Your First Pipe & Tobacco

[Bengel]

Bought a package deal from P&C, got a Peterson Kilarney with 2 tins of Pete tobacco Irish and University flake, cleaners and such.
Fought my way learning with flake never looked back
Going on 5 years ago.

 

[mngslvs]

I think it might have been Middleton's Cherry Blend (if memory serves) in a Medico. At age 18.

 

[jttnk]

Basket pipe from local B&M. It is a twin bore. I never use it now. House blend bulk which I later learned was 1Q and BCA mixed. That was Oct 2017.

34 pipes later I think I’m into it?

 

[cigrmaster]

I started smoking a pipe somewhere around 1998. My first pipe was a Savinelli Linea Pui Apple. I bought it in my buddies tobacco shop and he gave me a good deal on it. I have no idea what tobacco I smoked first but I do know it was an Ashton blend as that was one of the only blends he carried. He was mostly a cigar shop and lounge.
Here is my first pipe. I don't smoke it anymore as it has a nasty English ghost in it.

 

[panamacharlie]

OK, I'll play. I think 1960, forget the pipe from Tinderbox, one of their blends that I can't recall but it looked a lot like BCA

 

[mso489]

I felt sure I'd posted on this thread, but I guess that was earlier threads on the subject. My first pipe and tobacco were from Tinder Box at the mall. I still have the Tinder Box house pipe called a St. Ives, and probably made by Chacom. The tobacco was one of their bulk aromatics, maybe North Star. These were all from large blenders like Lane or Sutliff, re-named to bring you back to Tinder Box. The pipe is a smooth finish bent pot with a somewhat unique vertical saddle stem. The pipe still looks fine, with a comfortable wear but good maintenance. House pipes are usually pretty good, since the retailer wants your continued business.

 

[daveinlax]

I was 14 when I bought a pouch of Mixture 79 and a corn cob. ?

 

[ontheroadagain]

I began in the mid 760's having a buddy who worked in a tobacco shop. I remember liking the white tin of Balkan Sobranie and also Edgeworth Ready Rubbed. I've no recollection regarding the pipe I owned back then. After a year or two I gave it up and only came back to smoking a pipe in 2014. How that came about was due to hanging out with the band on a touring show that I was managing. They would find cigar lounges in nearly every city we had a gig in and go to enjoy a stick and a drink or three. As I desired the comaraderie but not the cigar per se, I bought a MM Diplomat and a 2 oz bag of Margate which the shopkeeper explained would be similar to the Balkan Sobranie I remembered from decades earlier. He was right! Even 30 plus years is not enough to completely erase the memory of latakia! This time I've kept at it, acquiring a modest collection of Petersons and Cobs and a couple Savanellis along with more tins than I will probably sample in my life time. Still enjoying the Latakia blends but also Carter Hall and several MacBaren blends.

 

[olkofri]

I began in the mid 760's

???
Goodness gracious! At close to 1300 years old you're the best proof that tobacco doesn't kill!!

 

[alaskanpiper]

Basket Passatore pipe and a vanilla cav aro from the local B & M called Point Barrow.

 

[cshubhra]

Depends on what you consider my first pipe experience.

When I was in college and lived in a dorm, I sometimes smoked Capstan Blue and Capstan Gold as RYO. I thought that it would be nice to smoke them in a pipe, I knew my uncle had a Dunhill pipe, so I got it from him, without knowing the value and broke it in a few months. That was in 1998

I really started smoking a pipe from May 2017 and pick up a Nice Block Meerschaum from “A Little Taste of Cuba” and some Lane 1-Q. I went back the next day and got some Dunhill My Mixture 965, Dunhill London Mixture, A bulk named Miyagi’s Mindfullness and some Turkish Blending Ribbon (Which I smoked straight). Assuming that I really started pipe smoking in 2017, the picture below is of my first pipe

 

[Epip Oc'Cabot]

With it being some 40+ years ago, I still remember it like it was only yesterday. My first bowlfull was of Sir Walter Raleigh in a Dr. Grabow Grand Duke with a 1/4 bent stem. The pipe was an old one of my father's that had been stuck in a drawer for a few months with several other pipes that were not the one he was currently smoking (he would typically smoke one pipe all throughout the day for a few weeks, then swap it out for a different one in the drawer for a few weeks etc.). The SWR was a few pinches I snuck from the big can he would fill his pouch with each morning before heading to work.

