Christian Pipe Smokers

I have a Parker and I just got a Hardcastle, both pipes were made after Dunhill took over the 2 companies. The parker is kind of plain, but a good smoker. The Hardcastle is well executed, but has a number of fills, don't know how it smokes yet.

So my questions are:

Were these stand alone brands that made pipes under the oversite of Dunhill but were not Dunhill craftsmanship?

OR

Were these pipes that got carved by Dunhill, but then didn't, for some reason make the "Grade" and were stamped/branded to Parker/Hardcastle?

This is when we all miss wosbald....

IDK. But this would be an interesting question on UJ. There's a couple of guys that may be able to answer this.

But I will say this, I bought a new Parker at a shop in Houston, ~2008 timeframe, and when they packaged it for me it was in a Dunhill box.

It was always my understanding that they were Dunhill bowls that didn't make the grade cuts. The stems are likely lower graded material but not sure about that. Great bargains though if you want the Dunhill experience without the price tag.

Here is a response I got from the bird hunters...

It's thought that all of Dunhill's "stummels" (rough turned bowls) were actually done somewhere in France and then shipped to England for grading and finishing by Dunhill.

Anything that wasn't up to Dunhill's quality standards were sold to other makers and when Parker and Hardcastle were purchased by Dunhill they went directly to them. Dunhill has said you will never find a fill on their pipes but I don't think that's true, they are just few and far between and very minor.

However, the wood used in Parker and Hardcastle's was just as high quality and aged as Dunhill's so their smoking quality is the same at a much lesser price.



and a link https://pipedia.org/wiki/Parker

This is the HardCastle. You can see quite a few fills...The carving is well done and it is a large pipe with some nice grain. It could be rusticated...but to start I will clean it up and see how it smokes and then go from there.

SlowToke wrote: ↑31 Mar 2024, 16:48 It was always my understanding that they were Dunhill bowls that didn't make the grade cuts. The stems are likely lower graded material but not sure about that. Great bargains though if you want the Dunhill experience without the price tag.

Wayne
Thanks...I was hoping this was the case, as I like a bargain...$25 or $30 for Higher Quality...win win