This is aimed at all of you pipe smokers. I just finished my second bowl of the day, and until I find pipegeeks.com, I guess this seems like the best place to be asking questions.
1. I'm noticing that my tobaccos are starting to get a little on the dry side. Any advice for getting some moisture back into them?
2. I've been using my pipe alot more frequently that I used to, as in at least once a day, but usually more than once a day. Is it time to get a second pipe into rotation?
3. Any favorite tobaccos? I've been mostly smoking the blends from my B&M, but I picked up a can of MacBaren Virgina no 1 a couple weeks ago thats not too shabby either?
I've been smoking the pipe for about...6 months now, by the way.
Hey, nice to see another pipe smoker! I'll do my best to answer your questions--been smoking them for about thirteen years, but cannot consider myself an expert by any means, although the pipe doesn't go out very often anymore...
1.) To rehydrate, put the dried tobacco into a bowl and cover with a wet paper towel. Takes a few hours, but is very gentle and works quite well.
2.) Definitely time for more pipes. Don't do what I did, I caught the bug and now have well over a hundred pipes, mostly old english pipes from the turn of the last century to the mid-fifties. I'd suggest a meerschaum or a corncob if you are on a budget, as both need minimal rest (none at all on the part of the meerschaum) and break in quickly. Bonus for the meer is that it will eventually color up to a neat shade of brown.
3.) My favorite tobacco is dunhill light flake, about nine dollars a fifty gram tin around here. Try some latakias, they might hit your spot. If you like flavored tobaccos, take no crap from anyone and smoke exactly what you like.
4.) A free tip. Try breath smoking. That's where you use the natural inhalation exhalation pattern to create a vacuum and let your pipe smoke itself. The slower you smoke, the cooler the smoke. Works for me anyway...
Have fun, listen to everyone but ultimately it's your taste that determines what you smoke and how you smoke it. Hope this helped a little
Paul
Breath smoking, eh? Please elaborate, I'm quite interested. Does it involve, uh, breathing?
And I think I'm going to stick to briar for the second pipe, and then maybe go for meer on the third. Hopefully something semi-compact this time around for easy portability.
Breath smoking sounds complicated, but it really isn't. It helps to be sedentary. Basically, when you are smoking, rather than take a puff everytime you should try simply breathing in and out through your nose while keeping the pipe stem in your mouth. This creates a vacuum allowing some smoke to be brought into your mouth and pushed back out through the pipe (sort of a slight bellows effect). Every couple of breaths, the smoker takes a real puff. Keeps the old thing lit, what?
Give it a try, and realize it takes some practice. May or may not work for you. Just something I do.
PI
Quotepaulian3 - 6/27/2008 5:56 PM
Breath smoking sounds complicated, but it really isn't. It helps to be sedentary. Basically, when you are smoking, rather than take a puff everytime you should try simply breathing in and out through your nose while keeping the pipe stem in your mouth. This creates a vacuum allowing some smoke to be brought into your mouth and pushed back out through the pipe (sort of a slight bellows effect). Every couple of breaths, the smoker takes a real puff. Keeps the old thing lit, what?
Give it a try, and realize it takes some practice. May or may not work for you. Just something I do.
PI
I've developed a technique that's very similar, maybe the same. It keeps my mouth from getting scorched. Keeps the pipe cool. Good advice.
QuoteAstronaut318i - 6/27/2008 2:23 PM
This is aimed at all of you pipe smokers. I just finished my second bowl of the day, and until I find pipegeeks.com, I guess this seems like the best place to be asking questions.
**We need a section here called pipegeeks. We have coffeegeeks and pipe smoking is closer to cigar smoking than coffee drinking is.
I've been using my pipe alot more frequently that I used to, as in at least once a day, but usually more than once a day. Is it time to get a second pipe into rotation?
**Corn cob pipes aren't only cheap, they're a darn good smoke! All my pipes are filtered. My favorite pipe, a fancy Turkish hand-carved Meerschaum Block. When you decide to buy one, I can show you on Ebay where you can get a $150 pipe for $75. It uses a European size filter. You can get those very cheap in bulk also. As for rotating, I usually switch from a pipe to a cigar, back to a pipe and so on. That gives your pipe plenty of time to cool off.
QuoteAstronaut318i - 6/27/2008 2:23 PM
This is aimed at all of you pipe smokers. I just finished my second bowl of the day, and until I find pipegeeks.com, I guess this seems like the best place to be asking questions.
3. Any favorite tobaccos? I've been mostly smoking the blends from my B&M, but I picked up a can of MacBaren Virgina no 1 a couple weeks ago thats not too shabby either?
I'd have to know what you like so far. Have you tried English blends? They are very different and worth trying. There are lots of good flavored blends. Avoid the ones with a bite, like MacBarons. McClellands is good. They have a good Dominican Maduro blend. I can recommend a great Honey blend and a great beginner's English blend.
I keep talking about taking this pipe thing up. My wife probably wouldn't be happy to see me take yet another "hobby." My dad smoked pipes and used to have a ton of pipes and paraphenalia. I wonder what happened to them all.
I smoked unfiltered, its definately something I'd like to try though. Maybe I'll pick up a pack of filters tomorrow.
