Honey, I Shrunk the Kids

[Zeno Marx]

I didn't smoke a pipe roughly from 1995-2005. Before that, I smoked large pipes 20-30 bowls a week. Simply put, I was drawn to mostly large pipes from shortly after I started smoking. I don't think I owned anything smaller than a group 6 for a long time; not just large pipes, but large bowls as well. I sold all my pipes and kept a couple of group 4/5 pipes I acquired right before the sell-off and quiting. When I started up again, I was still attracted to the large pipes, but I quickly learned I couldn't afford to smoke like I once did. My situation doesn't lend to all that smoking like it once did, but even if it did, I couldn't go back to smoking that amount. I force myself to find group 3s and 4s to be attractive and desirable. Lots of nice pipes in that range, but it isn't natural for me to gravitate towards them.

My question is: how has your smoking changed, if at all, over the years? Not the types of tobacco, but have you cut back on bowls/day or size of pipes due to tobacco costs? How different does your collection look from 1990 to 2010? (or 1970 to 2010 if it applies?)

 

[Hermit]

I was a cigar smoker since the mid seventies.
When I discovered pipes just over four years ago,
I was surprised at how cheap pipe smoking was
as opposed to cigars. Of course that completely
discounts vast sums spent on pipes. :lol:

 

[mark]

I gravitated towards smaller bowled pipes as my interest grew in VAs.

I haven't cut back due to tobacco cost, it's probably the cheapest smoke there is.

A few years back I sold/swapped/gave away every pipe in my rack and started over. The fussy gurgling junk found new homes and I began picking up quality smokers.

 

[flytyer]

The only change Im seeing is the type of pipes I smoke, Im more interested in smaller classic shapes like billiards, pots and especially lovats. Im thinking about thinning my small collection of briars down to 8 or 9 that smoke the best.

 

[monbla256]

Having now aquired around 86 pipes, mostly briar with a few Meers as well, since 1969 till this year, I'm not actively aquiring pipes at present. Seems I have predominatly smoked grp4-5 sized pipes with a couple of larger grp6 Dunhills and some larger Freehand Charatans thrown in for variety. I probably smoke around 200 grams of 'bac a month so the size pipes I have works well with this level of tobac consumption. I'm sort of in a point of equilibrium pipe/tobacco for me so see no need for reduction/addition Now if I can just find where I put that other box of matches :roll:

 

[serif365]

I don't have "around 86" pipes but I do seem to have quite a few. My favorites are a handful of small meerschaums I bought while stationed in Turkey in the early seventies. They travelled around with me for the next 35 years drawing dust in a display cabinet. I started smoking pipes again only a few months back but I have really gravitated to the small meers. I have large billiards, Dublins, and apple briars; I have a couple nice Churchwardens; all good pipes but I prefer the smaller bowls. I tend to draw heavily on a pipe and the meerschaum suffers the "forge effect" better than wood or cob. I've also acquired a couple of older Hilson meer-lined briars and they work for me as well. I smoke a wide range of tobaccos and meerschaum doesn't seem to ghost as easily as briar.

 

[Anonymous]

The larger ones are all swapped or given away by now. Those that have endured over 40 years & those picked up & kept are almost all (one exception) group 2-4 size. Group 3 is the happy medium. All classic shapes, mostly billiards and none younger than maybe 30 years old.

Quality > capacity & frequency.

:cat: :face:

 

[alfredo_buscatti]

I like about an hour's smoke. If flake or plug, group 4. If loose group 5 or 6. That is no different from my prior pipe smoking to its current resurrection.

 

[Kyle Weiss]

Even in my short, 1.5 years of smoking a pipe (excluding the goofing off unserious piping I did in high school) my bowls/chambers have gotten smaller. Any of my larger bowls are for light- to medium-English or non-VA stuff. Lesson learned via flavor and also, the punch plugs and flakes have--didn't take too long to figure out some larger chambers did little (and even hindered) flavor, they can cause...uh... other problems... :drunken: :drunken: :drunken: *fallovergreen*

Smaller quantities of better tobacco also mean I can enjoy more than one pipe a day and, my tongue doesn't rebel. I smoke the same amount of tobacco, get great flavor and can have another go-round if I so desire.

8)

 

[PreppyHippy]

A good and interesting question; too bad the answer for me isn't very clear.

For me pipe tobacco still strikes me as very inexpensive, even in tin packaging which is surely the more expensive way to smoke from a pipe. I've not cut back my smoking because of tobacco cost, and I haven't gone for larger bowled pipes because of the lack of expense either. It happens I liked larger pipes when I started about ten or twelve years ago, but I was more attracted to pipe shapes than their size. Initially I resisted small bowled pipes, but heck, the more I learned and the more I played around with different tobacco cuts, like flake, the more I found it very nice to have smaller pipes in my rotation as well. Also I fell in love with a few smaller pipes for their aesthetics, and loved packing their smaller bowls just to get to use them.

