In this episode of No Nonsense Beekeeping, Laurence Edwards (Black Mountain Honey) provides an in‑depth, unboxing review of the Thorn Empire stainless steel beekeeping smoker, supplied free of charge for evaluation. He outlines his three primary criteria for a smoker—build quality, size, and hinge performance—and assesses each in detail. The smoker’s construction features thick, non‑deforming stainless steel, a solid galvanized guard, and a robust pinned hinge. Edwards notes the heavy yet manageable weight, the smooth medium‑light leather‑covered plywood bellows, and the positive airtight seal that aids fuel efficiency. He explains the product line’s material options (stainless steel, galvanized, copper) and size variations, emphasizing the large capacity suited for his apiary. Additional accessories such as a copper‑handled basket insert and a tactile black plastic handle are highlighted for improved fuel flow and ergonomics. While he does not light the smoker in this video, he promises a follow‑up demonstration of it in use and recommends the smoker as a high‑quality, UK‑made tool expected to last a decade or more.
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Today I'm going to review the Empire Stainless Beekeeping Smoker from Thorn Beekeeping. Hi, I'm Laurence Edwards from Black Mountain Honey. Welcome to another episode of No Nonsense Beekeeping. Kindly be provided this smoker free of charge from Thorn Beekeeping, but as always, I'm going to give you my honest review and recommendation for the product. So everyone will be thinking this now, Laurence, you have a smoker fetish problem. Guilty as charged, I do. I've got lots of smokers and I do like to have a play with smokers, but I have to say this is probably the best one that I've had a play with so far. That's what I'm going to talk about in this video review. I'm going to show you what I like about it, give you some really good close-ups of the product, and just tell you why I think it's such a really good smoker. Right, so whenever I'm looking at smokers, I kind of think about 3 main things. The first one is build quality. I want something that's going to last and last and last. Don't want something that's going to break after 1 or 2 years. If you're going to pay a lot of money for a smoker, I want it to last maybe 10 years. This smoker will definitely last 10 years. The build quality is exceptional. It's solid, it's heavy, which is kind of what I like, but not super heavy.
It's not like it's weighing me down like that, but you can just tell.
Superb build quality all the way around. No snaggy edges, really good quality material, nice thick stainless steel that doesn't deform, nice galvanized good quality guard so you're not going to burn yourself. Really do like the build quality of this smoker. Second thing I always look for is size. The smoker needs to be big enough, especially for me in a bee farming operation. I don't want to be going in constantly relighting it I like to have a big large smoker because it makes my operation easier. Now Thorn Beekeeping, they do this in various different sizes. They do it in different materials as well. So they do a stainless steel version, which is the top version. Then they do a galvanized version, which is a little bit cheaper. And they do a copper version as well, which looks really, really nice, but it's probably not going to last as long as a stainless steel. They also do it in a number of sizes as well. So if you don't want a big smoker because it's too big for you, I've only got a couple of beehives. They do various different sizes of this. So the build quality is exceptional. It's large because that's what I like, but they do make various different sizes of it as well. And the third one is, is random. It's a completely random thing that I look for in smokers, and it's because I end up doing this a lot, a huge amount throughout the day. And it's the strength of that hinge. It makes a massive difference. And some of them, they're super light, they really are. I like that when they're super light, but I find the hinge mechanism can fail a little bit quicker. And then some of them— won't name any names— are really stiff. Like, I genuinely can't get used to using them for anything longer than, say, like an hour or so. My hand hurts. This one here, I would say, is probably the best bellows that I've had in terms of that mechanism there. Really nice, smooth, medium-light mechanism. that feels high quality, feels like it's going to last for a long time, isn't too tight on your hands when you're doing it. So the bellows are made of plywood, I would assume, in there. Really nice quality. You can just tell there they've chosen a nice piece of grain, so it looks fantastic. Really nice bit of wood. A little bit of branding up there as well, very subtle. And then you can see from the quality of the material there, so it's pinned down, no sharp edges whatsoever. Really top quality metal folding all the way around. And then the bellows are a very nice solid green leather. And I know some people do have issues with leather bellows in general, but I've never had an issue with them. I find that they clean up really well, no problem getting some soda on them, getting them nice and clean. And what I would say about this one here particularly is the leather is fantastic quality, really nice and thick but really supple Well, and then we move on to the galvanized guard. Really nice fit, the galvanized guard. Sometimes you find with a guard is that you kind of do this and it flexes a lot and it's not really very well connected. I find the one here is connected to it very, very well indeed. It's a nice solid guard, good amount of space between the actual chamber and where you're going to hold it. You can put that between your legs, no problem whatsoever. You're not going to get burnt on that. Next up is the hinge, and it's a very, very nice hinge mechanism. You can see there, it's a pinned hinge. So if that was to ever fail, it'd be really, really easy to replace. It's not reliant on bent metal. Big deciding factor for me with that is nice pinned hinge, gives you a lot of flexibility. So something else I always look for is how easy is it to close and open. And I find with this one, it's not the easiest to close and open. But what it gives you is a very good positive seal. So I'll just take the basket out for a second there, but you can see there, if you push that in, there you go, I got it to pop open. So it's a really nice positive seal, and that's good if you're transferring the smoker around. Means it's going to be airtight, means that you control that airflow really well, which means that you can get it down to a nice slow ember, which means it will last a lot longer as well.
So looking inside the Beehive, obviously you've got your solid tube there.
Solid bottom as well, and then you've got the bellows that will pump in there like that. And that is just something that you place down into the bottom of the smoker to keep all of the fuel from blocking that pipe that we saw earlier. So that just sits at the bottom of the smoker above that pipe, keeps all of the fuel above it, keeps a really good airflow through the fuel. But then what you can also add to this smoker, and I would 100% recommend this, is a basket insert. Really simple construction. Got a nice touch there where you've got this little copper handle for getting it in and out. But these are great. These I find make the flow of fuel considerably better, and it means that you can light them outside using a burner. So what you would do is you'd set that up, put some kindling or whatever you're going to use to get the flame going there, put some smoker pellets in here, or if you're going to use wood chip or cat litter, whatever you're using, get the blower on it, fire it all up. Get it working outside, and then you can just pop that directly into the smoker. And obviously I've got the basket insert there at the bottom. I'll take that out now. You'll see that goes all the way in. So you just take the basket insert, pop that in, goes all the way down to fit around that pipe. So next thing to talk about is the handle. I love that they've got a little black plastic handle on here, really nice and tactile, really easy to use. Makes that operation so much easier having a good quality little handle there to Open the spout of the smoker.
So there we go, that's it for the unboxing. I'm not going to get it lit today because I may use it as a prize in the upcoming months.
If you want to get hold of this smoker, let me know in the comments, but I'm not going to light this one just today.
So there you go, that's the first look at the Thorn Empire stainless smoker.
I'm going to do another video later on in the year showing that one in use, but my first impression of it is that it's a really good, top-quality, UK-made smoker that will give you years and years of service.
So I hope you enjoyed that video. I hope you found it useful.
I'll stick a link up in the comments if you want to buy yourself an Empire smoker. Definitely recommended by me. But as always, please hit the subscribe button, please hit the bell so you're notified of every video, and I'll see you next time.
