Anyone here smoke a pipe?

ROCK6 said:
Good God Al'mighty!!! Nice collection Guyon...looks about as extensive as your Busse collection:D

I've got to fly to Ft. Huachuca later this week and hopefully make it back for this weekend and hoping I'll get a breather and get to smoke a bowl and have SEVERAL fingers of whiskey:thumbup:

ROCK6
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Well, they say you should rotate your pipes. :p Sad thing is, however, that I could easily get by with just one pipe these days. My favorite is probably a W.O. Larsen. If I kept just one pipe, that one would be it. Those Danes can flat carve a nice pipe.

Most of the rest were bought on the cheap, either by finding new old stock or by getting the occasional estate pipe that had been refurbished. To me, seems like some of the older pipes have better briar than a lot of the newer pipes that are similarly priced. You can still get high quality briar new, but you pay for it.

Here's the Larsen.

Larsen.jpg


Also, here's a pipe tamp that I made. I used some deer antler and a .50 caliber cleaning jag. I ground the concave face flat and polished the heck out of it. I then drilled and tapped the antler to accept the 10x32 threads on the jag.

pipetamp.jpg
 
That Larsen is a beauty Guyon, good stuff. Like your little box for storage, too. I think it's about time I took a group shot!

I like your tamper too, it's silly of me not to have made one.
 
Going back to the OP, one piece of advice is to buy quality tobacco. Even with an inexpensive corn cob pipe (as long as it's functional), the experience of smoking the pipe is elevated if you have good tobacco. Drug store pouch tobacco is usually too dry and has too little flavor IMO. Pipe shop tobacco sold by the ounce can be hit or miss, depending on who prepared it. I actually prefer good tinned tobacco, such as Samuel Gawith tobacco (one of my favorite makers/blenders). If you want to know the qualities of an individual tobacco, check online. Just Google "pipe tobacco reviews," and start reading.

Edited to add: Oh yeah, as for keeping the tobacco, especially long term, I've found that Mason jars work the best. They seal out air and seal in moisture. You can see some of the jars in my picture. If a tobacco gets a little on the dry side, I have some little moisture tabs that I wet and then seal inside the jar. After a day or so, the moisture from the tab permeates the jar and the tobacco, thereby rejuvenating the tobacco a bit. I don't smoke enough to go through a tin in any hurry, and since tinned tobacco is more expensive, I've found that this storage system works better for my smoking habits.
 
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MacHete said:
As for recommendations for the pipe- pick a style you like, be aware that a longer stem or a larger bowl will give you a cooler smoke. Filters can be good, but cheap ones do impart a papery taste to your smoke. in-stem dampers are good because they prevent an inexperienced smoker from sucking down cinders from a poorly-packed pipe.

Tobacco- try as many as you can. I would stay away from the bulk stuff in the drug stores. Find a local 'Tinderbox' or somesuch and talk to them. You can purchase small samples, and they can tell you what is in the blend so you'll know how your tastes run.

Enjoy! (In moderation)
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I agree with what you say about longer stems and larger bowls. One of my favorites, which I'm puffing on right now, is a Church Warden with an 8 inch stem...also has a replacement 3 inch bent stem. Almost identical to the one Darbyfett shows, rustic version :)

Spooky mentioned corncobs. They are a good smoking pipe, cheap and worth the money. You can find the company, Missouri Meerschaum online, they have an 800 number and you can order from them directly. Good friendly people to deal with too.

I politely disagree about the drugstore blends...Prince Albert, Half & Half, Carter Hall, Velvet. These are basic Burley tobaccos, mild, relatively unadulterated. They are inexpensive and worth trying, certainly won't hurt you. I buy Prince Albert by the can :D It's my favorite everyday smoke. Occasionally, I like Latakias. I don't like aromatics because they give me a bite but different people with different taste buds have better results.

There are hundreds of tobacco blends out there to sample. If you have a good local tobacco store, you're lucky, otherwise you can find suppliers online. Try a variety, settle on what you like regardless of what others think.

Here's a site for tobacco reviews:

http://www.tobaccoreviews.com/index.cfm
 
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Guyon said:
All these years and I thought he was in the can. :p
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LOL :D Okay, for the youngsters here, this is the old joke: As kids, we used to call up the local drug store (or tobacco shop) and ask:

"Do you have Prince Albert in a can?"

"Why yes we do," says the unsuspecting druggist.

"Well, let him out, his mother wants him!" (or Queen Victoria, or whoever) and then we would hang up.

And then we would roll on the floor laughing. Good times.

This was before Caller ID.
 
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For those who might wish to carve their own pipes, is there any woods to steer clear of?

Also, is there any finishing that's safe to use? Considering the nature of the piece, obviously chemical wood-finishes and stabilizers are out. Possibly a good, long rubbing with mineral oil to saturate the bowl?

I've thought about getting a pipe for some time, though the idea of carving my own sounds good. I have a small block if hard ironwood which would make a VERY strong bowl, though I'm not sure what I'd make the stem from.
 
Coldwood, we always said, "Well let him out, he's going to suffocate in there."

Holyroller, don't carve a pipe with a butter knife. I had a roommate in college who attempted this maneuver. He sharpened up the knife on his kitchen can opener/knife sharpener and went to work. Few minutes later, he'd severed the tendons in one finger.

