Any pipe smokers here?

[Bigjake]

What's your brand?  What sort of pipe do you recommend?   Just curious.


(And only on APS am I not overly worried about the first dozen posts being immature jackassery  )

[Devonai]

Working on some Frog Morton right now.  Frog Morton On The Town is my favorite blend of all time.  I also blend my own tobaccos and I've come up with some excellent (and not so excellent) results.  My favorite ingredients are Latakia, Perique, White Burley, and Golden Virginia, of various combinations and percentages.

I definitely buck the trend, being only 33 years old.

[PTK]

Traditional European and American pipes, I like the "old style" clay churchwardens usually used by Civil and Revolutionary war reenactors. I also have a collection of corncob pipes (Missouri Meerschaum) and briarwood pipes - Savinelli mostly, although I do own one REALLY nice Peterson.

For Arabic and Egyptian pipes, I like MYA brand narghiles.


As for tobacco, I enjoy locally blended things.

[Balog]

Local blend tobaccos, mostly strong Cavendish mixes.

If you're looking to get started, DO NOT buy one of those cheap heavily lacquered "briars" they sell in grocery stores. A ~$3 corncob will smoke far, far better, and given how poorly those briars are made they'll actually last about as long. Avoid the "filters" some cheap pipes come with, they're beyond useless.

Clay pipes are good and cheap, but very fragile and they tend to smoke hot. I still like them. :)

For briars expect at least $100 for a decent one. Avoid lacquered finishes as they are often used to hide imperfections in cheap pipes. Look for close outs on holiday theme pipes after Christmas. I got a very nice Nording churchwarden pretty cheaply after Christmas at a Tinder Box a few years back.

Speaking of Tinder Box, they've been a great resource for new smokers in my experience.

[Ex-MA Hole]

Occasionally.

I prefer a good cigar.

I get my tobacco from pipewoks and wilke...she is online and out of VT.

[Ex-MA Hole]

Devonai- me, too....I'm 36...I started when I realized how many 1/2 smoked cigar were tossed on my side lawn...I relaized that pipe smoking was a LOT cheaper, once you get past the initial investment of the pipe...

I have a Savenili that is what I smoke the most.

I have 4 in total.  One is in the shape of a pistol.  Never smoke it, just admire it.
I have another one that is the shape of a pipe that was marketed as a pipe that was for a quick smoke.

moron, it's for pot.

I'm too embarrassed to return it, so it sits.

I have a Castleford that I bought on ebay from the chap out of Israel.  I've smoked it once or twice, but it's too big for me.  It's too heavy in my mouth.

[charby]

I have a straight shaft briar pipe from the 1950's that I smoke occasionally, it looks like the pipe you used to see Hugh Hefner with.

I currently smoke tobacco from http://www.gatlinburlier.com/

I prefer cigars to pipe but occasionally I like the pipe.

[TMM]

if Devonai bucks the trend, i guess that means that i buck the trend, kick it to the ground, and stomp on it a bit...

i'm 19, and have been known to puff on a pipe. i've got a $6 corncob and $30 (briar? probably not.... it's wood, at least... ) i somehow pull it off, everyone i've seen or spoken to tells that to me. probably helps that my mode of dress is rough workwear and a very well-loved fedora.

i thought i'd like the snobbery of a fancier pipe, but more often than not i take out the corncob because it smokes just fine and i don't care about it in the least, so if it breaks, no sweat. for me, everything boils down to use-ability and practicality.

i don't know what i'm smoking in terms of types of tobacco, but i've had "english breakfast" and "Windsor" from a friend in philly (both good), and "champagne" and 'whitfield blend" from a local shop in CT. i believe that the "whitfield" blend is a common blend that's just renamed by each tobacco shop for the hell of it... it's mellow, sweet, and light. the champagne smells nice but tastes like salt and smoke.

used to smoke cigars. not a real fan of them anymore. i don't like having this big...thing... in my mouth.

cigarettes lack flavor but have their place in my tobacco consumption. cut back a lot a while ago, because they're not gonna do me any favors in the long run...

TMM

[S. Williamson]

Peterson Churchwarden Dublin (black and silver), and Cornell & Diehl Blockade Runner (or homemade variant).

Granted, most of the time it just sits.   

But I pick up the trend, dust it off, then slap it in the face at 25 years old. 

[Headless Thompson Gunner]

Never really liked the pipes.  The flavors never seemed quite right.

[Balog]

Never really liked the pipes.  The flavors never seemed quite right.

Do you enjoy any form of smoking? I've found some cigar smokes take a bit to find the correct blend that suits them.

[Headless Thompson Gunner]

Ambivalent, generally.  I don't mind a good cigar.  

I used to be a lot more into cigars than I am today.  I enjoyed trying out new cigars, finding ones I liked.  But now I've tried most of 'em and there isn't much interesting and new and different to try out any more.

[Balog]

I feel the same way, but about pipe tobacco. :) So many blends out there (and making custom blends) you'll never run out of stuff to try.

[Headless Thompson Gunner]

My recollection is that the different pipe blends were all variations on the same theme.  And I didn't much like that theme.

[PTK]

http://www.cvtobacco.com/Templates/tobacconistchoiceflavors.html

They make them there out of tobacco grown down the street. I used to live next to them. 

[BMacklem]

I don't personally smoke pipes, but I know my father has smoked Barley and Black for a great many years now, and he seems quite content with it, although he's taken up camel cigarrettes again after I bummed him a couple of camel menthols a year ago or so, now he mostly smokes camel crush.
I used to work for a great guy who smoked China Black in a pipe, and that was his brand for many years.
Maybe one of these days I'll finally quit the cigarettes and take up the pipe.
And if I can stop the drinking on the weekends, I could possibly even actually type decently.

 

[Balog]

Just remember folks, you need to get all Bill Clinton on the pipe; don't inhale. What'd you think I meant?

[Devonai]

PTK, that store is less than ten miles from my home.  I will have to check it out.

[KD5NRH]

Try http://www.marscigars.com  -  Mike is pretty good about picking free samples to include with your order, (could be anything from pipe cleaners to similar tobaccos, but always related to the order) and he ships quickly.

[Matthew Carberry]

Local shop blend "Smokey's Blend".  A bit sweet.  I have two pipes I rotate, both cherry wood.

[Bigjake]

Thanks for the info so far, everyone.  I'm just reading and learning.  Gonna try to hit our local pipe tobacco place this weekend at some point, and see what they have.

[Ex-MA Hole]

You just getting into it?

Do you have a pipe or anything as of yet?

[Bigjake]

You just getting into it?

Do you have a pipe or anything as of yet?

Nada, I've just always loved the aroma of pipe smoke, and it's something I wanted to try.  Hence, I pick you guy's collective brains.

[RaspberrySurprise]

Is pipe smoking any safer than cigarettes? I don't know what is in pipe tobacco but I know cig tobacco has a number of horrors in it.

[PTK]

Depends on the brand, but generally pipe tobacco is much better for you.