What is more important?

non traditional shapes. I could look at, and admire them for hours...I'd even like to have one, but I doubt it would see much action.
I always wanted a plateaux freehand, so I made one. It's a beauty, but it's big,heavy, and awkward for me.
Just give me a pot or billiard!

some are quite nice to look at but I don't know that all are what I'd call smokeable. Why? Well, I'm a clencher and some of those just make my jaws hurt from looking at the pics. I guess if you're a holder rather than a clencher its all good. I do like the non-traditional shapes from an artistic point of view. But for smoking ... most of the time ... give me the traditional shapes.

btw, I have a pipe very close in shape to that saucer (a squat rhodesian - better called a bullcap per ASP's shape chart). Its a little tougher to clench than a billiard but not bad. I like the shape so much that the pleasure overcomes the jaw soreness.

That one blowfish you showed from smokingpipes.com ... man I've looked at that one quite a few times but there is just no way I'm parting with the nearly $2k asking price. But I like it ... I really do. If more cash were available ....................................

let's leave money out of the equation and pretend our financial shape exceeds that of the pipes.

But, other than the fun of picking it out and showing it off, I wouldn't smoke it much. I, too, enjoy the standards. Now that I have my new Bob Hayes pipe which he made to my exact specs, I can honestly say that "enlarged standards" are my preference (My new 7 inch Canadian is pictured in my gallery). I plan to have Bob make me one cutom pipe to my specs every year from now on and each will be larger than standard, but not necessarily a giant. After all, I do want to be able to hold it in my chops. This new Canadian fits my jaw perfectly, is not too heavy, exceptionally balanced and a great smoker, too!

are just plain silly. Sorry, but I think pipe makers get bored & their artistic capabilities flow more toward sculpture than artisanal pipe making. Of course they are beautiful. But they belong on the mantelpiece, not in the mouth.

Perhaps (in my view) the antithesis of this is the classic London pipe, notably Dunhills. Staid, classic, unartistic, perfectly executed. The middle path is held by the Italians - pipes with flair. Beautiful pipes. And they smoke like a dream.

Frankly, the only one from shown I would like to own (wow, it rhymes) is the eskimo. I'd guess, it's Eltang's? Florov's pipe, the snail and the Nautilus look as random combinations of the bowls, which indeed are nice to look at, and the stems. It's like the carvers remembered at the last minute that something's missing in the thingy to be called a pipe.

The last two... Nah, just plain don't like'em.

nyet, only function is important. Everything else is decadent bourgeois consumerism. Lol, or something like that.

I prefer function over anything else. The pipes you posted are well-crafted. I can see them sitting on a mantle or in a display case. But I doubt I could smoke any of them without excessively worrying about mistreating them, which would take the fun out of smoking. I guess I'm trying to say I prefer the act of smoking a pipe verses the hobby of collecting pipes.

I tend to be hard on my pipes. I prefer pipes that can take a beating throughout the course of a day. Cobs, billiards, military-mounts, etc. I work in the medical field, so I never know when and if I am going to get time for a smoking break. To be ready for when the opportunity arises,I usually carry a pipe and tobacco on me at all times. I can easily see myself snapping the stem off the blowfish and the snail pipe in about 2 hours just through carelessness.

I actually own many pipes similar to the ones in the pics above and I find them all to be very smokeable.Though the designs are complex,most of the Danish and Danish inspired American pipes are lighter in weight and smaller than you'd think they'd be.Most of the stems are thin and comfortable too.

Best,
D.J.

As I look at my own collection, it is populated with very conventional looking pipes. I admire the craftsmanship and creativity of the exotic shapes, but I'll stick with the tried and true.

Unquestionably, the craftsmanship and the meticulous carving is evident in each of those pipes shown. I just don't "get" them. I'm not aesthetically challenged, but 'why' for any of them continues to intrude into my acceptance. I suppose, too, that my embraced traditionalism has impeded my growth as an individual. I mean, I haven't accepted the designated hitter in baseball yet. The Roman Catholic Mass in English is still a mystery to me. I have dressed in essentially the same manner since the mid 1960s.

