Filter Pipes

[Chief]

Anyone smoke pipes with filters?

Personally, I don't like filters in pipes. I'm not sure I have any at
the moment. In an emergency, I have been known to buy a filtered pipe
someplace and remove the filter.

Cheers.

[Chief]

I think the filters add a flavor to the smoke. I suppose it would
depend upon the type and quality of the filter. Filters also impact the
draw - though I may simply be too sensitive. Lastly, changing a filter
is a problem IMHO... I carry enough stuff around with me as it is.
<LOL>

I'm not really sure they "help" with wet tobacco...!!

Let me know if notice much of a difference when you remove the filter.

At 09:35 PM 11/19/2005, you wrote:

I think that it depends on the tobacco that you are smoking at the
time. I have both filtered and unfiltered pipes. Filters can be
useful with 'wet' tobaccos that smoke wet. But, sometimes the filters
get really smelly if you use them a lot before changing them.
Recently, I bouoght a Savinelli Roma pipe with a balsa filter. It
smoked smoothly the first time I smoked it, with an English type of
tobacco. Maybe, I will try it without the filter in the pipe and get
back to every one!

[shakenbake]

Chief;

Have you ever smoked a Falcon pipe, or a Peterson (Irish) pipe? These
I believe to be a variation on the filter idea. The Falcon has been
designed to condense out by cooling the bitter stuff from the smoke
before it gets to the smoker. There is only a circle of a pipe cleaner
in the Humidome of the pipe. The Peterson has a sort of 'tar trap'
incorporated into the pipe mortice. Both pipes seem to smoke nicely.

By the way, Brigham pipes in Canada and Savinelli pipes in Italy have
used wood, maple and balsa, respectively, as filters. The woodsy
taste, if present, should not be too unacceptable IMHO. You can, of
course, smoke them without filters, as I do with many of the Brighams I
own, and I find the filters do not add any tase I can sense. But, the
pipes smoke a bit more wet, in some cases, depending on the tobacco.

Cheers!

[Chief]

I have a couple of falcon pipes with the round pipe cleaner in the
base... I don't use that in mine, however. I have a couple of
Petersons. I've had pipes with metal spiral or fluted pieces in the
stem which act as you indicate.

I'm not a hard-core anti-filter guy. Once the filter gets dirty I toss
it and continue to smoke the pipe. The quality of the pipe is much
more important than the filter system it uses. And, I guess I'm lazy I
hate having to look for the filters.

[shakenbake]

Good points!

And, after all, the best way to smoke a pipe is how the smoker prefers
to smoke it. Coincidentally, I used to enjoy a cracked 'utility' pipe
in my colelction more than a much more expensive one from the same pipe
maker, at least initially. The smoking quality of the pipe depends, as
you say, on its quality, but also on how well broken in it is, for
briars, anyway. (We are told that Meershaums do not need breaking in.)

Cheers!

[Chief]

I had a pipe I purchased in Scotland many years ago... a second. I was
the best "feeling" and smoking pipe I ever owned. Unfortunately, I left
it on top of the car one day and lost it between New Orleans and
Chicago someplace!

"breaking in" a pipe is indeed important. I probably have abused the
rules in that regard the whole time I have been smoking. I've
discovered certain tobacco's lend themselves to cool smoking even in
new pipes.

Cheers.