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How do you do it??
I've been smoking pipes for a few years and finally got some soft bits to try clenching.
It is awful! If I keep the pipe in my mouth it triggers a gag reflex and feels very uncomfortable. Can one ever get used to it?
I guess I'll always be a handholder.
I clench but it makes me drool.
Makes me drool as well, can't stand those softy's so I'll never be a clencher, I think clenchers must inhale more.
I have always clenched, It just came naturally to me.
I clench. Walk around most of the time with a pipe stuck in my mouth. When I had teeth I used to heavily dent or even bite through the bit sometimes. Tight jaws I guess. Since dentures I don't bite so hard.
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i use them as well. i have for many years. take alittle getting use to. iam a clincher myself and tend to inhale some. iguess there not for everyone. they do help to protect the stem.
I like clenching, dosent make me drool at all! 
tho I tend to smoke faster
I just saw a television program on HGTV called Selling Spelling Manor. It is about the sale of the 56,000 square foot, $150,000,000.00 mansion of the late Aaron Spelling, the famous TV producer of Dynasty, Starsky & Hutch, 90210, etc. There are many video tapes of the late Aaron Spelling smoking his pipes around the mansion. He was a GREAT CLENCHER. My favorite was seeing him bowling with a pipe clenched in his mouth. They had a two lane bowling alley in the mansion. A great show for pipe sighting.
I can't get on with clenching at all. But as I also prefer the lines of a straight pipe, it is probably just as well 
I'd say I clench most of the time.
I have tried the Softie bits and they give me the same gag reflex that you describe Juni.
That I'm an ardent practitioner of Breath Smoking, clenching is the only way to go for me.
I like clenching, dosent make me drool at all! [:puffy:] tho I tend to smoke faster
Same with Me.
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I didn't think there was any other way to smoke a pipe without clenching and breathe smoking; I'm old school for sure!
So you hold the pipe with your teeth? Doesn't it hurt after a while?
I guess there are more handholders than me out there.
I balance or rest the pipe in my teeth/dentures more so than actually biting down on it.
In order to facilitate this about half of my herd are bents. Most of these being full bent followed by 1/2 bents with a few 1/8. The straights that I clench most are all on the light side of the spectrum.
Hmmm, I s'pose I should weigh the things, can't really say where the weight cut-off for comfort is for me.
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I smoke smaller, light weight straight billiards (Grabow, Kaywoodie, Medico etc.) which clench easily and softie bits hold them in place with little effort or jaw fatigue.
I never could clench a pipe as well as I could cigars.If I smoke while I'm outside working it's a cigar.
I'm a confirmed handholder. I started smoking Danish freehands 30+ years ago, which tent toward the larger and heavier end of the scale, and just never started clenching.
Besides, it makes the stem look gnarly after awhile. 
I've been a clencher for 42 years. I started out that way because I needed to have my hands free for doing other things like operating a tractor or fishing. I guess because I started out doing it, it's always felt natural to me. By the way, I can't stand those rubber covers they sell for pipe bits. They taste weird and make the pipe feel less secure in my mouth.
Smokey
So you hold the pipe with your teeth? Doesn't it hurt after a while?
No, doesn't seem to hurt at all....Never have had a pipe complain. 
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When I was a kid growing up in the 50's you saw men all the time with a pipe clenched in thier mouth as they walked down the street, drove by in their cars or trucks and working in stores etc., times sure have changed.
i clench so much and so often, stem only last me bout 3 months, tried the softies but doesnt feel natural, guess its my excuse for always buyin replacement pipes.(great excuse to the wife, i just show her the stem an tell her i need a new pipe) generally works
I love the soft rubber bites i put them on all my pipes two reasons i bite down i like the rubber than the plastic and most of all they keep the stem like new!!
I am a holder too. I don't get how someone can just hold their pipe in their mouth for so long. But to each his own.
I wold love to clench I have no problem with its comfort my problem is I droll like a sleeping baby and it ruins my smoke.
i clench so much and so often, stem only last me bout 3 months, tried the softies but doesnt feel natural, guess its my excuse for always buyin replacement pipes.(great excuse to the wife, i just show her the stem an tell her i need a new pipe) generally works
You want to give me all the bowls to those chewed up steams
Drool here too:(
Ok now i see i must of not pay closely to the ? i too am a drooler like a garden hose , but the softies help me keep it there for only the time im puffen or it would be on the ground!!
I enjoy the softies and couldn't imagine clenching without them. Thought about trying tubing but like the easy removal of softies to clean stems.
I use the worries on 3 of my 4 pipes. I drool like a fool, but I take the bits off as soon as I'm done smoking so the stem can dry off.
Just started smoking a pipe again on a regular basis.Was a clencher but..just had a bi-cuspid removed that was cracked all the way to the root(head ache from HELL).Just one of those things 
@mattmars Be careful on removing stems on a warm pipe the shank will swell a little and could brake the stem or shank, i would let it cool then later remove stem, thats me though
I am a holder here too. When I try to clench i just drool. I keep trying it but no luck, which is ok because it makes me sit and just relax.
It sort of sucks not to be able to do it though. I could use a third hand.
I'm a courier, and spend at least a few hours of every day of the work week driving.
I've been smoking my pipe while driving lately, and clenching feels pretty natural now.
@juni - my jaw muscles were aching a bit during the first few times puffing most of a bowl in my teeth. But that soreness starts going away fairly quickly. I've also found it's easier and more comfortable to clench with your molars, as opposed to any of your teeth towards the front.
It also makes me smoker faster. And yeah you can't help but inhale a little more smoke than freehand, but this factor is pretty much eliminated if you are in even a slight breeze.
I started clenching from the very first time I smoked a pipe...just seemed natural. I only ever get jaw fatigue from pipes that are 42 grams and heavier. I suppose that is why the pipes in my collection hover around the 34 - 36 gram mark.
I had never heard the term "breath smoking", but I guess that's what I do. I guess its actually a combination of clenching and holding. I tend to make an event of smoking, and not partake in too many other activities while smoking. I have to say that clenching an acrylic stem isn't quite the same.
I try to clinch. Makes more sense when I'm reading or working on the computer (I'm a priest and 80% of my time is doing either of those). I notice that when I clench I run into the "excess moisture" problem. Once that starts happening I end up hand holding so that it doesn't get worse.
I generally hold the pipe with my hand, clenching when I need to use my hands for some other purpose. It just sort of happens naturally without conscious thought. No side effects either way.
It all depends on the situation for me. Most of the time it's clenching, but when my mouth gets tired, I hold on to it for a few minutes. I walk a lot with my pipe so I always have it secure between my teeth. The tobacco goes a lot quicker because you are always puffing. If i'm in a conversation with somebody, I'm not clenching for speech clarity, all depends.
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