Liverpool

Liverpool is a straight pipe shape formed by joining a long, round-sectioned shank with a short, tapered mouthpiece (stem). The bowl proportions preserve Billiard dimensions; what actually defines the shape is the unusually long distance the shank runs from bowl to lip. Because of this, Liverpool is classified as part of the four-member group known as the Canadian family.

Its Place in the Family

The members of the Canadian family are distinguished by two variables: the shank's cross-section and the mouthpiece type. Liverpool falls into the box where a round shank meets a tapered mouthpiece in this grid. Canadian also uses a tapered mouthpiece, but its shank is oval-sectioned; the only thing separating the two shapes, then, is the shank's cross-section, and from a distance their silhouettes look almost identical. Lovat shares the same round shank as Liverpool but is finished with a saddle-type mouthpiece. These definitions are largely credited to Bill Burney's widely used shape charts, which group all four shapes together under the heading "long shanks." For a detailed comparison, see the long shanks entry.

On proportion, the criterion often cited in the community is that on a Liverpool the shank length exceeds twice the bowl height. The same criterion is generally kept more modest for Lovat; a Lovat's shank most often stays below that limit. Since the boundaries shift from one manufacturer to another, these definitions should be understood as an established convention rather than a strict standard.