Do you smoke your best or worst pipe?

[Isagar]

Best and worst not as in performance, but as in the ones you love and the ones you couldn't care less about (beaters)

I'll be frank, I have not smoked any of the pipes in my collection that I love. Not because they're too valuable too be smoked, but it's mainly because of the tobaccos. I have probably only tried 1% of the entire blends in the world and so my favorite blend today might be a blend i dislike tomorrow. And i like to dedicate a particular pipe for a particular blend. Hence, to me, the time is not right to smoke my best pipes. Does anyone else shares the same view?

My go to are a few beater pipes and a few machine made pipes.

My father on the other hand, will only smoke his best pipes.

 

[Dutch]

Isagar, for awhile, I was reluctant to smoke some of my higher grade pipes, however I have decided that I could be dead as early as tomorrow, so I have decided to smoke some of the best.

However, I have a few vintage pipes that have never been smoked, and probably never will. I like the thought of handing some of them over to another collector eventually. Someone who can appreciate that they have never been smoked, and probably won't set fire to them.

I do have several pipes I have never smoked. They sit in the rack waiting to call to me, when I find a particular blend that I believe would be a perfect match to the pipes internal geometry.

 

[Hermit]

I voted both, 'cause if ya got a pipe, yer supposed to smoke it.
But, I kinda have to force myself to give everyone a turn.
I always grab my favorites first. My Rads, Ruthenbergs
and Tinskys get most of the attention, by far.

 

[Smoker99]

I voted both. I don't own anything that is too good to use for the purpose it was intended. If something was too good to use, I wouldn't buy it in the first place.

 

[blr1911]

Use them all like rented mules.

Though, my Pete SS 999s get the bulk my my affection.

 

[i.keenum]

I smoke em all. If I don't like them I give them to a non-pipe smoking friend to try and convince them to start up the pipe. Better than selling them and hopefully I get one or two hooked.

 

[Brewdude]

Don't have any beaters as such.

OTOH I do have a good number of factory pipes that smoke well and are in constant rotation. Anything that doesn't smoke good gets cut loose. So far that's only one pipe in all of 17+ years. And it was a Dunnie!

Some smoke better than others of course.

I rate my best smoking pipes on what they deliver, not on what the brand or maker is. And they all get a regular session, in due course.

I've several that haven't been broken in yet. One is a Don Carlos one note I got back in '01. Not sure why I'm holding off on this. But I'll get a round tuit.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it!

:joker:


Cheers,

RR

 

[Hawker]

The best seem to be the most reached for, that's why there the favorite's. The only time my beaters see any action is when i'm in the tractor.
Live for the now, you got em, enjoy em.

 

[Idlefellow]

I shoot all my guns, fish all my rods and smoke all my pipes. Just some more than others .

 

[monbla256]

I shoot all my guns, fish all my rods and smoke all my pipes. Just some more than others .

This plus if they are "bad" they are no longer in my house. :twisted:

 

[bosun1]

If the pipe smokes well, I smoke it. Else it ends up in the wall rack or in a box on the shelf!

 

[Kyle Weiss]

I wasn't sure how to vote on this, so I went "both."

I smoke pipes that smoke well, for whatever activity suits them best (lightweight vs "to-hold-only"), per tobacco chosen. That's what makes them "best." Their pedigree seems not to matter.

:shrug:

 

[MisterE]

I smoke pretty much all of them. I avoid a few because cleaning them is a pain in the butt, not because of their value..

 

[longbottom]

After many years of maybe 35 nice serious pipes - i quit. So now that I have started back up again I have a small but excellent collection of 5 pipes 3 gorgeous briars and 2 meerschaums and they all smoke nice. So I smoke my best pipes - i have no junk ones or beater pipes.

 

[pepesdad1]

Don't have any beaters...some are more attractive than others...love them all and smoke them all. Each is special in it's own way.

 

[HCraven]

I try to smoke all my pipes, though I admit some of my larger ones have been on hiatus for a while, as I've been enjoying smaller pipes lately. I don't own many I consider beaters, but my best pipes are probably ones others would only consider average. Sometimes even the bottom-of-the-barrel pipes in my rotation impress me, like this little Curtis I have. Doesn't smoke bad at all, considering it was like ten bucks brand new.

 

[Anonymous]

There's only one pipe here that never gets smoked. It's a BBB Own Make Virgin (their top grade, and a rare one) squat bulldog bought new in 1975, carefully smoked (excellent smoker), and restored by Dave Wolff to "lightly caked mint." It's just too nice and rare a pipe to put any mileage on at all. It lives in a closed box, protected from light & humidity. :heart:

:face:

 

[pepesdad1]

Yak said: "...It's just too nice and rare a pipe to put any mileage on at all. It lives in a closed box, protected from light & humidity."
I've read your voluminous posts with interest and I have to wonder why you have the pipe to begin with if you are not going to smoke it. Sort of like an art collector keeping all his stuff in a room so only he can see it. Yeah it is valuable, but what is the reason for not smoking it?
Just curious, not looking for an argument.