I used to smoke pipes and thoroughly enjoyed them, then I went to cigars for the ease. I gave them up years ago except for an occasional smoke when my brother came for a visit. For some reason I started looking at pipes online and now I'm getting a yen to pick one up again. Boy howdy, have they gotten pricey! A basic good pipe starts around $60 with high end customs going for over $2000. Then there's the accoutrement. Tampers, cleaners, lighters, ashtrays, wax, carrying pouches, just more stuff to carry but since I'm retired and am pretty much car based, I figure I have the time to muck around with one. Something like a Vauen Classic blasted Of course, like firearms, one is never enough. You need a few pipes to keep a rotation. Will it ever end?
I use one on occasion. The local tobacconist makes a good Aspen pipe tobacco that I like, im mostly just smoking cigars now(5 Vegas), maybe one or two a week.
I once worked for a man that refused to hire anyone who smoked a pipe. He said they were always fiddling with the pipe instead of working.
In years past, I smoked pipes. Mostly Meerschaums. Also had a few corncob pipes. Tried most of the tobaccos and finally settled on Flying Dutchman and Troost Slices.
My old Sheriff smoked a pipe constantly. Waiting outside the circuit courtroom in the hallway, he was called to the witness stand. Knocked out the pipe in the hallway ashtray he hurried to the witness chair beside the judge. "Son of a ***** !" he exclaimed. Pipe stuffed into his coat pocket wasn't out . Everyone burst into laughter as he shucked the coat. Don't know if that part of his testimony was entered by the court reporter but there was a short recess.
I love it! Back when butane cigarette lighter were a newish thing, I worked in state government, part time, in my senior year of high school. The old depression era buildings that we worked in were cold as ice in the winter, so you usually wore a jacket at work. I would be meeting one of the secretaries, coming down the long, poorly lit hallways, I would put my hand in my jacket pocket, fluff the pocket out, let the lighter fill the pocket with gas and then strike it. Of course a fireball rolled out of pocket with a "whoosh." I would calmly continue to walk as if nothing happened. Some of the double-takes I got were priceless. I never caught my jacket on fire, but that would have been the karmic thing and would have put the joke on the other side of the hall.
Well appreciated pipes are well worn around the mouth piece. The bowl has a white finish from frequent smokes. As far back as I can remember my family smoked pipes including one of my grandmothers! She would be smoking her pipe on occasions and I would ask her what the bulge was in her purse - with her pipe in her mouth she would say- its a 38 revolver sonny . . . . . .just in case.
There are 3 stores in my town that advertise pipe sales and tobacco. Not 1 had a tobacco pipe! Not even a cheapo Dr. Grabow. I honestly wasn't expecting to find much in this little town, maybe a few low end pipes, possibly a couple of mid range but dayum! There's evidently a LOT of folks here getting high all the time.
the kids gave me a pipe, decades ago. there were a couple of tobaccos that were real sweet and aromatic. heck, even the wife, didn't make go out outside to smoke. but i very quickly tired of all the things i had to get, to maintain one, and the cost of tobacco then was high too. i gave it up, like maybe a year's worth of smoking. then i took up cigars.... and my place outside, on either the front, or back porch...lol never had any hankering for another pipe.
I smoked a pipe for a short time when I was 19 or 20. I was in the Navy, and I probably looked like I was about 16. I wanted to look more mature, so I took up the pipe. It must have worked because I sure as hell look mature now. I got rid of my tobacco addiction about 20 years ago, I quit drinking and smoking at the same time. I was probably a miserable SOB to be around for a while.
Smoked a pipe back in my early days in the Army as an LT ('75-'79). I had a few, all of them Corncob pipes from Washington, MO - the "Corncob Pipe Capital of the World". Still have a small one somewhere... I enjoyed pipes but the aromatic smell of Borkum Riff wasn't exactly "tactical". May take it up again: fully retired and smoking far too many cigarettes. There is a tobacconist not far from the farm.
Don't knock the old Dr. Grabow pipes. they were inexpensive, but not all that bad. A good corn cob pipe was damn hard to beat though. Hell, even MacArthur smoked one. My favorite old uncle smoked nothing by "Half and Half." Or 'arf 'n' arf as he called it! For an aromatic tobacco, anybody remember Cherry Blend or Sugar Barrel?
I remember Cherry Blend. It smelled good if you were 10-15 feet away from someone smoking it. I tried it myself and found it to be vile tasting. I have never really been a pipe smoker though. Maybe you have to get used to it.
