How I Got Started as a Pipe Smoker
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Kevin Godbee - Mar 26, 2012
- 6 min read
… From one of those college-age pipe smokers you’ve been hearing about …
Ethan Brandt
My music teacher always smelled of pipe smoke. I started taking piano lessons from Charlie Rose (no association to the Channel 9 talk-show host) when I was only five years old, so I did not really know what the smell constantly lingering on him was, but I knew that it was there. I knew that it smelled great. It was as much a part of him as his cracked leather jacket and perfectly maintained trumpet.
I never had the grandfather that smoked a pipe—at least, not while I was alive—nor did I have the uncle or father. I had Charlie.
Eventually, I learned what it was that I smelled on him, though I’m not sure how I learned it. I do remember, however, the day that he stopped smoking his pipes.
Without exaggeration, I was truly upset. He wasn’t the same person; something was wrong. I missed my old companion of his Borkum Riff aroma and I felt a distinct absence now that it was gone.
I have absolutely no doubt in my mind that my experience with that aroma for so many Wednesday afternoons made me more receptive to picking up my first pipe when I was in college.
Musician Charlie Rose
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It was a slow evening at The Scottish Arms, a pub where I worked as a host. Through the blue and grey smoke diffusing through the pub, I smelled something familiar.
They say that scent is the sense most closely tied to stimulating memory response, and it certainly did for me when I caught a whiff of the smoke rising from one of the pub’s high-tops. I thought of the man who I had spent so much time with when I was younger, the man who put up with my trying to avoid practicing and smiled jovially the entire time, the man who treated me like a friend and a son.
Four men sat at the table and one of them was holding a long, clay pipe. Like some sort of ceremony, they passed it around the table, taking a puff, savoring the flavor, and passing it to the next.
Within a week, I found myself at a small, old tobacconist [John Dengler Tobacconist]. It took me a long time just to work up the nerve to park in front of the establishment, let alone go inside. Some part of me was resisting, but an even bigger part of me insisted that I follow my desire.
Walking into the tobacconist, I was in foreign territory. Large glass jars were filled with different types of tobacco (though they all looked extremely similar), while dozens of pipes were on display in the cabinet beneath.
The gentleman working at the time was helping other customers select cigars from the modest selection, and I did my best to avoid being noticed. When I was eventually detected, I meekly stated that I was just browsing and continued to drift.
I am sure that I lingered too long, but I eventually asked to purchase the same pipe that the guys at the pub had been smoking. I work at a Renaissance Faire and I justified the purchase to myself by thinking that, if I didn’t take to the pipe, I could at least use the clay one as a prop.
"All right," the man said, "and you get a free ounce of tobacco with your new pipe."
I do like free things, but that didn’t make me any more knowledgeable about which tobacco to choose. I had done no research and put no thought into the purchase before arriving at the store.
"What would you suggest for starting off?"
I was given a bag of one of their bulk-burley-blends called Cameron’s. It smelled like oats and my first thought was of the sweet-feed that we used to feed our horses.
Equipped with my excessively long pipe, tobacco, and a box of matches, I returned to my college dorm, determined to try my first bowl that night.
Overall, it was not the best of experiences. I did enjoy the little smoke that I was able to get out of my pipe, but all of the factors added together to make one of the most difficult experiences imaginable: I was attempting to light a poorly packed, fourteen inch pipe with cheap matches, while sitting outside in a cold and windy night, shivering against the chill. Poor decision making on my part, I will admit.
Eventually, I improved my form and my choice of smoking locations. I continued to frequent the same tobacconist and buy burley and black Cavendish based aromatics from their bulk supply, which I do recall enjoying a good deal.
I eventually got my brother into the fold of pipe smoking and he introduced me to a revolutionary aspect of pipe smoking: the Internet. He showed me my first pipe related website, which, without hyperbole, changed everything.
I ordered my first briar pipe, a Neerup bent apple, and my first tinned tobacco, Two Friends’ "Celtic Mist". I started looking at those websites constantly—a habit that I maintain to this day—and doing a lot more research, learning how to pack and light and appreciate pipe tobacco to a degree that I hadn’t yet understood.
In these short three years, only half of which I have been seriously collecting, my tastes have changed radically. Well, it might not be appropriate to say that they changed, but rather that they bloomed. I no longer smoke those burley and Cavendish aromatics that I bought so frequently from the tobacconist, though I do still find them in jacket pockets every now and then.
Instead, I find myself gravitating towards the "artisan" tobacco blenders, such as G.L. Pease, McClellend, and Rattray’s. I have found that I have an extremely diverse palate, with my tastes changing depending on the weather and my mood.
