Hello Everyone,
This is my first post but I've been watching from the background for a few weeks now. My name is Andy and I'm from central Ohio. I'm 46 years old and I decided to try out pipe smoking about 2 months ago because I have always loved the smell of it (along with burning leaves, campfires, bbq, someone's fresh-lit cigarette on a spring day at a baseball game, etc.). I've been lucky in that my wife has been pretty fair about my new hobby but I get a few eye rolls and jokes from her about it too. She'll come around to it. She just doesn't know it yet.
Anyway, I've picked up some pretty good advice from these forums. Thanks to all of you for that.
So a couple months ago I walked into one of my local shops (Barclay) and told the fella that I wanted to try this out and asked him to set me up with a corncob pipe and a few recommended tobaccos. The help I received was excellent! I walked out with a brand new cob, 3 samples of tobacco (2 aromatics and an english), a simple tamper, and some pipe cleaners.
I soon found out that I was smoking the hell out of that cob and that I needed to simmer down a bit. I ended up burning it up pretty good but I learned a lot in the process.
I wanted to then try a nicer pipe so a couple of weeks later I went back to the local shop and picked out what I thought was a nice Charatan estate billiard (101d) and a few more varieties of tobacco. I have to say that I have yet to really take to that pipe. I guess it smokes okay but since I'm still learning I expect that I've still got a lot to learn about packing the thing.
But then one day I ran across a post on here talking about your first pipes. It was in that post where cigrmaster posted a picture of a Savanelli that I just couldn't stop looking at. I never thought that I would like a bent pipe but the aesthetics of that pipe were simply beautiful to me. It was then that I decided to take advantage of a Savanelli sale going on somewhere and I found a Roma 616 that was sort of close to cigrmaster's Savanelli (but not quite as nice!)
I've been smoking that Savanelli for the past couple of weeks now and it feels great. Again, I'm still learning the ropes so I can't really say how good it is other than I like it much more than the Charatan. My cob stayed in the cigar box I use to keep this stuff out of sight of my wife so as to limit the jokes at my expense. I'm still fighting with the packing and moisture of my tobacco (even more aquired thanks to the recommendations from you guys -- 1Q, Vanilla Cream, Nightcap) and it seems that I have to relight a lot more than I'd like but it's going pretty well considering. I have noticed that I like it a lot more at the beginning than towards the middle or especially the end. I'm sure that I'll level that out though.
So last night I went back to the cob. It's all burnt up and I didn't expect much out of it but since I still know next to nothing about what's good and what's not I figured what the heck, might as well see if I can tell a difference now that I've tried two nice briers. Well, I've got to say that I was rather pleasantly surprised. The pipe pretty much stayed lit and I was able to control it fairly well. Sure, it got hot but I don't think it got too hot (not sure though.) It didn't get wet like it did when I first started nor like the Charatan. It had what I felt was a nice draw too. The stem was nowhere near as nice as the Savanelli though but it was a lot lighter. All in all I was thinking last night that I'm glad that I ordered those smokable seconds from MM yesterday (the look on the wife's face after I told her that I had ordered a bag of pipes made me flinch a bit.)
So there we are. When I started I thought that I was smoking with a junk pipe but it turns out that I actually like it. I love the Savanelli but not the Charatan (yet?). I've found that the pipe's form and beauty is very important because it's just darn nice to "play" with a piece of art that smells nice when you set it on fire.
Here's to many years of enjoyment. And thanks to you guys for all the great advice and encouragement even though you had no idea I was listening.
This is my first post but I've been watching from the background for a few weeks now. My name is Andy and I'm from central Ohio. I'm 46 years old and I decided to try out pipe smoking about 2 months ago because I have always loved the smell of it (along with burning leaves, campfires, bbq, someone's fresh-lit cigarette on a spring day at a baseball game, etc.). I've been lucky in that my wife has been pretty fair about my new hobby but I get a few eye rolls and jokes from her about it too. She'll come around to it. She just doesn't know it yet.
Anyway, I've picked up some pretty good advice from these forums. Thanks to all of you for that.
So a couple months ago I walked into one of my local shops (Barclay) and told the fella that I wanted to try this out and asked him to set me up with a corncob pipe and a few recommended tobaccos. The help I received was excellent! I walked out with a brand new cob, 3 samples of tobacco (2 aromatics and an english), a simple tamper, and some pipe cleaners.
I soon found out that I was smoking the hell out of that cob and that I needed to simmer down a bit. I ended up burning it up pretty good but I learned a lot in the process.
I wanted to then try a nicer pipe so a couple of weeks later I went back to the local shop and picked out what I thought was a nice Charatan estate billiard (101d) and a few more varieties of tobacco. I have to say that I have yet to really take to that pipe. I guess it smokes okay but since I'm still learning I expect that I've still got a lot to learn about packing the thing.
But then one day I ran across a post on here talking about your first pipes. It was in that post where cigrmaster posted a picture of a Savanelli that I just couldn't stop looking at. I never thought that I would like a bent pipe but the aesthetics of that pipe were simply beautiful to me. It was then that I decided to take advantage of a Savanelli sale going on somewhere and I found a Roma 616 that was sort of close to cigrmaster's Savanelli (but not quite as nice!)
I've been smoking that Savanelli for the past couple of weeks now and it feels great. Again, I'm still learning the ropes so I can't really say how good it is other than I like it much more than the Charatan. My cob stayed in the cigar box I use to keep this stuff out of sight of my wife so as to limit the jokes at my expense. I'm still fighting with the packing and moisture of my tobacco (even more aquired thanks to the recommendations from you guys -- 1Q, Vanilla Cream, Nightcap) and it seems that I have to relight a lot more than I'd like but it's going pretty well considering. I have noticed that I like it a lot more at the beginning than towards the middle or especially the end. I'm sure that I'll level that out though.
So last night I went back to the cob. It's all burnt up and I didn't expect much out of it but since I still know next to nothing about what's good and what's not I figured what the heck, might as well see if I can tell a difference now that I've tried two nice briers. Well, I've got to say that I was rather pleasantly surprised. The pipe pretty much stayed lit and I was able to control it fairly well. Sure, it got hot but I don't think it got too hot (not sure though.) It didn't get wet like it did when I first started nor like the Charatan. It had what I felt was a nice draw too. The stem was nowhere near as nice as the Savanelli though but it was a lot lighter. All in all I was thinking last night that I'm glad that I ordered those smokable seconds from MM yesterday (the look on the wife's face after I told her that I had ordered a bag of pipes made me flinch a bit.)
So there we are. When I started I thought that I was smoking with a junk pipe but it turns out that I actually like it. I love the Savanelli but not the Charatan (yet?). I've found that the pipe's form and beauty is very important because it's just darn nice to "play" with a piece of art that smells nice when you set it on fire.
Here's to many years of enjoyment. And thanks to you guys for all the great advice and encouragement even though you had no idea I was listening.
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