This is a pipe smoking zone

[alden]

Dopey

Yes buying a quality pipe does put the odds on your side. But you never know. I have had a couple of gorgeous Dunhills that smoked so poorly it was hard to break them in...and even with a good cake inside they were not good at all. And that reminds me to say that the process of breaking in a pipe is the most important thing. Begineers should buy simple pipes and practice breaking a few in before spending a lot of money on a hand made pipe.

Cheers

[dopey]

By way of update, I have been getting a lot of use out of the Viprati I described above. I decided to make it my dedicated Stonehenge pipe. Since that is my favorite tobacco, the Viprati goes stretches of being smoked every other day and is getting a chance to break-in nicely. While I will on rare occasions run more than one bowl through it in a day, I try to give the Viprati at least a day off after every day of use.

[alden]

I like Stonehedge too. Be careful with the break in. I use the one third, two third, three third method that takes as much as six weeks. I let the pipe rest at least four days in between smokes. A good initial cake is the best guarantee for a good smoking pipe.

Have you tried Onyx yet?

Cheers

[dopey]

Thanks, Alden. I haven't tried Onyx yet as I have yet to place an order to Synjeco. My smoke-now stock is still pretty full, especially since I keep topping up my Stonehaven supply. I don't know why I wrote Stonehenge- I have never seen it, but from Pease's description, I would have been glad to try it. Stonehaven is made by Germain for the Esoterica brand and sold only in the US. I think it is sold in the UK and the rest of Europe under Germain's own label as Rich Dark Flake.

[uppercase]

What tobaccos do you gents recommend I try?
TIA

[gcg]

there are some very good french pipes, I smoke butx choquin pipes, which I bought in france and am throroughly happy with.

My Tobacco of choice at the moment are Dunhills.