-
Kevin Godbee - Oct 15, 2009
- 6 min read
In the earlier Pipe Tools article we talked about some quite important tools for the pipe smoker and a few that not everyone is going to be interested in using. This time though we’re going to be talking about a few tools and accessories that just about every pipe smoker is going to need in his kit.
Last time we started out with pipe cleaners so let’s start this session with cleaning brushes for pipe stems and shanks. Unlike pipe cleaners these brushes are not absorbent and are reusable although they’re so cheap you won’t need to worry too much if you have to throw one away.
If you’ve got an obstruction in the stem that just won’t budge then dip a cleaning brush in some Pipe Sweetener or similar pipe conditioner and you can scrub that obstruction away.
Pipe Conditioners
This is a fluid that cleans and sweetens your pipe. There are several different brands on the market but they all work in the same way. If you want to do a quick clean of your pipe just dip a pipe brush into the fluid and run the brush through the stem. (PipeMaster’s Clean & Cure Pipe Sweetener)
You can even use it on the bowl of the pipe once you have removed all the accumulated cake. Manufacturers recommend that you pour a small quantity into the bowl and allow it to sit for a few seconds. Then drain it through the shank before running a pipe cleaner or two through the shank to clean out anything that was softened by the conditioner.
Once you’ve done that you should put your pipe aside for at least 24 hours to allow it to completely dry.
Tobacco Containers
Where you choose to store your pipe tobacco is a matter of personal preference. There are many who are prepared to leave it in the tin that it was in when it was purchased. That’s certainly the cheapest way of storing your tobacco but there are a number of other storage options available.
There are tobacco pouches that come in leather or vinyl … with a zip to fasten it or as a simple roll up pouch. Prices can vary from less than $10.00 to something over $30.00 and once again, which type you choose to use really is a matter of personal preference.
You can also choose to store your tobacco in glass jars that come with a press-fit lid that makes the jar airtight. Wooden containers are also available and most of these have a rubber seal around the lid that makes them airtight.
There’s no doubt that the wooden containers tend to look far more stylish than the glass containers and if that’s what you want for your tobacco then you will need to be prepared to pay something of a premium for that classy wooden look. Wooden tobacco jars tend to retail around $40.00 while the more simple glass jars can be had for about $15.00.
Humidifiers
Regardless of what type of container you use to store your pipe tobacco … even if it’s only a pouch … you should be thinking about a humidifier for your storage. These devices can be as simple as a pouch button … metal button that you only need to wet with cold water before placing it in your pouch … humidifier that’s too big for a pouch but will certainly fit in some of the other storage options that are available.
Savinelli Wood with brass trim tobacco humidor.
Lighters
So far we’ve talked about a whole bunch of accessories that keep your pipe in good condition and keep your tobacco fresh but we haven’t actually looked at what you’re going to need to actually light your pipe.
For beginners … and plenty of very experienced pipe smokers too … nothing beats a wooden match or two … or three or four. They’re somewhat convenient, controllable and very inexpensive but don’t let those puny little matches fool you, they can do some damage to your pipe if you’re not careful.
If you’re not careful when you’re lighting your pipe you can have the match too close to the edge of the bowl and if that happens it’s very easy to scorch and burn the rim of the bowl and if you keep doing that you will soon need a new pipe.
Of course there is an inconvenient side to matches too. They tend to go out if there’s a breeze, they can burn your fingers and they can get wet so for some the better option is to use a lighter.
Now you might think that any old lighter will do and many pipe stores both in the real world and online will sell you the cheapest lighter they have … if that’s what you ask for. But not all lighters were created equal when it comes to lighting a pipe and while you can even light a pipe with a cheap disposable lighter there are some better options.
Most lighters are designed to have the flame rise up vertically from the lighter in a clear blue flame. In some circles these lighters are called torches and some have extensions so that you can get the flame closer to the bowl of your pipe without getting the lighter right over the bowl.
These lighters certainly do an adequate job of getting your pipe lit but it’s easy to damage the rim of the bowl with one of these lighters and at least one pipe maker recommends that you use a very different type of lighter.