My taste in pipes has changed, as well. While I do still own my clay pipe and enjoy it immensely, it is not my area of focus. I adore my meerschaum pipes, but often find even more artistry in the grain and curve of a briar pipe. It is the little things that truly do make a big difference.
I have learned a lot in these few years, far too much to mention here and give any justice to a single one of them, but I would like to try to give a little advice to those in the same situation in which I found myself a couple years ago, though hopefully with enough foresight to do a little research first:
Plan ahead. Think about what type of pipe you want and what type of tobacco. This means doing some digging, often online. There are a great deal of fantastic online resources (you’re on one!).
Slow…..down….. You will enjoy everything about pipes (and life) a lot more if you slow down and relax.
Don’t worry if you screw up at first. We all did and the vast majority of us still do screw up every now and then. I am still learning something new every single day and that is something that I love about our hobby.
Maintain a healthy desire to learn. Whether you investigate more about tobaccos, pipes, accessories, or techniques for lighting and packing your pipe, knowledge truly is power. The more you learn about your pipe, the more you will enjoy it.
Finally, enjoy the experience. Pipe smoking is about enjoyment. Never forget that.
My journey into the world of pipe smoking and collecting has just really started. I hope to see a lot more of you joining me soon!
[Editor’s note: Tell us how you got started with pipe smoking by commenting below.]
Ethan Brandt is a senior at Washington University in St. Louis, majoring in Religious Studies and English with a Pre-Law focus. He picked up his first pipe his Freshman year in college and never looked back. Recently, he has start up a pipe-focused blog called Pipe School. |
Written by Kevin Godbee
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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! Or perhaps it is that sense of satisfaction knowing and appreciating you made it to another day. With the world in a kind of rinse-and-repeat history, reminiscent of a Shakespearean play, it is perhaps a good moment to remember some of Pipedom’s philosophers whose cogent thoughts brought light to clear a path in the mists of confusion and confounding opinions. Ok. No gloom and doom. Just some down-home thoughts. Think of times in the past when history was running off the rails. It took our pipe-smoking thinkers (the mind workers of the world) to speak of better pathways to more light. Think for a moment, with a pipe in hand, these wizards of the world and word: Albert Einstein, J. R.R. Tolkien, Mark Twain, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Edwin Hubble, Bertrand Russell, C. S. Lewis, and Jean-Paul Sartre. All learned and enlightened. They offered wisdom instead of storms of meaningless roads to nowhere. All while smoking their pipes! Maybe especially with the help of their pipes in the art of thinking and philosophy. Recall the words of Mr. E=MC2 when he said, “I believe that pipe smoking contributes to a somewhat calm and objective judgment in all human affairs.” Amen and amen! Dealing with world-rattling events takes a calm and objective view of things, to the Pundit’s way of summing it up. You just don’t go messing around with quantum physics without a calm and objective approach, methinks. Or as the extraordinary physicist Robert Oppenheimer said after he and a team in the Manhattan Project at Los Alamos Labs developed a way to split atoms into bombs during World War II. “I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds,” said Oppenheimer referring to the development of the first nuclear bombs dropped on Japan. It must be pointed out that Oppenheimer was more of a cigarette smoker than a pipe smoker. Nonetheless, pipes were part of his personality. 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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.
