Pipe Smoking

[StraightRazor]

]I know smoking threads are generally unpopular. Most people agree that it looks cool, but nearly everyone goes out of their way to point out how bad it is for you. Smoking, bad? Why didnt somebody tell me??!! I dont see what the big deal is, if it's done in MODERATION. Most people in this country dont seem to be able to wrap their heads around that. Just like you can drink without being a drunk, you can smoke without being a chimney. One ciggarette every couple weeks may not be the greatest thing in the world for you, but I'm pretty sure you wont drop dead on the spot. You just have to discipline yourself. The same with pipe smoking, one of my many guilty pleasures. I dont smoke every day, far, far from it. More like every month, if that. So, what tobbacos do you enjoy and what do you smoke it in?

I have a handmade, longstemmed, clay churchwarden made by a woman in devon, England. Its my 'Hobbit' pipe and probably my favorite. No tedious breaking in process, or constant care needed. The clay is so absorbent you dont need to worry about building up a cake. When it becomes too saturated with resins, I just drop it in a bed of coals and it looks like new, only better. My second favorite is a basic Stanwell briar that I only paid about $65 for. Its a decent smoker, but pretty plain. I've always pined for a nice Dunhill briar. But like I said, I dont smoke often enough to warrant the price.

My favorite blends include Frog Morton on the town, and Mclellans, 'St. James Woods' if I want something heavier. My local tobbaconist also has their own pipe blends many of which I enjoy. If you ever make it to a Port Royal shop try the 'Mountain Cherry', one of my favorites.

 

[topcat]

Hello fellow new guy in town. Love pipes ,love cigars ,occassional cigarette.

My local tobacconist has this pipe tobacco blend called Sherlock's blend.Out of this world. Rich,hearty perfect for an autumn day.

Another favorite is called Butter Rum. Beautiful.

Like many different style of pipe. Bulldog shape probably favorite.
As over the counter as it is Captain Black does offer a fine blend of tobacco.
Yep there certainly is paranoia over smoking. Not every single person who smokes becomes a statistic. But no use trying to convince anyone of that.

 

[Bebop]

I am an avid pipe collector and have whittled my collection down to about 75 or so pipes. I smoke at least one bowl a day and hardly ever more than 3 a day. Moderation is the key to enjoying tobacco. If I smoke too much in a day, I can't relax and taste the tobacco. The whole process and ritual of loading a pipe just right, carefully lighting it, watching the smoke gently float away, holding the pipe, all of that makes one relax and slow down.

I have never tried a clay pipe. It is one pipe that I have always wanted but just never purchased. I smoke out in public and have always thought that a clay is long and fragile and would not do well while driving or walking down a crowded street. I like meerschaum pipes and my current favorite pipe is a CAO meerschaum that is coloring quite nicely. Another of my favorite pipes is a Stanwell that I purchased about 20 years ago for $25. Stanwell makes a great pipe. Kirstens and Falcons are also some of my regular smokers.

My favorite tobacco is Dunhill 965 and believe it or not, good old regular Prince Albert which I buy super cheap at Wal-Mart. I think it is one of the best burley tobaccos out there at any price. I tend to like tobaccos that taste like tobacco not like cherry pie or something too sweet. Frog Morton is a wonderful tobacco that I also smoke regularly. I like the regular F.M. Dunhill Durbar is something I discovered a few weeks ago and find myself smoking more and more of it. Even though you find a favorite tobacco and pipe, I don't think you ever stop searching for a better pipe-tobacco combination.

 

[Burma Shave]

StraightRazor said:

... "I've always pined for a nice Dunhill briar. But like I said, I dont smoke often enough to warrant the price."

I understand what you're saying, but would disagree. I used to smoke a pipe much more than I do now, and when I smoked two or three bowls a day, the pipe itself was less important to me than the tobacco. Now that I'm down to one or two bowls a week, I've become more interested in the pipe. If you're going to only smoke occasionally, it may as well be a perfect experience when you do!

That said, my favorite pipe these days is a very nicely shaped Stanwell I purchased about 8 years ago for about $75. It's a simple briar with good grain and a thin agate ring between the mouthpiece and the wood.