I smoke for comfort and for pleasure. There is no sense of comfort for me in any of these shapes. I just prefer the way in which a billiard or an apple nestles in my hand, with a minimal angularity. The classic lines and proportions of the billiard are what I know and I have come to accept in my smoking

There was a time in my misspent youth that I was all in for exotic looking pipes and in fact had several handmades that looked like tree stumps or were shaped like internal organs. These just aren't for me anymore. I can appreciate the craftsmanship involved in making them but they simply don't have much appeal for me. I'll take the old standbys any day and the mandarin is about as exotic as I get these days. In fact let me go get it now.

Function, of course.

For me funtion counts for more than looks
Some of the styles of pipes are just not for me

I have a nice Danish freehand which I find too big, and I have a pipe with a mans face carved into/ out of it. The carved pipe was made by five brothers in France.
The last brother died in 1984.
The pipe is engraved " Artisan ".
It's a bent with a long stem.
I smoked it about 5 or 6 times.
I like Billiards, Canadians, Acorns, Pots, and some Bents.
Im an old fashioned kind of guy I guess!

That first one looks like something they removed from my Dad before it conquered him...

The rest of those sure look sweet though.

Volcano's are great looking. I'd surely get one. The pick Axe looks quite brutal, but on the other hand, I guess a lot of pipe oil will start to percolate down in that bend...

then there are the brandy glass shaped ones. lovely lines..

pipes and women, the plain will do just fine, but some nice lines never hurt me.

hehe, I'd like one of those :)

I currently own, or have owned pipes by most Danish (and many German and Japanese) carvers prices ranging from a couple of hundred to thousands, and I can assure you that without exception function, has been as important a factor as form.

I am still excited about the forms of pipes, so I can see myself owning several of those. I tend to stay with bent stems more than anything else, and I have different forms in my collection so far.

Aside from that, if I had some of those pipes, which cost so much, I'd feel guilty for just having it sit on my mantel or on display. I'd HAVE to get some enjoyment out of it.

"FORM OR FUNCTION?" I can't answer to the question, I'm not William Shakespeare.
If I say that for me is important only function then any "straight billiard" should be fine. But this is not exactly true. Don't forget we are talking about briar and shapes, not dishwashing detergent.

There are thousands of Italian pipes (only an example) with classic shapes that don't smoke good (many reasons: too young wood, drilling wrong, etc...) and I have Italian friends who smoke exceptional Danesh pipes, not classical forms, smoking very well.

Essentially the shape of the pipe does not guarantee a good smoke.
I prefer the classic forms, this is true, but this is only the starting point in the assessment.

Exactly!

I also have a preference in pipes for the traditional shapes. I like a billiard (not crazy about bents but I have a few), Lovat or Canadian and have taken a shine to the Poker shape lately. So for me up to this point form is the deciding factor. While I do look at the more exotic shapes I have never considered the purchase of one.

Function is the bottom line but it is also your basic crap shoot. You can do a few things to swing the odds a bit more in your favor; a close inspection of detail, and a willingness to spend a few more dollars but a gamble none the less. I like estate Custombilts. Rarely are these pipes perfect, but I don't expect them to be. They were a production item and I get what I pay for. Of course if you want to spend big bucks and invest in a name you can expect the pipe to be a lot closer to perfect than my Custombilts are. If they are not (anybody can let a bum pipe slip by on occasion) the maker and or dealer will more than likely be willing to make it right.

Last month I saw and touched (one for one) with my own eyes 13 suitcases full of new dunhill pipes. Sometimes Mr. Spadoni (dunhill italian representative man) invites some buyers to see new arrivals. I have seen asimmetric pipes wrong, wrong drilling, etc. .. I remember that one buyer told me: "but is this the second line?"
The truth is that we must be able to choose, all brands trying to sell pipe also not perfect. All brands, classical shapes or not, expensive or not.
I have found only 2 pipes that I liked, and I bought.
At the same time I returned my 4103 ring grain shell (bought in December 2007), aesthetically really perfect, beautiful, but terrible smoking.
So... what can I say? Every pipe is a bet. We can win and lose.

While they are assuredly works of art, will they smoke any better than my Peterson Deluxe's or even a $400/$600 Dunhill of conventional shape? For that matter, is a Dunhill two to five times a better smoker than my $250 Petes or my estate Willmers? OOps! Price aside.
Sure, it would be nice to own a few of the pipes shown but I would compare them to putting a photograph of my mother-in-law over the Mona Lisa.
I have found the conventional shapes, billiard, dublin and bents, work well for me and I guess I'll stick to them. Even my Celius' are classic shaped plateau topped dublins (shape 11).