe I own that if I do my part never gurgles. Guess its about time to find a Canadian Stan that I like.

I love my Stanwells.
All ten of em are great pipes.

There are some pretty famous carvers who buy their briar from stanwell, to boot.
Most of my pipes smoke identically "well" with a few exceptions, and I am starting to think that it is more a matter of my smoking style coupled with certain pipes...

The one thing I don't like about Stannies is that I am starting to prefer slightly more "open" pipes, and I suspect that certain collectors do in fact appreciate the technical difference between say, a Stanwell, drilled at 9/64 and going to less than 1/8 in the stem, from say, a pipe drilled at 11/64 right to the button. They smoke differently. It's not to say one is right or wrong, but they feel different and behave different.

I have 3 stanwells in rotation, a 63m, a HCA II warden, and a sexy queen, which is one of my better smokers - it's broken in just beautifully.

I tend to find Petersons more comfortable, and maybe that's just a vulcanite vs lucite thing.

Certainly as a carver, when I stand back from ten hours of sanding and can say to myself "Wow, this looks almost as good as a run-of-the-mill Stanwell." it kind of pisses me off.

Look upon my Queen, ye mighty, and despair.

I think you nail the underlying point here, Dock: high grade collecting is art collecting. The factor that most influences the price is what others believe it's worth. It's a natural instinct for high-grade collectors to believe they're paying for the cost of performance, but it defies logic. It's just not as romantic to say, "I paid X for my Nordh, and it was worth it, and I know that because I could put it up for auction tomorrow and someone else would buy it for around X."

If there were a smoking experience that objectively justified the price of the most expensive pipes, I would love to see someone put it into words. Hell, I'd love to see a video of someone smoking a briar that literally gave them 20 times more satisfaction than a $75 Stanwell, because I don't think I've ever seen anyone that ecstatic happy.

On my Top 10 for best smokers there are several Stanwells. I like the brand and the history about it; those old shapes are cool!

However, good artisan pipes are better to me but thats just because the mouthpiece is usually better executed on those; i.e. more comfortable (to me). And there's less risc of mediocre engineering.

I have smoked my share of highgrades including Ivarssons (all 3), Nordh, Chonowitsch and whatnot but they have been sold. Plain greed I guess

Very well said Dock! We love you over here and you can smoke a Stanwell anytime you want!

Most here probably whole heartedly agree with your sentiments though when it comes to collecting I am also sure that most of us dream of owning at least that one "drool over pipe".

As far as smoking qualities, I would stack my Stanwell Rondo up against any pipe in the world as well as any of my Brissetts!

Stanwell, to me, is the Danish Pete. Good smoking pipe.

If that's what you're looking for in a pipe, Rule 1 applies.

If you're looking for the perfect sense of artistry, then you open your wallet and pay big bucks for just about anything, including the Great Danes. Again, Rule 1 applies.

It's the thing I like most about this hobby. You can enjoy Stanwells . I can enjoy Charatan. Jack over there can enjoy S Bangs and Teddys, and Bill has a collection of Preben Holms to die for.

The day we brothers and sisters of the briar chase 95 ratings in wood or blends is the day pipe smoking ceases to be something of the individual. We've then acceded to the CA (tm) lemming approach.

That's why I am such an advocate of Rule 1 of the Briar:

Smoke what YOU enjoy. ENJOY what you smoke.

Smoke in peace, John

Good thread. I don't own any Bangs, Nordhs, Ivarssons or Knudsens. Not that I would mind...I just don't. If I really wanted one I guess I would. I do have a small collection of American Carvers that I SMOKE on a daily basis. They are not cheap but all their prices added together probably couldn't purchase 1 Knudsen. Of course I would not swap them for the rarest Knudsen out there. There is a tendency IMHO for most of us in a hobby to want to learn and experience ALL there is to learn and experience. I think that this is true especially when first learning about an interest. A good collorary is enjoying wine. You have to taste wine to get to know it. You read all about the first growth wines of Bordeaux, all the 95+ tasting scores and all you can do is imagine what it must taste like but without actually tasting you will never have YOUR OWN OPINION about what's it's like. That leaves you with accepting SOMEONE ELSE's OPINION how good something like Chateau Petrus really is. When you finally taste the wine with your incredible knowledge of what "experts" have written you will immediately come to a couple of conclusions...it's as good as I thought it would be or it's not. Chances are if you BOUGHT the wine before you tasted it just relying on what the experts had written you are going to convince yourself that it is the best bottle of wine that you have ever tasted. I mean, how can it not be? You paid $650 for this bottle of wine made from Merlot. It's got to be better than the $12 bottle of Colombia Crest Merlot from Washington, right? MAYBE. Even if it is, you can drink a whole lot of Colombia Crest for the price of 1 Chateau Petrus. The point is we set goals in our hobbies and if we get a chance to reach a goal (taste a rare wine) it may or may not live up to the high expectations we have set USUALLY BASED ON "EXPERT" OPINION. Sorry for the ramble.