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Well there’s nothing like a touch of the plague to usher in the changing season. Leaving the airport just when the first advertisements for all things pumpkin spice began to appear—lattes, muffins, shampoos, trash bags, and myriad other concoctions—so, too, my ability to breathe freely disappeared. The unfortunate side effect of losing one’s sense of taste and smell for weeks is the utter inability to enjoy tobacco. Not that I consider myself an expert on anything but my own tastes, but be forewarned that this review was made with mildly impugned sensory equipment. Just when a comforting pipe was most needed, its comfort was denied. Be that as it may, the road to recovery found me limping along on one lung this past month, trying to wrest the particulars of two blends on offer from Sutliff: the latest 175th Anniversary blend, Silver Quarter, as well as their spooky seasonal Maple Shadows II. Silver Quarter is a new style on offer from Sutliff, their first coin-cut blend. 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Vegas Baby The show started out strong on the 14th floor hospitality suites hosted by the Vegas Pipe Show and Smoking Pipes as well as room hopping to carvers, estate sellers, and vendors to pre-game for the festivities. If you’re interested in what that looks like I’ll refer you to last years pipe show round up. I circled with Brian Levine to get the totals in comparison to last year: This year’s show numbers: 108 Exhibitor tables, 445 attendees, 3,250 Raffle Tickets, 100ish dinners, 172 Rooms in the Hotel. Last year, by comparison, 107 exhibitor tables, 425 attendees, 2,200 raffle tickets, 104 dinners, and 175 rooms on Friday and Saturday nights. We were at capacity, basically, when it came to vendor tables and the dinner, so there is no physical room for growth at this point except for attendees. That said, we filled that smoking lounge to the brim. New Carvers Spotlight Garret Woo (Pipes by Woo) How long have you been carving? Garret: I’ve been carving since 2021, and I’m guessing your next question is probably how’d you get started carving? James: Yes. Garret: In 2021 I took a break from my full time job – that included machining and assembly work and I thought maybe it was time I made something that I would like and I started looking at youtube and Instagram and putting together my shop. I did struggle on the stems to start and there was a lot of failure at the beginning. James: How many pipes have you made so far? Garret: I number my pipes, so I just finished up 186. James: What is your favorite shape you’ve been making? Garret: I really dig Canadians and pipes with longer shanks and lovat Canadian blends. I like to play with different shapes of stems on the longer shanked pipes. The billiard would be my go-to shape but I want to learn more techniques on freehanded shapes. I like to put brass and copper adornments on my pipes with my machining background it helps. James: What is the craziest thing you’ve seen at this show? Garret: The first thing that comes to mind is the table over there with C-Pipes with the shapes and the size and petiteness and the intricate details they did. You can check out what Garret is working on by going to his Instagram. Stefan Cashwell James: how long have you been carving? Stefan: about 3 years. James: What’s the craziest thing you’ve seen at the show? Stefan: The Adam Davidson pipe with the clear shape and the bamboo—I don’t know if it’s 3D printed or what, but it’s amazing. James: What’s your favorite shape to do? Stefan: That’s a tough question. I think they’re all the same shape, but what’s fascinating is that Dublin, volcano, and blowfish are all the same depending on how you turn them. Playing with that, with all its variations, is a lot of fun. My favorite accent to use is also horn; it’s finicky, but it’s a great accent on pipes. You can check out Stefan’s work on his Instagram. Science: Meet Pipes I chatted with Chris from the San Diego Pipe Club; he started off doing stem replacements for estate pipes but also improved the airflow. James: How are you doing 3d printing? What is the thought process? Chris: It’s a 3D-printed pipe with a briar insert. The design is a calabash meets a Peterson system meets a metal Falcon/Kirsten radiator style. It is a bottom draft smoking bowl like a radiator like those metal pipes. The inside chamber is a calabash. The stummel and accent rings in the stems are all 3d printed. The insert is briar, olive wood, or I have the potential to use meerschaum as well. This idea came about through the San Diego Pipe Club, wanting to see if we could 3D print a pipe and being curious about the technology; I have a printer and design ability, so here we are. James: What’s the type of plastic you’re using? Chris: It’s all PLA plastic, a renewable potato starch plastic that is food-safe. The stummels are printed with a plastic that has wood in it 40% wood fiber, bamboo, rosewood, ebony, redwood, and walnut are the woods I’m printing. For the accent rings I just got a new material that I’m printing that has 40% copper, so its real metal that you can sand, and polish the same as wood filament. The stems are 3d printed as well. The concept is renewable and cheap from a production standpoint, with the ability to make a very high quality smoking pipe based on the experience. By combining the calabash system pipe and bottom draft hole and using 3d simulations to see airflow, I can see where I’m having eddies and ripples in my current, and see where my moisture and all the particles are dropping back out from a vapor to a liquid. Most people who have tried these say the stems are clean, and they don’t even have to run a pipe cleaner afterward because everything collects at the bottom. Chris has also been experimenting with color-changing plastics so you can see the hotspots. Chris said he was able to use this to slow down his cadence, which, of course, could mean you could get a slow-smoke training pipe to teach yourself to perform better. If you’re interested in learning more or want to check one out, you can contact him on Instagram: Copper Beard Pipe Works The Negative Space The show was buzzing about one specific pipe, which had everyone guessing how it was made. I chatted with Adam Davidson briefly about it. James: How did this idea come to fruition? Adam Davidson: Smokingpipes.com had an expo back in August open to all of the makers they carry. The theme was to make a pipe utilizing bamboo. Given that the last time we had the expo I made a smooth Almond with three bamboo shanks, […]
Welcome to The Pipes Magazine Radio Show Episode 631. Our featured interview on tonight’s show is with pipe maker Dan Keller from Good Made Better. Dan is from South Dakota. Growing up working in the family hardware store where he was always finding solutions to fixing things, he ended up always wanting to make things. He now makes elegant handmade pens, pen holders, portable desks, blotters, blotting paper, book carry cases, and of course artisan pipes. At the top of the show we are continuing the virtual tour of Brian’s pipes with his “f#@k you pipes”.
