A Shopping List for the New Pipe Smoker
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Kevin Godbee - Dec 2, 2010
- 6 min read
By Russ Ouellette
One of the reasons cigar smokers cite for not trying a pipe is because of "all the stuff you have to carry around." Well, although there’s definitely more involved in smoking a pipe, it’s really not that much more than lugging around a cigar cutter and torch lighter. To simplify the shopping list for the newbie, we’ll only address the items that are necessities, and we’ll briefly look at additional items afterward.
Pipes – How many pipes should you have? My recommendation is this – however many bowls you smoke in a pipe on a given day, let the pipe rest for that many days – if you smoke two bowls on Monday, don’t use that pipe again until Wednesday. So, the number of pipes you own should be predicated by the frequency with which you smoke. If this seems fiscally irresponsible to you, remember that a corncob (for less than $10) can deliver a very good smoke without breaking the bank, so grab a couple to allow you to let your briars dry out properly.
Tobacco – There are no "rules" when it comes to tobacco, as you will like what suits your palette. Some people find their ambrosia, and smoke nothing but that one blend, day-in and day-out. In this case, things are simple- load a pouch with your favorite and go. Other folks will almost never smoke the same blend twice in a row, in which case there will be a lot more to tote around, but it’s not necessary to carry a couple of ounces of each blend.
Pouches/Cases – Some people look upon a car’s emergency kit as a jack and a spare tire. For those people, a ziplock bag of tobacco and a pipe in the shirt pocket is sufficient. But if you’re like a father putting together an automotive emergency kit for his daughter who’s heading off to college (including the emergency stove and a three day supply of food), you’ll probably want a pipe/tobacco combo pouch which might have room for some pipe cleaners, or, if you’re more ambitious, a fishing vest with all those pockets for multiple tobacco pouches and pipes. For the well organized, a well-made pipe bag, with space for a number of pipes, pouches and all your accoutrements will be ideal (around our shop they’re often called a "murse" or man-purse).
Tools – My father never went anywhere without his favorite tamper- his right index finger. Since my nose is a rather critical one, I avoid this as the smell of burning flesh doesn’t blend well with Virginia/Perique smoke, in my humble opinion. That said, you don’t need to carry around a bunch of items; a simple pipe nail or 3 piece Czech tool will do the job very well. If you do all your pipe maintenance at home, then a pipe nail (scraper at one end, tamper on the other) or plain tamper will be perfect. But if you clean on the fly, the Czech tool or a folding pipe knife/tool will be a better bet, as it includes a pick for clearing the shank, or loosening up hardened dottle. (Find pipe tools here.)
Pipe Cleaners – I usually carry a half-dozen or so regular pipe cleaners to deal with moisture issues and to run through a pipe after finishing a bowl. If you’re carrying a pipe with a larger bore (larger, more open drafthole), you might want to bring along the extra absorbent cleaners. I would leave the bristled cleaners at home, as they’re better suited for a more thorough cleaning, which you would most likely want to do in your spare time.
Get Pipe Cleaners HereFilters – If you use filters at all, you may want to change them with every use, or maybe after a few bowls. If you don’t change them with each smoke, leave the extras at home.
Many people who attend pipe shows come loaded for bear. They carry large, well-made and attractive leather bags with every imaginable item in stock. These people are serious and have everything they need in their kit. On the flip side was my father. He would lay out his roll-up pouch on the kitchen table (after he loaded up with tobacco) and place a few pipe cleaners across the inside of the pouch along with the stem and shank of the pipe, and then he would roll the pouch up and put it in his pocket – ready to go.
Now that I’ve covered what you need, let’s look at other items which you might want to keep around:
Polishes – A wax or oil-based polish for the wood part of the pipe is a good idea, as is a flannel or microfiber cloth for rubbing. I prefer to use an oil. When I want a complete shine-up, I prefer to use Carnauba wax and a buffer (being operated by someone who knows what they’re doing). For stems, there are mildly abrasive polishes. Some people even use toothpaste, baking soda or a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser (I’m not making this up).
