Added two pipes & several bowls to my Falcon Pipe collection.

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Very nice

Interesting.

How do they smoke?

Cool & dry.  It can be used with or without the dry ring.
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It's the pipe brand that I use 95% of the time.
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If you don't mind me asking, where'd you order them from? I'm interested in trying a pipe, and "cool" and "dry" are two of my favorite words when it comes to smoking. What's the dry ring, and how often does it need to be replaced?

Thanks!

@GreatDane
I ordered those from J Barber in England.  They have good prices, great service and a huge selection of in stock Falcon pipes & accessories.
If I was just starting out and/or only getting one pipe right now,  I would suggest that you order from one of the companies in the US that sell Falcon pipes.  
Give me a day and I'll work up a 1st timers purchase list from a US company for you.

This is the dry ring.  They come 25 to a pack.  You change them after every bowl.  Some people do not even use them.  Some just cut up pipe cleaners to use in their stead.
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That'd be awesome, thank you! What are the black rings in the first pic in your OP? Just o-rings for the bowls?

Yes.  They go between the bowl and the metal part of the pipe to seal it.  All the new bowls come with them.  Older bowls do not have them.  
They are not available from any source in the US.  They are cheap to buy when you are already placing an order from England.  What you see is several lifetimes worth of the rings.  I bought extras to share.

Gotcha. Since I'll be buying new, I won't need one. Cool.

@GreatDane

One FL company that I order from is completely out of Falcon stems.  Mars Cigar has a very limited stock.

Here's the best "Falcon Starter List" I could do with Mar's limited availability.

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Mars is out of dry rings.  If you do decide to buy a Falcon, IM me and I'll mail you some along with a few samples of different tobaccos to try.

EDIT:  Here's the English Shop I make my larger orders from.  

@WDEagle

Well, I think I'm just going to order from the British site... I have family over there that's coming to visit next month, so I'll just ship it to them.

Is there an advantage to the Meerschaum lined bowls?

WOW, Excellent!

I have a couple of the Meerschaum lined bowls.  To me the primary advantage is that the bowls stay cooler to the touch while smoking.  The disadvantages are that they are much more expensive & you lose a lot of tobacco volume in the bowl. I will probably never buy another one.  

A few more thoughts since you are ordering from there.

1.  You might consider adding an international stem to the order.  It takes the same bowls as the classis stem but adds a (in stem) filter option in addition to the dry ring.  The internationals are not as popular as the classics but I find them an excellent starter Falcon.



2.  I group bowl sizes into one of 3 categories.  Small, large, & chimney.  I prefer the large bowls especially the snifter.  You can fill them up for a long smoke or partially pack them for a quick smoke.  The chimneys are nice for a very long smoke but can be somewhat heavy.  I'd get at least one of the chimneys.

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3.  Be sure to pick up a pack of the seals.  The new bowls do come with seals but if you get the bowl too hot, they can sometimes be damaged.  Some new smokers can smoke too hot until they learn how to sip on a pipe.  These seals are cheap there and are unavailable in the US.

LMK if you want me to do a "James Barber" shopping list for you.

@GreatDane

I forgot to @ you on the post above.  Adding an @ to an edit does not send out the notification.

@WDEagle

I appreciate the offer and the insights! The James Barber website, at least on mobile, is light on details. Do the International stems take the 6mm or 9mm filters?

As far as the shopping list...

I have 15 bowl seals, a rustic Sniftner bowl, a tall Chimney bowl, a standard bent stem, an International bent stem, some dry rings, a briar block pipe stand, and a "PT31" pipe tool. Sound good?

Edit: nevermind, VAT is more than shipping, I'll just have it sent directly to me.

My dad had a couple of these -I always thought they were cool looking - never knew what they were!

6mm I just use Dr Grabow filters.

@GreatDane

Sounds good but I would add ...
- Falcon or tapered pipe cleaners.  Falcon tubes are small so a "fluffy" pipe cleaner will not work.
- Double up on dry rings as they are cheap there and go OOS in the US quite often.
- Add some of the Falcon 6mm filters

Yeah, Screw VAT.  IIRC shipping wasn't as high as I expected.

@GreatDane

If they can legally bring it with them, have them bring some ...

Sam Gawith's Squadron Leader
Sam Gawith's Navy Flake

These are two of my favorite tobaccos but Sam Gawith is basically unobtanium in the States.

@WDEagle

Squadron Leader & Navy Flake both seem available at that US based site... It's gonna be February before my family comes over, and I don't know if it's legal for them to bring me tobacco, sooooo....

Well I'll be damned.  Ordered some more.  THANKS.