Is Pipe Smoking Changing?

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trouttimes

Lifer
Nov 26, 2018
5,169
21,491
Lake Martin, AL
For years I just grabbed a pipe and whatever pouch was close and off I went. Little if any thought give to choice or the experience. It the last few years, I have started paying a lot more attention to pipe selection, rotation, etc as well as tabacco selection and the overall experience. I wonder if I am being influenced by the internet and groups such as this? Am I becoming more educated in the study of the art of the flame or has pipe smoking changed? What say yea?

 

ashdigger

Lifer
Jul 30, 2016
11,378
70,056
60
Vegas Baby!!!
It's the internet.
My grandfather's rotation was 3 or 4 pipes. He smoked them until they crapped out and tossed it in the garbage. He smoked two blends.
I have over 70 pipes and 40 blends. Times change.

 

bassbug

Lifer
Dec 29, 2016
1,112
905
Pipe smoking does not change...pipe smokers do change.
At the end of the day, we all do what makes us happy. More than that, if what makes us happy changes over time that's not a bad thing.

 
Most of the pipesmokers in my area just have one pipe and a favorite OTC. They don't engage me in conversation about pipes nor tobaccos, because they could care less. It seems to hurt them painfully to discuss such things. They just smoke, and that suits them just fine. This was also how men I knew growing up that smoked pipes were. You could give them a humidor for their tobacco or a new pipe rest, but they'd just smoke one pipe till it was dead and then toss it in the fireplace.

So, I don't think it's weird at all. In fact, the conversations about pipes and tobaccos that we engage in on here is probably weirder and wayyyy more nerdy.
As far as has it changed... There were always pipe nerds. It was just that men who had a whole lot more money could afford to be nerdy. My Lady Nicotine by JM Barrie proves that at least some were as nerdy as us back in the 19th c.

 

mso489

Lifer
Feb 21, 2013
41,210
60,433
Russ O. pointed out that more than 90% of tobacco sales are aromatics. I'd guess that much of that is pouch and tub tobacco, and that most pipe smokers aren't deeply steeped in pipe smoking lore and knowhow. Forums members are the part of the tobacco pipe community that makes a hobby and study of it. We're not typical, and we don't drive the industry, though we may have outsized influence because we generate chatter and opinion. But the industry is driven by over-the-counter brands and people who own a pipe or three, and just enjoy the activity for itself without a lot of social engagement. Or that's my semi-informed take on it. I'm not dissing aromatics; I enjoy them, but aros are also widely popular.

 
MSO, and with that, it is easy to say that forums are made up mostly of the small percentage of folks that overthought things so much that they needed help putting the tobacco into the tool and smoking it, which the greater proportion of pipesmokers never seemed to think was all that hard, ha ha.

 

bassbug

Lifer
Dec 29, 2016
1,112
905
Most everyone is a nerd in some area of interest.
Some people just NEED to know and practice the whys and wherefors, some people don't.
I'm a nerd when it comes to my woodcarving tools, some are nerds when it comes to pipe smoking.
Nothing wrong with either one :)

 
May 9, 2018
1,687
86
Raleigh, NC
I'm not sure. I knew pipe smokers that smoked one pipe and one blend until the pipe took a shit and they replaced it.
I prefer variety. Why limit yourself to one thing when you can have many more options? Of course, those pipe smokers I knew, smoked because they smoked, not really to enjoy the flavors and try different flavors like a lot of us do today.
It's like going to a bar that has 150+ beers to choose from and I like choosing something different all along, but there always will be those people who choose the same thing, everytime, even if it's the same thing they can get at the place with 2 choices.

 

sablebrush52

The Bard Of Barlings
Jun 15, 2013
19,623
44,833
Southern Oregon
jrs457.wixsite.com
The best thing you can do for the sake of your life is to sign out of here and run like hell. Being around forums has cost me a fortune. I was collecting pipes long before the Internet was available to the general population, and pipe collecting isn't anything new. It wasn't common, but it also wasn't something new. On the other hand, tobacco collecting wasn't something that anyone did and few people cellared tobaccos. Cyberspace has definitely contributed to the plague of tobacco collecting and its various mutations.
There were more pipes smokers to misinform each other back then so we didn't need the Internet to spread misinformation. It took more effort and more time. Thanks to various fora we can spread misinformation like wildfire without breaking a sweat. And if you're illiterate, you can get your misinformation via videos.
So sign out, take a mallet to your computer or smartphone, then grab a pipe and a pouch of something, and relax.

