Do You Have Rotations? Do You Rotate Your Rotations? A Rotating Rumination

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Briar Lee

Lifer
Sep 4, 2021
4,765
13,789
Humansville Missouri
Today I received an almost new Mastercraft meerschaum in the mail and I’ve smoked it three times, and one smoke each for about four other different pipes.

Years ago I decided the best amount of cake for a briar was not “the thickness of dime” as I was taught, but just enough cake to see that it’s caked.

There is moisture in tobacco, and I think most of it goes into the briar of a pipe.

Smoke the pipe once, and ideally don’t smoke that one again until it’s fully dried out. As many pipes as I have that might be weeks, months, even years.

Many years ago my pipes would gurgle, get hot, and either bite my tongue or burn my mouth, and now they never, ever do.

A lot of that is learned technique.

And I no longer own (except a few to remember) a hot, bad smoking pipe.

Good, hard, well flavored, well grained, well cured, well maintained and rested briar gives delicious smokes.

My pipes are all kept clean using 190 proof Everlear, most of them cleaned after one smoke, and rested. They sure look nice, because I use olive oil to keep them new looking.

I think I like messing with my pipes as much as smoking them.

The vast majority of my pipe accumulation are now standard sized standard shaped higher quality factory smoker Ward Cleaver style used eBay purchases at maybe twenty some dollars average each. I have some Danish pipes, meerschaums, cobs, some novelties, and one calabash.

I am just the custodian of my pipes, during my time enjoying them.

When I no longer can, every one would sell for what I paid, if my kids don’t want them.

The Good Lord never subtracts from your net worth the amount you spend on pikes and tobacco.

You’d just blow that on something else.
 

Brendan

Lifer
May 16, 2021
1,412
7,533
Cowra, New South Wales, Australia.
Don't smoke enough to justify a rotation or set, have 2 Straight billiards - A Peterson Dalkey 106 which I smoke whatever (Work Horse Pipe) and a Savinelli Miele with a pretty stem which I'm keeping for Virginia blends mainly, or the occasional Va/Bur ( Show Pony Pipe)
Nice and simple for me. puffy
 
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jewman22

Lifer
Apr 2, 2021
1,110
10,950
Ontario Canada
Got aboot Fitty or so, but stick to around 10 for the most part. Making sure not to use the same pipe 2 days in a row, but will use 3 or 4 different ones a day on the weekend.
 

Effortlessdepths

Part of the Furniture Now
Feb 7, 2020
502
1,060
Micanopy, FL
Wow, you stepped a serious foot into a funny puddle.
I'll try to help, while the chaos gets rolling.

Pipes do need a little down time to cool, dry, and just rest. How long? No one can say. I rinse mine with water each not, and I can usually smoke it again right away, but I don't. Some like to let them rest 24 hours after using, some say a week. But, there is absolutely no scientific data to support any of it. Just experience and an opinion.
I use no set dogma around my rotation. Just let the pipe and tobacco speak to me.

YMMV.
You're a good man cosmic, respecting his serious foot. He could have easily been taken advantage of, this place is brutal sometimes lol
 

Briar Lee

Lifer
Sep 4, 2021
4,765
13,789
Humansville Missouri
There has been a lot of good natured ribbing in this thread already, so I'll just say I respectfully disagree.

Harry Hosterman, my boyhood pipe mentor, had a bunch of different Dr Grabow pipes, in all the different small standard shapes, plus he said he owned several nice Kaywoodies he’d smoke on Saturday and Sunday, when he attended the Church of Christ, and usually took his family out to eat or went to Springfield after church. He rotated his pipes, he said, because they “drawed moisture” when he smoked them.

Also he kept Everclear and pipe cleaners, and he’d take his knife occasionally and keep the cake down to about “as thick as a dime”. All his Grabows were stripped clear of varnish, “so’s they’d not smoke hot and could breath”.

The wax paper liner of every PA can had either offers for Grabow pipes or Old Timer knives, and I still have the Old Timer I got when he’d saved me five wrappers, for $2 as I remember.

Harry could tell you every kind of tree there was, in Spout Spring Hollow, and he could stand in the yard and point out all the constellations in the night sky.

He kept fox hounds like my father did. Sometimes we’d load up in pickups with lawn chairs and drive to a high spot not a mile from our home and the men would build a fire and turn the dogs loose, and then bye and bye one would strike a fox, then another, and we’d go away from the fire so we could listen to the sweet music of the hounds, who had a fox on the run.

I’m sure and certain my folks, and Harry and Wilda Mae, and the others are beyond those stars still, arm in arm, swaying to that music of the hounds.

He would never lie to me, deliberately.

