Decicated pipes?

janosh · Jul 2, 2015

Hi all!

First of all I want to say sorry for my English; my native language is the 2nd most difficult language of the world (after Chinese): Hungarian.

I hope you'll understand my thoughts.

I just want to know what do you think about dedicated pipes? I'm new to the hobby and a bit confused. I saw that most of you have so much (at least more then me) beautiful pipes. How do you use them, or categorize them according to different tobaccos?

I don't like flavoured tobacco (cherry, vanilla and others) but I mostly have aromatics (Peterson's ).

Thanks for your tips!

Janos

pipesmokingtom · Jul 2, 2015

This is what I do:

Your English is just fine!

billypm · Jul 2, 2015

I believe that Virginia, VaPer, VaBur, and Burley blends can all be smoked in the same pipes without significant ghosting and carry over of flavors. Latakia blends need their own pipes, as do the scented "soapy" British Lakaland blends. Aromatics are trickier, in that the flavoring you like with one blend might not be so nice when you taste it in a bowlful of a different tobacco.
I think you can't go wrong by just smoking the blends you like in the pipes you have and seeing if you notice a problem. It may be, for instance, that you've got one or two blends that just take over other tobaccos when smoked in the same pipes. Those should be given their own pipes and the rest will probably play together nicely.
There are no hard and fast rules. If you like the way your tobaccos are tasting then you're doing it right.

maxx · Jul 2, 2015

I have three pipes I'll only smoke Latakia based blends in. The other pipes (3 Cobs and 4 Briars) aren't dedicated. In practice, this means Carter Hall and Prince Albert, or Burleys are not allowed in my Latakia pipes. Right now, I'm smoking a mix of CH and PA in one of the Briars.

warren · Jul 2, 2015

If dedicating pipes increases your enjoyment of the smoke, do so.

pipesmokingtom · Jul 2, 2015

Totally. I do it because I smoke cobs and cobs are cheap. If you can do it, why not?

robwoodall · Jul 2, 2015

Hello, janosh!
I bet your English is better than my Hungarian!
I'm going to offer an unpopular opinion of dedicated pipes. I smoke anything I like in whichever pipe I pick up first.
When I started smoking a pipe, (admittedly less than 9 months ago) I only had one pipe. I was trying every tobacco I could think of, so they all got smoked in my only pipe. Pretty soon, I bought other pipes, and was going to dedicate them to different blends, but I never remembered which pipe was for which tobacco, so I stopped trying. Any "ghosting" I get is usually a temporary and pleasant reminder of the last thing I smoked in that particular pipe, so why worry?
Right now, I have a bowl of Frog Morton loaded in a Stanwell Vario which held Scotty's Butternut Burley yesterday. I'm about to step outside my office and light up and I bet it's gonna taste great!
Maybe I'm wrong and, as my taste develops I'll start wanting to dedicate pipes to styles but I just don't see the point for now.

brudnod · Jul 2, 2015

Janosh, Good first post and welcome! You are likely to get many different answers to this question. Here is my take: going from English blends to aromatic blends and aromatic blends to English does produce some residual flavor to the subsequent smoke. To some folks this is annoying or even awful. Some folks do not seem to mind. I tend to keep non-aromatic and lightly cased tobaccos in one set of pipes, English in another and full aromatic tobaccos in another set of pipes. Just my bias. By the way, I have a number of Hungarian friends, all of whom have heavy accents no matter how long they have been in the states, and they all write perfect English. You are doing just fine and welcome again!

cigrmaster · Jul 2, 2015

I have always dedicated pipes to either certain categories of blends or specific blends entirely. I have found that I get better flavors doing it that way. For example, smoking a VA blend in a Vaper pipe I lose the VA flavor as the Perique takes over the subtle VA flavors.

wilson · Jul 2, 2015

All of my pipes are dedicated to tobacco.

phil67 · Jul 2, 2015

All of my pipes are dedicated to tobacco.

