Was reading the Cigar Geeks Pipe Forum today, and since we have lots of new participants on the site these days, would like to find out who the pipers are.
I know that Duker and Larry smoke pipes. I recently took up the hobby as well. Anyone else?
Edit: I forgot to mention Guitar Tom, who sometimes mentions what he piped in the Daily Smoke thread.
I've never smoked a pipe, but I might be interested in giving it a try. Any recommendations for a newbie?
Like Rebecca Silverwolf, I am inquisitive enough to try a pipe, but then I really need a spin on my already expensive cigar habit! I did though receive 2 pipes that were my Grandfathers, he died over 50 years ago and before my time, they were handed down by my mother and arent anything fancy,
There are a lots of options when it comes to pipe tobacco. Rebecca, since you seem to like Acid cigars, I think you might like aromatic (i.e flavored) pipe tobacco. A corn cob pipe can be had for in the $5-$10 range. I would recommend surfing the 'net for information about how to pack your piple and other tips. I learned a lot from reading various forums and also there are some helpful youtube videos.
As for tobacco recommendations, I'm just getting started myself, but taste is subjective.
A easy way to start is to buy a pipe starter kit like these at PipesandCigars.com (http://www.pipesandcigars.com/pipes.html) . They start at around $30 and come with everything you need to get started.
I smoke my pipe every so offten, mostly I stick a cigar in it to nub it out.
Is Captain Black in the white package still a viable option? Or is dimestore pipe tobacco a no-no like Thompson cigars? I've spent several hundred dollars on nice briar pipes from Edwards over the years, but I haven't smoked one in ages. All this talk about pipes is making me want to light one up. Dad used to have his own blend at the local Edward's which was 40% black Cavendish, 40% honey Cavendish, and 20% cherry Cavendish. I really miss the aroma.
Quotegitfiddl - 9/1/2009 10:46 AM Is Captain Black in the white package still a viable option? Or is dimestore pipe tobacco a no-no like Thompson cigars?
Just like cigars, anything you like is good. For over-the-counter "drugstore" tobacco, Carter Hall is pretty highly recommended. But if you have a good tobacco shop nearby that offers blends, that may be a better option.
Add me to the Pipe-geek roll.
Right now I only have a solitary Missouri Meerschaum corncob, but just ordered a Yellow-bole. I also did a couple of trades of cigars for some pipe tobacco on another forum.
Now I need to add a couple of inexpensive pipes to the collection and start smoking different blends to find what I like. This is like a whole new world to me. LOL
I've heard about a maduro pipe tobacco that supposed to taste like a cigar. Wouldn't mind trying that.
QuoteAlphairon - 9/14/2009 10:23 PM
I've heard about a maduro pipe tobacco that supposed to taste like a cigar. Wouldn't mind trying that.
It doesn't. It's a decent pipe tobacco, though. (McClelland Dominican Glory Maduro Cigar Blend Pipe Tobacco).
My favorite dimestore brands are Prince Albert and Half & Half. They mix well together, too. Walnut is good too, I recall. Corncobs are all you really need. Newbies should always get a pipe with disposable filter chambers. I never smoke unfiltered pipes.
Just like with cigars, try fancier blends at your peril. Once you're a connoisseur, it's hard to go back to the cheap stuff.
I smoke a Peterson 312 when my parents come to visit (a couple weeks each year). For me, pipe smoking is a social activity, and since I have no pipe-smoking friends in this area, it pretty much just sits there the rest of the year. :-(
I picked up a pipe or two several years ago and really enjoyed it, but have not had anything recently. I'm thinking about getting back into it, but I don't have anything near as nice as some of the pipes I've seen you all show on here.
Quoteakira - 6/13/2010 8:57 PM
I picked up a pipe or two several years ago and really enjoyed it, but have not had anything recently. I'm thinking about getting back into it, but I don't have anything near as nice as some of the pipes I've seen you all show on here.