Not with Christ watching.
 

johnnyreb

Lifer
Aug 21, 2014
1,961
612
After I ruminate about which outfit to wear each morning then I have to ruminate about what pair of shoes to wear to go with the outfit. Only then can I ruminate thru my rotation of pipes to match both my mood and my outfit.

Of course all of the above is predicated on the rumination made by the weatherman for that day. It's a cluster...cycle.
 

sablebrush52

The Bard Of Barlings
Jun 15, 2013
19,630
44,855
Southern Oregon
jrs457.wixsite.com
Rotate or to spin. Back in the 80s, in some circle, telling a young lady to "sit and spin, baby!" was a terms of endearment. Now? You can possibly lose your job, friends, and family. But "sit and rotate, baby!" just doesn't have the right ring to it.
I assume that you're referring to the "Chinese Basket Trick", which I will tell you from experience is a lot more effort than it's worth.
 

timelord

Part of the Furniture Now
Oct 30, 2017
949
1,966
Gallifrey
After I ruminate about which outfit to wear each morning then I have to ruminate about what pair of shoes to wear to go with the outfit. Only then can I ruminate thru my rotation of pipes to match both my mood and my outfit.

Of course all of the above is predicated on the rumination made by the weatherman for that day. It's a cluster...cycle.
This but as a watch collector I also need to ruminate on the appropriate watch to match the outfit, pipe, tobacco and mood.
 
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sablebrush52

The Bard Of Barlings
Jun 15, 2013
19,630
44,855
Southern Oregon
jrs457.wixsite.com
Sometimes I walk around aimlessly in circles muttering to myself while smoking a pipe. Does that count, Jesse? Is that an official “rotation”? Or qualify as a rumination? If I walk counterclockwise in a room (#8) (presumably in a nation) (but only after having ate / eaten) that is rotating does it even count even if I’m ruminating on serious matters?? Please advise STAT!
Rotating your ruminations is essential and better done counterclockwise in the Northern Hemisphere.
 

prndl

Lifer
Apr 30, 2014
1,571
2,901
I only ruminate after pintos, cornbread and onions.

And, sometimes, ribs.

And maybe chicken, sometimes.

Spaghetti, too.

Now and then ice cream.

And, there's always...
 
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5star

Part of the Furniture Now
Nov 17, 2017
727
2,018
PacNW USA
I use a random generator software program to automatically select the pipe I smoke next. Each pipe has a round sticker on the bottom of the bowl with a number printed on it. The program is set up so the same pipe isn’t selected on the same day.

Now if I was a hyper anal retentive compulsive type the above might be my reply. What I actually do is grab whatever pipe strikes my fancy in the moment. Often it happens to be the one closest to my reach.
 

peregrinus

Lifer
Aug 4, 2019
1,205
3,787
Pacific Northwest
Harry Hosterman, my boyhood pipe mentor, had a bunch of different Dr Grabow pipes, in all the different small standard shapes, plus he said he owned several nice Kaywoodies he’d smoke on Saturday and Sunday, when he attended the Church of Christ, and usually took his family out to eat or went to Springfield after church. He rotated his pipes, he said, because they “drawed moisture” when he smoked them.

Also he kept Everclear and pipe cleaners, and he’d take his knife occasionally and keep the cake down to about “as thick as a dime”. All his Grabows were stripped clear of varnish, “so’s they’d not smoke hot and could breath”.

The wax paper liner of every PA can had either offers for Grabow pipes or Old Timer knives, and I still have the Old Timer I got when he’d saved me five wrappers, for $2 as I remember.

Harry could tell you every kind of tree there was, in Spout Spring Hollow, and he could stand in the yard and point out all the constellations in the night sky.

He kept fox hounds like my father did. Sometimes we’d load up in pickups with lawn chairs and drive to a high spot not a mile from our home and the men would build a fire and turn the dogs loose, and then bye and bye one would strike a fox, then another, and we’d go away from the fire so we could listen to the sweet music of the hounds, who had a fox on the run.

I’m sure and certain my folks, and Harry and Wilda Mae, and the others are beyond those stars still, arm in arm, swaying to that music of the hounds.

He would never lie to me, deliberately.

Not with Christ watching.
“Memory believes before knowing remembers. Believes longer than recollects, longer than knowing even wonders”.
W.C.F.
 

Bobby Bailey

Starting to Get Obsessed
Aug 8, 2021
203
348
69
Upper Southwest Arkansas, USA
After ruminating on this rotation thing, I'm ready to share my thoughts.
We rotate cattle between pastures. We don't rotate tires. And, I at times enjoy rotating while sitting on the shop stool, spinning life away.
My wife has a few boyfriends, but I don't believe she has them in a rotation.