Confessions of a clincher

[Idlefellow]

I posted a couple of pics a while back and a member replied, "Quite the clincher, eh?" I felt a little - I don't know - offended? Embarrassed? Chastised? But I took a look at my rack recently; my pipes are in deplorable condition, and yeah - I guess I am quite the clincher. I'm not an armchair smoker; my pipes are tools, and they get used while hunting, fishing, walking, driving, etc. etc. etc. all activities where one might tend to clamp a jaw from time to time. Thant's no excuse - just a fact. So out came the micromesh, Obsidian Oil, and even the exact-o knife in a few instances, and I spent the afternoon doing what I just have done religiously and a little at a time: cleaning up some pipes. I started with my Petersons - my favorites - and if you think getting a few years worth of oxidation off of a bunch of p-lips is easy or fun, you're wrong. Most of them still have a divot or two; that's just how it is. But they're clean and as un-oxidized as I can get them. Then, each got fitted with a softie cut down to allow for the p-lips. That's going to be interesting and will take some getting used to as I've never used them previously. But maybe - just maybe - I won't get any more clincher comments. Twenty-two down; on to the rest!

 

[Brewdude]

Good luck on those softies. I never could get on with them.


Cheers,

RR

 

[D.L.Ruth]

No shame in being a clincher. I clinch pretty bad sometimes and have actually bitten through the stem on one of my cobs. Most of my stems show signs of bite marks.

 

[daveinlax]

I’m an armchair only pipe smoker who was pretty much a clencher until I broke my tooth. It took about a month to get a permanent crown and I sort of got out of the clenching habit. The new crown has a different feel than my old tooth but it holds the pipe pretty well but it still isn’t a natural feel and I have to think about placement. Now my pipe feels like a foreign object. I’ve noticed when I’m on zoom pipe clubs I’m always fidgeting with my pipe. It sucks!

 

[Idlefellow]

Good luck on those softies. I never could get on with them.


Cheers,

RR

Yeah; I may not be able to either. We'll see.

 

[Mikem]

I had a friend who was a severe clencher who would routinely bite through the stem/bit. I suggested he use the rubber softies but he would have nothing to do with it. His problem was he was kind of a pipe snob and would only buy high end pipes. I bought quite a few from him and then replaced the bit. I aquired a couple of very nice smoking pipes that way. Don't get me wrong he was a hell of a nice guy but did have his quirks when it came to pipes.

 

[Ranger107]

Guess I must be the exception. I am mostly an arm chair smoker as I only smoke when I have time to sit down and enjoy it. Not while working or moving around. I do clench sometimes, but I must not do it with much pressure as none of my pipes have any divots or bite marks unless they were their when I acquired them. I do use softies on a couple of pipes just because the bit is too small or isn't comfortable, but only maybe 3 at present. Did take some getting used to.

 

[ftrplt]

I'm a "clincher!" Always have been. Hell, most all the ol' pipe smokers I grew up around way back when were clinchers. Reality is I never heard the word "clinch" used for holding a pipe until a few years ago on this board!! Was the natural thing to do back in the day when you could "smoke on the job!" I hate "softees!!" I do have them on maybe three pipes that have shallow bits making them hard to hold "teeth only!!"
R-107, thanks for reminding me that I also have a bit of pipe cleaning to do!!!!! FTRPLT

 

[Corncobcon]

I clench my pipes also, and it shows! I recently purchased an estate pipe that had a divot on the top of the button.
When I put the pipe in my mouth for the first time, the divot fit perfectly under my tooth! No breaking in necessary!!!!!

 

[Idlefellow]

Well, this experiment was rather a failure. After spending all that time trimming the softies down to make what I thought would be the perfect solution for the p-lips, I found that my teeth still marked up the p-lip button pretty badly. So off they came, and new softies have been applied and pulled down to list clear the p-lip draft hole. We'll see how that works. I've yet to have a smoke in one but they don't feel too weird in "dry runs" so far. Now, if anybody has a use for softies that have become essentially just pieces of rubber tubing, I have 25 of them laying around

 

[mtvernon]

Aw, to heck with worrying about what other people think. They’re your pipes; enjoy them however you wish.

 

[Zeno Marx]

If you want a little more resistance than a softie, vinyl tubing from the hardware store works nicely. Around a $1/ft, so around 10 pipes for a $1. Can get a nice, tight fit with a hairdryer warming up the tubing. Just a hack to consider. I use a nail file on the edges, because cut tubing can be a little sharpish to the lips.

 

[Idlefellow]

I agree. I didn't do it for other people; I just don't like the way my stems were looking !