The Renaissance of Pipe Smoking
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Kevin Godbee - Oct 8, 2013
- 4 min read
Philip Assad
When I tell people that I believe pipe smoking is a remedy for many modern ills, I get some pretty diverse reactions. Smoking pipes aren’t as popular now as they were 5,000 years ago, so it may be justifiable to call me old-fashioned, but old isn’t always bad. Allow me to persuade you that we’re talking about much more than a piece of wood with holes in it. We’re talking about a simple practice that strengthens relationships, improves a man’s disposition, and is just plain fun! I’d also like to contest that we are on the brink of a renaissance for pipe smoking. Get ready to bust out your grandfather’s old briar!
History and Fascination
At sixteen years of age, I was already fascinated by pipe smoking. When a family friend brought home a few Peterson pipes after a trip to Dublin, I was taken, and it was over. Hook, line, and sinker, as the saying goes. I didn’t know just how deeply it would influence me, but as soon as I witnessed this family friend sitting about a table with seminary graduates, doctors, and businessmen, calmly smoking and carrying on in a most civilized way, I knew there was something special about those pipes with their silver bands and their deep, dark grains.
The history of the smoking pipe is older and more vast than can be approached by such a short article, but tobacco has been smoked since approximately 5000-3000BC. It’s believed that the first practice of smoking was in South America where the tobacco leaf finds it’s origin, but since then it has spread to the farthest reaches of the world. It was used as a medicine by some ancient civilizations, to treat things such as coughs and the common cold…the placebo effect may or may not have had a role to play there.
Redeeming Vice
What about a man’s character could possibly be improved by pipe smoking?
"I believe that pipe smoking contributes to a somewhat calm and objective judgment in all human affairs." – Albert Einstein
Other than a pipe and some tobacco, the act of smoking a pipe requires a few things of the smoker. It begs for careful thought, pleads for contemplation, and kindly asks for company. These are things which are priceless in a culture dominated by the fast-paced devouring of media, and ambitions that aspire only to the dollar. Though we are social by nature, the postmodern world we live in has ascribed to independence a greater value than to fellowship. So anything that slows us down and forces us to submit to our own nature of sociality, spending time with others in respectful conversation, is a great thing indeed.
"But tobacco is bad for you!" sound the cries of a thousand concerned mothers. There is no case to be made for the positive health benefits of smoking, sad to say. However, as Samuel Clemens once said:
"You are always ciphering out how much a man’s health is injured…in the course of ninety-two years’ indulgence in the fatal practice of smoking…And you never try to find out how much solid comfort, relaxation, and enjoyment a man derives from smoking in the course of a lifetime…I haven’t a particle of confidence in a man who has no redeeming petty vices." – Mark Twain
Certainly one’s health is important, and so as with any petty vice, in order to be good men we must exercise moderation and restraint at times. At other times, though, damn the restraint and have a smoke! We men are risk-takers by design! That’s why we climb mountains, jump out of airplanes, and ride motorcycles. The important thing is to balance the risks we take with good sense. You wouldn’t go bungee jumping without a bungee, or ride a motorcycle with your eyes closed, so one shouldn’t smoke without understanding the risks, and using good sense and self-control to moderate them.
The Renaissance of the Pipe
It’s not a coincidence that I became fascinated with pipe smoking when I did, nor is it a coincidence that you are reading this article. Our generation of men was born on the cusp of a technological revolution which, with it’s promises of independence and ultra-convenient connection, has sometimes left us lonely and socially confused. Pipe smoking is a remedy for many modern ills, including the sickness of social disparity. Having spoken with smoking pipe factory managers, retailers, and wholesalers across the world, and having engaged in conversation with customers and acquaintances from every walk of life, all signs point to a renaissance of the smoking pipe. Internet trends and consumer spending reports offer evidence of this claim, but far more important are the longings of many who have lost contact with their fellow men, and see pipe smoking as an avenue by which they might reconnect. Much as we have returned to shaving like our grandfathers, we’re returning to smoke like them as well. So the rebirth takes place as countless men and women decide that they want to reengage in true face-to-face conversation once again.
