Mr. Don Travis of Calgary,
Alberta, Canada, custom-ordered the two
pipes pictured above. After receiving
them, he wrote the following review:
On the efforts
of Misters Vollmer and Nilsson
I had the two
pipes made for me on the model of a
1930’s Comoy Grand Slam - simply
because like them I do find the design
elegant and different than anything else
in my pipe cabinet. Size: (1.5 x 6 &
1.6 x 6.25 inches) About an older scale
Dunhill group 3.5 and 4 in
capacity.
As you can see
they have very handsome briar
which they handle
carefully,
indeed perfectly. What you can’t see
is the borings are also spot on -
and I don’t mean that in the eBay
sense but like Heeschen or Hedegaard
-perfect. As you see the mouthpieces are
long
and elegant,
they are also just right in my
mouth, and all lines are
held without
deviance - not uncommon but not common
either. Now a point of difference, the
insides of the mouthpiece
(which matches up with the draw
hole dead on) have this visual tapering
going on. The only other pipes I have
with this, so far and smoothly into the
mouthpiece, are by Garbe and Barbi. Of
course they talk
about this
tapering on their site. The insides are
polished and note: you will not
find any hint of a transitional ridge -
not always so with high grades. In
writing this I start to see that the
fit, finish and execution is, to me, the
equal of any of the best I know of and
better than
some other high grades. Does all this
fussy concern translate
into a good smoke?
Extracting
the pipes out of their shipping I am
struck and anxious
about the ‘size’; they seem tiny to
me, there is very little wood here, way
less than any other pipes I own. Also,
the blast is very gnarly with, to my
experience, very thin walls. Of course I
remember
many pipes used to be this way in the
early 1900’s, so... who knows about
heat build-up and such...
I have smoked
each four times in parallel with high
grades I know and
love. Both pipes have very much
improved with the break-in; I don’t
know why some pipes are like this. Both
pipes have been notable from the
beginning with how ‘soft’ the smoke
is and easy on the tongue (I know, I
know, how vague is that, but still
notable). The blast has
stuck to VA/Perique and the last smoke
was equal in flavor to the Balleby it
was against. Actually I preferred it,
but there are differences. As with most
of my pipes, the Balleby’s large bowl
diameter and
drawing characteristics easily produce
more burn, more
air
and more smoke - and perhaps, more
intensity of flavor. Yet these V&N
pipes just smolder along as if they
smoke themselves,
a
quiet smoke which I really enjoy.
They make pipes with chambers of .8”
and pots with .9” inches which maybe
are quite different than these with
.7” - I’ll get one, so time will
tell. The smooth pipe has been with
Squadron Leader and now I judge equal to
the Matzhold I know and respect with
this blend. The smoking characteristics
are near identical with the blast, as
you would expect.
On
yet more personal notes: I didn’t
think it worth noting that I
compared these pipes with those having
retail values roughly twice as much. No
gurgle, bad fitting parts, fills, etc...
are here either.
I suppose when I have thought I
liked only big pipes that I mean only
long ones (5.9”+). These pipes have
also firmly falsified the idea that a
lot of lumber means a cool smoke, I have
had lots of way bigger pipes that smoke
hotter and harsher on the tongue.
Further, the wood
on these doesn’t get hot! Engineering
vs. quantity of wood wins out.
The
silver band is just put on, not rabbeted
in to be flush with
stem and mouthpiece. I have come to
like it that way, its more ‘strait
forward’, (more honest?). Flush is
easy to get anywhere, Stanwell does
flush fast, cheap and well, its not what
I’m looking for.
If
you ever wanted an old english pipe, get
these lads to make it, I
doubt anyone, anytime in Britain made
them with the care and foresight as
these. (and I like Upshall) Get one with
a 1.5"+ stem, I think the mechanics
here may have something to do with the
success of these two.
Did I mention
how damn fine these mouthpieces are? The
only other
‘aesthetic’ I will mention is that
I notice the beautiful Balleby, with its
very slender, minimum amount of
vulcanite around the tenon has opened up
a crack there. (No I didn’t drop it
and the delrin?
tenon goes in
pretty easily) So I am particularly
happy today with the
conservative
and robust design of these two pipes!
Yes, I just like them too. They are
small capacity but, unlike Heeschen,
they are comfortable and friendly to the
hand and the sitting position.
I
have been gushing. I worry that any
pipes you buy will not be as
perfectly executed as these. No maker
can always pull this off.
-Don
Travis