Sweeteners – These are fluids used in cleaning the interior of the pipe that can reduce the sourness of a pipe that has become foul. How well they work is determined by how funky the pipe is before you use it. Liquors can also do the job.
Lighters – There are two basic types of pipe lighters- liquid fuel (Zippo or Nimrod type) and butane. Liquid fuel lighters have two major advantages versus the butane type- the fuel lasts longer between fill-ups and they are virtually windproof. Some look like regular Zippos with a different chimney and others look like an oversized nut and bolt (the Nimrod or Sportsman). The downside is that, even with the newer, low-odor fuels, there’s still a taste to the fuel that I don’t enjoy. Butane pipe lighters use a soft flame (normal orange flame, not like the pencil-point blue flame of a torch lighter) that will easily blow out in the wind, but the flame is usually angled to avoid burning yourself while lighting, and there’s minimal flavor and odor to the fuel. Some use a flint and sparkwheel to light the fuel, while others use a quartz mechanism to throw a spark. Even though they’re more of a pain, due to having to change the flint on occasion, I prefer the sparkwheel type, as they’re more reliable. Shop Pipe Lighters Here.
In the future, I’ll address some of the other things you might want to add to your wish list, but for now, this should keep your bank account from getting too full.
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Russ Ouellette is the blender/creator of the Hearth & Home series of tobaccos for Habana Premium Cigar Shoppe and www.pipesandcigars.com in Albany, NY. He has been a pipe smoker and blender for over 30 years, and enjoys feedback from the pipe smoking public. You can reach Russ at russo@pipesandcigars.com or by calling 1-800-494-9144 on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday from 9 am to 5 pm and Friday from 1 pm to 5 pm. |
Written by Kevin Godbee
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Welcome to The Pipes Magazine Radio Show Episode 634! Our featured interview on tonight’s show is with Warren Ertle. Warren is an extremely accomplished musician with a PhD in music. He started early as a percussionist in sixth grade. Later his grandmother got him a cheap Casio keyboard which he taught himself to play. He started playing in blues bands in high school, and has been a pianist with jazz big bands for years. Even though he was already a professional musician, he took his first real piano lesson when he enrolled in college with his studies in classical music. He is of course a pipe smoker. At the top of the show we will have an Ask the Tobacco Blender segment with Jeremy Reeves. Jeremy is the Head Blender at Cornell & Diehl, which is one of the most popular boutique pipe tobacco companies in the USA.
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. Now, if you have read some of the great authors of the past and present, their pipes were always nearby. Reading Sir Arthur Conan Doyle can be a three-pipe problem at times. S. Lewis and Jean-Paul Sartre require time with your pipes to reflect on the existential problems and solutions these authors provide in learned novels and other narratives. Or take Edwin Hubble and Bertrand Russell, philosophers of another world. Pipes are required for reading. The quantum lode of ideas Pundit is attempting to sort out is that our pipes are relaxing and stimulate our thoughts and creativity. Especially in these last months of the year. Many times Pundit has had that light bulb flick on while smoking my beloved pipes. And friends in Pipedom, it ain’t easy to turn on the lights in Pundit’s rock pit head. Now it’s time for a quote from a Pipe Smoker of the Past. Shelby Foote was born Nov. 17, 1916, in Greenville, Miss., and died June 27, 2005, in Memphis, Tenn. 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.