The makers of Meerschaum pipes recommend that you never use a torch lighter to light one of their pipes. They suggest that torch lighters will damage the material that the pipe is made out of and scorch the bowl as well. For these manufacturers the best way to light a pipe is with what is called a soft-flame lighter.
These lighters have a soft yellow colored flame that can be drawn down into the bowl when you puff on the pipe. Some soft-flame lighters even have an arrangement that allows the flame to come from the side of the lighter rather than from the top so that they’re easier to use. Unfortunately these lighters are generally more expensive than the torch lighters but then the extra cost is definitely worth it if it allows you to light your pipe without destroying it.
 Click to Buy |
 Click to Buy |
The Zippo pipe lighter is made to the same high quality standards as a Zippo windproof pocket lighter, but designed for the special needs of pipe smokers. The ingenious design encases the flame in metal, allowing it to be drawn directly into the pipe without bending over the side. The result: perfectly lit tobacco, with no damage to the pipe.
Pipe Racks
A Pipe Rack or Pipe Stand is a nice accessory that offers aesthetics as well as functionality. They look elegant serving as a home decor accessory. As a pipe accessory they can actually serve two purposes. The obvious use is a place to put your pipes when you are not using them. This is much better than just having a pile of pipes laying around. After you smoke a pipe it needs to be given a rest so it has time to cool off and also to dry out. Moisture accumulates as a result of smoking. Your pipe rack is a good place to let your pipe rest to cool off and dry out
And that wraps up our review of tools and accessories for the pipe smoker. There are a few that I haven’t touched on and I’m sure that there will be more available in the future but the ones I have mentioned are all you will need to make your pipe smoking experience a very enjoyable one.
Written by Kevin Godbee
More Pipes and Tobaccos Articles
3 Responses
Recent Posts
Welcome to The Pipes Magazine Radio Show Episode 641. Our featured interview tonight is with Jeremy Reeves. Jeremy is the Head Blender at Cornell & Diehl and is featured in our recurring series, “Ask the Tobacco Blender”. However, tonight he will be the interviewee as we learn about how he became a pipe smoker and collector, when he got his first pipe and how he progressed from there. At the top of the show, Brian will have a review of the rare German tobacco blend, Tumblin’ Dice.
I remember the first time I heard someone else say it. “How many pipes do I need? Just one more.” It’s glib, sure, a bit of a joke, but it also rings a bell of truth, at least to me. I certainly have “enough” pipes, but pipes are seductive little things. Just when we think we’re all set, we have enough, another will come along that tempts us beyond any sense of reason. I suppose it’s the same way with any sort of collecting. There’s always another white whale we’re in pursuit of. When we finally track that one down, though, another will almost inevitably breach the surface, taking its place as the new object of our desire, enticing us to change course and set sail once again. But, there’s a potential problem with having a lot of pipes. Maybe. The more pipes we may have, the harder it can be to keep them in rotation. It makes sense. We tend to gravitate towards our current faves, the ones that most appeal to us for whatever reason, and sometimes, maybe they stay in rotation longer than they really should. The side-effect of this, of course, is that another favored pipe might end up too-long forgotten. That’s exactly what happened recently. Exhibit A: The Castello pictured is one that has been long overlooked. It’s a Trademark shape #55. It’s a really nice example of the shape. The red pearlized stem is beautifully done. The wood isn’t really anything special to look at, but it’s evenly covered, without any bald spots. When I look at it, I wonder why it wasn’t done in the more typical dark ruby-red finish that adorns most Trademarks. I’ve seen a great deal of variation amongst the grade over the years, including one really nice bent-bulldog that left the factory with a brown sandblasted finish. (For those who don’t know, Trademark has long been the lowest Castello smooth grade, usually finished in a dark red.) Was this a stamping/grading error, or is there just more leeway in the grade than we’ve come to expect? I might never know. This example is from the early 1970s, maybe even the late 1960s, identified by the upper case Ks in the grade designation. (On Sea Rock and Old Antiquari pipes, the Ks reflect the