Thanks for sharing your early pipe smoking experiences in this superbly written, well organized, and nicely illustrated narrative. I find that it evokes a few fond memories of my own experiences starting out, and recounts impressions and reactions to which I can easily relate.
I said elsewhere Ethan – you’ve become a true evangelist for our shared passion.
Nice article.
Thanks.
I can remember when WGN CHAN 9 was a local Chicago channel I can remember watching some show with a old guy smoking a pipe talking about old novels that they made in to movies for the show like Moby Dick. If memory serves me right it was Masterpiece theater.
Wonderful article, Ethan I enjoyed it very much! I am encouraged that our hobby still appeals to the younger folk. I have two wonderful college aged sons, one a senior and one a freshman, that have both become pipe smokers after a childhood of anti-tobacco indoctrination. It pleased me to no end the day that my oldest returned home for a holiday break and told me that he wanted to take up the pipe. I was beside myself and thought he was joking! He wasn’t and I was was amazed that after all those years of telling me that I should stop, he now wanted to join the ranks of the fellowship we all share over the enjoyment of briar and leaf. Of course, I took to him immediately to my favorite tobacconist in NYC and let him pick out his very first pipe and selection of different tobaccos. I wanted him to have that old world, brick and mortar tobacconist experience that is slowly evaporating unfortunately. For a father, it was a very proud moment and quite poignant considering it was my own father’s pipe smoking that spurred my own interest in the pipe, so a real sense of heritage has transpired for my boys and I. Since then my younger son, a freshman now has also joined our ranks as well as my two nephews of the same age. So, when they are all together, home from a college break, I have myself a mini pipe club! What a wonderful site!
Keep writing and never loose your passion. ‘Tis a noble and storied hobby we share.
Happy Smokes,
Lou Carbone NYC
Pres., NY Pipe Club
Fun read! Thanks for sharing. I walked into a machine shop one day and found everyone in there busy working at various duties. What struck me strange was they all had a pipe in thier mouth. The shop had such a sweet smell to it, nothing like the dirt and oil and greese normally found in a working shop. A thought of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs came to mind. I was hooked at that time. I didnt smoke or dip or use any for of tobbaco. I told my wife of the urge I had to get a pipe. She took me to a smoke shop and helped me pick out my first of many.
It is interesting in hearing about how and when one started smoking a pipe. I use to watch my Uncle “immerse” himself when I was 16 (38yrs ago). I saw a pipe laying on his desk that caught my eye, he glanced over, smiled and packed a bowl and handed it to me. I was hooked ever since. In fact, I still have that pipe (Peterson), he gave it to me. Ever since, I immerse myself whenever I can.
I am amazed at how some people refer smoking a pipe as a “Hobby”. To me it is a relaxation/pleasure/interest in which I can enjoy, and if I can, I will introduce my pleasure with as many as I can, be it male or female. In fact, my son had an interest in a pipe at the Cigar store,it was a Churchwarden that resembled one from “Lord Of The Rings” trilogy. I bought two of them, and we both sit and “immerse” ourselves with a pinch and a mug together. I would like to say our relationship is just a bit closer than we already enjoy.
Well, I think I will immerse myself with some English and my Uncles pipe.
Thank you Uncle Gary
EXCELLENT article. My grandfather was a pipe smoker and I remember one night at the supper table when he was just beginning to light his pipe, I asked him if I could try (I was 8). He got his “Sir Walter Raleigh” blend lit and let me puff a few times on it (MUCH to the horror of my parents). I absolutely LOVED it and bought my own first pipe at 16, lying to the clerk saying that the pipe and tobacco were for my grandfather. Whenever I light up, he is always a person upon whom I think.
I have to say first what great reads these memories are. But I’m a bit envious, as I’m a lone briar embiber. No one in my family ever smoked a pipe. Ciggs and Cigars yes, but no pipe smokers. Cary Grant and Fred Astaire were my mentors. I started late in life with a pipe, early forties. Now fifteen years later, with a mediocre collection of estate pipes, and an Erik Nording freehand, which my wife bought me for Xmas one year, I have never regretted my change from ciggarettes. To me it’s almost an art-form. The packing, tamping, first and sometimes second re-lights. Learning to puff gently, so as not to need bandaids for the tongue. I surely do envy you guys that were lucky enough to have a real live mentor…
It was fantastic to read an article on here in which I recognized every place mentioned (being a native St. Louisan), and to then scroll to the bottom of the page to realize that I recognize the author from the Great St. Louis Renaissance Faire every year. Excellent article sir, cheers!