Parkdale Brass Disrupting Metal Handcrafted Luxury Cannabis Pipe

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The physical act of smoking your most precious herbs can be a very pleasurable experience or a harsh wake-up call. If your sesh is harsh against your throat, maybe it’s time to use a better implement when smoking above said cannabis. It’s wasteful to use a pipe that doesn’t treat you right. Luxury is the path of the working person. To afford the best it’s important to work hard for it. Nothing good comes easily. Let me be the first to tell you this.

The art of smoking cannabis is as old as time itself and brass has been used as a smoking implement since at least the Iron Age. I can’t say if what they were smoking in those pipes was cannabis, but at the very least it was a mixture of hemp (used to make sailing rope- boats don’t sail without lines to trim the sails and they certainly weren’t made of nylon!) and tobacco. There was a robust trade of hemp and tobacco between the Old World and the New World, kept dry in empty casks that held wine or even rum. The sales of tobacco and hemp in international trade goes back hundreds of years and sailors had to do something on board ships when the wind didn’t blow. That would be smoking. What were they smoking in their brass pipes?

Good question! Maybe it was cannabis? It probably was hemp and tobacco mixed together if history serves as my guide. I write about rum and was a former Ministry of Rum judge, so my chops are clear. Hemp was absolutely smoked back in the day of sail.

Brass is a luxury alloy used in the manufacturing of all sorts of hard goods using in various forms of manufacturing. From pasta dies, (some of these cost tens of thousands of dollars) to fine German cameras, Brass can be forged into many luxury objects of desire. Extremely durable and quite heavyweight for the size, it is also nearly indestructible, if slightly soft, but you wouldn’t notice this unless you drop it from height. It will not break, but it may bend. Be cognizant of this.

The fine German cameras named Leica are also made of brass. The elegant, soft hue that reveals itself over time makes this fine camera even more elegant than just a sum of the parts. Brass is amazing and only gets better looking with age. The patina is quite lovely on this pipe and I know it will warm with time.

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The Parkdale Brass Pipe is disrupting the modern day luxury, cannabis pipe business. I want to hold it in my hand. It is comforting and safe. Where are my matches?

At a passing glance the Parkdale Brass pipe resembles the classic cannabis smoking invention from the 1970’s named the Proto Pipe. I had one of those crafty little brass pipes back before you were born. Yes, I’m really that old. This is is not one of those pipes, although manufactured from similar base ingredients. The solid brass and elegant hue.

Where the Parkdale Brass pipe is different, is not immediately apparent. But upon closer examination, you’ll notice that the place where the fire usually goes on top is attached by three magnets and a solid brass lid. At the bottom of the pipe there appears to be an opening leading into the fire chamber/bowl. There is no carb to let in more air. You control the amount of smoke by how hard you inhale. This pipe is pure luxury and I’m a massive fan of what they are trying to achieve.

It also weighs more than you think it would, so it’s quite assertive in your hand and therefore very pleasing to the touch. There are no hard edges, it’s all pure luxury. When you pull one of these out at a sesh you’ll get all kinds of attention. The very premise of lighting from the bottom up is against gravity! It’s disruptive in every way.

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The learning curve is a bit steep however. You must start your sesh by lighting the Parkdale Brass on the side. That means turn the pipe so the opening is horizontal instead of vertical. The reason for this is to direct the lighter or hemp wick flame directly into the burn area. Then once you get a handle on the action of lighting the pipe, you can turn the pipe so it is vertical and light as normal, from the bottom. I’d also recommend holding the pipe by the stem instead of the base. The base is pretty solid and it can get hot if you use a torch to light your bowl. Another thing, the act of smoking is incredibly efficient. A bowl can last many sessions, a win/win for those of us who don’t have anything to waste. I recommend pushing down your herbs into the chamber so that they contact the heat from below. Makes sense!

This is an extremely well-crafted device that I recommend with a couple caveats.

The first is the basic learning curve. You won’t be an expert the first time that you use this pipe so don’t try to be. Just be humble, the thought process that went into this made it this way for a reason. The other caveat is that your hits will be deceptively smooth, so don’t take too much right away. Use the bong hit principle. If you have a four foot bong, you don’t have to clear the entire tube. Just be patient and smoke the finest flower you can find in a peaceful and calm manner. You’re worth it!