Pipe Accessories

Pipe accessories is the name given to the full range of auxiliary items that fall outside the pipe and the tobacco itself. At one end of this broad set sit a handful of pieces genuinely required for daily use; at the other end are individually crafted, signed items that are themselves objects of collecting. Accessories make up a large branch of tobacciana, the broader field of tobacco-related collecting.

Lighting Tools

The oldest and simplest solution is the wooden match; those who prefer it usually cite the odor left behind by burning liquid fuel as their reason. A match is not entirely odorless either, which is why smokers wait for the sulfur on the match head to burn off before bringing the flame to the tobacco. Users of liquid-fuel lighters have developed a similar habit of waiting.

The technical basis of the lighter rests on ferrocerium, the spark-producing alloy known as flint, developed by Carl Auer von Welsbach in 1903. A few milestones stand out in brand history: Dunhill's Unique, released in 1924, is considered the first one-handed lighter; Colibri, founded by Julius Lowenthal in 1928, introduced piezoelectric ignition in 1961; and Zippo, founded by George G. Blaisdell in Bradford, Pennsylvania in 1932, produced its first lighter the following year. Zippo has a model made specifically for pipes; it differs from the standard model in having a hole in the side of the windscreen. This hole lets the flame be drawn into the bowl with a draw. Whether naphtha-based fuel taints the smoke with odor is still debated. Records also note that the Nimrod Pipe Lighter, the Nimrod Commander, and the Beattie Jet Lighter were among the main pre-butane pipe lighters on the American market.

In the 1950s, fuel across the industry shifted from naphtha to butane, which offered both a more controlled flame and less odor. The best known of the butane pipe lighters is the Old Boy line from the Japanese maker IM Corona, whose own history traces its founding back to 1933. The Old Boy retains the old-style flint-and-wheel mechanism despite the change in fuel. Its flame is directed to the side at roughly a ninety-degree angle rather than straight up, so the lighter does not need to be tilted to light the bowl. A small piece attached to its body doubles as both a tamper and a cleaning rod. Kiribi is another maker that has adopted the same side-flame principle and flint mechanism. Jet or torch lighters designed for cigars, by contrast, are not used with pipes: their blue flames, which burn at much higher temperatures, are considered capable of causing lasting damage to the bowl.

Tamper, Ashtray, and Stand

The tamper is used to press down the tobacco settling into the bowl and regulate the burn; among the small accessories, it is the one piece genuinely considered indispensable. Its simplest form is a plain metal rod, though examples in exotic wood, antler, hardwood with a silver base, and cast pewter are also common. Some craftsmen make nothing but tampers; this small tool is one of the places where craft concentrates most heavily in the accessory world.

Since knocking a pipe against a hard edge to empty it wears down the rim, pipe ashtrays are made with a separate part built to take that job on: a hemispherical cork ball set into the center. When the pipe is tapped against this soft surface, the ash falls away and the rim stays intact. The body is usually wood, glass, or ceramic; some models include a slot for resting the pipe, others a small drawer for small tools. Racks and stands form a separate category of their own: plain briar pieces holding a single pipe are made alongside units that hold several pipes together, or that combine a stand with an ashtray in a single body.

Storage and Cleaning

Tobacco begins drying out once opened; jars are used to slow this process, and most come with a small piece that, once moistened, releases moisture slowly. For the historical forms of these jars, see Tobacco Boxes, Jars, and Tins; for current methods, see Storing Pipe Tobacco. On the cleaning side, the pipe cleaner, brush, and alcohol form the standard kit; details are gathered in Pipe Cleaning and Pipe Repair. Filter and moisture-absorbing systems are covered separately, in Pipe Filters.

Deep cleaning of estate pipes relies on a device called a retort. Alcohol is boiled in a glass tube attached to the mouthpiece by hose; the vapor travels the length of the smoke channel and loosens years of built-up residue. Because it involves a flammable liquid at a boil, this method is dangerous in inexperienced hands.