Cheap corn cobs are some of the best smoking pipes available. The smoke is cool and mild, especially if you use the filters that go with many of them. Don't knock yourself for owning a cheap pipe. Knock yourself for not using it. It's also a lot cheaper than smoking premium cigars. You can put a pipe down and come back to it later. That's a lot stickier with a cigar. You can play tobacco blender with pipe tobaccos. You don't have to have the facilities Don Pepin uses. You can shop around town with a pipe. Stick it in your pocket whenever you enter a no smoking area and then relight it afterward. Try that with a cigar!
QuoteAnthony - 9/14/2009 10:09 PM
Add me to the Pipe-geek roll.
Right now I only have a solitary Missouri Meerschaum corncob, but just ordered a Yellow-bole. I also did a couple of trades of cigars for some pipe tobacco on another forum.
Now I need to add a couple of inexpensive pipes to the collection and start smoking different blends to find what I like. This is like a whole new world to me. LOL
They flavors available with pipe tobaccos are much broader than with cigars. That not only includes what you can purchase, but how you blend them at home.
Quoteljlemer - 9/14/2009 11:18 PM
My favorite dimestore brands are Prince Albert and Half & Half. They mix well together, too. Walnut is good too, I recall. Corncobs are all you really need. Newbies should always get a pipe with disposable filter chambers. I never smoke unfiltered pipes.
I revisited Walnut and was not as impressed. I have found that I can smoke my fancy meerschaum without a filter most of the time.
Quotekola - 6/13/2010 1:32 PM
I smoke a Peterson 312 when my parents come to visit (a couple weeks each year). For me, pipe smoking is a social activity, and since I have no pipe-smoking friends in this area, it pretty much just sits there the rest of the year. :-(
That's all in your head. You can unlearn that bias. There are herfers that can only smoke cigars socially. That's an attitude problem also. Throughout your entire life your best friend, if you allow yourself, will be yourself. Enjoy your solitude with a good pipe or cigar. You're not really alone. You are with yourself.
Quoteljlemer - 6/14/2010 5:05 AM
Quotekola - 6/13/2010 1:32 PM
I smoke a Peterson 312 when my parents come to visit (a couple weeks each year). For me, pipe smoking is a social activity, and since I have no pipe-smoking friends in this area, it pretty much just sits there the rest of the year. :-(
That's all in your head. You can unlearn that bias. There are herfers that can only smoke cigars socially. That's an attitude problem also. Throughout your entire life your best friend, if you allow yourself, will be yourself. Enjoy your solitude with a good pipe or cigar. You're not really alone. You are with yourself.
Yeah I agree, it's all in my head. Maybe if I got a pipe holder it would seem better. Usually when I smoke alone I am also doing something else ... reading, tinkering with some gadget, or whatever, and all too often I need all three hands.
Quotekola - 6/14/2010 8:10 AM Maybe if I got a pipe holder it would seem better. Usually when I smoke alone I am also doing something else ... reading, tinkering with some gadget, or whatever, and all too often I need all three hands.
Cobs are good for that...they are usually flat on the bottom and you can set them down on a flat surface and they won't roll over.
If you are in the garage, you can use a roll of electrical tape for a pipe holder...just set the bowl down in the center of the roll.
Bean bags work pretty well too. I'm sure you have plenty of things laying around that will hold your pipe while you're working.
I smoke a pipe occasionally. The skill to keep the bowl right is not easy for me.
Here's a decent starter pipe kit ($40) for those that are interested: http://www.cupojoes.com/cgi-bin/spgm?dpt=W&srch=DW&item=sav01kit
Occasionally I'll smoke my pipe, usually turning to Frog Morton's English Tobacco. :biggrin:
I see that pipe smokers let their pipes go out and resume smoking later. What factors keep pipe tobacco from turning foul and rancid like some relit cigars? Does the shorter tobacco column collect less stale smoke or something?
Good question...I'm not sure why that is, but also the storage requirements for pipe tobacco are a lot less rigid....the two phenomonon may be related.
