The Ritual of Smoking a Pipe
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Kevin Godbee - May 25, 2012
- 7 min read
Dr. Michael Garr, Ph. D. aka "Doc Garr"
In his classic study, The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life, Emile Durkheim proposes a distinction between two types of objects—sacred and profane. Beliefs and behaviors that set apart the sacred from the profane is the realm of rituals. In our more secular society, the distinction between sacred and profane is still with us but in less dramatic fashion than we find in religion. Pipes can be thought of as sacred objects and pipe smoking as ritualistic activity.
To understand this it will be useful to make a distinction also between the instrumental use of pipes and the ritualistic use of pipes. All behaviors can be seen as existing along a continuum between instrumental behaviors and ritualistic behavior, most having a mixture of the two. Instrumental behaviors are rational. They find efficient means to obtain desired ends. Thus all smoking is in some way instrumental. Cigarettes, cigars and pipes are delivery systems of tobacco into a smokable form. But, beyond the instrumental lies the ritualistic.
Ritualistic behavior seeks to provide feeling states that accompany the instrumental to produce feeling states, usually positive feelings like pleasure and/or relaxation. Pipe smokers can attest that smoking the pipe produces feelings of contemplation and relaxation and other pleasurable feelings where our world becomes orderly for however brief a time. The same is true for cigarettes, except the feeling states are shorter lived since smoking a cigarette is only a five to seven minute ritual compared to the one to two or more hours of pipe smoking. Cigar smoking is more ritualistic than cigarettes, but less so than pipe smoking.
Cigarette smokers use their nicotine delivery devices for relaxation, whether it is during a break, after a meal or after sex. And yet nicotine is a stimulant. It is the ritualistic use of cigarettes that results not in stimulation, but in relaxation.
Pipes as sacred objects
Many of us treat our pipes as revered objects that deserve special treatment. As a result, we use rituals to give our pipes their proper respect. For example, every time someone knocks a pipe on a hard object, I cringe. We display our pipes with pride. We polish our pipes with loving care. In short, we care for our pipes as sacred objects not to be just tossed around. We show them respect.
We engage in cleansing rituals to keep our pipes free of polluting elements and to ensure a well-maintained pipe. Clearly part of this is instrumental. But true instrumentalists do not clean their pipes. They allow cake and char to build up on the pipe. Many of us have a "knock-around" pipe that we don’t necessarily take good care of. This pipe is used instrumentally. Instrumentalists cannot understand why people would pay more than $100, even less, on a pipe. Why care about grain or a blast?
We can see the same sort of thing among pipe collectors. Many collectors will not smoke their collectable pipes. On the one hand, instrumentally, smoking the pipe will decrease its monetary value. On the other hand, ritualistically, smoking the pipe will detract from the pipe as a work of art. As a result, some of us have pipes that once bought we do not smoke. For example, two years ago at the Chicago pipe show, I bought an unsmoked Walt Cannoy wax drip, I still have not smoked it. It is the only pipe in my collection still unsmoked. I am having trouble using it instrumentally and I am not planning on selling it. So why won’t I smoke it (I will eventually I hope)?
Different churches or religious denominations divide the sacred from the profane differently. The same is true for the pipe world. It has not developed a universal consensus of beliefs and activities of all things pipe. Rather, there is diversity in belief and activity. The above-mentioned collector will not smoke a pipe for fear of desecrating it. Some suggest that the only true smoke of a pipe is its first smoke. Others believe that a pipe will smoke well only after it has been properly broken in. These beliefs are not individualistic; they are shared beliefs among those participating in the pipe world.
Smoking as ritualistic activity
We may think of rituals as institutionalized ways of behaving. That is to say, rituals are not performed by disconnected individuals in individualized ways; rituals are shared ways of acting. Rituals are repeated and repeatable social behaviors. They establish the proper way of doing something. Habits are routinized behaviors of individuals. Rituals are collective ways of doing something. As a result rituals have to be learned usually in a group setting. (With the advent of the internet a direct relationship to a group is no longer necessary, although it still is an indirect relationship.)
