Howdy

[NicFit]

My name's NicFit, welcome to my tobacco autobiography. I have been browsing these forums for a bit and decided to make an account. I saw the millennial post and unfortunately fit in to that demographic statistically, seeing as I'm 37. I mainly browsed the pipe tobacco subreddit but there's very little activity.

I'm from Ohio and regrettably stuck living in Louisiana. I spent 10 years in the Army as an Infantryman which is where my tobacco consumption took off. By the end of my time in I was smoking between 2-4 packs of menthols a day and dipping copenhagen whenever the mood struck. Needles to say, I woke up hacking daily and felt generally miserable. I decided I wanted to quit smoking cigarettes but I really really enjoyed my nicotine.

I decided to try vaping and pipe tobacco. I can't recall why I originally thought about pipe tobacco, other than I really enjoy the taste of tobacco and knew it didn't involve inhaling. After some YouTube exploration and finding ol' MuttonchopPiper I ended up buying a Savinelli 9mm bent apple from a B&M and some tins. Around the same time I purchased some vape devices and various juices.

Due to the time consumption of pipes and the exponentially superior nicotine delivery system of vapes, I found myself happily chain vaping, smoking my new pipe maybe 3 times a week at the end of a day. The vape devices really did the trick to get me off of cigarettes. I enjoyed the pipe but it wasn't my immediate solution.

Fast forward a few years, I'm on a road trip, chain vaping to stay awake. Long story short, I'm pretty sure I got a chemical burn on my throat from the damn vape. I was really having issues swallowing, almost choking a few times. Needless to say, I quit vaping cold turkey.

I ended up maintaining a constant stream of nicotine lozenges and nicotine toothpicks in my mouth for months. Finally, I decided to revisit my tobacco pipe. I found my life a little less busy and I had the time and will to properly enjoy it.

Within the past month I've found a real connection with pipe smoking. I don't find the need to have a constant stream of nicotine anymore. I don't even smoke my pipe for the nicotine, I hardly notice that aspect honestly(other than my morning pipe with coffee). The taste of the tobacco and the relaxation aspect make all other forms of tobacco seem so shallow. I've bought countless 1oz bulk blends and almost as many tins. I haven't gotten to try them all yet but so far my favorites are Samuel Gawith's Firedance Flake and C&D's Autumn Evening. I'm still figuring everything out but I look forward to making this a life-long hobby and getting to know everyone around here.

 

[Servant King]

Welcome to the forum, from Southern California. Chris (Muttnchop) was instrumental in getting me started too, and we're not the only ones, believe me.

Thanks for sharing your story, and enjoy the journey!

 

[dochowl]

Welcome from Los Angeles... Tobacco's barren wasteland

 

[FurCoat]

Welcome from North Carolina

 

[ChippewaAce]

Welcome from Nashville, Tennesse! Thank you for your service!

 

[cshubhra]

Welcome ?

 

[sablebrush52]

Welcome from the Center Of The Known Universe!

Burbank.

 

[MattRVA]

Welcome from Virginia

 

[smknron]

Welcome from Florida. Glad you found pipesmagazine

 

[Jacob74]

 

[lelik]

Welcome.

 

[CoffeeAndBourbon]

Welcome from NC!

 

[mso489]

Welcome home to the tobacco pipe. Hey from central North Carolina.

 

[kcghost]

Welcome from KC!!

 

[STP]

Welcome

 

[Charlie718]

Welcome from New York

 

[cigrmaster]

Welcome from Florida and thank you for your service.

You are in serious trouble. The fact that you like Firedance flake means you will like every single blend on the market. I tried Firedance and found it to be the worst tobacco I had ever tried. You can just order anything on the market and you will love it.

Seriously, just busting your balls a bit. Now the first thing I would do is to buy a Savinelii unfiltered pipe. You can fine one for less than a c-note. A sav will give you a shank dimension of 4.0-4.5 mm which will give you a nice dry smoke. Once you have a pipe that smokes dry, then it is up to you to get it to smoke cool. Once you do that you will have made a big leap into the art of pipe smoking. When you have a good solid pipe that smokes cool and dry that pipe will serve as a baseline for all future purchases. I would dedicate the Sav to Virginia and Virginia/Perique flake blends. Use your other pipes or cobs for sampling. Read all you can about flakes and how to smoke them. I prefer fold and stuff. I would tell you to cube cut your flakes in the beginning. You can read up on that as well. Read up on fold and stuff as well.
I smoke flakes 99% of the time and find them to smoke cool and dry and have the most flavors of any other cut of tobacco. One thing to always do before you light up is to check the draw. When I check mine I am looking for a certain amount of resistance. If it is too loose a pack it will smoke hot and you will lose flavor, to tight a pack you will lose flavor. If it is too tight, run a pipe cleaner through to the bottom as you can probably loosen it up real easy.

If you need any suggestions of flake tobacco just ask and I will give you a few of my favorites that are readily available.

 

[puff_not_snuff]

Firedance is very bad.

 

[Ettrick puffer]

Welcome from a fellow Veteran Infantryman from Bonnie Scotland ???????
Happy smokes
Ettrick puffer

 

[NicFit]

Welcome from Florida and thank you for your service.

You are in serious trouble. The fact that you like Firedance flake means you will like every single blend on the market. I tried Firedance and found it to be the worst tobacco I had ever tried. You can just order anything on the market and you will love it.

Seriously, just busting your balls a bit. Now the first thing I would do is to buy a Savinelii unfiltered pipe. You can fine one for less than a c-note. A sav will give you a shank dimension of 4.0-4.5 mm which will give you a nice dry smoke. Once you have a pipe that smokes dry, then it is up to you to get it to smoke cool. Once you do that you will have made a big leap into the art of pipe smoking. When you have a good solid pipe that smokes cool and dry that pipe will serve as a baseline for all future purchases. I would dedicate the Sav to Virginia and Virginia/Perique flake blends. Use your other pipes or cobs for sampling. Read all you can about flakes and how to smoke them. I prefer fold and stuff. I would tell you to cube cut your flakes in the beginning. You can read up on that as well. Read up on fold and stuff as well.
I smoke flakes 99% of the time and find them to smoke cool and dry and have the most flavors of any other cut of tobacco. One thing to always do before you light up is to check the draw. When I check mine I am looking for a certain amount of resistance. If it is too loose a pack it will smoke hot and you will lose flavor, to tight a pack you will lose flavor. If it is too tight, run a pipe cleaner through to the bottom as you can probably loosen it up real easy.

If you need any suggestions of flake tobacco just ask and I will give you a few of my favorites that are readily available.

Hah!

I tried a few of the Blackberry Brandy topped blends because I wanted something fruity with my red wine. Firedance does the trick! I don't use filters in the Sav anymore and I already purchased more pipes than I'm willing to show my wife. I also don't have issues smoking my pipes other than sometimes having to slow myself down.


I only have a few flakes so far but for whatever reason they do seem to smoke very well. Whenever I'm over this cold and can taste again HH Dark Fired is up next. I tried fold and stuff once and it was a good smoke. Can't say I notice a difference when I rolled it out and 3 pinched it. I will keep trying both ways to see what's up though.


Thanks for the welcoming words everyone.