HOBBY ?

Log in

SmokingPipes.com Updates

Watch for Updates Twice a Week

PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor

PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor

Drucquers Banner

PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor

PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor

PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor

Status
Not open for further replies.

smokertruck

Can't Leave
Aug 1, 2013
423
0
i'm 70 years old smoked a pipe at age 16-17 - never called it a hobby ( & tongue bite never existed ). most pipe smokers do not collect pipes or tobacco without smoking as a " hobby " -

model cars, book collecting, stamp collectors, salt shaker collectors, comic book collectors are all hobbyists.
are cigarette smokers hobbyists who walk into a store, buy a pack of cigarettes & smoke them ?
why are we ?? where does this hobby business come from ?

 

papipeguy

Lifer
Jul 31, 2010
15,778
35
Bethlehem, Pa.
I suppose one could consider anything a hobby that allows a person to escape the usual business of life. With pipes we certainly have collectors, or in my case an accumulator. The variety of blends available to us surpasses cigar, cigarette, dip and chew by far. Call it what you will, if it pleases the spirit and soothes the soul, it's a good thing.

 
I think that if I had of just stuck to my favorite blends and a sufficient rotation of pipes and never came here... If I just smoked to feed my huge nicotine addiction, it would just be in the realm of "smoking." But, since, I have become a part of a community of smokers, who all seem to enjoy discussing new and different blends, and pipes and pipe makers, and all of the little nuances of the activity, that yes, it's also a "hobby" for me. It's a hobby built around my need for nicotine. Not everyone may be at the "hobby" level or pigeonhole, but stick around, join in the banter about pipes and tobaccos, and maybe you'll start devoting a larger hunk of your budget to the hobby too, ha ha.

I know guys who just smoke their pipe. I also know guys who barely ever smoke, but have great collections of pipes, and then there's me, a little in both worlds. But, I like it. It smells good here :puffy:

 

philobeddoe

Lifer
Oct 31, 2011
7,404
11,569
East Indiana
I suppose it becomes a hobby, when you read and collect books and periodicals on the subject, or when you collect as much ephemera as you do pipes and tobaccos, when you yearn to know everything there is to know about a subject. I do not smoke to simply get nicotine into my system or for some oral fixation, I smoke for pleasure, for relaxation and I tend to savor the moment more when I'm smoking my pipes. Pipes become a hobby when you spend endless hours on a forum discussing the merits of one blend over another or briar vs. meer vs. cob etc., and pipes especially become a hobby when attending a pipe show in some far away town is the highlight of your calendar!

 

settersbrace

Lifer
Mar 20, 2014
1,565
5
First off, cig smokers and dippers, chewers do not research the products they consume or write poetic reviews regarding the attributes of the stuff they use.
Pipes are reflections of the owners persona in many cases, fancy Freehands for the more flamboyant, non-conformists, traditional shapes for more subdued and so on. Tobaccos are selected and enjoyed mainly for the flavor and not about how much of a nicotine buzz the smoker experiences. We have pipe shows and tobacco tastings as do cigar aficionados and scotch fanatics. Alcoholics don't behave like that and neither do smoking addicts so I'd say that's some of where the "hobby" part comes into it.

 
  • Like
Reactions: SaxonX

andrew

Lifer
Feb 13, 2013
3,042
400
Cigarette smokers will have their one brand they stick with, I have probably 20 different blends I choose from and about 30 pipes. Many of us restore pipes, some of us even get into carving pipes. We learn as we go along, always searching for improvements. Regular smokers pull a cig out of a pack, light it and smoke. I would say cigars are a hobby too. People collect hotwheels and call it a hobby. People cook and call it a hobby. A hobby is something you enjoy doing. Sure my gf thinks it's an obssesion, but so do most hobbies become. For instance I'm spending 800$ for a new washer and dryer to shut the gf up about my hobby so I can keep buying tobacco because she thinks I'm crazy that I'm not confortable enough with a roughly 8 year supply of tobacco at the moment, so shelling out 800$ for a washer/dryer set that's 3000$ new will let me buy more tobacco and she can take more pleasure in her hobby of doing my laundry. Yeah I'm a prick, but I have my ways of going about it and keeping her happy

 

kcvet67

Part of the Furniture Now
Jul 6, 2010
968
0
I think a lot of it has to do with the internet. To a computer, a pipe might just as easily be a long metal tube with threads on each end as a beautifully carved piece of briar. When Bulletin Boards and discussion groups made their way onto the web it was deemed necessary to categorize them in order to make some sense of the sheer volume of information that was becoming available. Someone back then decided that pipe smoking fit best into the "hobby" category, so here we are.

