French St Claude LAP pipe - thoughts?

[Tsal]

Nice Bulldog! As far as cleaning goes, I'd just run a pipe cleaner soaked in your favorite booze down the stem and shank, wait for it to dry then fire it up. Welcome to PSF

Thanks,
well, I am basically a beer drinker and the last bottle of booze I bought was a 12y Laphroaig, that would be way too heavy I think for this purpose.
Probably vodka would be the best choice for its neutral taste?

Whichever you use the taste burns off after a bowl or two. I use Everclear only because I've bought some pretty dirty estate pipes over the years, I have enough left over to last a lifetime.

[ncrobb]

Like Tommy, I use Everclear. Nice grab, I love the classic shapes.

[Maynard]

Hi there,

I am a new member here so I hope I am not opening a new topic unnecessarily.
I found a few weeks ago a very nice classically shaped bulldog from a French seller on eBay which disappeared for a few weeks and today it was re-listed again.
I bought it straightaway without hesitation for it was rather cheap (around 45USD with shipping) and only after the purchase I've realized that maybe it was not such a great deal for mainly one reason - it has a threaded stem. Rookie mistake but whatever. Besides potentially becoming loose after time, does it have any other disadvantages?
Unfortunately I cannot make any better photos yet so I have only two pictures from eBay, what do you think of this pipe?




I personally find it beautiful, reminds me of the classical Dunhills, simple, elegant. St Claude is a rather well know region of pipe makers but I've never heard of this particular one, does anyone know something about the "LAP" stamping?
Also do you have any specific recommendations how to prepare/clean a NOS pipe bought from eBay before smoking it for the first time? I am asking mainly due to hygienic reasons, even though this is a new unsmoked pipe.
Thanks a lot in advance!

I have a couple of St Claude pipes same threaded stem but different shape very good smokers and no problem.

[dragulievic]

Hello gentlemen,
thanks for your replies. The pipe had arrived in the meantime and it looks just as nice in person as in the photos. The only very slight disappointment was the size (and it is not a real disappointment), instead of the stated 15cm it is actually 14cm long and it looked bigger in the photo. It will be a great 25-30min smoker.
There was some sort of yellowish coating in the bowl, was not honey, and since I am pretty sensitive to things of unknown origin, I sanded it out. The stem smells a bit odd like a burned tire or rubber, I believe it's pretty common for older vulcanite stems or whatever the material is.
The draft hole is not perfectly centered, it was drilled by ~1mm to the right but I really doubt it will make any noticeable difference. I have not tried it out yet, my biggest dilemma was the choice of tobacco, I can be pretty obsessive about choosing the "perfect thing". However, in the meantime I've realized that I have an unopened tin of Peterson's Sherlock Holmes aged for 4-5 years, even though the reviews are mixed but I will give it a shot . I've opened it yesterday and the humidity of the tobacco seems just right so I will try the pipe during the weekend

[Ronv69]

Small bowls are good for flake tobacco.
Yellow lining in a French bowl has to be butter.

[Houtenziel]

I thought I read somewhere that back in the day there were a few pipe makers that used shellac as a bowl coating, which might explain the yellowishness of the bowl.
The stem, even though it may not look terribly oxidized, probably is. I've had a number of old NOS pipes that used high quality vulcanite come in pristine looking, but after the first smoke the stem would yellow and smelled like a tire fire. If it bothers you, there are a number of ways this can be addressed - the least intrusive and dangerous method probably being polishing the outside and inside of the stem with toothpaste. If that doesn't do it, you'll probably have to move on to more aggressive methods to remove the oxidation(oxyclean bath, flame, sanding, etc..).

