Huh. You don't say.

"However, the metal pipes could be painful if jolted into someone's eye, and they were not widely used." -- Ivor Noel-Hume, Artifacts of Colonial America

Um, I'm pretty sure a ceramic pipe would also be pretty painful if jolted into someone's eye. Did this happen a lot? Who knew pipe smoking was an ocular hazard? Perhaps we ought to petition to get a warning placed on pipe tobacco packaging.