Be a part of it! It’s not every day that we have an opportunity to influence the great big impersonal world on which we spend our existence. If only in some small way, taking the time to sit back with a pipe, light up, and talk to some friends about something important is a chance to do just that.
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Philip Assad is a Syrian-American pipe and tobacco expert, writer, and Managing Partner at The Pipe Guys. Check them out for pipes, tobacco, articles and more!
Written by Kevin Godbee
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There’s a pipe in my collection that I cannot bring myself to smoke, though I’ve had it for more years than I care to recall. It’s old, or shall I say, well experienced; that experience, that oldness came to it long before it was in my possession. The pipe is an old Comoy’s Grand Slam from the 1940s. The shape (#93), a slightly canted, stack billiard (sometimes referred to as a Belgian) is right up my alley, and it’s a beautiful example of it. It came to me with some wear and tear; nothing unusual for an old pipe, but more the signs of one that has been well loved, smoked a lot, treated as a favorite tool, cherished, in a sense, by frequent use. It’s the pipe equivalent of a vintage car that’s been driven a lot, enjoyed fully and maintained adequately, rather than one kept in a spotless garage, dusted and detailed weekly, brought out only for leisurely Sunday drives, or to be ogled behind the ropes at the next Concours d’Elegance. When it arrived, those uncounted years ago, it wanted a little restoration. Nothing dramatic needed to be done to it, but the stem was oxidized, the finish a little dingy. The cake was even and fairly thin, and the airway was relatively clean, both signs that its previous owner cared for it, but the bowl’s surface was a little drab and dull. It took little effort to reveal its beauty, to show the lovely contrasted stain and interesting grain beneath the old wax. I often think I should do before and after photos of pipes that I work on, but those thoughts always come after the work’s been done. This one would have been a great illustration of how years of handling that can sometimes make a pipe more beautiful, can other times make it just look grungy. Once I’d cleaned up the externals, it was time to address the inside bits. I approach this a little bassackwards, I realize. It would be more sensible to take care of the inside before addressing the outside, but it’s how I roll. 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Soon now, supposedly, our neighborhoods will shift from grinning pumpkins, skeletons in various assortments, and zombies dashing about to pretty reindeer, angels, and flashing lights illuminating homes with sparkling stars and laughing, scurrying Santas. But, lest we forget, there is the turkey season, fancy pie aromas wafting from kitchens, and a national pardon of a big Tom Turkey. Remember, now, that only one of these holiday personalities is a pipe smoker. And that is the hefty, bearded fellow in a bright red suit sitting in a sleigh with a herd of deer hitched up and ready to streak across the globe, bringing tidings of joy and many presents. Ok, the scene is set for the next couple of months, right? So, before we get too far off the beaten path, let’s just take a deep breath of fresh autumn air, shall we? Ahh. That’s better, isn’t it? What’s got the Pundit in a snit is not all the Halloween spooks who came a-jostling for candy. Or the wild turkeys gobbling in the backwoods or all the fuss and feathers over the big one—Christmas. No, it is that we might need to take note of all the little things that mean so much to us. Like a good sunrise (seriously, Pundit has not gone all Pollyanna.) Mayhaps we need to appreciate more of what we have than what we have not. Or something like that. Like, a good pipe in the morning with coffee as the dawn brings us coolish weather now that we have flipped the calendar to autumn. But it also brings beautiful leaves that have become a spectacle of technicolor in the wind. It is the little things. The rereading of an enjoyable book and finding something you did not see or learn in the first go-round. Or a stunning phrase you commit to memory with the re-read, while smoking that favorite pipe. And you notice a superior puff that just seems to be different. It’s in the air and the seasons of meaningful little things. It’s aromatic! 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A fact is not a truth until you love it—Shelby Foote. A parting thought: It is said that famed Southern author William Faulkner carried a packed pipe in a coat pocket wherever he went. That’s one effective way to deal with workday conflicts and confusion. A calm and objective judgment in our everyday human affairs, as the quantum man said.
