Silver Palm Leaf Pipe (Credit Card Pipe) - Original

The Credit Card Pipe is the original compact pipe with an in-built cooling system. The smoke travels through the channels cut into the metal base before it gets to the mouthpiece, cooling down as it goes. The stainless steel base is held on by strong magnets, making it easy to take apart for cleaning.

The multi award-winning Silver Palm Leaf Pipe is currently featured in the Design Museum and V&A in London. It was also nominated for a BBC design award, but when the judges found out that some people were using it for smoking illegal substances, they disqualified it!

We trust that our customers will only use products sold on Shiva Head Shop for legal activities.

The Silver Palm Leaf pipe has gone through a couple of incarnations, but we are proud to state that they have gone back to their original roots to bring you this perfect pipe. From the horse's mouth:-

"There have only been two versions of the pipe, the original, currently sold in a white box and version 2, as was sold in a grey box.

The original, launched in 1993 is made by lost-wax casting stainless steel and the version 2 which was a die-cast zinc alloy.

In 1992 when I designed the SPL I wanted to make the best pipe possible, using the best materials. I wanted to create a product that would last a lifetime. The only material that fulfilled all the criteria was stainless steel. It took over a year working with various foundries to develop a process that could cast an item as thin as the SPL pipe, in places, the steel is less than half a millimetre thick. The pay-off for using this process is that it's impossible to get a finish that could subsequently be polished.

When we entered the naughties, in keeping with the times, we wanted produce a high chrome, mirror finish version, to achieve this we had to change the production method to die-casting ( version 2 ). Over time it became clear that the die-cast method produced an inferior product, it certainly did not withstand a lifetimes' use. The choice was obvious, we had to return to our stainless steel roots.

There are a few mis-conceptions about the Silver Palm Leaf that I'd like to clear up.

"It's not the original" The pipe is produced using the original 1993 tooling, if it has the "tree" logo it is an original. The back plate should also carry the "hallmark" logo. This is the exact same product that has, among other things, been exhibited at the Design Museum and featured on the BBC Design awards.

"The back plate is loose" The plate has to be smaller than the recess it fits in to ensure it sits flat against the baffles. This was not the case with version 2. After one or two smokes the plate will stick to the main body and not move about.

"The finish on the original is worse than version 2" Whilst it's not all bright and shiny when new, the stainless steel will develop a patina and improve with age. The version 2 looked pretty at first but deteriorated with time. What's more the steel can be fully refurbished, it is truly indestructible." - Jamie, Inventor of Silver Palm Leaf Pipes.

Content produced on 26/04/2017