What I've liked...the MacBaren's Virgina isnt bad, its a little sweet for my tastes though. I havent tried any English blends yet, so I'd definately like to try one. As for what the blends the B&M has...couldnt tell you off the top of my head whats in them.
I'm interested in trying a flake tobacco as well, just to change it up.
And I would adore a PipeGeeks section.
Wham Bam Kalamazam! Done. We now have a Pipe Geeks forum. I think it definitely makes sense to have one so folks have a place to congregate for pipes. I thought about doing it before, but just slipped my mind.
-Paul
This is like the second most exciting moment of my life.
[The first most exciting life was when my guitar forum finally got a dedicated buy/sell/trade section]
I smoked from a pipe one time it was the greenest tobacco EVER. Now that i think of it I dont think it was tobacco hmmm but it was years ago... Mayby I should keep my mouth shut
Funny you mention that because I went with a coworker to the "tobacco water pipe" store yesterday. I was curious to know if one could actually smoke tobacco in any of those. Or if you'd want to.
QuoteSenorPablo - 6/27/2008 11:25 PM
Wham Bam Kalamazam! Done. We now have a Pipe Geeks forum. I think it definitely makes sense to have one so folks have a place to congregate for pipes. I thought about doing it before, but just slipped my mind.
-Paul
Thanks, but please correct the spelling of connoisseurs.
QuoteAstronaut318i - 6/27/2008 11:54 PM
Funny you mention that because I went with a coworker to the "tobacco water pipe" store yesterday. I was curious to know if one could actually smoke tobacco in any of those. Or if you'd want to.
I would think you'd have more of a reason to smoke tobacco in a water pipe than that other stuff. Tobacco is cheap. So what if part of it is lost in the water?
Of course, the green stuff is very harsh and could use a run through water. Not that I remember, it being about 40 years since I tried it.
QuoteAstronaut318i - 6/27/2008 11:35 PM
This is like the second most exciting moment of my life.
[The first most exciting life was when my guitar forum finally got a dedicated buy/sell/trade section]
Wow, your life has been one big roller coaster!
QuoteAstronaut318i - 6/27/2008 11:14 PM
I smoked unfiltered, its definately something I'd like to try though. Maybe I'll pick up a pack of filters tomorrow.
What I've liked...the MacBaren's Virgina isnt bad, its a little sweet for my tastes though. I havent tried any English blends yet, so I'd definately like to try one. As for what the blends the B&M has...couldnt tell you off the top of my head whats in them.
I'm interested in trying a flake tobacco as well, just to change it up.
And I would adore a PipeGeeks section.
When you refer to the tobaccos of your B&M, do you mean commercial blends or store blends kept in a big glass jar?
Little plastic bags, actually. And they have it posted on their wall what the blends are, so I think I'll take note next time I'm there.
As for a rollercoaster...yeah. Keep in mind both of these things have been in about a three week time span.
The water pipes...you know, its something I'd kind of like to try. But I live in a college town so it seems like I'd be asking for trouble if I smoked it in public. But they have lots of cute things too. The guy I was with bought a little thing called a "cube" which was kind of like legos for herb.
QuoteAstronaut318i - 6/28/2008 1:09 AM
As for a rollercoaster...yeah. Keep in mind both of these things have been in about a three week time span.
Sorry about the boring rest of your life from a month ago back.
Its all downhill from here. Until I get my first two cigar passes. Then its back downhill again.
Quoteljlemer - 6/28/2008 12:41 AM
QuoteSenorPablo - 6/27/2008 11:25 PM
Wham Bam Kalamazam! Done. We now have a Pipe Geeks forum. I think it definitely makes sense to have one so folks have a place to congregate for pipes. I thought about doing it before, but just slipped my mind.
-Paul
Thanks, but please correct the spelling of connoisseurs.
LOL...I knew I'd screw that spelling up so I searched google just to make sure I had it correct. Unfortunately I guess others spelled it wrong as I did.
Normally I wouldn't care about spelling errors, but since it is in the description of the forum I guess i'll fix it.
I picked up some Dr Grabow pipe filters today. They didnt fit in my pipe.
QuoteAstronaut318i - 6/28/2008 10:07 PM
I picked up some Dr Grabow pipe filters today. They didnt fit in my pipe.
lol. You might need a fatter, shorter filter. Or else it doesn't fit because your pipe doesn't take filters. Did you check that out? What kind of pipe is it?
Its a briar of some kind. No idea the brand. It doesnt seem like its meant to take filters, its got a very narrow passage through the mouthpiece.
I preferred Black Russian when I was into the pipe, I had an old sherlock holmes pipe my dad gave me.. wish I could get a pipe to smoke cool and also stay lit.. I'd stick with it..
I had a glorious bowl this morning. The first load had burned kind of hot, and I took my pipe tool and scooped out all of the totally white bits, leaving it half full with blackened, half smoked tobacco. Then I loaded a fresh plug on top and lit that up and it burned beautifully cool and delicious for a really long time. Jackpot!
New pipe day!
Its by Savinelli [sp?]. Natural and it seems unsealed, unconditioned, unfinished or something. Its supposed to change color from smoke and hand oils. Its very schweet.