Anyone Else Have This Problem With Unsmoked Estates?

[captainsousie]

Here's some background. I currently have 5 estate pipes that haven't been smoked (2 of those have been around for a few months), 5 that have been smoked once or twice (by me), and 3 that have gotten into my regular rotation and get smoked often. I love the idea of an unsmoked pipe. The though that I can just stuff, light and go without any cleaning effort on my part is really nice after spending a couple hours bringing a pipe back to life.
The reality though is this. Whenever I get an estate that hasn't been smoked, I have a heck of a time convincing myself to smoke it. A couple of times this hasn't been the case but with most of them, it is. After I smoke it once, I sometimes have a hard time convincing myself to finish the break-in process and smoke it regularly. This is partly a product of me having a ton of pipes and not smoking often enough to give them all the love they deserve. It's also because I don't want to damage a pipe on break-in. The though of a burnout on a pipe I have been searching for and finally found is just terrible to me. The last reason is sheer laziness. When I'm smoking a a pipe, I do it to relax and not to spend my time paying careful attention to the pack and temperature in my pipe. So, instead of reaching for a pipe to break in, I reach for an old favorite that has given me a number of great smokes.
Does anybody else have this terrible problem or am I the weirdo as usual? It's gotten to the point that I am thinking of selling the 2 newest pipes I've picked up because I don't want to go through the break-in, possibly destroy them, and take their value from something to almost nothing just by putting flame to tobacco. This is supposed to be relaxing dammit!
This is mostly lighthearted but it is actually becoming somewhat of a problem. Too many unsmoked pipes lying around and I will have broken one of my rules. That is, a pipe is meant to be smoked and not hang around looking neglected.

 

[billypm]

I honestly have never bought a pipe I couldn't bring myself to smoke, but I kinda get it. Smoking a pipe changes it forever, no doubt about it. I'd probably feel the same way about an old unsmoked Dunhill, or a Nordh or Joura in virgin condition.

 

[mrenglish]

+1 Sam.

 

[dervis]

People are crazy! It is a piece of wood. It happens to have 2 holes in it. Nevertheless unless smoked it is a fancy stick. Light them up!

 

[tbradsim1]

Dave, make yourself smoke one every day in your reg rotation, you probably have a rack of unsmoked pipes, think of this like being a Big Brother and doing your duty, you'd be surprised that once you start doing this it will be second nature.

 

[peckinpahhombre]

"The last reason is sheer laziness. When I'm smoking a a pipe, I do it to relax and not to spend my time paying careful attention to the pack and temperature in my pipe. So, instead of reaching for a pipe to break in, I reach for an old favorite that has given me a number of great smokes."
This kind of describes me. Not so much laziness, but I get busy with work and when I'm on the fly it's just easier to reach for a pipe I am familiar with and that is broken in. When I have a week or two off, then I tend to try breaking in a few pipes, but when I'm working and have little free time they tend to stay in the box or bag until I get around to it (eventually).

 

[rcstan]

Unless you load up little pinches, use a torch lighter, puff like a maniac, and smoke it down to the embers, you shouldn't have a risk of burnout. In the almost 3 months I've been restoring estates for SPC I've seen the most common charring in the chamber around the mid-point and above the airway, direct results IMO of the aforementioned habits. I honestly wish whoever started the myth with loading up quarter and half bowls to break in a pipe would not have done so. Even packing and a proper cadence should be stressed.

If it's any consolation though, you'll always be able to associate breaking in your pipe with some special meaningful event .....

 

[andrew]

I have a few, it's simply a matter of having extra pipes on hand though for blends I haven't tried yet. I have an unsmoked estate for when I pop open my erinmore tins, another one for when I pop open my MacBaren ODF, and a few for any new blends that I come across. It's more about the right pipe for the right tobacco than anything else for me.

 

[sablebrush52]

Hi Captain,
I rarely buy unsmoked estates because I don't care to experience the reluctant ambivalence about ending its pristine condition, especially if the pipe in question is decades and decades old. I smoke all of the pipes that I own, with a couple of exceptions. So if I'm bidding on a pre-WW1 Barling it will have been smoked. I'd just have a hard time putting a match to one that is still unsmoked.
There are a some newer pipes that have I bought because I appreciate their design and have yet to put a match to them. Three of them are by Paul Tatum, and I bought them because his design sense is unique and witty. His approach and attention to surfaces is also unique and very carefully wrought. Once I've put a match to one of these pipes, all that goes to hell. These are something a bit different for me than just "a piece of wood". To me, they're minor works of art.
And there are some unsmoked estates that I've happily put to work, because they're not museum pieces, nor unique, just good pipes made by good craftsmen.