I haven't weeded out many pipes, but the ones I have gotten rid of I've given to friends who've wanted them. My pipe collection is about three dozen now and has thus only grown since I started playing around with the delights of briar.

I'm glad to see this thread revived, so to speak, and think over the ways my smoking choices have lead me.

 

[user 2031]

I love the larger pipes like the two Edward's briars I bought from ZM. I agree with Kyle and these have quickly become pipes for light English, and for me burleys. But I'm a leisure smoker and tinkerer and add to that avid reader, so when my pipe goes out it might sit there a bit before I relight it and the bowl will last me much longer than someone who sits and smokes it all at once. So they definitely work for me. I do however love my new little Sebastien Beos for the flake tobaccos and Virginias that I'm just now getting into. I don't know the sizes, but they are very small. So both the large ones and the small ones have a place in my rotation.

 

[Kyle Weiss]

The second-smallest chambered pipe I own is reserved for GLP Embarcadero. Packed and going, I can sit for two and a half hours with that thing in "almost extinguishing" mode. My largest chambered pipe, a Jirsa blowfish, which as since been switched over to the Lat team, I can pleasantly cruise through some Squadron Leader in 45 minutes. Different balancing acts, same circus.

*shrug*

8)

 

[user 2031]

Interesting, Kyle. I've never really sat down and smoked a pipe straight through, so I couldn't tell you from experience. I lay my pipe down a lot and one bowl will generally last me 4 or more hours. But, as I said, I'm always involved in other activity when I smoke. One of these days I'm going to have to sit down and just smoke... all though even as I'm writing this I know I won't do it. My ADD won't let me be still that long. Oh well, no worry.

 

[Kyle Weiss]

The pipe forces me to concentrate properly. I don't have ADHD or anything, but I am pretty much rocket fuel under pressure most of the time, and I concentrate almost fixated. The pipe, especially with writing, studying, reading or hanging out, gives me something to break the momentum...like remembering I have brakes even though coasting downhill, ever faster, is a lot of fun. :lol: Brain habits/chemistry is fascinating stuff.

I will sometimes sit the pipe down, depending on what I'm doing. I'm almost always an outdoors smoker, either on my little porch or working in the hills. If I set my pipe down while working, I'll leave it two ridges over... :lol: Learning to clench on cobs means leaving it behind or not having a tired jaw is workable .

So yeah, I sit, and see the whole thing through to the end. I've become accustomed to how tobacco tastes this way, as I've noticed beyond DGT, sitting the pipe down unattended for too long can create some pretty rough re-lights. :lol:

8)

 

[user 2031]

Agreed.

You just don't seem to have the problem of forgetting what you were doing in the first place like I do. :lol:

Oh well, Kyle. I don't think there is much hope for me at this point. Luckily, I have a good sense of humor and I take it all in stride. It's like the video I posted yesterday...

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Xs0CirmhqNY" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" frameborder="0" loading="lazy" allowfullscreen></iframe> It is what it is... :lol:

 

[monbla256]

Interesting, Kyle. I've never really sat down and smoked a pipe straight through, so I couldn't tell you from experience. I lay my pipe down a lot and one bowl will generally last me 4 or more hours. But, as I said, I'm always involved in other activity when I smoke. One of these days I'm going to have to sit down and just smoke... all though even as I'm writing this I know I won't do it. My ADD won't let me be still that long. Oh well, no worry.

AAAAHHH ! Another smoker who does as I do! My pipe is not a "special" thing with me, it's just a daily part of my living habits. Many times I'll put a pipe down that is still got 'bac in it when i go to bed and will pick it back up and finish it when I have my morning coffee. I don't just sit down to smoke a pipe. rather I usually have one going most of the day. When I worked 50 hrs a week of course things were different, but I still was able to smoke though it was a different place we lived in back then. The only place that I can control where I don't smoke is while driving. But I don't use my cell while driving either, rather I tend to concentrate on driving For me, pipe smoking is not a "hobby", rather it's part of my life." Different strokes for different folks" as they say

 

[Kyle Weiss]

Can a hobby not be a part of one's life, too? Poh-tay-to, poh-tah-to. We'd all be quite dull if we all did things the same way, scheduling our pleasures or not. I'm either go-go-go or sit-sit-sit, and I just try and take advantages of those little moments when it's "just right." I don't have a clock-in-clock out life, scheduled days off or anything. *shrug*

8)

 

[monbla256]

Can a hobby not be a part of one's life, too? Poh-tay-to, poh-tah-to. We'd all be quite dull if we all did things the same way, scheduling our pleasures or not. I'm either go-go-go or sit-sit-sit, and I just try and take advantages of those little moments when it's "just right."

8)

Like I said, "... different strokes for different folks"

 

[Kyle Weiss]

Indeed. Just gotta stand up for "hobby smoking."

 

[monbla256]

Indeed. Just gotta stand up for "hobby smoking."

I wasn't attacking "hobby smoking", just stateing what I do.