Welcome to The Pipes Magazine Radio Show Episode 633. Our featured guest tonight is Jon David Cole. JD is the Owner/Tobacconist at The Country Squire in Jackson, MS, and the accompanying online store. We’ll have JD and Brian talking about what’s new at the store and in the business in general. At the top of the show, Brian will discuss tobacco growing, what happens to the leaf, and provide updated information on where tobacco is being gown today. Tobacco production originated in the United States and we were once the #1 producer. It’s quite different now.
An enjoyable read! Thank you!
Great article. I think many of us harken back to a time of simplicity of living. When small things in life brought great pleasure; reading a good book, listening to good music, watching nature while enjoying a slower pace of life. The pipe always brings me back to that time. Not just in nostalga, but in being in that moment of calm and peace.
Fine words. It is indeed quite pleasurable to sit, pack a pipe and enjoy the moments of tranquility I get from it.
Have had a chance to get to know an artist couple and stay at their home in NYC. She’s a sound/video artist and
teacher and he is an avant guard synthesizer and instrumental composer (Guggenheim fellowship and many
CD’s, concerts, film work, etc. etc.) They’ve known my wife for years, and they are hospitable and welcoming,
but the guy and I really bonded over pipes. He has beautiful meerschaums and I mostly have more ordinary briars,
but our best conversations have been smoking. For some reason, this provides a bridge otherwise lacking.
Great read. Plus the gentlemen over at pipeguys seem to be doing some great marketing.
Well said. I’ve personally found that the meditative quality of the time I spend smoking a pipe is well worth the slightly elevated risks associated with the habit.
That was a great read Kevin, thanks. It is unfortunate that our Renaissance will be stymied by the lack of places to smoke publicly. That doesn’t stop us of course, it just limits where we can enjoy our hobby.
Great reading, too bad so many categorize the hobby of pipesmoking with other much more damaging vices.
I couldn’t agree more. When priorities seem to be turned upside down so often and petty rules dominate whilst bigger issues go unnoticed or undealt with, it seems that it is a great pity that pipe people are judged unfairly and undeservedly. A private choice is just that, unless it impinges on people’s privacy or health. I fully respect those who do not agree with smoking and who wish not to partake in it. However, to legislate in ignorance and whilst following a current political trend or fashion seems to be like using the proverbial sledgehammer to crack an egg. There are indeed health risks, probably in just about anything we consume, when moderation and self-control go out the window. It is just that I feel politics plays such an intrusive role these days that we none of us can escape it. I do hope that common sense can prevail and that people’s liberties can be respected. For my part, pipe smoking has been central to my personal way of life for a good couple of decades now and I would like to think that I can ‘Live in peace with my pipe’ for a bit longer!
So, enjoy your pipe today wherever you are. If in company with fellow smokers, enjoy it even more in this rather wonderful piping fraternity!
Geo3rge
You know,i have to fully agree with you on this one phil. I do have a tad to add to it though, assuming your generation is the one before mine, or even my own generation. either way I’m a millennial (1991 baby) so I went through the change of our entire social lives when I was just a teenager, and it killed me, and much of my(our?) generation. I know that I don’t speak for just myself when I say that we have lost touch with our humanity in today’s world and men my age, like you said, are shaving like there grandfathers, and smoking like them as well. Well I believe that that is due to our longing for a simpler time where our lives aren’t so dictated by technology and time-clocks, but are dictated by fellowship and family. so we reach for those straight razors and pipes, put on our suspenders and groom our mustaches to lament for a time lost, and to fight for its return. many smokes to ya, Rorie mac