Past pipe smoker, cigar aficionado, buying pipe tobacco again now. Retired builder in The Minneapple.

[Forrest]

How do you do, BrothersofBriar.

My handle is my real name. Forrest. (I don’t run.) A little about me:

First, I ADMIT to inhaling in the 70s --in high school and early college. I then found a gorgeous briar and delicious tobacco blends to wean myself from that which was compromising my productivity in college. After then moving to cigars for the sake of convenience while I work-a-holic'd building my businesses, then, when we became expecting our first child, I gave up smoking altogether --as well as drinking.

After we lost wife-and-mother to leukemia, wife-and-mother who made me promise I’d put together another nuclear family asap after she was gone for the sake of raising the kids, I found that wine with dinner made dating tolerable again --frankly, eventually pleasurable again. Once wife number two and our then-blended-family was in place, I began smoking cigars again. Then, when the convenience of the internet made trying tobaccos so convenient, I put a nice pipe collection together. When she and the kids asked me to quit, I obliged --both smoking and alcohol. No problem; happy to. I love you all very much.

A few short years thereafter, she put her daughter into a boarding school and left me and my kids for her cougar lifestyle. (She was 14 years my junior; her daughter was my youngest’s, my son’s, age. When I met her, she was a rather new chiropractor in deep debt and floundering in life as a single mother doing all the work in the clinic owned by an older chiropractor who would rather play golf. So, I coached and funded her to start up a private clinic of her own that soon provided her financial independence while I basically raised not only our kids, but her, too. [This won’t let my introduction fit; I’ll continue it in comments below, if it will allow me to.]

 

[Forrest]

• A few short years thereafter, she put her daughter into a boarding school and left me and my kids for her cougar lifestyle. (She was 14 years my junior; her daughter was my youngest’s, my son’s, age. When I met her, she was a rather new chiropractor in deep debt and floundering in life as a single mother doing all the work in the clinic owned by an older chiropractor who would rather play golf. So, I coached and funded her to start up a private clinic of her own that soon provided her financial independence while I basically raised not only our kids, but her, too. Before too many years, I was beginning to grey, and I had coached her into a financially-independent, beautiful milf in her sexual prime –more evidence that God is female, and she’s vindictive.)
  
  After she and the evil step-daughter/step-sister were out of our lives, we carried on better without them. I then enjoyed, while building wealth, dating, fine wine-and-dining, excellent cigars, and coaching my children into professional careers, stable families, and having and raising their loving children who are my loving grandchildren. Life is good.
  
  While I continued to build my fortune, I then play-boy’d while searching for someone to live happily-ever-after with --someone who would have no problem with my cigars and fine wines and scotches and bourbons --and no heavy baggage, believe it or not. That took some shopping, but I enjoyed the wife-shopping very much. Now, I’ve again proven to myself that I much prefer happily-ever-after --especially in my now-retired lifestyle with the lady of my house, along with our happy dogs, while enjoying my acre-plus of her gorgeous gardens, and while we do plenty of traveling. Life is good.
  
  Back to smoking. I have not smoked cigars in the house. (I smoke on my patio in her beautiful gardens, on my deck overlooking my little, private, bird-sanctuary lake, in my convertible sports car when its top is open, in my fully-leather-lined SUV when the weather is not comfortable for toplessness, and in a swell, private cigar club I joined about a 20-minute drive away.) But I want to have a smoke with my coffee in the morning when it would be nicer to build a fire in the indoor fireplace rather than the firepit on the patio. And pipes don’t seem to foul the whole house from the easy chair by the fireplace like cigars do.
  
  Thus, I broke out my pipe collection just a few days ago. And joined BrothersofBriar. How do you do!
  
  Now get this: [continued one more time]
• 
  .

 

[Forrest]

• Now get this:
  
  During the Great Recession, basically about 2008 and into about 2010 or so, I put my pipe tobacco into tupperware containers. I haven’t opened them since about then, maybe 2011, certainly not since 2012. Well, one of them is not dried out! What the. The others are. (I think the one that’s still smokable-moist is an Acadian Perique, but I’m not certain.)
  
