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Clay Pipes

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istanbulin

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Although nobody keeps a clay pipe for daily smoking nowadays it was very popular in 16th century. Today it's one of the most common objects found by "mudlarkers" in the riverbanks of Thames.

I guess they're using kaolinite like clay which is whiter. A really practical procedure, let's see.

 
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Desertpipe

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Enjoyed the video....and have collected clays for some time, both from the UK and the eastern part of the US.
 

jolly

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Sorry for digging up an old thread, but..

I love clay pipes. They only make up about 30% of my collection, but they're about 70% of what I smoke.

image.jpg

The pipes on the bottom left get most of my attention. Perfect smoking 3" cutty style pipes with big open draws. I smoke mostly dark air/fire cured Gawaith tobaccos in them.

The ones on the bottom right are the pamplin style pipes mentioned above from pipeshoppe. They have the larges bowl capacity of my clays. Though I'm not a huge fan of the reed stems (they have a bit of a "green" taste), The pipes smoke well. I just did a fire cleaning on two of them this week so I could try some new tobacco blends without ghosting. I love clays for that.
 

Knucklehead

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Sorry for digging up an old thread, but..

I love clay pipes. They only make up about 30% of my collection, but they're about 70% of what I smoke.

The pipes on the bottom left get most of my attention. Perfect smoking 3" cutty style pipes with big open draws. I smoke mostly dark air/fire cured Gawaith tobaccos in them.

The ones on the bottom right are the pamplin style pipes mentioned above from pipeshoppe. They have the larges bowl capacity of my clays. Though I'm not a huge fan of the reed stems (they have a bit of a "green" taste), The pipes smoke well. I just did a fire cleaning on two of them this week so I could try some new tobacco blends without ghosting. I love clays for that.

Really nice pipes.
 

istanbulin

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I came across another video of making clay pipes, Croatian clay pipes from Zelovo. These clay pipes are two-piece and have a wood stem in contrast to Irish ones which are single piece and made of clay completely. Also the clay type looks different than Irish clay ones, it looks like common red clay. The stem is made of mahalab cherry (Prunus mahalab) which has a sturdy wood. Intended use of this tree is actually the seed kernels. They have a sweet and fragrant smell which really fits well on sweet-breads like traditional "çörek" or Easter breads. Small amount (~1 tablespoon) of grinded kernels add really nice flavors to the dough.

156841d1277921774-dsc_0979.jpg

Prunus mahalab with fruits.


What they call the pipe is interesting, "lula" which actually means "bowl" in Turkish ("lüle"). The stem is also called "kamiš" which is again a loan word from Turkish, "kamış". As the crafstman indicated in the video, they have several motifs of Northern Italian style. The conflict about the region where Zelovo is now loacted, Dalmatian Coast, between Republic of Venice and Ottoman Empire in 17th century created an interesting fusion. Hand craftsmanship of Croatians, some motifs from Italy and wording from Turkish.


 

jolly

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Great video. I've seen those bowls on ebay, but never bought one because I typically smoke straight pipes and they're all bent. I think I'll have to reconsider.

All his tools appeared to be made by him. Very simple and highly functional. The stem straightener looks similar to some of the pics of native american arrow straighteners. Thanks for posting.
 

jolly

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I seen this one a while back.

I've seen that one too. Good vid. There used to be a guy in Canada making pipes like that. Stephen Bray. He had a great website years ago -- but I can't find any trace of him now except old news articles.
 

Matty

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Stephen Bray*of Olde*World Fine Clays out of Nova Scotia. Seems to have disappeared without reason. Too bad really.
 

deluxestogie

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Istanbulin,
That is an informative video on clay pipes. I loved the music, which I've downloaded using ClipGrab. Unfortunately, the narrative (in a language I can't identify) is included in the download.

Bob
 

leverhead

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Interesting video! The molds are interesting, a wooden base (outside) and a metal cavity. It looks to be either lead or zinc, cast in place.
 

istanbulin

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With the help of the Croatian video I found the web site of the Society for Clay Pipes Research (SCPR). It has some newsletters and useful links for clay pipe enthusiasts.
 
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