A beginner in the world of pipe smoking may be disconcerted because of the profusion of technical terms. But do not panic! No matter who made the pipe and the brand of the latter, the words used are the same from one model to another. You will just have to remember a few of those to understand everything.
Let's discover together the anatomy of a pipe.
The basics:
The different parts of the stummel ("tête de la pipe" in French):
- Bowl ("foyer" in French)
- Tobacco chamber ("chambre" in French)
- Drilling hole (for the air passage) ("perçage" in French)
- Shank ("tige" in French)
- Mortise ("mortaise" in French)
The different parts of the stem:
- Tenon ("floc" in French)
- Bit ("lentille" in French)
Here are the most common words used to describe a pipe:
The main parts of the stummel:
Most pipes are made with briar, but they can also be made with other materials (meerschaum, corn cob, clay...).
The tobacco chamber:
The tobacco chamber is the part of the pipe in which you are going to pack your tobacco. When buying a new pipe, you have to break it in to protect the wood from the heat. You therefore have to smoke slowly and a small amount of tobacco the first ten times, and then you can add more and more tobacco.
The bowl:
Depending on the pipe, the bowl will be more or less big. Pipes with a big bowl allow to smoke longer (since you will be able to put more tobacco in the tobacco chamber compared to a pipe with classic dimensions). On the contrary, pipes with a smaller bowl will be perfect for short breaks. On www.pipeshop-saintclaude.com, we always indicate for each pipe model their dimensions (diameter and depth of the tobacco chamber).
The shank:
The shank is more or less long depending on the pipe. It is the part between the stem and the bowl. A Canadian shaped pipe will have, for example, a particularly long shank. A long shank is most of the time synonymous with a pleasant pipe to smoke. The smoke will indeed be smoother in the mouth, because it will have the time to cool down during its way along the stem.
The drilling hole:
The smoke will go through the air passage before getting into the stem. It is therefore necessary to clean shank and stem with pipe cleaners to keep a pipe clean and pleasant to be smoked. You have to know that, depending on the shape of the pipe (straight or bent) the drilling method will be different. On a bent pipe, the shank is most of the time drilled twice.
The mortise:
The mortise is the part in which the tenon will come to hold the stem. The wood is thinner on this end of the shank, which is why you have to wait for the pipe to be completely cold before disassembling the stem by turning it on itself, while slightly pulling it. If you do so, you will not damage your pipe.
The main parts of the stem:
Most stems are made with acrylic or ebonite, but stems made with other materials can be found (cumberland, horn...).
The tenon:
The tenon is the part that comes in the mortise. If the pipe can be smoked with a filter (metal, 9mm, balsa filter...) or an adaptor, it is inside this part of the stem that you will put it.
The bit:
The bit is the end of the stem that you will put in your mouth. Some stems (of the brands Peterson or Vauen for example) have a P-Lip bit that directs the smoke towards the palate. You may find other words used to call this part of the stem, and there are other types of bits.