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. Naturally a Virginia-Perique, it is enhanced with a traditional core of black Cavendish. In the tin it holds much promise, with a lightly bready and very woody, if ever-so-slightly sour, aroma. After some time acclimating to air, the bouquet softens further and offers hints of the burley with some chocolaty notes wafting through the more dominant dry grassy aspect. The tin art is of a coin-style bas-relief bust, presumably of a founding Sutliff brother, Ă la The Old Boss On the reverse of the tin we find the blend’s description: Reflecting on Sutliffs 175 years of tobacco excellence, we came across a brand that embodies true value, SILVER QUARTER. This name pays homage to Sutliffs roots, the legacy of two brothers who popularized pipe smoking in the burgeoning mining society of San Francisco. We celebrate this heritage with a coin cut composed of the finest African Virginias, complemented by a core of Perique and Black Cavendish. The tin notes are, forgive the pun, on the nose for a good VaPer blend: mild tart sweetness peeking out from behind dried hay and slight chocolate undertones, with a lightly tannic finish of weathered oak. It is always a joy to prepare a coin cut, my preference being to put a few in my palm and vigorously warm my hands together to fully break them apart. These well-formed discs pack and light easily, and smoke with little prodding to the end of the bowl. For technical points it scores well—it smokes light, and it’s easy to tend the ember. While it gets sharp after a few quick bowls, pacing should be heeded to easily smoke down to the heel without inviting bite. Of the flavor, though, I am left a bit wanting. There are tart and high notes aplenty, but very little of the lemony citrus I would anticipate, as well as scant midtones; they tend more toward the red wine-vinegary and sour. The flavors are muted, also, lacking the sweetness and piquancy of other marques—the small measure of Perique tickles the nose now and again with peppery hints, and there is a smidge of a deeper sweetness to be found in the Cavendish from puff to puff, but overall it lacks some dynamism. The Virginias, to my palate, come off a bit on the dry side, and here they dominate the blend. The aftertaste and mouthfeel are neutral, again evincing more of the dry, woody, tartly tannic end of the spectrum. The blend has plenty of polish, but not enough depth or richness (*yet) to make it a standout. Here, comparisons are inevitable: Luxury Bullseye Flake has more sweetness, both from its Virginia as well as its Cavendish, and a better finish; Davidoff is similar but with a pronounced umami that is absent here; as for Escudo, I haven’t had any fresh tins lately so it would be unfair to compare. While it rates as a solid, fairly mild smoke, particularly to lovers of the genre, it does not surprise with any exceptional flavors. To be fair, all the boxes have been checked for the blend to benefit from some real aging, and it would be worth checking in on this after a couple of years sealed away. I’ve set half my tin aside to sample again in a month or two, in case I’m merely suffering from the lingering effects of parosmia, and will amend this review in that case. Maple Shadows II, on the other hand, made up for the weeks of sniffling and sneezing I’d endured. Offered in a full 8 ounce tin with delightfully spooky Halloween art, it’s (hopefully) enough to last through the season. Somehow I had missed this last year, so it’s a real pleasure to get some in my candy bucket this year. As the chilling winds of autumn draw eerie prattle from contorted, deciduous limbs, we find ourselves possessed by the spirit of the season. 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With a sweet coffee or tea to accompany, the aftertaste of the maple is reinvigorated on the palate […]
Welcome to The Pipes Magazine Radio Show Episode 632. Our featured guest on tonight’s show is the host of the Pipe & Tamper Podcast, Mike Murphy. Brian and Mike will have an extended chat revolving around the days before, during and after the Las Vegas International Pipe Show. We will hear about their travels to the show and the anxiety of Hurricane Milton bearing down on Florida at the same time while running a show and not knowing if your house is going to be there when you get home. In the end, the show went great and our homes survived, although many others in Florida were not so lucky. We’ll have clips from the show, and shoutouts to other podcasts and vlogs that were broadcasting from the pipe show.
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, […]
Thanks for the article Russ!
Great article Russ. Easy to read and understand the simple needs of the new pipeman. I’ll print it and let the wife find it for some good ideas for stocking stuffing items.
jcsnaps has the right idea for this time of the year! This article is a real service to the novice; and I’m a bit surprised, but it addresses a fairly common question.
I will admit, however, that when I started smoking, a pipe cleaner was the only “accessory”. I used a finger to tamp down the ash too! Not so bad once a callus develops. You had to be a really determined to smoke a pipe back then.