 

[Bebop]

Used Dunhill pipes are not that expensive on ebay. New ones can cost more than I like to spend on pipes.

 

[Chad Sanborn]

I have a nice briarwood pipe myself. The one thing I struggle with is getting a good steady burn. It might be the tobacco, or it might be my inabillity to pack it right. What is the best way to pack it?

Chad

 

[Fu Manchu]

Packing, &c

I find packing difficult. I'm no expert, but in my opinion, it depends on the pipe and the tobacco. It's hard to get a burn that's both steady and cool.

I may be the last one to find this out, but I was just told that Dunhill has stopped making tobacco. I used to love their light flake, and I was always looking for a tin of navy rolls.

:sigh:

Fu Manchu

 

[jake_fink]

I find pipes burn best (by which I mean they stay lit) if they are packed loose at the botton and tighter on top, though not so tight that you end up with a bottle cap of tobacco ( or whatever it is you're smoking. Banana leaves, cabbage leaves, rope, hair, etc.).

Pipes and cigars should not be smoked the way people tend to smoke cigarettes. They should be sipped, not gulped. They should be enjoyed and not just used for a fix.

I hate cigarette smoke, and the smell of stale smoke on clothes and furniture or someone's breath. I'm glad smoking's banned in most public places because most people who smoke are doing it just to feed their addiction, and act that way - lighting one off the other, having one lit just to have it there, smoking while drinking and eating, etc. There are a couple of tobaccanists in town where you can read a paper, smoke a cigar and have a coffee, which is nice. Since we had a kid I don't smoke in the house at all anymore (I used to be able to smoke in the office), so now I have a little gentleman's club set up in the garage. It suits me fine. I don't smoke pipes or cigars all that often, and I don't touch cigarettes.

Finally, the best tobacco I ever smoked was given to my by a freind in Washington DC, so presumably it was purchased there. It had a sticker on it that was printed with "Yachtsman" and had written in pen, "special blend." So, I have no idea what it really was called (and have never asked my friend - duh). It was beautiful, like smoking truffles, smooth and sweetish without being cloying the way some flavoured tobaccos are, and the smell was just fantastic, vanilla, roobois and a hint of citrus. Lovely stuff.

:cheers1:

 

[Maj.Nick Danger]

As a former heavy cigarette smoker,...

......I just can't smoke now. If I smoked just one of anything,....I would start smoking like a chimney again! Too bad because I always loved the smell of pipe tobacco, burning or not. :cool2:

 

[Nick Charles]

Heres how to start

http://www.pipebears.com/pipeman.htm

Check out my pipes thread here http://www.thefedoralounge.com/showthread.php?t=1442

Happy Smoking

 

[Burma Shave]

I would comment...

...on this one: "I'm glad smoking's banned in most public places," but I don't want to hijack the thread. So I'll just note that smoking is also being banned by the government in many private places such as restaurants and bars, and that just ain't right. The fact that a practice is offensive to some should not mean that private property owners can't allow it.

On to something I can talk about here: Packing, as someone noted, isn't the easiest thing to gauge. Sometimes I still pack a pipe too tightly and have to dig out the tobacco and start over. But the process I use is pretty consistent. Here you go:

First, I fill the bottom one-half to two-thirds of the pipe with tobacco, fairly loosely, and pack it lightly so that it compresses by about half. Then I fill the pipe to the top, loosely, and pack that (still lightly) so that it compresses to about the two-thirds-full mark. Then I put more tobacco on top so that it mounds up just a little, and pack it a bit more tightly, so that it's just a little below the rim of the bowl. Try to get a smooth pack from side to side, not dished down in the center. If you use a pipe tool with a flat tamp, move it around the inside of the bowl so that you get all sides packed to about the same level.

