It’s been awhile....like about 10 years...

Stick · Oct 1, 2017

Ok, so please excuse my ignorance, but what are herfers and stokers? Does the latter relate to engineers on a ship? (Sorry Adam. Hope this in no way offends the senior service).

:suspect:

Yarnspinner68 · Oct 1, 2017

Stick":r13s4a42 said:
Ok, so please excuse my ignorance, but what are herfers and stokers? Does the latter relate to engineers on a ship? (Sorry Adam. Hope this in no way offends the senior service).

:suspect:

Back in the JR Cigar forum era, the terms came about somewhat like gang names. ?

An organized gathering of cigar smokers was called a "herf." These were typically meetups at large smoke shops that could accommodate a group. The JR cigar stores are huge and usually had sizable seating area and provided coffee, so they were frequently chosen for these. I went to several herfs and met some fine folks. I'm pretty sure the term came about because someone commented during one of the gatherings how everyone was "huffing and puffing" on their cigars. If you say that with a cigar held in your teeth, it comes close to "herf and perf"...so herf is the gathering and herfers are cigar smokers.

"Stoker" came about on the old forum to differentiate pipe smokers from cigar smokers. The cigar smokers' term of choice was "pipe suckers" and "pipe slurpers" (yes, very juvenile) and they wore their "herfer" tag with some pride. Those of us that smoked primarily pipes started calling ourselves Stokers because packing a bowl properly, lighting it, and maintaining an even smoke throughout is similar to stoking a fire in a firebox--it takes skill and practice.

The stoker term came about because of the forum conflict between cigar smokers and pipe smokers on the JR forums and gave us the name of the next forum that focused on pipes and pipe tobacco.

Sorry for the long-winded explanation. I thought some history of it would be better than just a short definition. ?

Lonecoyote · Oct 1, 2017

Appreciate you explaining both terminologies^^^^^^^ I too now better understand what they mean....thanks.

KEEP ON PUFFING & STOKING!!!

Oxman · Oct 2, 2017

Thanks for that explanation Bryant, it's always interesting to learn how our smokrs dialect developed

Stick · Oct 2, 2017

Yes, thanks Bryant. Sounds like a bit of friendly rivalry!

puros_bran · Oct 4, 2017

Yarnie, A member here that was a Stokers member has my Pops Stokers Haven POY that Kurt Bosi made. Last week I shipped another Bosi Pipe lthat was made at the same time as the POY to my nephew.

Jr>Stokers>Knox>BoB. The spirit is still much alive, new friends are made as the old pass on.