Take for example the packing of the pipe. There are different methods for the proper packing that is not too tight or too loose, but is just right. Many of us learn "the thirds" method of packing a pipe. We did not need to discover it on our own. Eventually, once the correct feel of a properly packed pipe is realized, we may fill our pipes with the right amount of tobacco.
How often did someone teach us about the "faux light"? Who thought of first charring the tobacco before having the proper light of the tobacco? How did this knowledge become established in the lore of pipe smoking and how does it get carried down from generation to generation of pipe smokers?
What do you use to light the pipe? We know that torches are discouraged, even though there are safe ways to use a torch. The old-time rockabilly musician Jerry Lee Lewis smokes expensive Dunhills and lights them with a torch charring the bowl rims terribly. Most of us will not do this for fear of damaging our revered object. But others argue that soft flames are still too hot and will scorch the rim as well. They advocate only the use of matches. All of these are shared methods of lighting a pipe.
Once the pipe is lit, then there is the proper method of actually smoking it. Consider when many cigar smokers start to smoke a pipe. They often smoke the pipe too quickly making the pipe too hot to hold and perhaps burning it out. Others worry about lighting a pipe too often to keep it going.
After we are finished smoking the pipe, we then need to show proper respect of the pipe by cleaning it properly. We remove the dottle rather than leaving it inside the pipe. We use pipe cleaners to remove what moisture and other bits that remain in the stem and shank. We may let our pipes rest or put them in their place on our rotation of pipes. Instrumentalists tend not to clean their pipes. I had an instrumentalist friend who would never clean his inexpensive pipes. Once they became too caked, he would just buy another inexpensive pipe.
All of these activities related to smoking a pipe are learned. They are collective solutions to how to smoke that gets transmitted to new generations of pipe smokers. And while they may have instrumental reasons behind them, we do these activities routinely, many times without thinking about the instrumental reasons behind them. We do these as ritual activities.
While we may smoke our pipes alone, we also often find ourselves seeking out other like-minded people who also smoke a pipe. Like the ritual of sharing in a toast or sharing a meal, we often share smoking our pipes with other pipes smokers. We create a sense of conviviality between us. We speak of a brotherhood of briar. We form pipe clubs. In these group settings we learn new ritual beliefs and activities and we repeat those we have already learned.
Of course, much of the content of the forums on PipesMagazine.com are full of information regarding the proper methods of smoking. Some of these ideas are novel, not yet institutionalized, not yet shared, not yet ritualistic. Other ideas and practices are well-honed, the stuff of rituals. And whether novel or well-honed, they all have on thing in common—the reverie that we show to our pipes as the sacred objects they are.
"Doc" is currently president of The United Pipe Clubs of America and Pocono Intermountain Pipe Enthusiasts. In 2011 Doc won the national slow-smoke championship in Chicago and competed in the World Cup in Eindhoven, Netherlands, where he came in 69th out of 338 smokers. He has been a pipe smoker for almost 25 years. When he is not smoking a pipe, Doc is Professor of Sociology at Wilkes University. He also moonlights at El Humidor, Wilkes-Barre, PA, a tobacco store. |
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! 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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. 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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. Bewitched by a dissonant charm, we’ve created Maple Shadows. In a season that is defined by the unlikely harmony of treats and frights, we’ve joined the enchanting sweetness of maple with the earthy spice of Dark Fired Kentucky for a smoking experience that captures the senses with an otherworldly fusion of flavor. This may be the best aromatic blend Sutliff’s ever made—and they make a ton of them. First off, it’s not overbearing in the least—quite the opposite, it is also one of the more restrained aromatics they’ve ever made, with a clear but very light topping that melds oh-so-well with their choice Kentucky added to the mix. Opening the tin, the sweet maple is up front and center, but so too is the must of fallen leaves, bready pie crusts, and a crackling fire in the hearth—a perfect invocation of Herbstdüfte in a can. Packing best in an open and capacious bowl, the flavoring is subtle, and recedes to the background while puffing. 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, […]
Very nice read.
