(from: protonchris) At what price point would you expect a pipe with zero fills?

I won't buy a pipe if it has fills. I'm not very picky on grain, but I can't tolerate putty. I have a very small number of shops I trust online to pick pipes for me that don't have any fills.

after seeing how many holes showed up when I made my own pipes.

What currency? What market? Buying from a shop or firectly from a pipemaker?

Happy puffing /Jesper

But then there's the next question: what constitutes a fill?

It's not a silly question, given that this has been a fairly old discussion and it looks like everybody has a different definition.

In my view, pipes will always be filled somehow. The biggest one the tobacco you stuff in it before you smoke it.

I think this link are intresting.. UVA test on pipes (2 old dunhill and 1 savinelli).
You can see one small white fill point only in Savinelli - the bulldog -

http://crown.claudio...

In my life I have seen putty and fills in all pipes: Peterson (wow, minefield), Savinelli, Mastro de Paja, Anatra, Viprati, Rinaldo, all craft and industrial pipes. Castello too, but not in Dunhill (maybe one day I find).

Really important or not?
I think it's much more important have old briar, seasoned well. (Castello has incredible aged briar stocks). I think it's much more important have a good treatment of interior wood (like oil cured). I think we can smoke very well even with some small fillings. In the end what you see is just the outside, but the problem, if there is a problem, is inside and we can't see.

manufacturer can make. I think a fill is just a way out to make a smooth finish and not show the pit or fissure. It is much simpler than rusticating or blasting as they are both additional work. Fills are not really putty, I think most are briar dust mixed with epoxy. while it can take stain and look reasonably good it does not change as the pipe is smoked. I used to fret over every pit and would chase them. Sand more here and they get bigger, jeez some go all the way to the chamber. Now, it really has to be a really good block with some great potential for me to even bother and even then it is shape first. If it doesn't come out, oh well. It certainly does not effect the pipes ability to be smoked it is just an aesthetic aspect unless it is inside where it could cause a burnout.

Officially Dunhill says that this is their policy not to make fills.

If you smoke a heavily filled pipe, it will eventually seep tobacco juice from those fills. I have one such pipe. It is a BC giant billiard. A beautiful looking pipe and a good smoker. It wasn't expensive (under $100 USD). But, the fills showed up and I was smoking it too much and sure enough my fingers were getting wet. I gave it a rest, polished it heavily with Carnauba wax on my polishing wheel and put it in a normal rotation where it is smoked a few times in ten days. No more leaks and very shiny and beautiful.

I'm not a pipe maker at all. But Briar is best for pipes for lots of reasons all ready expressed in MPC. A fact of briar is its porosity and imperfection in terms of density reulting in the necessity for fills, even in most very expensive high grade grain pipes. At least this is what I have observed and experienced.

I voted 250...but that is not entirely true...I would expect a flawless pipe at that price point. A pipe with no fills could be had for much less...but it would, of course, have some minor spots possible...even if these were the size of a needle point. so anyway...I think about $150 is about right...but you might be able to get one around $100...but to get a fil-less, pit-less pipe...then $250

Cheers,

Josh

If you carefully select your expensive high-end pipes, you are much less likely to get a fill mark of any real significance. Based on my experience, the higher the price, the less imperfections in the briar.

To a great extent, the grain, beauty and the density (lack of fills) play the role in pipe pricing. Just my experience. I recently saw my neighbors new Castello Freehand. It was identical, he said, to one other. However, the one he selected was $300 due to a tiny fill I could not see and the other was $500 and no fills.

What is a fill?

Some kind of paste used for filling caverns in the briar. There would be no big problems with fills if they would not eventually differ in color from the wood. I have this Savinelli Natural, which is good shaped lovat and good smoker, but because of the fills now it has silly patchy finish.

Only two pipes remain in my collection that have fills. One is the 2nd pipe I ever purchased - it will be with me forever simply because its the oldest (I lost the first one darn it). The other is a Peterson Kinsale that is one of the most incredible smokers I've ever owned. I hate the fill ... but it smokes so good I can't imagine of letting it go.

As far as price point ... tough one ... If I spent $250 for a pipe and it had a fill I'd be insanely furious. $100 ... yeah, I guess there might be one there ... but I won't have it.

Now I know what you're talking about.

There are different ways of filling up or hiding a flaw. I guess that, if you're taking about putty fills, $150 is a decent benchmark. Putty fills aren't actually hiding a flaw at all, as you can see. From that price point onwards, I suppose a decent pipemaker can choose to take another route in order to work around a flaw (rusticating or sandblasting or some other solution).

I think it depends on the carver, but generally speaking around $500 USD or more.

based on what you wrote you find it reasonable to spend $450 for a pipe with a big old fill in it? I find that hard to believe given your taste in pipes.