Pipe smokers?

[nicollette]

I had one of those "coffee break" pipes, but I couldn't do it.  I like a nice 40-60 minute smoke.

He likes a good, long smoke too but he has to be able to walk away from the pipe for up to an hour in-between doing what he does.  He doesn't like the taste of comming back to the pipe after a long period so when he spotted the one pinch he fell head over heels for it.  It's not his favorite pipe but it is his most smoked pipe.  I really should get him a few more small ones to put in his pouch so he can rotate. 

 

Unrelated, meershcaums are a pain.  The hardcore guys smoke them with a glove until they're almost black because the oil from your hands can make them color unevenly.  And when they're wet, they get really soft.  I don't have the patience.

 

My husband has shown interest in carving his own out of meerschaum but part of the rule of being able to smoke (around me, anyway) is the aesthetics of smoking a cigar or pipe.  If the pipe looks bad then he smokes it out of my sight, so usually in another room.  I think meershcaums are ugly.  *shrug*  But he has yet to buy a distateful (in my opinon) pipe so it's never really been an issue. Most guys I know that have meerschaum love them.  I will definately have him read this thread to see what everyone thinks of what they do and how they do it.  It's become quite the hobby for him.

 

How does your hubby clean his estates?  Boil alcohol or salt and whiskey?  I used to just do salt and whiskey.  Didn't die so far

 

He cleans them with pipe cleaners and rum, brandy or bourbon.  I've not heard of using salt to clean a pipe, what does it do?  When we lived in WY we would go down to Denver to see a friend of ours and we always had to stop into Edward's Tobacco on Broadway.  If anyone on this board lives near Denver then go to this place!  They have free cigar Fridays where they feature a certain cigar every week.  We would speak with Tom(?) about pipe care and he told dh to soak them in one of the above, he even used port for extra flavour.  Haven't been able to bring myself to let good port be put to cleaning a pipe. 

 

 

[QuisUtDeus]

You pack the pipe with kosher salt before you pour in the whiskey, and you let it sit over night (don't use table salt - it starts dissolving and you'll never get it out).

 

The salt helps draw the spit out of the wood letting it breathe better.  Some people say the salt will ruin the pipe.  I've done it with and without salt, but I usually use salt.

 

And don't do any of that on a meerschaum or it will dissolve.

[QuisUtDeus]

I smoked the pipe for a while, until I got really tired of having to tamp every so often; the fact that it kept dying out did not help much.

It takes practice to keep it lit.  I got to the point where I only relit 1 time at most.

 

Tamping is critical if you pack the pipe right.

 

Bottom third is loose - completely unpacked.  Middle third is medium tamped.  Top third is firmly tamped.  Then you light it.  2 matches.  First, you char the top and tamp it out.  Then you actually light it.

 

You have to do this so you can draw properly.  Then, as you smoke, you gently tamp it to firm up the stuff at the bottom.  If you tamp right, it doesn't go out from the tamper.  And you keep it lit by drawing at a correct pace.

 

When tamped and smoked properly, the pipe smokes nice and cool.  It also smokes drier because you don't generate as much spit if you don't have to draw too hard.

 

[KevinM]

I fill the bowl about 2/3 with kosher salt and everclear and soak overnight, then just keep dipping pipe cleaners in everclear and run them thriugh the shank until they come out white. I put a dab of vasoline on any marking on the stem and then soak that in clorox. In order to remove the oxidation ( that ugly greenish look) on the outside of the stem I use a little toothpaste and a soft toothbrush then buff it : brand new pipe !!

Its funny but rarely do people complain about the smell of a pipe. It seems that everybody had an uncle or grandfather or father who smoked one and it seems that the aroma conjures up favorable memories.

 

 

Kevin

 

[KevinM]

Quis,

It sounds like you're getting ready to get rid of those cigs and once again engage in the stately hobby of pipe smoking !!!!!!!!!!!!