 

cmdrmcbragg

Lifer
Jul 29, 2013
1,739
3
Agree, it becomes a hobby when you become involved in it beyond just doing it or owning it. Pipe smoking as a hobby becomes such by joining forums and becoming engaged in them, researching blends, ordering new stuff frequently, buying pipes upon pipes, devoting space in your house to it. If you have a few pipes and smoke a blend or two exclusively, you are not a hobbyist. The same would go with car ownership. You can't consider it a hobby if you own one vehicle and drive it as a need for transportation. It becomes a hobby by engaging others in the maintenance and ownership, maintaining and/or improving of vehicle(s), researching, buying more vehicles, etc.
Cigar smoking is just the same and they refer to it as a hobby as well: engaging others, researching, buying, maintaining supplies, devoting space and time to cigars, etc.

 

simnettpratt

Lifer
Nov 21, 2011
1,516
2
I think my B&M guy said it best:
Cigarettes are an addiction. Cigars are a hobby. Pipe smoking is a religion.

 

ruscho

Starting to Get Obsessed
Jul 8, 2014
134
0
why are we ?? where does this hobby business come from ?
We are not, but some people are.

I guess if it were 50 years ago, those would be the people working at the good tobacconist shoppe, always ready to drop a truckload of knowledge on you or mix a blend to your liking.
If some people saw my cellar, they may say that it was a hobby, but I have a lot of different brands of tobacco only because I want to know what's out there and compared to 50 years ago - it's cheap and ready available with a click of the mouse. But now that I'm working my way through C&D, that journey will soon be over. There is just nothing new coming out anymore, besides aromatics.
People buying lots of pipes - that's clearly a hobby.

 

cortezattic

Lifer
Nov 19, 2009
15,147
7,637
Chicago, IL
hob·by

n. pl. hob·bies

An activity or interest pursued outside one's regular occupation and engaged in primarily for pleasure.
Ya. Spending time reading about pipes & tobacco, fiddling with both, and enjoying the use of both makes it a hobby for me.
Now for Kevin, all the tobacciana related activity is WORK; a source of income; a tax deduction. Awful job, but somebody's gotta do it!

 
Mar 1, 2014
3,646
4,916
I'm thoroughly in the "hobby" group, I spend far, far more time learning about pipes and the industry than I do smoking.

I'm probably addicted to hobbies as much as anything, and tobacco is giving me quite the fix!

 

allan

Lifer
Dec 5, 2012
2,429
7
Bronx, NY
d pipes especially become a hobby when attending a pipe show in some far away town is the highlight of your calendar!
Philo got it right
If someone would have told me years ago that I would be attending a pipe show in Chicago, I would have advised them to see a psychiatrist
Maybe I need one??

 

thesmokingtexan

Can't Leave
Jul 11, 2014
343
1
When I smokdd cigarettes I only smoked to quickly get a fix so that I could then think normally agian and handle the daily stress of life. I was chronical headed out for a smoke and would have major withdrawals. in contrast I have resected the diffrent pipe types and blends and more importantly when I smoke I am only smoking to sit back slow down and relax and appreciate ever thing that I have in my life. Another key point is last week I got a head cold. Stuffed up soarthroat ect. I did not smoke my pipe for 2 days and never had any withdrawals. That means allot to me after being so addicted to cigarettes.

 

ravkesef

Lifer
Aug 10, 2010
2,912
9,179
81
Cheshire, CT
Philo definitely got it right, and Cortez capped it off with a dictionary definition of "hobby." I subscribe to various pipe and tobacco periodicals, belong to various affinity groups, have over 100 pipes in my collection, and have about forty or so different tobaccos in my cellar. I try and make myself familiar with the different artisans and manufacturers, and am reasonably conversant with how tobaccos are grown and blended. I believe that these factors meet the criteria for a hobby. If someone wants to say: "this chap is simply addicted to nicotine, and tries to rationalize it by calling it a 'hobby,' " let him. I don't get defensive. I just sit back and sip a bit more of the divine incense and contemplate the way C&D hand blends a tobacco, or Zack lovingly crafts a nondescript piece of wood into a work of art that will someday find it's way into my hands.

 
Status
Not open for further replies.