An H.I.S. rusticated bent basket pipe that Todd McCranie of McCranie's sold my stupid 18 year old self 13 years ago.
Still have it and it still smokes great.
Still have it and it still smokes great.
What Was your First Pipe?
- Thread starter Hovannes
- Start date
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Back in 1981 I went to the Owl Shop in New haven, Ct. on a quiet Tuesday afternoon while waiting for a friend taking an ROTC class. After talking to the shopkeeper who also made pipes (upstairs) and showed me his workshop and gave me a tutorial about briar and the carving process for about 45 minutes, I selected a Peterson 68 Irish Army (Aran?) ... I still have it and it still smokes great. He explained to me that all pipe makers try to make from each block of briar, or find, a heart of the briar opus-like pipe ... straight grain along the sides with birdseye on the bottom. Its supposed to represent, from an Aesthetic perspective, a perfect pipe just below center of the briar root ball. Whenever I bought pipes I tried to find that pattern or close to it. It probably doesn't smoke better then any other pattern but when i would see that I thought the least I could do to honor the maker and his craft was to buy it and enjoy it !
Correction: I should have said the Owl Shop in Worcester, Massachusettes ! Thats where the pipes were made back in the day.
My first pipe was a large no name pot I bought for 12 bucks back in 1975. I loved it
A Savinelli Brung 614 from the B&M where I worked in 2005.
A Dr. Grabow I bought in a drugstore in Boston in the late '80's. Not sure where it went. Followed closely by a tiny meerschaum from a mail-order catalogue, also long forgotten, likely because I veered into cigars for a while before adding back the pipe. Or because I just don't remember.
A wonderful Stanwell rouge 64 .
It was a farewell gift from my first employers collegues some 40 years ago .
It is still with me
Time and tide wait for no man, my friends. Life is but a fleeting moment.
It was a farewell gift from my first employers collegues some 40 years ago .
It is still with me
Time and tide wait for no man, my friends. Life is but a fleeting moment.
Technically not the first, because I have tried twice before and the pipes didn't stick. My third try, years later, was with this Molina. This is the first one that made me fall in love with the pipe.
Mine was a Brigham 4* with a balsam filter
I inherited it about 40 years ago from my dad when he passed.
I inherited it about 40 years ago from my dad when he passed.
Like many others, it was a MM cob.
I still have it . . . . around here somewhere
I still have it . . . . around here somewhere
First pipe Dr. Grabow Savoy 1995 at Osco Drug Store… it didn’t stick then. I got a pouch of Captain Black when I bought it.
I have no idea whatsoever. Something purchased from the drugstore that was in the Trowbridge Plaza shopping center in East Lansing in 1968.
Some sort of Dr. Grabow, a straight billiard if I recall. I accompanied it with a pouch of Middleton's Apple tobacco. I took my spoils and sat in the woods behind my house at 14 years old (1979) and proceeded to get massive tongue bite and puked my brains out. Good times! I knew I was hooked then...
Bought a £4 clay pipe two years ago, a packet of st bruno and black mallory. Burnt my mouth so much I had to put frozen cucumber slices on my tongue to calm it down! I loved it so much despite constantly burning my tongue. Eventually moved on to briars and finally got the knack of sipping and nuances.
Hmm….. believe I answered this thread earlier by mentioning a that I first bought a full bent Dr. Grabow…. long, long ago.
But….. my FIRST pipe….. was a Dublin shaped pipe that I “borrowed” from my Dad when I was a young kid. It was one of a few pipes he had kept in a desk drawer because he seldom smoked it (his pipes that were in active use were out in his pipe rack). I knew better than to “borrow” one of his pipes on the pipe rack…. because he would have noticed it was missing.
This “borrowed” pipe gave me my first opportunity as a kid to see what pipe tobacco was all about!
But….. my FIRST pipe….. was a Dublin shaped pipe that I “borrowed” from my Dad when I was a young kid. It was one of a few pipes he had kept in a desk drawer because he seldom smoked it (his pipes that were in active use were out in his pipe rack). I knew better than to “borrow” one of his pipes on the pipe rack…. because he would have noticed it was missing.
This “borrowed” pipe gave me my first opportunity as a kid to see what pipe tobacco was all about!
Mine was a store pipe from "Tobak," which was a chain trying to compete with Tinder Box where I lived in the early '80s. My first "good" pipe was a Stanwell, which I still Smoke.
No, it got pretty yellow and dirty, so I tried to clean it with a blow torch. It came out lovely pure white but cracked unfortunately. Do you manage to smoke your clays without burning your tongue? They can get really hot. I loved the flavour of the smoke, I guess you need to do super light sippin.
@robbie When I first got my clay pipes people who watched my videos said I was puffing too hard on them but that was because I thought it might go out.
I've tried using the pipe tool and not puffing too hard, tried the breath smoking technique as well.
Started with a cob just to make sure I would enjoy pipe smoking. Then followed up with a Savinelli for the briar experience. And once I was hooked my world of pipes expanded... Nording, Neerup, Dunhill, Radice, Castello, etc