 

 

Kevin

[QuisUtDeus]

Quis,

It sounds like you're getting ready to get rid of those cigs and once again engage in the stately hobby of pipe smoking !!!!!!!!!!!!

 

 

Kevin

 

Yeah, this thread is pushing me there.  I need to find some tobacco.

[KevinM]

Great Quis !!!!

 

What kind did you smoke before? Drugstore,mass produced types: Carter Hall,Borkum Riff,Capt. Black? I smoke a Virginian called McClelland no 27. It costs about  $12.00 for 100 grams, which lasts me between 4-7 days. A pack of cigs is about $5.75.

I order all my baccy on line. Try: www.cupojoes.com

 

AMDG

 

Kevin

 

[QuisUtDeus]

Great Quis !!!!

 

What kind did you smoke before? Drugstore,mass produced types: Carter Hall,Borkum Riff,Capt. Black? I smoke a Virginian called McClelland no 27. It costs about  $12.00 for 100 grams, which lasts me between 4-7 days. A pack of cigs is about $5.75.

I order all my baccy on line. Try: www.cupojoes.com

 

AMDG

 

Kevin

 

I was spoiled and bought tins of Three Nuns.  Then I went to bulk and mixed it by hand.  I'll have to check that place out - thanks for the link!

 

I hand make my own cigs with tubes and a machine.  It costs less than $2 per pack.  Out here they are almost $7 per pack if you buy them ready-made.

[KevinM]

Quis,

 

Here's a link to a tobacco/pipe site where you can still get Three Nuns !!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Happy puffing !!!!!!!!!

 

 

http://www.synjeco.ch/pata/info/index.htm

 

 

Kevin

[DominusTecum]

I thought I would make a meaningful contribution to this thread by pointing out that yesterday I was at a Pipe show in Topeka, Kansas, and in the process I met the famous Danish pipe-maker, Erik Nording. Great guy, one of my friends bought a new pipe (a spectacular bent with a very large bowl) and got it customized and autographed.

[QuisUtDeus]

Nordings are wonderful pipes, and the man has the work ethics of old-world craftsmanship.  It shows in his beautiful pipes.

 

Congrats to your friend!

 

[jovan66102]

I thought St. Pius was just a chainsmoker period.  I remember reading that in a book a few years back and it caught me off guard.  I'm not sure why.  Did cigarettes exist in his day as they do in ours?  (Not with all the additives they put into cigs nowadays, but just in general)  Prepackaged, available en masse? 

 

Yes, at least by the end of his reign. I smoke Camel nonfilters which have been around since 1913 and there were many brands, now gone, that predated Camels. Cigarettes actually seem to have originated during the Crimean War when soldiers would lose their pipe and would roll the tobacco in a rifle cartridge paper to smoke it.

[KevinM]

I'm saving to but a Nording pipe !!!

 

AMDG

 

Kevin

[michaeorapronobis]

I have never smoked tobacco in my life (but once I was on a trip with 2 guys they were smoking some marijuana - I tried some and it was horrible!) but I was always told that smoking is bad for you. My father tried to give up when I was young, but after he had stopped for three months, someone told him that the worst was yet to come, so he started again. I know that smoking kills you, so wouldn't it be a sin to smoke, since you are slowly killing yourself?

However, I have no idea if smoking pipes or cigars is as bad as smoking cigarettes. Do you get cancer, heart disease or any other health problems from smoking cigars or pipes?

[QuisUtDeus]

Smoking is at most a venial sin.  It has risk, but you are not guaranteed to die from it.

 

pipe and cigar have much lower lung cancer, emphazema (sp?), and coronary rates than cigarettes, but lip and mouth cancer is a bit higher.  Nowhere near as high as chewing tobacco, though.

 

Pot isn't the same thing as a pipe, and you really aren't supposed to inhale a pipe or cigar - just puff on it.  That's part of the reason why they are much lower risk.