That first bowlfull was beautiful and magical in all regards to me. I knew immediately that I was a pipe smoker.

After a while, as my appetite grew, I began to "borrow" a bit more than just a few pinches of SWR. But to help remain "incognito" I learned to shake the can after i borrowed some, so what was left in the can would "fluff up" a bit, and there would not be a noticeable deficit.

 

[olkofri]

With it being some 40+ years ago, I still remember it like it was only yesterday. My first bowlfull was of Sir Walter Raleigh in a Dr. Grabow Grand Duke with a 1/4 bent stem. The pipe was an old one of my father's that had been stuck in a drawer for a few months with several other pipes that were not the one he was currently smoking (he would typically smoke one pipe all throughout the day for a few weeks, then swap it out for a different one in the drawer for a few weeks etc.). The SWR was a few pinches I snuck from the big can he would fill his pouch with each morning before heading to work.

That first bowlfull was beautiful and magical in all regards to me. I knew immediately that I was a pipe smoker.

After a while, as my appetite grew, I began to "borrow" a bit more than just a few pinches of SWR. But to help remain "incognito" I learned to shake the can after i borrowed some, so what was left in the can would "fluff up" a bit, and there would not be a noticeable deficit.

Haha! Something very similar happened to me, except it involved a large bottle of sherry my parents had stored in a lil' cabinet in a bookcase in my bedroom. Alas, I couldn't fluff that one up!

 

[Parsimonious Piper]

First would’ve been a cob and some OTC pouch (SWR maybe?) when I was in college…late 80s. I had no clue what I was doing and got nothing out of it. Switched to cigars. A few years ago I got a P&C sampler with an Italian basket pipe, cleaners, etc., and tins of their Black House, White Knight, and Magnum Opus. Not sure which I smoked first, but immediately loved all three Latakia/Oriental blends…and haven’t smoked a cigar since.

 

[f5rd2hy]

First pipe: P.Viou apple from the 80s. She saw mostly CB back then. Second pic is what happened when I removed the stinger. First is the Norwood nosewarmer stem.

 

[trubka2]

My wife gave me my first pipe in 2006. It's a little Iwan Ries house pipe. French-made possibly, I don't know. It had a very light natural finish that's colored nicely. Still smokes like a champ. It's also physical evidence that pipes can take a great deal of abuse. My first tobaccos were aros from the B&M that I don't remember. I do remember that the first tin I bought was MacB Mixture Modern because it bit the hell out of me every time I attempted to smoke it. A few other pipes followed, and I tried to smoke them a couple times a month, but I didn't ditch the cigs and become a full-time pipesmoker until years later.

 

[cortezattic]

First pipe was a Medico straight, squat bulldog, back in '64 or '65. The corner drugstore was my usual source for Middleton's Cherry Blend, Half & Half, Sail Yellow, Amphora, etc. I moved on to Iwan Ries' Three Star Blue and eventually, their British Blends.

 

[raybrown55]

My very first attempt failed miserably, because I had packed way too tight and the tobacco never took the flame.... My first effective bowl was in the early '80s; the pipe was a cheap (but good smokiing) Savinelli, but I can't remember the tobacco, maybe Park Lane n. 7

 

[bnichols23]

Oh, God, you had to ask. It's been forever -- spring of '69, I think, & a Medico Dublin, & either Greenbrier or Middleton's cherry or something.

 

[cacooper]

Remember like it was yesterday, but it was way back in 1976. First pipe was a carve-your-own block that I carved badly. Ended up sawing it in half on a bandsaw to see how it was drilled. Tossed it long ago. Second “real” pipe was a Hilson second that I still have, but rarely smoke. First pipe tobacco was Lane BCA labeled “Midwatch” from the Tobacco Cask in Whittier, CA. They closed years ago as the owner retired. BCA is still my favorite go-to tobacco today. Some things never change.