Even now, though, the trusty pipe nail is about all one really needs in the way od doodads.
Great article that will help a lot of beginners know what they will need to carry when smoking away from home.
I agree that cigar smokers are a little delusional about how much stuff you have to carry to smoke a pipe. It pretty much equates with what you need to carry to smoke cigars; especially if you have a pipe pouch. Everything is pretty much contained in the pouch.
If you break it down it looks something like this:
Cigar Cutter = Pipe Tool (Pipe Tool is much smaller than a cutter)
Lighter = Lighter
Cigars = Pipe Tobacco
So the only extra things that you are carrying is a pipe and a couple of cleaners. The cleaners don’t take up much room at all and you can put them in with the tobacco so you don’t have them flopping around on their own.
Some cigar smokers will say “Even if you put everything in a pipe pouch, you still have to carry around the pouch”. Well, most cigar smokers carry around a cigar case to protect their stogies, so it is the same thing.
I would recommend getting a pipe pouch that has room for 2 pipes, a tobacco pouch, and a pocket or two for accessories such as pipe cleaners or filters (if you use them). That way everything is contained in one area and it will protect your pipe(s) when you are not smoking it.
They don’t take up much room and most of them come with a strap that you can put around your wrist to keep your hands free. My pouch is about 7 1/2 inches long, 4 1/2 inches wide, and 2 1/2 inches deep; not big at all and only slightly larger than a cigar case.
Dear Russ:
There’s some great lighters “Jobon” that are made specifically for pipes
that contain all the tools one needs and can be purchased on Ebay for $18.00 with free shipping. The lighters work equally well for cigar smokers as well. I hate having to carry an arsenal of pipe tools around with me and have been really pleased with carrying just my pipe(s), tobacco, and a Jobon.
Cheers
Stephen Spring
Thanks Russ. For me, one of the enjoyable aspects of Pipe
smoking is getting to play with the gizmos that are available.
I can lug a lot of stuff around, or I can bring just the basics.
Either way, it’s good.
Excellent read again…..
Just shows that not each shoe matches each foot…
Fantabulous !!
An excellent article Russ, as always. Lots of info for the newbie.
Agree on the very cogent article, Russ. I have a saying that others use and that is K.I.S.S, keep it simple stupid!!
Russ is a real blessing to the pipe world. He is a great guy who will spend lots of time answering any of your questions. He is very knowledgeable about pipe smoking and the tobacs that we fire up and understands blending. Hearth and Home blends are some of the best in the world.
Keep on the cutting edge, Russ
Dr Bob
Excellent article. I am one of those who tends to carry everything but the kitchen sink LOL.
Nice article, particularly for the pipe-greenhorns!
If you are serious about pipes and pipe smoking you can´t skimp on your equipment 🙂
Anyway, you´ll spend much money for the best smoking mixtures.
Cool and dry smoke my fellows.
Great read….thanks for your experiences and knowledge.
Great info…as newbie I can use all the help I can get.
Thanks.
I smoke tea in a pipe. I took it up to experiment with ways to dry my sinuses as I suffered from chronic, lasting [weeks sometimes] headaches and after many scans and tests my doctors had no suggestions.
I learned that in WWII tea was sometimes mixed with tobacco to make the ration go further, and non-smoker actors have used tea for effect. I tried various commonly available teas and herbs in various mixtures. I do not inhale the smoke into my lungs, but sometimes – during particularly bad sinusitis attacks – I blow it out through my nose to speed the effects. I have been using tea in this way for over a year. I can confirm that the mild dry smoke from good quality loose leaf tea does help, especially if you mix it with a little nettle tea. It does not seem to be at all addictive as I can go a week or more without wanting to smoke it, and then only one or two pipes in a day. I have not felt any euphoric effects from it.
If you wanted to smoke something as a substitute for tobacco – either for theatrical effect – or to have the familiarity of the smoking ritual while you give up tobacco – I’d recomend tea, particularly quality Assam tea.
Thank you Russ, very good article. Good job