awoodby":w8pru86q said:
Welcome to the Brotherhood!
Wow, 49 years on the pipe. Things must have changed a lot. You've seen it ebb and wane a couple of times. Always manage to find a good blend to keep your pipe warm I assume.
Do you go to an online store nowadays and just cancel out of frustration and go back to the old standby or are you tempted to play the field?
--Alex
Some things have changed somewhat, particularly approaches to the briar. For example, when I started, conventional wisdom was to break in a new briar by rubbing saliva into the bowl, filling it about a quarter full, and smoking it to the bottom; repeat about 8-10 times before stepping up to half bowl, then eventually to full bowls. This was to build up cake from the bottom up. Another recommendation was to strip any varnish, lacquer, or other such sealant from the bowl and shank, replacing it with an oil based rub, the preferred one being to rub the pipe against your nose, once on each side pipe/nose, every time you smoke. This was to build up the oil finish using your natural oils, and based upon the premise that sealed briar didn't allow the pipe to properly breathe. Another was to avoid tobaccos with sugar casing because they would make the pipe bitter. Don't know how prevalent those practices are today, don't hear them being offered to newbies, so I'm guessing they have fallen by the wayside.
As far as buying tobacco today, there are no B&M stores around my part of the state, except the ones catering mostly to cigarettes and some cigars. Very slim pipe tobacco pickings. The online stores provide a much needed and valued service, carrying wide varieties and choices, and delivering with generally excellent service. BTW, there are MANY more blends available to today's piper than there were when I started. Biggest difference is the entire attitude change against smoking; today we pipers are tossed into the general bin with the cigarette fanatics. When I picked up the pipe, pipe smokers were held in high esteem, generally viewed as thoughtful, well educated gentlemen (ladies didn't smoke pipes then). Nowadays, we know we are like that; everyone else just don't know the truth.
OK, stepping off the memory bus and soapbox... Thanks for asking....
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