Quote Originally Posted by NeverBend View Post
Trying a Dunhill is something of a right of passage, great mystique.

Regards,

Pete
So true, Pete. I'll never forget when I smoked my first Dunhill. I was at a friend's house where he was teaching me how to replace stems (he had a shop) and he had a few Dunhills. I had always kind of thought that the mystique around Dunhill pipes was all hype, that they were just status symbols, etc. He whipped out a group 4 Bruyere billiard and instructed me to load it up with a tobacco that I had never heard of, 1Q. When I fired it up, it tasted wonderful and cool. I was impressed! He ended up selling me the pipe and it was my first Dunhill. They DO smoke good! At least the older ones. Can't speak about the newer ones because I've never bought a new one. I couldn't figure out what it was about the pipes that made them smoke so well. Another friend, a tobacconist in Nashville, told me of the many steps in the manufacturing process, some of which were trade secrets. He told me that one of the secrets was boiling the bowls in whale head oil, something that is no longer readily obtainable. It made sense to me.