Customer Reviews (7 Total)
With his black clay pipe...
March 07, 2021
Product: Old German Clay Markus Fohr Flowing Fountain Black
Personally I love this pipe. This particular shape and mold. Yes some of them are not perfect. Bendy stem, crooked airway. But with a bit of practice this has become my top pipe. Even over some of my tried and true briars. Its greatest pro: no burnou... Read More
t. Fill it again right after as Holmes would do and enjoy. Depending on how you smoke that may become a bit wet. I’m a gentle puffer with this pipe. It also helps to keep the heat down on this bowl because it WILL burn your fingers if it gets too hot. The pipe itself can handle it being fired at some 1000+ degrees. But your fingertips won’t. Its greatest Con: it breaks easily. I’m on my 7th pipe currently. However I’m happy to say that this 7th has been the longest lasting now that I’ve learned to smoke it and handle it with care. It will not be everyone’ choice pipe but it is certainly mine. Try it out with some flake like C&D’s Bijou or S&G. I’ve recently tried John Cotton’s Double Pressed Virginia & Dark Fired. For me... it was fire on the mountain under a clear night winter sky. Just my take on it. Whatever you enjoy most give this pipe a try. It may be more satisfying than you thought. Read Less
My New Favorite
December 22, 2020
Product: Old German Clay Markus Fohr Flowing Fountain Black
This has become my new favorite pipe. I love its modest ornamentation - classy without being gaudy or ostentatious. I love its bowl - sufficient without being a weighty commitment. Its length is comfortable and I've found myself holding it as I would... Read More
a pencil, with the stem resting in the crook between my first and second fingers. One tip: use an emery board to smooth the mouth piece of any ruggedness from the molding so it feels even more comfortable on the lips. Read Less
Product: Old German Clay Markus Fohr Flowing Fountain Black
With a fair amount of ornamentation this is a very balanced clay pipe. A medium sized bowl, just great for a 30 minute smoke.
Pipes Sherlock would smoke
March 03, 2022
Product: Old German Clay Markus Fohr Flowing Fountain Black
When I received this pipe, I was disappointed.
Surface cracked in the black finish, curved stem, not impressive to look at. I filled it with my favorite tobacco and wow, it smoked better than my brair pipes.
I then bought more and the enjoyment is b... Read More
etter than expected. Cool dry smoke is amazing.
Easy to maintain. Takes you back in time. Smoking pipes has a great collection of clays.
In fact smoking pipes.com is keeping my hobby alive. Thank you Read Less
Re-Review
August 15, 2021
Product: Old German Clay Markus Fohr Flowing Fountain Black
I had to give this pipe another shot. I do still think it’s cheap and low quality, but there are a few pros to offset the many, many cons. The first thing to take note of is that it does give a very dry smoke. This may be due to the small size of the... Read More
bowl — its not being able to hold much tobacco — or it may be that the clay absorbs moisture, or both. But the smoke is indeed very dry, which is great. Next, it does hold a light well. Whether yours does or not will depend on your tobacco, your packing method, your smoking speed, etc., but if you use all the conventional techniques — smoke slowly, sip-don’t-gulp, etc. — it will hold a light quite well. Now, onto the cons. It is fragile as hell. It will break. The bowl might even crack on its maiden voyage. The bowl is quite small. The bowl gets very, VERY hot. Finally, the worst thing about this pipe, which is indeed rather catastrophic, is the damage it does to the taste and aroma of very fine tobaccos! It tastes and smells like a kiln, like burnt clay. It stinks. You will still taste your tobacco, of course, but it will taste like a dirty cigarette from a corporate machine factory. It might taste like a relatively fine cigarette, depending on what you pack into the bowl, but we smoke pipes because they smell and taste so much better than cigarettes.
In summary, it’s inconvenient because it’s too hot to handle by the bowl and too delicate to handle in the manner of most any other pipe; and it utterly destroys the complex taste and nuanced aroma of your fine tobaccos, which completely defeats the purpose of pipe smoking. They smoked these things in the 1800s and earlier because they were cheap and easily made and readily acquired by even the lowliest of peasants. These days, with pipe smoking having seen an economic reversal — having gone from being a treasured smoking option of the proletariat to becoming ever more expensive and supplanting the cigar as the favorite of the rich capitalists — if you can afford to smoke a pipe, you can afford to smoke a REAL pipe. German Clays are a kitschy curio these days, a quaint reminder of earlier times, and nothing more. As functional tools, they are terrible. Yuck! Leave the “oily, black clay pipe” firmly in the pages of Doyle’s Holmes, in the 1800s, where they belong. Read Less
Get What You Pay For
January 28, 2021
Product: Old German Clay Markus Fohr Flowing Fountain Black
Yes, this pipe is very inexpensive and we should expect to get what we pay for, but I guess I expected more. The bowl is not round and it is of an inconsistent thickness; the stem is not straight but bent, and almost kinked in several places; it is n... Read More
ot of solid texture but extremely spongey and porous. Read Less
Not too shabby!
July 02, 2020
Product: Old German Clay Markus Fohr Flowing Fountain Black
Enjoyed the pipe, clean cool smoke, but like all clay pipes, very delicate, and the bowl gets hot, so there’s no comfortable place to hold it.