  So, of course, I’m re-hydrating them. (I’m doing that the lazy retirees way; with bovedas --which are THE wonderful solution to cigar cellaring. In “tupperdors” for cigars, the bovedas last forever; I have yet to have one need replacing; the oldest being a couple years old already. Gawd, is that nice for cellaring cigars. So, I’m hoping it works for cellaring pipe tobacco, too. I have every expectation that it will. And, I expect they should do a fine job of slowly rehydrating the tobacco.)
  
  That leads me to my questions for you, my fellow BrothersofBriar:

 

[Forrest]

• That leads me to my questions for you, my fellow BrothersofBriar:
  
  
  
  
  
  Bovedas in tupperware for tobacco cellaring. Thoughts and considerations?
  
  
  
  Which RH Boveda? From scouring the interwebs, I’ve decided to begin with 58%. Any first-hand trial-and-error experience?
  
  
  
  My untouched-for-many-years pipes, some have somewhat loose stems. Will they resolve themselves from usage? (They’re smoking fine.)
  
  
  
  For the sake of your recommended tobaccos to try, please, allow me to describe my palate:
  
  
  
  First, cigars; I prefer medium nicotine strength for the sake of fuller flavor --you know, like how nice it is to find the “session beer” that’s lower alcohol content but still full-flavored. I do smoke strong cigars, after steak dinners, with a good bourbon. And medium-mild in the morning with black dark roast, even though medium strength nicotine cigars tend to have fuller bodied smoke. I prefer fuller smoke with a creamier mouth-feel. (Who doesn’t?)
  
  
  
  Second, pipe tobacco; More than the various tins I enjoyed trying, I smoked more of a blend I evolved of mostly a Cornell and Diehl no-additives that I can’t remember which of, with perhaps half as much Captain Black Gold, finished with some Acadian Perique.
  
  
  
  Does that inspire any of you to implore that I try any particular tobaccos?
  
  
  
  How about especially to go with dark black roast in the morning?
  
  
  
  And what tobaccos marry best with which cocktails and/or whiskeys?
  
  
  
  Lastly, my sign-off:
  
  
  
  Warm regards,
  
  
  
  Forrest K. Harstad
  
  Real Estate Investor, Developer, Broker, and Business Consultant.
  
  
  
  Specializing in Whole Neighborhoods of New Homes since 1980.
  
  
  
  Retired Designer Builder of over 140 new homes per year.
  
  
  
  Now Designing and Brokering what I love most,
  
  from my selective retirement,
  
  around the Minneapple, MN:
  
  
  
  ~ Home Design
  
  ~ Kitchen Design
  
  ~ Land Investment
  
  ~ Land Development
  
  ~ Real Estate Brokering
  
  ~ Small Business Growth, and
  
  ~ Business Owners’ Exit Strategies
  
  
  
  .
  

 

[Blackhorse]

Welcome. Feel like we know you on a deep personal level…a nice thing. Comment…re re-hydration: SLOWLY.

 

[sstodvictory]

Loose stem: A dent in a smooth briar pipe of mine was partially removed at a pipe shop. I was not present to see it. Asked how he did it, he said he rubbed the dent to make the wood heat up...and swell up. The dent was reduced, though not totally removed. That said I do not know if rubbing the stem will fix a loose tenon.

 

[Balisong]

That's quite the intro, welcome to the group! I retired my briar pipes and only smoke cobs these days. When I have a jar of tobacco that's too dry I soak one of the pouch humidifiers in distilled water, wipe off the outside and drop it into the jar. After a few days I check it and either remove or resoak the humidifier.

 

[Blackhorse]

Loose stem: A dent in a smooth briar pipe of mine was partially removed at a pipe shop. I was not present to see it. Asked how he did it, he said he rubbed the dent to make the wood heat up...and swell up. The dent was reduced, though not totally removed. That said I do not know if rubbing the stem will fix a loose tenon.

I don’t think so, but there’s more experienced folks here…anybody?