The manner of lighting is as important as the pack. Using wooden matches only, when possible, light one and wait until the initial flare dies down before touching it to the tobacco, to avoid the taste of burning chemicals. Get the pipe well-lit, puff on it for a minute or so, then tamp it down after the entire top of the tobacco is lighted nicely. Most tobaccos will fluff up a little when being lighted, due to heat expansion and the combustion process. On this last tamp, keep the pipe in your mouth, drawing on it as you tamp. Hold the pipe with your "off" hand (I'm a righty, so I hold the pipe with my left) and tamp with your primary hand, to give better control. You should be able to tamp it while drawing so that you can tell when the draw is correct.

When in doubt, pack the pipe a little too loosely in the beginning stages, and correct the tamp after the initial lighting has been accomplished. I usually use another match after this last packing step, to ensure that the entire plug of tobacco is well-lighted.

Lastly, when the pipe is about a quarter smoked, then about half-smoked, tamp it again to compress the burnt portion. This will allow the pack to remain constant even after the burning process fluffs up the tobacco somewhat.

Always try to ensure that you smoke the entire bowl. If you don't, on a briar pipe (which is all I smoke) the bottom will not season and cake at the same rate as the top, and your smoke will be inconsistent. If a complete bowl is too much for you to smoke at a single time, don't be tempted to smoke only the first half -- or to pack only half the bowl, and smoke only that part. Instead, buy a pipe with a smaller bowl, and use it for the times when you have less available time or don't feel like a long smoke.

Over time, it gets to be second nature to get a good pack. But as I said, even now (after 12 years of pipe smoking) I still mess up the first time if it's a tobacco I'm not accustomed to. When that happens, use your pipe tool to dig out the tobacco and start over.

Best of luck.

 

[StraightRazor]

I agree with the above method. One important piece of advice that always stuck out in my mind was not to overpack the bowl. Your not stuffing a turkey here! If the tobbaco is packed to hard they will be no small spaces for air to flow through allowing the tobbaco to burn properly. Gurgle is also a problem many new pipe smokers encounter, due to the fact that they are probably smoking a new pipe, and smoking it to fast. Treating it like a ciggarette, as you mentioned. Gurgle is, well, when you encounter the problem, you'll know what I mean. Just remember to take it slow and easy. Pipes are for relaxing, not getting a quick fix on your lunch break.

 

[Marc Chevalier]

Some '20s - '50s estate pipes of mine. Nearly all are available for purchase. Interested, Bebop?

 

[Marc Chevalier]

 

[Green Miller]

New to the site. BTW, nice vintage pipes, Marc.

Love pipes, a cigar once in awhile especially when grilling. No cigarettes for me.

Been a Swing Dancer in the mid-90's on (a magical time it was, back in the mid-90's for those of us swingkids) and have been a pipe smoker since 2000. I have collection of 30+ pipes and my favorites are my "Playboy" pipe complete with bunny head on the stem and two Dunhill 197s from 1937.

My tastes are eclectic but I lean towards latakia mixtures and sometimes I like to try blends that have been around for awhile, like Revelation, which I transfer to an old pocket tin when on the town and wanting to look the part.

Mail order pipe giant Iwan Ries of Chicago recently revived one of their old mixtures. Hoping to get a tin soon:
http://www.iwanries.com/Spilman_Mixture_P7426C1492.cfm

Any more fellow brothers of the briar out there?

 

[Anachronist]

I've been lurking forever, but this thread has finally pulled me out of hiding.

I'm a professional tobacconist and avid pipe smoker. I'm glad to see so many here that appreciate good quality tobacco here! I'm the resident pipe guy on a couple of other forums, and I always have to bite my tongue (fingers?) when people say they can only smoke the heavily cased sweet aromatics - as often as not, in the same breath as complaining about tongue bite and burn problems.

Frog Morton is definitely one of my favorites. Mac Baren does some good stuff too; scottish mixture is my daily smoke, and their Vintage Syrian (though pricey) is to die for.

Fu Manchu: "Dunhill", as such, hasn't made their own tobaccos in some time. The blends have been licensed to other blending houses for as long as many of us hav been alive. Recently, they switched blending houses (it is made by Orlick now). There were some initial jitters - pipesmokers are, understandably, often a traditionalist lot, and change is usually a bad sign in this industry - but it seems they are remaining true to the original blends.