[Ruffinogold]

I like the French pipe a lot and that one's pretty damn nice man

[dragulievic]

Ok so I've tried the pipe on Sunday and to be honest it was pretty much a terrible experience
Very probably due to the tobacco... It's been already a few years since my last bowl of pipe, I used to smoke exclusively Samuel Gawith's Black cherry from my first pipe which I've used with 9mm charcoal filters and I liked that tobacco very much. I put Peterson's Sherlock Holmes into this new bulldog because it was sitting in my drawer for a few years so I thought I'll give it a shot. The smell of the unsmoked raw tobacco was pretty pleasant after opening the tin. Even though I am pretty much a beginner, I've already had some experience with smoking, I must have had at least a dozen packages of cherry tobacco in my previous pipe. The reviews on the internet are very mixed of this Peterson tobacco but I've experience exactly the same thing as some of the reviewers, namely a very unpleasant ashtray-like taste. None of the alleged slight citrusy side notes. Absolutely 0 pleasantness. Maybe it was the burley in it? I tried to smoke it slowly but it did not help. And the aftertaste in my mouth was terrible till the end of the day, at least for 7-8 hours. I had that bad ashtray taste in the back of my throat.
I really doubt that it was the pipe's fault but hell knows. What do you think?

[Houtenziel]

Ok so I've tried the pipe on Sunday and to be honest it was pretty much a terrible experience
Very probably due to the tobacco... It's been already a few years since my last bowl of pipe, I used to smoke exclusively Samuel Gawith's Black cherry from my first pipe which I've used with 9mm charcoal filters and I liked that tobacco very much. I put Peterson's Sherlock Holmes into this new bulldog because it was sitting in my drawer for a few years so I thought I'll give it a shot. The smell of the unsmoked raw tobacco was pretty pleasant after opening the tin. Even though I am pretty much a beginner, I've already had some experience with smoking, I must have had at least a dozen packages of cherry tobacco in my previous pipe. The reviews on the internet are very mixed of this Peterson tobacco but I've experience exactly the same thing as some of the reviewers, namely a very unpleasant ashtray-like taste. None of the alleged slight citrusy side notes. Absolutely 0 pleasantness. Maybe it was the burley in it? I tried to smoke it slowly but it did not help. And the aftertaste in my mouth was terrible till the end of the day, at least for 7-8 hours. I had that bad ashtray taste in the back of my throat.
I really doubt that it was the pipe's fault but hell knows. What do you think?

Ashtray can definitely be pipe related. I have one estate pipe given to me as a gift by my old man, and I am pretty sure someone smoked used motor oil in it . Every single bowl tastes like a hot, dirty car ashtray. The other possibility is that your tobacco is very dry and so it is smoking hot, despite your efforts to smoke slowly. I would probably lean toward the tobacco being an issue vs. the pipe, given that it is NOS.

I say, grab something you know you like and give it another try.

[Fr_Tom]

Ok so I've tried the pipe on Sunday and to be honest it was pretty much a terrible experience
Very probably due to the tobacco... It's been already a few years since my last bowl of pipe, I used to smoke exclusively Samuel Gawith's Black cherry from my first pipe which I've used with 9mm charcoal filters and I liked that tobacco very much. I put Peterson's Sherlock Holmes into this new bulldog because it was sitting in my drawer for a few years so I thought I'll give it a shot. The smell of the unsmoked raw tobacco was pretty pleasant after opening the tin. Even though I am pretty much a beginner, I've already had some experience with smoking, I must have had at least a dozen packages of cherry tobacco in my previous pipe. The reviews on the internet are very mixed of this Peterson tobacco but I've experience exactly the same thing as some of the reviewers, namely a very unpleasant ashtray-like taste. None of the alleged slight citrusy side notes. Absolutely 0 pleasantness. Maybe it was the burley in it? I tried to smoke it slowly but it did not help. And the aftertaste in my mouth was terrible till the end of the day, at least for 7-8 hours. I had that bad ashtray taste in the back of my throat.
I really doubt that it was the pipe's fault but hell knows. What do you think?

You will need to smoke the new (to you) out of it. I recommend something like Carter Hall or maybe 5 Bros for break-in duty, but any "mostly" burley blend works. By the time you have smoked 20 or so bowls, it will be smoking "right."