Pipe of the Year

After a dearth of special releases this year, the wait for the Pipe of the Year seemed like it would never end, but lads, we’re almost there.  I just received four samples and want to pass along some photos and early intel.

I know photography has commenced at SPC but don’t think it’s been completed, so the drop probably won’t be this week, but maybe next.  Usually there’s something from K&P on social media about a week before, but apart from one non-official social media photo of a rustic pipe that somehow escaped in the past week or two, no one has reported any sightings to me.

No information on the drop date or the exact finishes to be offered, but I’ll post another Special Bulletin if I find out anything. I do know video was shot in the factory several weeks back and I believe it was of the making of the POY, so we can expect that at some point on the Smokingpipes blog, along with some conversation from Josh or Andy and the gang.

The big news this year, as you can read in the “Chat” brochure above, is that the POY is a brand-new System shape, the first since the Darwin / B42 of 2009 fifteen years ago (not sure where the “Chat” writer got thirty years). K&P Pipe Specialist Giacomo Penzo’s original design is a beauty, squarely within Peterson’s design language yet offering some new riffs as well.  The shank is a thing of beauty and when that’s added to the wear-gap B stem we’ve got something fresh and frankly amazing.

It always helps me to understand a shape by first seeing it from its 2D right-flank or obverse. From that I can get an idea of the proportions and angles of bowl, shank and stem, but to do that it’s best to see it in as pure a silhouette as possible–something you’ll never get in a glamor shot:

Whew! Get a load of this shape.  Seen from this vantage, a lot becomes clear. The shank and stem pair seamlessly with the bowl to create that “golden mean” feeling of Binet’s formula–what we talked back in the Fibonacci sequence back in Post #297.  The B or tapered wear-gap stem pairs with the shank to produce a swan neck recalling shapes like the X69 back in the Early Republic and the X160 from Patent era, but also radiates that “1896 Patent Catalog” vibe, something that Charles Peterson himself might have come up with.  Fans of bulldogs and bent rhodesians should feel ripples of familiarity wafting their way. Penzo, friends, is an Artist, and we’re so fortunate to have him batting for our favorite team.

The visual and felt weight of the POY2024 is right there with the full-size Systems: shapes like the 306, 308, 309, in other words of classic dimensions. If you’re comfortable cradling and / or clenching those shapes and the B42 and 9, this will feel like an old friend.

If I understood what Josh told me over the phone a few weeks back, this shape may be moving over into the regular System catalog.  I’d love to see it with the ferrule A or AB mount.  You remember the Darwin was launched simultaneously as a commemorative and a System shape back in 2009.  (Minor note to self: it would be great to see the “Chat” shape chart updated, since the System HOUSE PIPE and Pub Pipe have never been formally placed among those esteemed silhouettes.

FINISHES

Could be my eyesight, but the Terracotta stain seems especially bright this year.

POY2024 851/1100 Terracotta Smooth–
Measurements & Other Details:

Length: 5.50 in / 140 mm
Weight: 2.35 oz / 67 gr
Bowl Height: 1.82 in / 46.30 mm
Chamber Depth: 1.46 in / 37.1 mm
Chamber Diameter: 0.79 in / 20 mm
Outside Diameter: 1.77 in / 45 mm
Stem: Glorious P-Lip Ebonite
Shape: Swan Neck Rhodesian
Finish: Terracotta

The Terracotta finish is seen to ample advantage in #851 seen above.  When there’s a bit of blonde grain that comes shining through it’s like a sunrise over the Aran Islands, or standing on top of Michael Skellig.  I’ll guess that we can expect the normal spread of recent POYs, which should fall out in numbers in a close approximation of a classic bell curve. From rarest to most plentiful, it might look something like this, with the majority falling in increasing numbers from the Terracotta to the Rustic:

Supreme Sandblast
Natural
Silver Cap (Terracotta, Rustic, ?)
Ebony Smooth
PSB Rua
Terracotta
Heritage
Black Sandblast
Rustic

Looking at the Heritage finish of the new POY with a current Dunhill Bruyere 5113 ($854.25), notice any difference? Me neither.  The Heritage got a lot of flak in the US when it first appeared a few years back, despite its mirroring of a long-standing classic Dunhill finish. That was then, this is now, but when someone carps about the Heritage, you’ll remember to mention the Bruyere, won’t you?

When Josh sent me a photo of the blast finish seen above, it was love at first sight.  I know this combination of gritty blast and satin black has been been around a few years, but I’ve never really stopped to admire it. While some PGs are devoted almost exclusively to the Natural and Supreme Blast finishes, I love most K&P finishes, and my rotation reflects that kind of diversity. It often depends for me on the shape of the pipe.  I knew with the 2019 4B that I had to have the rustic: it was like a front row seat at a Gojira or Animals as Leaders concert: prog metal.   Likewise when the System Anniversary pipes dropped last year in the Barley tanshell, it was a must: how could I say no to a System so endowed?  Or the 14B Mark Twain POY–the Rua PSB topped the chart in my opinion.  Without seeing the others, at the moment I’m totally hoping for the right Terracotta and Blast.

Moving on, the twin beads are crisp on all the samples. Notice also the inner bevel, which shows to special advantage on the Terracotta but is present on all finishes.

