Questions About "SilverThing" [Inner Tube] in Dunhill Pipes

[tzinc]

What does the silver thing do? Should I remove it when I smoke will it make any differece?
I doubt they are still being made so eventually I assume it wears out and I will have to smoke without it?

 

[greeneyes]

The silverthing is integral to the smokingexperience! Use it sparingly otherwise the smoke will wear it out!

 

[kcghost]

What silver thing??

 

[Chasing Embers]

The inner tubes are still available.

 

[HawkeyeLinus]

Aluminium! Love the way it's pronounced across the pond which first came to my attention watching "Day Of The Jackal" many moons ago.

 

[tzinc]

are the inner tubes needed? is it just a filter? i don't use filters on my filter pipes like savinelli

 

[verporchting]

It was a big deal when it was patented, intended to provide a cooler drier smoking experience.

They often aren’t present in older pipes and I’ve never used one. They are replaceable if you can find them although I haven’t bothered trying.

Pipe will smoke just fine without them. Enjoy’

 

[ssjones]

They will keep your shank clean and and estate restorer 30 years from now will thank you.

 

[Chasing Embers]

are the inner tubes needed?

Just a disposable lining to keep the airway free of buildup and oxidation. I don't think I've heard anyone regularly using them.

 

[PA Piper Mike]

Aluminium! Love the way it's pronounced across the pond which first came to my attention watching "Day Of The Jackal" many moons ago.

Such a good movie, but the ending had me going: really??? nah...no way.

 

[ssjones]

Such a good movie, but the ending had me going: really??? nah...no way.

View attachment 270603

Ah, I don't remember that, but have a digital copy of that movie in my que.
F1 also calls it "al-u-miney-um"

 

[bullet08]

It's like a fruit fork. You get to pull it out and poke non- Dunhill smokers while smoking to let them know you are smoking Dunhill.

 

[huntertrw]

They will keep your shank clean and and estate restorer 30 years from now will thank you.

Yes!

 

[georged]

It was a big deal when it was patented, intended to provide a cooler drier smoking experience.

They were actually designed as a cleaning work around.

The type of pipe cleaners we have today hadn't been invented yet, and cleaning a pipe's shank was a PITA for everyone. Even bird feathers were used.

Dunhill's solution? Make the part of the pipe that's the problem "throw away-able".

Each time you went to your B&M for the coming weeks' batch of tobacco, you tossed the old tube and replaced it with a new one.

The idea became an ingenious solution to a non-existent problem after wire cleaners appeared, of course, but old habits die hard + it was a patented "brand identifier" feature, so the company kept on with them anyway.

 

[verporchting]

They were actually designed as a cleaning work around.

The type of pipe cleaners we have today hadn't been invented yet, and cleaning a pipe's shank was a PITA for everyone. Even bird feathers were used.

Dunhill's solution? Make the part of the pipe that's the problem "throw away-able".

Each time you went to your B&M for the coming weeks' batch of tobacco, you tossed the old tube and replaced it with a new one.

The idea became an ingenious solution to a non-existent problem after wire cleaners appeared, of course, but old habits die hard + it was a patented "brand identifier" feature, so the company kept on with them anyway.

I stand corrected. Thanks for providing the best answer georged, I don’t want to add to the internet bad information collection! Lord knows there’s enough out there. I mistakenly repeated what I had read somewhere because I thought it was true.

 

[ssjones]

Thanks George. And since our British brethren seem slow to adopting change, it makes sense they would linger.

 

[TheIronMonkey]

The completist collector in me is always grateful when ephemeral, disposable, parts like these tubes are still present; with pipes, it can be these tubes; with toys, the accessories that came with an action figure that were easily lost; with books, maybe a wraparound band that was folded over a dust jacket that announced a new price or award the book garnered—stuff that doesn’t always survive the ravages of time.

When I found my first 1st generation Savinelli Punto Oro circa 1958 with its inner tube still present I was incredibly happy. The second one was missing its tube and I will probably have to fashion a replacement—unfortunately, the whole pipe won’t be 100% original, but it will at least approximate something closer to its original issue state. As an archivist of sorts, it pains me when I see people discard these kinds of things.

 

[Professor Moriarty]

My recently purchased new Dunhill came with an aluminum tube. It enters the bowl, with its airhole opening centered at the bottom of the bowl. Among other advantages, this prevents the drilled smoke hole in the bowl from overheating and cracking at the top.

 

[Chasing Embers]

Thanks for providing the best answer georged

Excluding the information about the availability of pipe cleaners. The ones used today came about in the early 1900s around the same time as Dunhill pipes.

 

[Duck]

I have a Barber B Line Group 4 She'll Briar Lovat which I dropped and cracked a bit out of the mortice.

Now it may be a Dunhill reject, but it's still just a basket pipe. Much as I like it, it's not the sort of pipe you splash out on getting a silver band fitted. So, I tried super gluing the broken off bit back in.

The result was as expected. When I smoked it, expansion caused one side of the repair to fail. Thus I had a leaky pipe with next to no draw.

Next I ordered up some unbranded tubes from an online tobacconist in the UK. The White Spot branded ones are expensive.

I had to widen the first centimetre of the bore in the mouthpiece, from 3.5mm to 4mm, and cut the tube to length. I wasted a tube learning how to cut it. Thin walled aluminium tubes are easily crushed.

Anyway fitting the tube was a success. Effectively it acts as a tenon, and the entire length of the shank became the mortice.

The pipe now smokes as well as it did before. That's how I became a tube user for that one pipe.