With regards to the pipes we enjoy and desire I think most of us go through a phase where we are looking for at least 1 holy grail. If we get it we tend to want to "save it" for the really special times. Many very high grade pipes go unused and unenjoyed even after being sought after and lusted after for years by a pipe smoker and now he has it in his hands. Can't afford to smoke it. It's value would decrease. Got to keep its value. Save it for a "special Day". How sad! A goal was reached and then not savored!!

Everyone of us is different. I have been blessed in my life for which I am eternally grateful. But as I age I realize that a whole lot of what I've strived to "obtain" is no longer all that important to me. I tend to gravitate toward those things that have special meaning to me...like my first pipe (an old Stanwell), my grandfather's double edge razor, old books, etc. Things that have been around and enjoyed and that have added value to my life. My hobbies over the years had lead to some really obsessive desire to acquire. It's interesting looking back how driven I was to obtain things that I no longer have and do not miss.

If you have and enjoy using your Nordh, Knudsen or whatever that is great. I am glad for you. I'll wager you , though, that you will never be able to prove to me that the smoke you are enjoying is any better or more meaningful than the one I am enjoying in my Stanwell.

I really apologize for this ramble guys. A wise young man told me once "Don't buy (you name the carver) pipes hoping they will smoke better than (you name the pipe) buy it because you appreciate the work of the carver."

Smoke what you like, like what you smoke. That's what I think. I was just as happy when my collection consisted of a 7 day set, I think it went 2 Petes, 1 Savi alligator, and 4 Bjarnes Vikings.

None of these would I consider basket pipes. I do think that some of the pipes I have now smoke better, but that's just me. I just decided that I had the money, so why not up the grade on my collection?

I was gonna ask about Stanwells, do they have a smaller draft? I remember not liking the draw on some of them, but I don't know enough to be more specific or open it up.

Good engineering and cured briar are the keys to a good smoking pipe. For the money, Stanwell makes the best pipes out there, IMHO. They are well made, use good wood and have good engineering for the most part. I also think they do a very good job with their mouthpieces using a satisfactory lucite that is comfortable in the mouth. They just do everything right and their pipes smoke wonderfully.

It's not fair to compare them to hand made high grades or even high grade factory pipes like Dunhill or Castello because the purpose is different. Stanwell puts out factory pipes that are quickly produced and fit into a lower end price point, but they do it so well that they can be compared to higher grade pipe because they are handsome, comfortable and smoke damned well. What they do not do is seek out the highest grade materials and spend a lot of time with every pipe, so with Dunhill and Castello you are paying for material and labor as well as history and reputation (yes, you do pay for status when buying these brands). Hand mades are so expensive because you have material and operating costs and hourly labor from a lone craftsman, as well as paying into a price tier for what is considered a certain level of artistry. It's an attempt to compare apples and oranges, really. There are many different production steps in making a hand made high grade that are not implemented in the making of the factory pipe, little nuances in design that matter to the eye of the collector but not to the guy who just wants a pipe that smokes well.

I own pipes from S. Bang, Hedegaard, Castello, Dunhill, Ser Jacopo, etc, and they all smoke very well, but so do my Stanwells. I buy them for different reasons though. I look at my high grades as artistic pieces that smoke very well, I look at my Stanwells as smoking instruments that happen to have a nice flair to them. I have my collection broken down into little micro-collections: British briars, Italian briars, Danish briars, etc., but I also give Stanwell their own place of respect and I have a lot of them displayed together as I feel that they deserve to be displayed honorably. If a guy were to have nothing but Stanwell pipes he'd not need to feel his collection insignificant at all.

I've only got two, the ubiquitous HCA Churchwarden, and the Golf. The Golf tends to look a bit special, and both pipes smoke extremely well. (My best two smokers are actually a W O Larson Prince and a Hardcastle sandblasted billiard bought for less than $10 from ebay, so I don't need to spend much to enjoy myself anyway...)

I'm not a lover of pipe snobs, and have always believed that you can get terrific smokes from the whole of the mid-range, and one or two basket pipes too. And I don't have a fine enough palette to differentiate between types of briar I'm afraid. Hell, sometimes I forget what tobacco I'm smoking and have to look at the jar to know.

I confess to never really having read a BAD comment about Stanwells, and reading this thread I might just go out and get another one.

It did me good to read that post, Dock. With a wife at home raising three kids my income is just enough to meet the needs of life and have a little extra left over for vacations, savings, and a "toy" here and there. It's good to know a poor man can get a quality pipe for less than a hundred bucks that smokes as well (or better) as the high ends. I have a Peterson, Rinaldo, and Brissett (on the way) and am looking to add 4-5 more to the rotation. I'm certainly shopping Stanwell pipes now to see if I can land a nice one, too.

Dock did allude to this in his opening post on the thread "Are You a Collector or Smoker"... it jumped out at me then as it does now.

I have one Stanwell and it smokes fine. I have Pete donegals and they smoke fine. Dock's original comment got me to thinking which pipes I reach for when I what a nice smoke...I most often go for the Lorenzetti, which is about as cheap as you can get in Canada above basket pipes and medico.

There are lots of brothers like TallSmoke who have no need to "long for" a better smoking pipe because its too expensive. Focus on fiding and enjoying tobaccos...