A couple weeks ago I received my first churchwarden style pipe: Mr. Brog’s Churchwarden No 14. I’ve only smoked it a couple times but so far I’m really impressed.
The packaging the pipe came in wasn’t so great. It was loosely placed into a box which was then placed in a bubble mailer. The box was pretty smashed up by the time it got to me but the pipe didn’t appear to be damaged in any way.
As you can see the pipe isn’t very ornate. I chose the natural finish which has a gold band at the end of the shank and the long black plastic stem. A reusable metal filter was included, which I removed for better airflow.
This is also the first time that I’ve ever smoked a pipe made from pear wood, so I really had no idea what to expect. I was pleasantly surprised in my first half-bowl. The pipe smokes great! Relatively low maintenence through the whole bowl giving off a cool refreshing smoke the whole time. I think it’s about the perfect length for a churchwarden. It’s very light and very comfortable. The bowl did end up getting a little hot in my hand but I expect that to go away after I have a good layer of cake built up.
The two negatives that I can think of are:
1. the small bowl size (I smoked a full bowl in about 20mins) when you just want to keep smoking it all day.
and
2. the plastic stem (which you would expect from a $30 pipe).
I highly recommend Mr. Brog’s No 14 Churchwarden. It’s very affordable, very comfortable, and smokes great!