I smoked a corn cob some in college, but have not smoked a pipe in over 20 years. I might have to try again.
QuoteTwinky - 8/31/2009 8:34 PM
I smoke my pipe every so offten, mostly I stick a cigar in it to nub it out.
I do that too, but only if it's a really great smoke that I don't want to end.
QuoteAlphairon - 9/15/2010 7:57 AM
I see that pipe smokers let their pipes go out and resume smoking later. What factors keep pipe tobacco from turning foul and rancid like some relit cigars? Does the shorter tobacco column collect less stale smoke or something?
If you get the head soggy like I often do, that definitely will kill a relight. I've relit cigars on occasion, usually when I needed time to detox from a strong nicotine dose. I did that with an Opus X Paul kindly bombed me a few years ago. It tasted great the second time around. In fact, I've often put a cigar down because I hated it and then came back an hour or two later and given it a second try and it tasted much better! I never did understand that, but it's happened several times.
A pipe going out, even for days, hasn't affected the flavor more than just a little for me. I keep my meerschaum in the container that came with it (even when the bowl is half-smoked) and that might help keep it fresh.
I gave up pipes as a young man, but then it wasnt for the sake of tobacco use :biggrin:
I used to smoke a pipe -- much more often than cigars, back in the day.
I slowly got away from it, but would still smoke a pipeful or two on occasion.
I have a large pipe collection and my wife and kids packed the household goods for the last move (I was working missions and unavailable) and they're all still in storage along with half of the rest of my stuff.
Pipe smoker. Corn cob cheap. However, I do have a Meerschaum. Just don't smoke it often. I like whiskey cavendishs. They tend to be the most enjoyable smokes for me. I generally like other liquor flavored as well. However, dislike those that are vanilla and cherry. Smell and taste funny to me mostly.
I used to smoke a pipe every so often. Now a days I smoke a pipe with a buddy at work and then take in a cigar every chance I get. I don't do anything special. I have been using a corn cob pipe with whiskey cavendish tobacco. I have two other pipes but nothing expensive. In fact, I made one of the pipes myself!
Add my name to the growing list of new ones wandering in off the street. I smoked a pipe for 3-4 years in late teens and early twenties (Nicotiana tabacum only) and then quit. Haven't smoked a pipe for over twenty years, only recently picked it back up. I have one sole pipe (a Karl Erik freehand) as a remainder of a collection of over 20, lost them all in the mother of all divorces... all conveniently thrown out before I could get possession of them back. Another useless belonging she "took care of" for me.
Count me in on this census!
Quotevw77guy - 9/28/2010 6:49 AM
I used to smoke a pipe every so often. Now a days I smoke a pipe with a buddy at work and then take in a cigar every chance I get. I don't do anything special. I have been using a corn cob pipe with whiskey cavendish tobacco. I have two other pipes but nothing expensive. In fact, I made one of the pipes myself!
How did you make the pipe? Of what?
Quotemobarbq - 10/1/2010 6:23 PM
Add my name to the growing list of new ones wandering in off the street. I smoked a pipe for 3-4 years in late teens and early twenties (Nicotiana tabacum only) and then quit. Haven't smoked a pipe for over twenty years, only recently picked it back up. I have one sole pipe (a Karl Erik freehand) as a remainder of a collection of over 20, lost them all in the mother of all divorces... all conveniently thrown out before I could get possession of them back. Another useless belonging she "took care of" for me.
Count me in on this census!
Sounds like my great cigar massacre and I wasn't even divorcing.
Count me as a combo smoker, I love cigars but there is no real replacement for a pipe full of Southern Cream from a local B&M.
I smoke a pipe in the fall and winter. I've got many Missouri Meerschaum corncobs, three briars (a Savinelli, a Peterson and a Brad Pohlmann), and a CAO calabash (made of real gourd).
A Drew Estate rep was in my local B&M and gave out some Natural English cigars. He claimed they were like pipe tobacco in a cigar. They seem to have Perique and Latakia tobaccos, and other types. Has anyone had experience of these pipe tobacco cigars? I have laid it to rest for a while so have not tried it yet.