As for breaking in a new pipe, I just smoke 'em. They seem to break in just fine.

 

[petes03]

Load them up and smoke em'! That's what they're for! Don't worry about burnouts, I used to, but not anymore. I used to follow the "rule of thirds" on break ins, but now I just load em' and smoke em'!

 

[crazypipe]

This has never happen to me :D

 

[zekest]

I purchase every pipe with the belief that I will be the last owner of that pipe.
I used to smoke my pipes right down to the heel, trying my best to ignite the last bit of ash with my BIC lighter; rcstan has clued me into never doing that again. Pipe tobacco is cheap compared to the brier burner.
I have never had a problem breaking in a new pipe, except for a pear wood brog that now lives in an old cigar box.
If a pipe doesn't smoke well I assume the pipe doesn't like me and gets used to smoke heavy Georgia peach, Middleton's cherry, or blackberry brandy tobacco as a punishment (to us both perhaps).
My 9 cents.

 

[sfsteves]

I buy pipes in order to use them for smoking ... I suppose a 'collector' might take a different view of setting a fire in a previously unsmoked pipe, but I have never had any such reservations ... I DO have a couple of pipes that don't smoke as well as I'd like and tend to not smoke them much ... I've even toyed with the idea of either selling them or giving them away, but somehow, that strikes me as dumping my mistakes on unwitting others and I just don't do it ...

 

[nachman]

I think about saving a pipe in case I want to give it as a gift, but I always break down and smoke it after a week or two. Don't worry about burning it out. In over fifty years of smoking, I have never had a burn out. I have a theory that most burn outs are caused by unseen internal defects or voids in the briar. If that is true, short of extreme abuse, you won't affect whether you have one much at all.

 

[bigmick]

I fall in the camp of an unsmoked pipe is not fulfilling its purpose. Having said that I have only acquired 2 unsmoked estates and both begged me to smoke them, so to speak. I do not collect pipes. I accumulate them.

Of course I also need to clarify I don't have the means to accumulate the lovely high end pipes that very well might make me hesitant to smoke them.

 

[cortezattic]

Only a pristine meerschaum bowl with that impossibly deep, lustrous, pearlescent white will give me pause.

 

[lqjones]

I've asked myself this also. For me it comes down to whether I'm a smoker or a collector. I honestly put myself in the former. The older I get, the more practical I get and if I'm not using something, it seems like a waste to me. Just my .02. I feel this way about nice cars as well and a whole lot of other things.

 

[craig94yj]

I think you are suffering from "Jeckel and Hyde" syndrome. Don't fight it. Look at each pipe and decide if she calls you to smoke or keep pristine. There is no reason you can't find a happy medium between collecting and smoking. Duckfat couldn't have said it any better for me. Pop that cherry at least to see if it could be your new favorite pipe.

 

[peckinpahhombre]

I have had a productive weekend. Wife and kids were gone, so I deflowered 3 new pipes. I still have a bunch of pipes that are unsmoked however. I also did some culling. I have put aside about 25 pipes that no longer strike my fancy for various reasons, including 9 Dunhills that I simply never reach for. Sometime before the end of the year I will either put them for sale on here or send them to one of the ebay sellers.

 

[cigrmaster]

As soon as a new pipe reaches my door, I will open the box, fill the pipe and smoke it. If I have a pipe going, I will put it down to smoke the new one. I have never or will I ever not smoke a pipe I have bought. I have broken in tons of new pipes and I have never come close to a burn out, you have to seriously mis treat a pipe to burn it out, briar is that tough.
It matters not whether the pipe is a brand new one, an unsmoked estate or an estate pipe, they all get smoked and broken in very quickly. I am very particular when it comes to the pipes I want to smoke and what I want to pay for said pipes so being able to buy loads at a time is impossible. I am lucky if I find one pipe every other month that fits my criteria.