i just recently picked up smoking pipe (tobacco) and am really enjoying it. still used to smoking cigars so i need to learn to slow down and to also gauge how much tobacco is left in the bowl.


so far i have smoked a traditional English blend, a Very Cherry blend, and a Black Cavendish. i really like the smell of the Cherry but the Cavendish burns so clean and smooth. my pipe is just some no name Milano i most likely over paid for, but i'm digging it.


who else smokes pipe?

I've been a pipe smoker since lighting up on my 18th birthday -- albeit intermittently. I love latakia tobacco blends the most. Check out the Frog Morton tobaccos from McClelland. Frog Morton on the Bayou is my favorite. Meerschaum pipes are fantastic and very light -- but be careful, they're fragile.

Do bongs count?

















































No... I don't use.

My father smoked a pipe for most of his adult life. I never took to it but smoked cigarettes for 22 years.

If I hadn't spent so long addicted to nicotine and felt that I could put it down anytime I liked I would enjoy a nice pipe now and again. The ritual of preparing and smoking the pipe is very soothing and it is generally very aromatic, compared to any other tobacco product.

Edited by mtblack on 03/26/2012 21:02:56 MDT.

I love smoking my pipe when I am outdoors. Just about the only time I do it is when I am hiking, or occasionally after a day of yard work.

My brother is an avid pipe smoker, so I borrow some of his funky pipes from time to time. Some of those things are hundreds of dollars. I notice that most mid range pipes are a solid smoke, the cheap ones are not great, and the stupid expensive ones are unbelievably great. I however, stick with the mid range. Good to smoke and no regrets if you accidently chip them.

I have a nice savinelli with a cap for the bowl that I use when hiking, so that my pockets don't smell like old ash. :)

Since I bum tobacco off of him, sometimes I try odd stuff. Irish flake for instance. That is some strong stuff, but nice.

Like with cigars, if you go too quick on an empty stomach - you might regret it.

Edited by keith_bassett on 03/27/2012 13:12:54 MDT.

Big +1 on pipe smoking. One of my favorite activities. If you like cigars, leave the flavored tobaccos behind (they're usually the ones you find in bulk in tobacco shops, though some natural blends are in bulk as well). Latakia blends are my favorite. I've been so focused on lightening my pack lately that adding a few ounces for a pipe has yet to be done. Soon perhaps...

Check out Youtube for the Frank Method of packing your pipe. It is good stuff. Here is a link to the first video. He is a german guy who developed a different method than the traditional one, and in my opinion it works way better.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJP0JaNRw6Q


Beginner mistakes to avoid. I had a crazy brother to help me avoid these, but this guy is on point.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Rf6Z3acg9w

Even since a pleasant winter spent installing solar systems (hot water panels, not planets), I've liked the slightly acrid, slightly sweet smell of hot flux when sweating copper pipe.

Or is that not what you meant by smoking pipe?

LOL@Nick!!!

My dad has a nice collection of hand carved wooden and ivory pipes from the early 1940s. Some pipes were Sherlock Holmes curved, others were Sea Captain straight. I grew up watching him smoke and I enjoyed the smell. He also smoked 2 packs of cigs per day for 40 some years.

as a kid, I used to pose for photos with a pipe in my hand. Very intercontinental sophistication eh?

Unfortunately, I live in So Cal, smoking is taboo, and my dad has 1.5 dead lungs, with only one half working lung with emphysema and a part time respirator. So I'm careful picking my vices these days.

I started smoking a pipe about 6 years ago while I was living in Boston. I got my first pipe at L.J. Peretti's, one of their cheapie house branded offerings. Since then I've added 6 more to the collection.

I enjoy a range of aromatics, but nothing over the top. My favorite is the Judges Mixture, a house blend from Leavitt and Pierce in Cambridge, MA. I have my buddy send me out care packages every once and a while.

I'm still trying to figure out the UL setup for this!

a simple corncob and an ounce of tobacco in a ziploc. you can use a stick as a tamper :)

Maybe I'm just a briar snob, but life is too short for corncobs.

My favorite three backpacking pipes are

1) a 28g Castello Sea Rock --- a straight with a smallish bowl.
2) a 32g Barbi --- a bent/duckbill apple with a smallish bowl that was fabulously expensive and *had* a stunningly beautiful straight grain right up until I accidently knocked it out of my mouth and sent it skidding down the sidewalk (you know that what can do you moment of stomach-dropping shock?); thankfully deep and ugly scratches don't change her almost surreal smoking quality!
3) a 48g Jacono --- "Danish" bent with an absolutely massive bowl, easily two hours worth of pure smoking pleasure.

I usually take two on trips so that I can "rest" them (insufficient resting results in hotter, poorer smoking). The Jacono only comes when I'm planning on longer, leisurely evenings.

My usual tamper/nail is only 5g. I used to use twigs, but got tired of sap overtones when lighting up.

Usual tobacco blends are balkans and orientals, and never, never, never a cased tobacco (I guess I'm a snob on two fronts!).

Edited by koilife on 04/13/2012 17:15:58 MDT.

Moment of truth...

Who packs their used pipe cleaners out? (Makes for a ripe trash ziplock)

Burns them down and just packs out the metal stems?

Puts up with the gurgles and bitter aftertaste?

"Accidently disappears" them in a cathole or similar?


I'll admit to all of the first three (and the fourth is a matter between me and my confessor!). Mostly, I'm a burn and pack guy.

Nick, I think the correct term is "water pipe". The people at the smoke shop get very offended if you call it a bong.

Go ask Alice when she was just small . . .

Hookah Gear

Edited by Creachen on 04/14/2012 01:31:17 MDT.

My brother was sponsored by Graffix when he was pro vert Rollerblader. He met the owners at a concert event he was doing a show with Matt Hoffman Vert show at the concert.

What was really funny was Graffix sent him a package of water pipes to my Mom's house where all my brother's mail and packages went when he was touring. She opened the package thought they were pretty vase's till my Dad got home told her what they were she smashed them on the garage floor.
Terry

I carved a little pipe out of olive burl after breaking my last backpacking pipe. Lined it with some Ti from Ti goat. Would never dare put tobacco in it though :)

Here is Fredde from Sweden making a pipe just using his knife.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXdD1a2sz6o

Here's what I made, before lining with Ti.

Edited by CLebow on 04/23/2012 09:42:12 MDT.