size, while with the smooth finishes, Trademark, Castello and Collection, the Ks represent the relative grade.) It has been living in a different rack than the one housing the majority of my #55s. I don’t recall why I put it there, but as many of us can relate to, rack space is often at a premium. I stumbled upon it while looking for something completely different. “Oh, you? Why are you there? I remember you smoke pretty well.” Yeah, I sometimes talk to my pipes – one of many quirks, I suppose. I won’t begin to worry until they start talking back. I grabbed it from the rack, dusted it off, and decided to give it a fill with a bowl of a slightly aged VA/perique blend, Telegraph Hill, from 2018. What a delightful smoke! At five years, the tobacco is expressing a lot of the complexities of aged Virginias and the perique adds a delightful fruitiness. When young, the composition is a bit brighter, maybe a little spicier, but time has polished any edges, and amplified the sweeter notes. Like the pipe, I’d forgotten about this blend for quite a while, but one evening in March, after chatting with my good friend Nate, who is quite a fan of it, I decided it might be time to revisit it. I got a couple of fresh ones, and excavated a couple older tins from the library. I normally reach for Fillmore when I want a VA/perique thing because of its boldness and depth, but in revisiting this one, I’m finding something soothing and comfortable about it that I’ve really been enjoying, both young and aged. Sticking with the theme of the forgotten, and as a perhaps interesting tidbit to the photographically inclined, I shot the pictures for this month’s column with my old Nikkor-O 35mm/2.0 mounted on my trusty Nikon Df. The last time I used this lens, it was adapted to one of my Fujifilm bodies, and I didn’t care much for the results, so I put it away and pretty much forgot about it. But, I’ve recently been exploring some of my old kit, deciding what to keep, what to pass along, and this one once again came to my attention, kind of like that old Castello. On the Df, there’s something about its vintage rendering that I find truly appealing. Another forgotten treasure, and just like with that old pipe, it seems that, at least today, everything old is new again. If your collection is on the large side, are there pipes or tobaccos that you’ve all but forgotten, only to come back to them one day to find yourself wondering why? Maybe it’s just another fun dimension to this endlessly fascinating journey.
Welcome to The Pipes Magazine Radio Show Episode 640. Our featured interview on tonight’s show is with Ben Rapaport. Ben has been known internationally as an avid pipe smoker, antique pipe collector, and book author. His first book on pipes was published in 1972, and his latest book – his 10th – is out now in very limited quantities. The distribution has already sold out, but you can still get a copy of “The Wide World of Wood Tobacco Pipes. Two Centuries of Craftsmanship and Creativity” by contacting him directly at ben70gray@gmail.com. At the top of the show we’ll be turning the tables on our recurring Ask the Pipemaker segment. This time, Jeff Gracik will ask the questions, which Brian will answer as a pipe collector, and you can give your answers too.
Welcome to The Pipes Magazine Radio Show Episode 639. Our featured interview on tonight’s show is with Per Billhäll. Per is the owner of Scandinavian Pipes, which is an online retailer of high grade pipes. He started smoking pipes in the 1960s. His first high grade pipe was made by Hans “Former” Nielsen, who is one of the living legends from Denmark. That led to Per becoming a huge pipe and tobacco collector, and show attendee where he became well known. Along with pipe book author Jan Andersson, they started The Pipe Club of Sweden in 1991. Then in 1999, Per started “Scan Pipes”. He is now one of the pipe retailing legends from Sweden. At the top of the show Brian will talk about holiday blends, and other special pipe tobacco blends.
Welcome to The Pipes Magazine Radio Show Episode 638. Our featured interview on tonight’s show is with Fae “The Sassy Pipe Lady” Simmons. Fae is the owner of Tobacco Treasures, which sells new, vintage, & estate pipes, and smoking accessories on Etsy. She has been in business since 2017, and has been surrounded by pipes and tobacco most of her life. Her father and his brother smoked pipes, and so does Fae. Her husband is also a retired tobacconist that worked all over the industry from coast to coast for several different companies in the industry. She has a great story of how her business got started with a great inventory of unsmoked vintage pipes. 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.
