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I bought a late-ish era Dunhill author at Chicago for my own collection. Excellent wood, well cut, hardly used. The stem was even flowingly bent. High marks all round.

EXCEPT for the stem's cross-sectional profile through the bite zone. There is a subtle, hard-to-see-unless-you're-looking-for-it "keel" down the center, and the edges are thin and sharp. Result? It's the least comfortable stem I've ever had between my teeth. The pipe rotates side-to-side, no position feels right, and the edge digs into the corner of my mouth.

If I didn't happen to have a repair guy living under my roof ---if I was stuck with it---I'd sell it at the next opportunity. Further, if it was my first Dunhill I'd think twice about ever getting another.

Really. It's that bad. Something effectively invisible to the Man on the Street is that bad.

The lesson should be obvious. NEVER sacrifice comfort or usability for visual style in that critical area. (Radney the Davis is a good example of someone who knows this well... his bite zones have only the gentlest of radii top and bottom---they're functionally "flat"--- and his parabolically-contoured edges are slightly thicker than is popular these days. That his customers always come back is no accident. Details add up to a total experience, and he pays attention to all of them.)

Now, back to your regularly scheduled programming.

You don't have any pics do you? It would be great to see exactly what you are describing. Thanks!

baiguai wrote:You don't have any pics do you? It would be great to see exactly what you are describing. Thanks!

A photo wouldn't show it unless you cut the button off, and looked at the bite zone in cross section.

Imagine doing that. Then visualize:

-- thick/high in the center and sharp/thin on the sides... a low/shallow diamond shape = Bad

-- flat, gentle radius top & bottom, with rounded sides... a flattened ellipse = Good

Ah! Thanks, I can see that, and can see how that'd be bad.

Stick with artisan pipes you help train them.

Sounds like a P-lip to me!

Sasquatch wrote:Sounds like a P-lip to me!

I have a P lip B5 pipe. I smoke it about once a year, and every time I do i remember why its only once a year. As George said its too round to hang correctly and the button is too big to clench comfortably. Plus the fact that it was dipstained and smokes like absolute garbage.