Marc: You have some nice pieces there! I've always loved Porches (and their various befinned imitators), and I really dig that one second from the bottom. Maybe I'll post my collection some time when I get some spare time to photograph it...

Regards,
Alexander

 

[eightbore]

VIVA LA REVOLUCION ! ! !

]I dont see what the big deal is, if it's done in MODERATION. Most people in this country dont seem to be able to wrap their heads around that. Just like you can drink without being a drunk, you can smoke without being a chimney.

To heck with the "popularity" or "unpopularity" of smoking threads!

Outside the rhetoric of FL smoking discussions (indeed, outside all the silly societal propaganda on the topic), let's remember the 1964 study showing that pipe smokers live LONGER than the general public...or the study in 1978 that showed those smoking less than 4 or five bowls per day enjoyed an increased life span...or the Swedish study of twins illustrating that the pipe smoking twin generally outlived his (or her) sibling. The psychological benefits of pipe smoking FAR outweigh all (if any) of the physical risks. Its just not a "nervous habit" like cigarettes are and the personality type of the pipe smoker is completely different. This is the reality being captured by the studies above. It's not necessarily that the nicotine is healthy (though the example below shows that it can be), it's that people in this modern world need an excuse to slow the heck down and relax now and again! This is what's really healthy for us! Sadly, the modern world hates the idea with a passion! In fact, I think cigarettes themselves are the perfect accessory to a modern economic system. They're little more than portable and expensive speed delivery devices that will keep you producing output and also keep you unsatisfied enough to stay busy buying other people's output. Didn't Oscar Wilde actaully note that cigarettes are the perfect vice (and I think also therefore the perfect commodity) because they generate only dissatisfaction? In short, the modern industrial world hates a pipe smoker because he or she just doesn't value productivity enough and thus represents a revolutionary figure. Well, let me be the first to say it...VIVA LA REVOLUCION !

Finally, on a more personal note regarding the benefits of pipe smoking, I was diagnosed with lower GI ulcers when I was in grad school (lots of work, stress and dissatisfaction in my life back then). In the third year of my doctoral program, having never smoked cigarettes or anything, I started smoking a pipe for completely random reasons. Then I noticed something very unusual that I have since read is confirmed by medical research. My physician diagnosed, and supposedly "chronic", ulcer symptoms were becoming less obvious! I had previously been taking six high tech, whiz bang, new fangled prescription pills per day to the tune of nearly $200 per month. When I realized that the pipe enabled me to taper down my meds, I cut it to 4 per day, then two per day...then nothing. I haven't needed meds for my ulcers in almost three years now. I smoke maybe an average of only three bowls per day and therefore only buy $35 worth of Dunhill's Nightcap or 965 every couple months. Much better than spending $2400 per year for meds! Frankly, to hell with the pharmaceuticals industry, I'll support my local tobbaconist! The former has never (not even once!) provided me with nice overstuffed leather chairs, soft jazz in the background and a newspaper to read while consuming their overpriced garbage!

Given all of the above and the fact that smoking has also been shown to reduce the risk of Alzheimer's, anyone offended by my pipe can take a big fat flying leap! All us pipe smokers are very lucky that we'll be able to enjoy our "vice", live longer, live healthier, and to be able to remember our kids names when we're 95.....can't beat that. I feel outright pity for those having that weakness of character called "self denial". The world would be a much better place if everyone simply embraced their vices in moderation!

Best,

eightbore


P.S. If Dunhill pipes are pricey for you, check out the Ferndown brand. Les Wood, the owner and maker, used to be a silversmith for Dunhill and I actually like his pipes MUCH MUCH MUCH more. Best part...they're half the cost.

 

[Michaelson]

Interesting you don't post the findings made AFTER 1978, which show the exact opposite results.....but that's just 'quibbling' on my part.lol

After watching my Dad pass away as I stood by his bedside from lung cancer after being a pipe smoker of well over 50 years, I can attest to at least ONE data point that he lived a long life (80+ years), but his quality of life in the last 20 years have been less than great (lost all his teeth due to the heat from the pipe bowl), stomach problems, esophogis (sp?) ulsers, etc. but he smoked his pipes until the day they loaded him in the ambulance and took him to the hospital for the last time.