Ok, so it’s that time of year, as we all know. Family feasts, houses, yards, and big trees festooned with lights and dangling ornaments, just high enough to keep the cats from reaching a paw into the greenery. It’s also the time of year when your pipe-smoking-significant other makes vast hints about a new pipe. That’s to be expected since he or she was a good boy or girl during the year. Yes, ladies smoke pipes, too. Oh, you want an example? Okay, try Actress Greta Garbo, Millicent Fenwick, Mary Frith, and my late grandmother (who died when she was 93) dipped snuff and smoked a cob occasionally. So now that we have settled that the gentler side of life will puff a pipe too, let’s move on to the upcoming biggest holiday of all. Of course, that huge event is brought to us by the hefty fellow in a red suit, puffing his pipe all the way in a sled filled with presents, being led by a reindeer with a red nose. Or some such. That’s Santa Claus, of course. Becoming a bit more serious, Christmas is such a wonderful time for families and friends. It’s also quite special for pipe puffers. For many of us, this brings up a nostalgic look back to our pipe-smoking or cigar-smoking friends who have died during the current year. A great journalist pal whom I often joined in a local brick-and-mortar pipe and cigar shop. I puffed my pipe, and occasional cigar, as he enjoyed a cigar. He died in October and will be missed. On the happier side of things, Christmas is also a time when mind workers of the world renew their collections with fresh additions. Pundit included. A French passion has overtaken Pundit, from reading more Albert Camus, a heavy cigarette smoker, as were many French intellectuals of a certain time. Instead of cigarettes many of us prefer the more relaxed enjoyment of pipes for that “calm and objective judgment” in the comings and goings of the world. This brings me to French pipes. While visiting France once in the long ago, I happened by a “Tabac” shop in Paris, Tabac Des Vosges. I purchased a beauty of a Chacom bent. I also later bought a Ropp made from ancient briar. To learn more about the dawn of briar pipes and beginnings, take a peek at a well-done piece by Davin Hylton in Pipe Line on April 12, 2023, on Saint-Claude, France, the birthplace of briar. Also in the long back when, on a cold Christmas afternoon, Pundit wandered into an Atlanta bricks and mortar pipe shop to look around. There, resting in an enclosed glass counter was an exquisite Comoy. An older gent, smoking a beautiful bent, asked me if I wanted to look at that pipe. It had a $100 price tag. A college student working for a grocery store chain to help with college tuition at the time, Pundit didn’t have one hundred cents, let alone a C note! I declined and found a $5 basket pipe. A Christmas tradition had just begun. Since that early time, Pundit has made it a holiday ritual to either reward himself, or a special friend, with pipe or tobacco. A Claudio Cavicchi would be nice. Just sayin.’ And now for a couple of December-born Pipe Smokers of the Past: Joseph Rudyard Kipling was born on Dec. 30, 1865, and died on Jan. 18, 1936. I always prefer to believe the best of everybody; it saves so much trouble—Rudyard Kipling. Martin Van Buren, born Dec. 5, 1782, and died July 24, 1862, U.S. President, 1837-1841 As to the presidency, the two happiest days of my life were those of my entrance upon the office and my surrender of it—Martin Van Buren. And one more note to recall a deceased World War II veteran who loved William Somerset Maugham, the author. Maugham, a pipe smoker, was born in Paris, France, on Jan. 25, 1874, and died on Dec. 16, 1965. One cool afternoon as the veteran and I talked while sitting in his backyard patio, he looked off into the distance as if studying something. Nothing in particular. Just looking. He turned to me and said if I wanted to learn about life, “read Somerset Maugham.” I did. It wasn’t until late in life that I discovered how easy it is to say, ‘I don’t know’ –W. Somerset Maugham And now a Parting Shot: Any day with an old friend with pipes and tobacco is a good day.
x3corpse uses an Old Boy Pipe Lighter and it has never let x3corpse down. The fuel tank is very large adjustable and produces a 90 degree angle flame perfect for any a smoker. X3corpse uses the long Davidoff matches at the end of his largest pipe at the end of the smoke because it is long way down to the bottom of the bowl and this tends to get that last little bit of tobacco and prevents burning the rim were the Old Boy would have to be adjusted to its max output and the puff would be lots of effort at the end of the bowl, great thing about Davidoff long matches is that you can cut used portion off and relight with Old Boy x3corpse uses the match 3 to 4 times.
Good idea on the long matches. That will save me some burnt fingers.
I use Diamond”strike anywhere” large kitchen matches. They’re larger and thicker then the standard wooden match. Cheap too.3-pak(750 matches total) runs about 2-3 bucks most places like wal-mart.