Monthly Archives: May 2023

Have you ever noticed the button on a pipe can sometimes make or break your enjoyment of it? Back in the 1990s I really wanted to like Missouri Meerschaum pipes. At the time the company utilized an inexpensive stem that, when I clenched it, caused a gag reflex in my jaw muscles. I have no idea why, but I had to give up on MM. At the other extreme, I’ve long admired Castello’s design language and tried a few times to get one into my rotation. My most recent experience was with a beautiful, seldom-seen orange acrylic stem on a Sea Rock oom paul. The button stymied me: the lip (clenching wall) felt like I was putting a dental appliances in my mouth for an x-ray. It felt that enormous. While the pipe smoked really well, I kept having the sensation a root canal was dead ahead and finally had to pass that pipe along.  “The first three-quarters-of-an-inch at the button,” says artisan Jody Davis in Chuck Stanion’s recent article, “is one of the most important parts of the entire pipe because, basically, if it doesn't feel good in your teeth, no matter how much you love the pipe, you will not gravitate to that pipe for smoking. You might smoke it a few times, but then it drops out of rotation because it just doesn't feel great in the teeth.” 02 Donegal Rocky, c. 1945-50   02 Auld Erin (the line is documented from 1953-1957) So enter two beautiful Pete 02 oom pauls, both Early Republic, both technically “sub-Systems” as they have reservoirs. The Donegal probably dates from 1946-1952 (late Éire to Early Republic) and the Auld Erin is first seen in a 1953 Rogers catalog. The stems are nearly identical, although the Auld Erin has a better-engineered step-down tenon (curious, since it’s the less expensive pipe). I only recently acquired the Auld Erin—one of my “grails”—having seen only one other like it a few years back, which I think Brian 500s now owns. I don’t normally hold on to a pipe that I don’t enjoying smoking, so I knew when it arrived that it would need some modifications. The slots are so narrow that while I can press the tip of a B. J. Long fluffy cleaner into it, I can’t push it much further.  (I’m curious to know if other factory pipes from the mid-20th century had similar slots—if you know, please comment.)  Chuck Stanion describes what is probably true of the smoke channels in these stems: “Internally, the smoke channel was stepped down from one diameter at the tenon to a smaller diameter in the center and even smaller by the time it reached the lip button. . . . There was little sanding or polishing of the smoke channel — the shoulders left at each reduction in diameter caused turbulence and moisture accumulation. The pipe stems did not smoke to their potential and were often clunky in the teeth and uncomfortable in the mouth.” Donegal…