I enjoy an occasional corn cob with some nice burley based tobacco. Never really been a fan of the the sweet casing on some of the aromatics.
I hit another post but you can count me in on this too! Got my first pipe and some baccy and I'm in!
It will be nice for work and I can see that it's gonna be a cheap hobby, $6 for a Missouri Corncob and $10 for enough tobacco to stuff that little pipe a LOT of times!
Quotedddddmorgan - 9/9/2011 12:56 PM
I hit another post but you can count me in on this too! Got my first pipe and some baccy and I'm in!
It will be nice for work and I can see that it's gonna be a cheap hobby, $6 for a Missouri Corncob and $10 for enough tobacco to stuff that little pipe a LOT of times!
It does have it's advantages... :shades:
I'm a long time pipe smoker. Love pipes and live cigars.
present.
Wow... talk about re-visiting an old thread. :biggrin: I've been enjoying a pipe since April of 2011.
I've been smoking pipes and cigars for more than 40 years. In fact, there were still real Cubans cigars "under the counter" in tobacco shops while I was in college.
We joke about gas station and drug store cigars, so why buy pipes or pipe tobaccos from such vendors? Sure, many will say "start with Prince Albert or Carter Hall, etc. (usually called "old codger" blends) and a cheap briar off a cardboard display, which is actually the way I started, but that's not the way I'd advise anyone interested in smoking a pipe.
Get a good Missouri Meerschaum (avoid the less expensive MMs and no-name look-alikes, one costs about $8) -- you can usually find a good MM your local B&M -- most B&Ms sell pipe tobacco as well as cigars and many sell a variety of pipes as well.
You can pick up a ton of help from a knowledgeable tobacconist. Most sell a variety of "bulk blends," which are sold by the ounce, so once you learn the differences from you tobacconist, you can decide which variety of their bulk blends to try -- one ounce (about $2-$4) at a time. Most pipe n00bs start with a good aromatic, like Lane's "1Q," which is a bulk blend available at many, if not most decent tobacco shops. I smoke Virginias, Virginia and Perique (VA/Pers) and some English/Balkans.
Like cigars, your investments in time and effort learning about pipes, pipe tobacco and pipe smoking (all of which are at least as complicated as cigars if not more so) will repay many times over in satisfaction and enjoyment.
Just started getting into it.
Count me in. I've built a small collection of pipes over the past few months, my old estate pipes are my favs though. I really like G&H Balkin Mixture, an excellent full body blend, but some McClellands Wilderness or Legends is right at the top of my favorites list. I generally smoke a pipe daily, usually early morning and late night. I do love trying new tobacco, can't beat it!
Oh yeah, a new favorite of mine is H+H Cerberus, very nice blend there. The frog morton series is killer, but the Balkan Mixture is a solid go to tobacco for me, and Samuel Gawith Balkan Flake along with SG Squadron Leader, good stuff. just my tastes.
Quotejw-owl - 7/2/2012 9:32 AM
Oh yeah, a new favorite of mine is H+H Cerberus, very nice blend there. The frog morton series is killer, but the Balkan Mixture is a solid go to tobacco for me, and Samuel Gawith Balkan Flake along with SG Squadron Leader, good stuff. just my tastes.
Jacob, since you enjoy Balkans and like Squadron Leader, you may enjoy SL's stable mate, Samuel Gawith's Skiff Mixture. As close as I can tell, Skiff and SL are much alike but "swap" percentages of Orientals (> in Skiff) and Lakatia (> in Squadron Leader). I actually enjoy Skiff better. A big plus is that both are available in bulk so people can try those by trying an ounce or two at their B&M and/or have it thrown in to their next on line order.
Akkahuna here, I have smoked my grandads that was given to me in the past, just bought an estate find off the internet so I'll be trying out when I get home, count me in as a former and now current Pipe Geek.