 

rmpeeps

Lifer
Oct 17, 2017
1,122
1,765
San Antonio, TX
Here you go Sable...
You make yourself a fortune, out in Hong Kong

You sit at home and wonder whether you were wrong

You take a small vacation just to keep sane

You find on your return your home has blown away

You meditate, you make haste

You run a risk, you come late,

You pay a bill, you lose face

You're not fully unaware

Your star or your fate

If you fall do you break

You go to war, you make love

You sign out in a box
~Woke Up Laughing by Robert Palmer

 
Jan 28, 2018
12,952
134,613
66
Sarasota, FL
The internet and social media has changed everything. WalMart put many local B&M retailers out of business. Now Amazon is hurting WalMart. The people I grew up around smoked one pipe all day long filled with the same blend until it burnt out. Toss it in the trash can, buy another. I remember my neighbor smoked one of those Carey Magic Inch pipes. Threw away that magic inch filter promptly. I'm not sure he removed his pipe when he took a shower.
There's something to be said about "ignorance is bliss". If you lived in a smaller, rural area, your pipe source was the grocery, pharmacy or gas station in all likelihood. Your choices were Sir Walter Raleigh, Carter Hall and perhaps a couple of others. I'd never seen a dedicated tobacco shop until I was around 24 years old and encountered one in a mall in Schaumburg, IL.
Now, within a few minutes, I can access hundreds if not thousands of pipe tobacco blends and a near equal number of pipe choices, make my choices, enter a credit card number and in a few days a package shows up.
Of course pipe smoking has changed. Unfortunately, I think the changes going on currently and into the future may not be for the better.

 

mau1

Lifer
Jan 5, 2018
1,124
837
Ontario, Canada
On the topic of nerdy pipe smokers, how many of you run around with a butterfly net catching specimens for your collection??? Come on, admit it. We know you're out there.

 
Jul 28, 2016
7,564
36,060
Finland-Scandinavia-EU
+ 1 for SableBrush,sounds so familiar,lol but we live once don't we?

Anyway nerd or not, in my Youth when I was paying a visit in one or two of our family relatives I recall seeing in both those places pipe racks with some pipes out there,and now as I remember,all those pipe seemed to have oxidized in some degree yet were heavily caked with somewhat charred bowl rims.I suspect back in the days,on average,pipesmokers did not pay that much attention to them pipes as we are doing today,even if those pipes may have been higher end ones'

 

unadoptedlamp

Part of the Furniture Now
Mar 19, 2014
742
1,368
I don't know what the rest of you are going to do, but I'm taking Sable's advice.
So long and good luck chumps fellow pipers! You guys are a bunch of lunatics and I'm outta here.
Sometimes, Sable, you have a well placed line that really strikes a chord. You are perfectly correct, you brilliant, beautiful bastard! What in the fuck am I doing with my time?
I suspect you're probably nuttier than bat-shit too, but thanks all the same! I'd kiss you on both cheeks if I saw you in person, but hopefully you can accept this digital gratitude. It's genuine.
Bon voyage!

 

cigrmaster

Lifer
May 26, 2012
20,249
57,280
66
Sarasota Florida
If you hang out at sites like this long enough, you will have 50 plus pipes and at least a hundred pounds of tobacco. We are the enablers of the pipe world. Retailers like Smokingpipes and others are the smart companies by advertising here. They know we are junkies with little self control. It always amazes me at how many companies do not advertise here, they are so missing the boat.

 

Chasing Embers

Captain of the Black Frigate
Nov 12, 2014
43,248
108,348
I've found myself growing in the opposite direction over the past year or so. I spend more time smoking two or three pipes and as many blends when just a few years ago I was all over the map with both piped and blends.

 

jpmcwjr

Moderator
Staff member
May 12, 2015
24,568
27,070
Carmel Valley, CA
Jesse nutty? Not in my experience. Direct? Unabashed? Insightful? Witty? Yeah.
I hope you'll post from time to time, Mr. Lamp, between restful smokes.

 
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