 

STAMPS

As you can see, once again the indefatigable Jonathan Fields (Factory Manager) has the shank stamps arranged elegantly on the bottom of all the shanks. “Peterson” in script is over the small block caps “OF DUBLIN” with the serial number below that group. To the right, the proud oval MADE IN IRELAND is over 2024. The POY2024 is serialized, as you see, in an edition of 1100, which comprises the total of all finishes.

As has been their practice for a while now, on the sterling the “Peterson” in script over the small block cap “DUBLIN” is on the front facing the bowl, with the small block cap “PETERSON” over the hallmarks on the back.  This year’s hallmarks are all legible—always something to be thankful for—and the HM (N this year) can easily be read.

 

SYSTEM ENGINEERING

So now I’ll get a little geeky.  Too geeky, probably.  Consensers may change from one shipment to another, although this is one of the crispest and best finished I’ve seen.  The threaded end is flat-topped, however, which means that your pipe cleaner will stick on it instead of sliding through.  This is an easy fix as we’ve discussed in early posts, and I’m not totally convinced it’s necessary.  Leaving the condenser in if the stem threads continue up into the tenon leaves some unswabbed territory, and if there’s any kind of change in the internal walls, tar and moisture will build up at those points. The only way around this is either to have a Hamilton Super Condenser installed or have the factory figure out a way to stop the threading at the exact point the condenser threads into the tenon.

Pete Geek Terms You Need:

DCEM: depth the condenser extends into the mortise

BESH: bottom edge of the smoke hole, the air channel that travels from the mortise to the chamber bottom

Over the past few months, Gary Hamilton and I have been discussing flux in System engineering design since the 1890 patent, and one one thing we’re just about convinced of is that when a De Luxe System’s condenser reaches to the bottom lip of the shank’s air channel or below it—as specified in the 1890 Patent—the pipe smoker has an excellent chance of obtaining a smoking experience equal to or better than any pipe ever made, artisan-mades included.*  This conviction is borne out by our study of the original Patent document, my decades-long System smoking experience (De Luxe and Premier Systems in particular and in the context of Standard Systems) and Gary’s expertise in fluid dynamics engineering.

To measure the POY2024’s System engineering against the Patent benchmark, it’s necessary to measure the DCEM (depth of the condenser in the mortise) and then measure the BESH (bottom edge of smoke hole) thus:

(You can see I’m a graduate of M.I.T., right?**)

Measuring the BESH requires only a bright Anglepoise-style adjustable lamp and a digital caliper.  To measure the DCEM on a new stem, push a small piece of  blue carpenter’s tape into the wear gap with the straight edge of the top at the top of the mortise and use your digital caliper to measure to the tip of the aluminum condenser.

Measuring the DCEM on an older De Luxe pipe is much easier, as there will almost always be a slight oxidation mark dividing the part of the tenon inside the mortise from that outside in the open air.

For the Terracotta I measured the BESH at 22.7mm and the DCEM at 31.7mm. Subtract the BESH from the DCEM and you find the condenser extends 9 mm beyond the bottom edge of the smoke hole. Bravo! The POY2024 exceeds Patent specs. (If you have a 12.5 De Luxe, you’ll find this pipe always exceeds specs, which is one reason I think it’s such a fantastic smoker.)

What about the reservoir?  Gary and I have talked a lot about this as well, but there is a great deal of diversity over the decades and between shapes here, ranging from  the vintage 308 with its thin mortise walls and cavern of a reservoir to some Systems of just a few years back with little to no reservoir at all.

The Terracotta’s reservoir drilling (measured at the narrow ledge where the second mortise excavation commences) begins at 22.7mm and extends to the bottom at 44.5mm.  That’s 21.8mm, giving the reservoir plenty of scope to do its work.  The reservoir’s width is 5/16^th in., not quite 8mm (I need to get a set of metric drill bits).

With a steady hand, it could probably be widened to 3/8ths, but as the saying goes, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” and until I’ve smoked the POY2024 a few dozen times, I won’t know–and  even then it’s hard to say whether creating an even larger reservoir from an already sufficient one would effect any smoking improvement, as this is where the complex fluid dynamics thing comes in with math far above my pay grade.

This year we’re treated to another great Irish tweed pipe sock, something I think really sets the POY apart from other releases.  (And wow, K&P, when do we get to order our matching tweed sport coats with leather elbow patches stamped “”Peterson of Dublin” on one side and “Thinking Man” on the other? Or the matching Dubliner Flat Cap?) There’s also the sterling pipe cloth, of course.

I’m looking forward to the Drop Party and seeing the POY2024 in its remaining finishes, as I know that reveal will help me make up my mind.  Last year it was held, I believe, around midnight.  This year, we should stage a global Zoom.  I mean, if political candidates can do it, why not Pete Geeks?  Until then—

“Smoak” in Peace!

Mark

 

 

 

 Many thanks to Josh Burgess at Peterson
and Kaz Walters at Laudisi.
Banner photo by Josh Burgess and Sinéad Carroll, K&P.
Dunhill photo courtesy Smokingpipes.com.

 

 

 

*Muskogee Institute of Truckers

**Other variables being equal, things like briar density (curing), smoker’s cadence, tobacco used, etc.