I guess it's all in how you want to read and believe the data.

Regards! Michaelson

 

[Michaelson]

Oh, and just to make it clear, just because I had to watch my Dad die that way, I'm not one who 'blames the tobacco' for doing the deed. He made that choice, and who am I to condemn him for enjoying his vice? My Mom and sister don't understand my attitude, but that's the way it is. [huh]

I love the smell of a good pipe and cigar, but rarely indulge anymore, as I used to smoke both (one to the point of obsession), but gave it all just when our first daughter was born in 1980. I haven't regretted it one bit.

It's that old 'second hand smoke' thing that folks are up in arms about. I totally support anyone who wants to 'embrace their vice', be it overboard or in moderation....just don't force someone ELSE into having to 'embrace' that vice involuntarily.

Not trying to be a wet blanket here. Enjoy the pipe if that's your vice, and pleased to hear it's doing you good. Just understand others have rights too, and some do not choose to participate in that vice with you, especially those with breathing problems that are aggrevated BY having to breathe said second hand smoke.

Regards! Michaelson

 

[Michaelson]

Some more recent findings:

Pipe smoking
Guess what? It's not good for you, either
By Helen Fields

8/24/04

Related Links
Smokeless tobacco: Yeah, it's not good for you either
Lung cancer: How doctors follow up on results from a CT scan
More about Smoking and Quitting
Choose Another Health Topic
Addictions Allergy and Asthma Alternative Medicine Alzheimer's Disease Arthritis Beauty and Appearance Bone Health and Osteoporosis Cancer Breast Cancer Cervical Cancer Colorectal Cancer Leukemia and Lymphoma Lung Cancer and Disease Ovarian Cancer Prostate Cancer Skin Cancer Testicular Cancer Children's and Adolescents' Health Diabetes and Endocrine Disorders Digestive Health Drugs and Medications Ear, Nose, and Throat Emergency Medicine Eye and Visual Health Fitness and Exercise Health Insurance Heart and Vascular Health HIV/AIDS Infectious Diseases Men's Health Mental Health Neurological Disorders and Stroke Nutrition and Diet Oral Health Pain Pregnancy, Infertility, and Infants Public Health Seniors' Health Sex and STDs Smoking and Quitting Stress Weight Control and Obesity Women's Health Other Pipe smoking is on the rise among young people. Surprisingly, there has never been a big study of the association between cancer and smoking a pipe only. So, some American Cancer Society researchers set out to fill that gap.

What they wanted to know: What are the risks of exclusive pipe smoking?

What they did: The authors used the Cancer Prevention Study II, an American Cancer Society study of about 1.2 million U.S. adults. Volunteers for the American Cancer Society recruited friends and neighbors for the study in 1982. The subjects filled out a questionnaire in 1982 that included questions about their smoking habits; since then, the American Cancer Society has kept track of death certificates for all the people. For this study, the researchers used the data on the 15,263 men who used only pipes and the 123,044 men who never used any tobacco products in 1982. Whoever designed the original survey must have assumed women didn't smoke pipes, because they weren't even asked the pipe-smoking question. The researchers looked at deaths from six cancers, coronary heart disease, stroke, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

What they found: Pipe smokers had higher death rates than nonsmokers, including higher death rates from lung cancer, colorectal cancer, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

What it means to you: This makes pipe smoking still a bit safer than smoking cigarettes but about as harmful as cigars.

Caveats: The people in this study were more likely to be white, middle class, and college-educated than the U.S. population as a whole. The pipe-smoking question was asked once, in 1982, so the subjects could have changed their habits between 1982 and death.

Find out more: Facts about lung cancer from the American Lung Association: http://www.lungusa.org/

Read the article: Henley, S.J., M.J. Thun, A. Chao, and E.;E. Calle. "Association Between Exclusive Pipe Smoking and Mortality from Cancer and Other Diseases." Journal of the National Cancer Institute. June 2, 2004, Vol. 96, No. 11, pp. 853–861

Regards! Michaelson