That about sums it up for me also. Although, I do like certain pipes which have larger bowls for complex Latakia blends. Other than that, I don't overly concern myself about this whole 'dedication' thing. But, whatever floats yer boat and makes you feel comfortable.

saltedplug · Jul 3, 2015

Other than has been stated, I really see no reason to dedicate pipes. None the less I always have and still do, as when I started this was the prevailing wisdom. Let's say you smoked burley in a pipe for some time and then smoked VA in it for the first time. In this initial smoke you might notice some ghosting, but then again you might not. If you do notice you can give your palate high marks. But with this friendly crossing over, the next question becomes how much difference will it make to you? If you're just starting out you may be confused about the taste of different tobaccos, and with dedicated pipes, know that what you taste is not a ghost.
It's up to you, really, but if you dedicate you need more pipes, and how far you take dedication may mean that you have more pipes still. Some pipe smokers like to smoke a particular blend in a particular pipe, while others reserve one or several pipes for a class of tobaccos, like virginia or burley.

pipesmokingtom · Jul 3, 2015

with dedicated pipes, know that what you taste is not a ghost.

That's why I do it. My life is complicated enough - I don't need to wonder if something's funky with my tobacco, or if a blend has changed, etc.

mso489 · Jul 3, 2015

I wouldn't want the carryover of a non-tobacco flavor such as occurs with Lakeland blends with the soapy/floral aromatics. I've never worried about the Va Va/Per ghosting, but now I may consider it. I'm smoking HH Anniversary Kake right now, so I can ponder it. Latakia doesn't seem to crop up in subsequent smokes, but I do not smoke heavy Latakia blends repeatedly and heavily in pipes. Maybe if there is a residual, I don't notice it or don't mind the additional tweak on the blends being smoked after Lat. I have a considerable number of pipes -- compared to whom? I mean my rotation is pretty long, so pipes get rested and rested some more. If I dedicated pipes, I would miss the inspirational moment of being able to grab any pipe off the rack. I do gravitate toward wide chambers for complex blends and deep chambers for burleys and burley variants like Semois, and slightly smaller pipes for flakes (sometimes). Pipes are a release and a freedom, so I don't like too much categorical or methodical behavior; or maybe more correctly, I like to follow my whims and obsessions without being too knowingly ritualistic.

pipesmokingtom · Jul 3, 2015

If I dedicated pipes, I would miss the inspirational moment of being able to grab any pipe off the rack.

As a cob smoker, I DO feel like I'm missing out on that. My decision on what to smoke/what to smoke it in is purely tobacco driven. I grab a tobacco I feel like and then find an appropriately marked cob.

janosh · Jul 7, 2015

Hi all, and thank you for your thoughts and kind words! I don't want to quote your answers because I wrote this on my phone.

So, I've tried to ask this question in Hungarian pipe smoking forums, but I got strange answers (I don't want to hurt my community, but seems a little bit snobbish).

But you got the point! I'm totally a beginner and I just want to avoid ghosting and cross mixing of different tastes, that's because I was thinking on categorizing (dedicating) pipes. Cobs seems to be a good choice, but believe me in Hungary it is difficult to buy real MM pipes (and of course you look dumb with a cob in your mouth when you smoke public); you Americans are great fans of cobs because you have a great history and culture built around them. We just have our Oom Paul wooden pipes

Now I have 10 briars and try to use them in a reasonable rotation; two for flavoured tobaccos (vanilla and cherry), two for English blend, and the rest for the others (mostly aromatic but non flavoured Peterson's ).

cigrmaster · Jul 21, 2015

janosh, it sounds like you have it down pretty well. Just be very careful with the Lakeland blends such as GH Ennerdale and Rum Flake. Those will ghost a pipe like no other. You might want to try ordering from 4noggins.com and smokingpipes.com for cobs. They ship world wide and their prices are very competitive.

Perique · Jul 21, 2015

I have always dedicated pipes to either certain categories of blends or specific blends entirely. I have found that I get better flavors doing it that way. For example, smoking a VA blend in a Vaper pipe I lose the VA flavor as the Perique takes over the subtle VA flavors.

I'll echo what Harris said. I'll start a pipe off within a blend category and smoke through a number of blends until the pipe finds its favorite blend. Then I'll dedicate the pipe to that blend. Some pipes never find one single blend that they smoke better than all others, in which case I'll keep that blend in the same category, but smoke various blends/brands. However, I'll never smoke, for example, a Latakia blend in a VaPer pipe, or an aromatic blend in a Virginia pipe, etc.

Decicated pipes?

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