After surgery, he went back to work on the pipe and managed to gash open his other hand to the tune of five stitches.

I finished the carving for him with real tools. I think he still has that $3000 pipe somewhere. :p It was kind of cool though. It was in the shape of a big Easter Island statue. You put the "tobacco" in the open mouth, and the pipe was probably about a foot long.
 
I always wanted to start smoking a pipe (not all the time ) but when out for walks or by the fire side etc... I had a bit of experience with less extravagant pipes and filler in my musician years... but that's behind me now at least till I'm retired...but tobacco piping that's classy. I guess there's the whole mouth cancer thing.. But that's the thing about life no one gets out alive.
 
HolyRoller said:
For those who might wish to carve their own pipes, is there any woods to steer clear of?

Also, is there any finishing that's safe to use? Considering the nature of the piece, obviously chemical wood-finishes and stabilizers are out. Possibly a good, long rubbing with mineral oil to saturate the bowl?

I've thought about getting a pipe for some time, though the idea of carving my own sounds good. I have a small block if hard ironwood which would make a VERY strong bowl, though I'm not sure what I'd make the stem from.
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Carving Ironwood sounds like fun and I'm sure it would make a great pipe...but, if you do a search online, you can find sources for kits: a pipe blank made of briar, usually in the freehand style, stem already fitted to it, all you have to do is carve it.

(Edit: Now that I think about it, I may have to get myself one for Christmas. I've always kind of wanted one. The perfect thing to have by my computer, a big honkin' block of briar that I can set on the table)

As far as woods to stay away from, I would say don't make a pipe out of any pine or cedar or other softwoods. It will stink and burn out fast if it doesn't actually go up in flames. Any hardwood from a fruit tree should be fine.

As far as finish, I've bought a few unfinished pipes and just given them a coating of vegetable oil. They will take on their own patina after awhile, from the oils in your hand, and that can be the most attractive finish. No need to varnish.
 
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Guyon said:
I finished the carving for him with real tools. I think he still has that $3000 pipe somewhere. :p It was kind of cool though. It was in the shape of a big Easter Island statue. You put the "tobacco" in the open mouth, and the pipe was probably about a foot long.
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I think that's what they used to call a "bong".
 
Coldwood said:
I think that's what they used to call a "bong".
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Nah, it was a pipe proper. No water involved. I was working as a carpenter for a construction company at the time, and I took it into the shop to use one of the really long 1/8" bits to drill the stem. It did look suspiciously like a weed pipe though. However, half the folks on that crew either smoked weed or sold it. :p

To be honest, I think my roommate really smoked ordinary pipe tobacco out of it more than anything.
 
You beat me to it! I've wanted to start a thread like this for awhile...

I smoke a pipe and have on and off for a few years but consistently for the last year. I have and Anderson briar pipe and smoke English blends mostly. A good resource for some pipe and tobacco reviews is here: christianpipesmokers.org. It's a great hobby to get into and very satisfying.
 
Coldwood said:
I politely disagree about the drugstore blends...Prince Albert, Half & Half, Carter Hall, Velvet. These are basic Burley tobaccos, mild, relatively unadulterated. They are inexpensive and worth trying, certainly won't hurt you. I buy Prince Albert by the can :D It's my favorite everyday smoke. Occasionally, I like Latakias. I don't like aromatics because they give me a bite but different people with different taste buds have better results.
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You're absolutely right. People do have different tastes. I happen to prefer aromatic blends, so my recommendations simply reflect my bias. You make a good point that the drugstore blends are worth a shot for the new pipe smoker.

The very basic tobaccos just remind me more of rolled cigarettes than pipes, and a big part of this association has to do with growing up around men who rolled Prince Albert.
 
Guyon said:
You're absolutely right. People do have different tastes. I happen to prefer aromatic blends, so my recommendations simply reflect my bias. You make a good point that the drugstore blends are worth a shot for the new pipe smoker.

The very basic tobaccos just remind me more of rolled cigarettes than pipes, and a big part of this association has to do with growing up around men who rolled Prince Albert.
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The last tobacco shop we had around here was With Pipe & Book in Lake Placid, where you could actually go in and sniff the stuff, try a bowl outside, and discuss a blend...they would keep a record...and you could order it by phone afterwards. They closed up last year, so now I either have to order something online that I don't know about or go to the drugstore.
 
Of course, if any of you were real W&SS enthusiasts, you would stow your (lanyard-equipped) pipes in form-fitted kydex sheaths with attached fire steels ... ;)

Seriously though, I have been thinking about getting into pipe making for a long time, and the last few weeks have seen a few threads on briar pipes that have only heightened my interest. Looks like I'm going to have to cave in.

Great thread,

- Mike
 
Coldwood said:
LOL :D Okay, for the youngsters here, this is the old joke: As kids, we used to call up the local drug store (or tobacco shop) and ask:

"Do you have Prince Albert in a can?"

"Why yes we do," says the unsuspecting druggist.

"Well, let him out, his mother wants him!" (or Queen Victoria, or whoever) and then we would hang up.

And then we would roll on the floor laughing. Good times.

This was before Caller ID.
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Wow. I'm glad you explained that. For my generation, Prince Albert refers less to the tobacco and more to a particular male-specific piercing...:eek:

That gives "Prince Albert in a can" a whole new meaning!! :D
 
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