Musing On Bits: Difference between revisions

Dunhill’s ‘push’ bit while not invented by Dunhill may well have been an important reason for its early success.  At the time Dunhill began making briar pipes, circa 1911, most pipes were fitted with either ‘screw-in’ or ‘military’ bits and I suspect that the relatively few that were fitted with ‘push’ style bits had ‘fit’ problems because the briar bowl and vulcanite bit were probably made separately.  In contrast Dunhill’s ‘push’ bit was rough fitted to the rough cut bowl and went through the finishing process with its bowl, rather then being hastily introduced at the end of the process.  These hand cut bits probably represented better then a third of the overall pipe making labor and fit the shank so well that a small ‘white dot’ was added to the bit to indicate the top of the bit.  So all and all the bit is an important element of a Dunhill pipe.