Very cool article!!
I used to tap my pipe ash out of the bowl on ashtray and such just to watch a fellow briar bro ( Dunhill afficiando) cringe and chastise me. He also went nutz when I would smoke in the car with window down (cooling wind on pipe would cause bowl to crack).
My wife noticed my enjoyment of the ritual part of pipe smoking befor I even thought about it.
I can’t decide if I’m a ritualistic nstrumentalist or an nstrumentalistic ritualist.
My smoking process, by definition, is a habit. My cleaning process, on the other hand, is much more ritualistic. Especially the virgin sacrifice… lol. This is a very good article, with a lot of food for thought.
Good write. I found myself laughing. If one is to put a tag on “my style”, it would be “Almost all the above”. I hardly ever pack my pipe the same because all my pipes and leaf smoke differently. However all my pipes are well enjoyed and it shows. My pipes do have the rim charred a bit. I believe that this is badge of honor. Although I have used a torch on some and others I don’t, they all have this badge. I guess what it all boils down to is that I enjoy smoking a pipe. That is all that really matters, isn’t it?
Great article Doc! Interesting and thought provoking look from the human nature point of view.
Kudos for courageously venturing into the murky area where it becomes difficult to distinguish habit from ritual — especially when speaking colloquially. To me, smoking is all about ceremony, but then again I am notoriously anal retentive.
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If one uses a different wine glass shape for different wines is that ritualistic, or instrumental? If one dedicates different pipes to different blends, etc…
A pipe just HAS to be smoked to be properly appreciated; sorry to have to disagree on anyone on that, but there it is. I guess that makes me an instrumentalist. I’ve never spent more than $45 on a pipe either- but then I used to get great discounts when I sold pipes retail. Still, I’d not be spending much more than $100 on a pipe even if I could afford it.
I’ve got some scorch marks too, but I’d never dream of using a torch because I cannot understand why anyone would risk damaging a functional or even very attractive pipe. Neither do I believe in pipes only for Latakia or Virginia, although I can see how certain shapes are better suited for certain tobaccos. I just don’t get that high anality factor.
Another thing, I tend to keep my pipes on the clean side, but one of my best smokes was Sweet Oriental thru a gurgling Peterson Army last winter
I,after reading this article must label myself as habitually and instrumentally ritualistic! Been smoking pipes for over 40 yrs and have come to realize that choosing, filling, lighting and smoking the pipe takes about as much care as cleaning a pipe after its use after it cools down. I guess it’s as much respect for an instrument tht will provide me with pleasure and comfort as a habit of mine after all these years. I mean, cleaning a pipe after a smoke is just what gpoes with it in my opinion. Let me tell you as a youngbuck in my late teens ans early 20’s I have had some really rancid smokes as a result of not caring for my pipes. Looks like my Dad gets kudos for that. I had often seen him watching TV ans cleaning a few pipes while doing it. So, growing up seeing this it seemed to be the thing to do! And, I’m am Truly grateful that I had his silent mentorship as he wasn’t one to say much about pipe smoking except that one Christmas he handed me a pkg which contained two pouches of Prince Albert and a Grabow and said ,”boy if you’re gonna smoke ya ought to smoke this”. From there I followed his lead. Choose, fill, light, smoke clean and rest it. Ritual, instrumental, habit? Who the heck knows; I’m just Lovin’ It!
It’s very easy to see the overlap of being both a ritualistic and instrumental pipe smoker. I never thought about it until I read your article. Thanks for bringing it to light, Doc!
Excellent last read on pipes for the evening. Will
help to sooth me to a good night’s rest on a cold
and snowy night.
Thanks for writing it.