Thamseh Wheat Pipe From Hookah Company

[Sonthert]

Thamseh 28" Brass & Steel "Wheat" pipe
Khalil Maamon 65" Supreme thread wrapped leather hose, medium kelly green, with green, white and gold thread Acrylic head and stem pieces
Kelly green/gold Egyptian jar from Al Amir distributor, circa 2007-2008, gold cross-hatch "argyle" design
Tangiers large phunnel bowl
Tangiers White Grape
Canary Japanese Coals

George at Hookah Company gave me this shank to try, I needed a jar and looked through my old, used jars and found this one with a gasket already on it, tried the shank and it fit perfectly, so it became the jar for it, for the sake of laziness. Who says you can't believe in dumb luck?

This is a new hose and a new hookah and the hose seems to be a little new and loose, as leather hoses will be. Overall, the effect from this dumb luck combination is absolutely beautiful in appearance. The hose, jar and shank kind of blend perfectly together. The tray is brass and reasonably large. The downstem of the shank is a brushed steel finish.

Initially, the flavor was a little strange and off, as the first bowl with a new hookah and hose often is, it calmed down within five minutes and tastes the way I'd expect it to. The pull is quite liberal and feels like a 2007 KM. The ultimate hose is on the short side, but seems to be a competent hose, quite responsive, but not for smoking in a large group where hoses are passed around. Its only 65" (about 5 1/2 ft.) and the scepter and butt ends of the hose are slightly long, as to be expected from a leather hose, the overall effect on the hose makes for a fairly short flexibility and humping the hookah close to my knee, to get hose clearance. Its a little annoying, but the hose draws quite well on this shank.

The shank itself is just mucked up enough in its finish to say its good looking, but not exemplary. There was a sharp burr on the bottom of the downstem and no ball bearing in the vent, but I remedied these problems fairly quickly (~10 minutes). The fold of stem over the taper on the top of the pipe is rough and looks like somebody took a rough hammer and mashed it down, partially splitting it, but not affecting the integrity of the main tube itself. It just looks a little sloppy, thats all.

The draw on the pipe is overall quite liberal, not baggy or loose, but thick, solid and responsive. I would compare it to KM in terms of its draw, Its really quite good, its attractive, it hits well. The hose port is well made, solid, thick, angled fairly well, where some Egyptian hookahs have too flat an angle to their hose port or they're too thin or made from sheet steel.

Make note, this shank was the "pick of the litter" of the Thamseh shanks, the heaviest, densest, most attractive one. Don't apply this Thamseh review necessarily to any Thamseh shank. A good number of them are less competently made.


Thamseh Shank: 90/100 (finish is a little crummy)
KM Supreme Hose: 94/100

Also, the jars from this shipment are unimpressive aside from some of the MZ jars. If I had to rely on one of the Hookah Company's jars, I would feel less favorably towards the overall attractiveness of the composition. This jar is from the high water mark of jars, with newer non-MZ jars being a disappointment by-and-large.

[Sonthert]

Oh, by the way...the taper piece split on this hookah after about 9 months of infrequent use. The hookah is still usable, but water gets up into the taper piece. This is a somewhat common problem I've seen over the years with sheet brass tapers that are found on hookahs. I've never seen it on a stainless steel hookah. The first hookah I ever bought, a brass Egyptian, also developed "taper split". I don't know why they do it. Brass under stress, bent and formed or what.

Its still a good pipe, and I use it once every two weeks or so.