Whilst I was a child, my grandmother always told the stories of a highly intelligent scholar and major official named Ji Yun (Xiaolan), in imperial Qing Dynasty, outwitting his venomous opponents and thereby protecting the emperor. One detail my grandmother brought up many times was that he always smoked a fine Kiseru, whenever he contemplated and deployed wise tact, certainly also as he almost always won, like a cliché. 

The impression of associating wise men with Kiseru, was permanently imbued to me, as a child.

As I grew older, I began to smoke pipes, probably for this subliminal reason.

While smoking most briars and meerschaums, compared with the slender and exquisite Kiserus, I inevitably realize something goes wrong, or at least, not utterly right with them. Finally, I came across why – the regular shapes of our pipes, all become Chubbies ... to me.

Fortunately, Gloredo helps.

Influenced by traditional Chinese and Japanese Kiserus, we always attempt to make a stretched shank for our pipe. 

Unlike the infamous vulgarity of a stretched limousine, a stretched shank carries plenty of invincible merits. Not only does it immensely enhance the aesthetics of a pipe, which is obvious, but optimizes the smoking quality as an intrinsic value, to a large extent, if we investigate. The phenomenon of condensation, is caused by many culprits, such as transitions through-out the entire airway, and the engineering of the smoking chamber. But as we make them all right, then it all boils down to the length of the shank. As we craft a prolonged shank for a pipe, condensation is minimized, since the abrupt transition of material, from the wood, which is inert in conducting heat, unto otherwise the bit, is relieved, and the moisture of smoke is further absorbed and tampered, by the adorable lengthened wood interior. As a pleasant result, we enjoy cooler puffs and best avoid unpleasant tongue bites.

A pipe with stretched shank provides pragmatic benefits for good smoke, though it also exponentially increases the risks of spotting new flaws that will frequently force a pipe maker downgrade the pipe in various ways, or worse, even make them end up as discards.

Based on the rationales, Gloredo makes as many pipes with beautiful stretched shanks as we can, ignoring the higher costs entailed during the quest.  Just as many other things in life: there're actually very few shortcuts or tricks in achieving something.

Or ... perhaps I am merely stubborn ... for some little reason ...