A Journey into the Hobby

[willyspiper]

Its been a long road to get to the point I am today.
Started pipes when 11 years old. Just occasional then and looking for the nicotine hit probably. It was a sort lived affair as an 11 year old pipe smoker is an oddity. Started back up at 35 years, but only for a short time as even a 35 year old piper was an oddity where I lived.
Now I started at 60 once again. Its different this time.

Back in June, got pipe and Prince Albert. Had a good 2 weeks. Just a no name briar and one brand.
Then in July, tried aromatics from local store. Had a good few days, but tongue bite starting to become the norm.
August brought several cobs and other briars from Dr. Grabow. Tried more varieties of drug store tobaccos. Tongue bit raging... (aromatics???)
Sept through Oct brought on so much tongue pain that I considered stopping. Started cellaring many brands. Up to 20 or so.
Thanksgiving break. Stopped smoking for a week. When I restarted, I had better luck with the bite. I think I needed to heal.
December. I now can control the burn on any tobacco, have the perfect white ash at end with no dopple. I think I learned on how to enjoy the natural taste and stop looking to taste the topping. Chasing that topping flavor is what was causing the bite all along. Now I can just enjoy the tobacco flavors. I relight instead of forcing the flame continuously. Tried latikia and now have a collection of that in jars as well.
It can be a steep learning curve. I feel I broke out of beginner into intermediate.
PS, many of my improvements came from reading this forum. Thanks all.

 

[sablebrush52]

Welcome to the forum! Enjoy your smokes!

 

[trouttimes]

Welcome, it can be a continuing learning process. Just don't over think it.

 

[Civil War]

Welcome to the Forums!!!

 

[crashthegrey]

Welcome aboard. There is plenty more to learn. It is a fun journey.

 

[anthonyrosenthal74]

Welcome! I love aromatics, but these days I recommend saving those blends for later, after you've learned to smoke more slowly while keeping the pipe lit and detect the different flavors within a non aromatic blend. Relights are of course perfectly fine. Better the pipe goes out and you have to relight it, than to puff like a freight train to keep it lit, causing more heat and steam and a burnt tongue. Also, I think smoking the non aromatics helps you to better appreciate they aromatics when you smoke them later.

 

[npod]

Welcome aboard. Cool story.

 

[scloyd]

Welcome to the forums. At 11 (1970) I was playing baseball with my friends pretending I was Ron Santo. Then we would all ride are bikes to the local 7-11 for a Slurpee. Smoking a pipe never entered my mind. I love your story.

 

[brassmonkey]

Welcome aboard

 

[spartacus]

Welcome. I learn new stuff on here all the time.

 

[tschiraldi]

Keep it simple and keep it slow. There's much enjoyment to be had!

 

[mikethompson]

Looks like you are having fun experimenting and learning. Hopefully this place can answer some of your questions and help you out.

 

[saltedplug]

The first year can be tough. You must love pipe smoking to have made it this far. Congratulations! I beg to differ however in you calling it a hobby as it is an addiction that fuels a hobby.

 

[brian64]

Started pipes when 11 years old. Just occasional then and looking for the nicotine hit probably. It was a sort lived affair as an 11 year old pipe smoker is an oddity.

You beat me by a few years. I was somewhere between 13 & 15 the first time I attempted smoking tobacco in a pipe. Bought a Dr. Grabow at Walgreens and some kind of cheap pipe tobacco. I of course had no idea what I was doing and didn’t have the patience to figure it out. So I smoked cigars off and on until I was in my 40s and then was suddenly struck with the compulsion to try pipes again and been at it ever since.
The two things that helped me the most are drying the tobacco, and just breathing through my nose while smoking with very little intentional drawing in through the mouth. A good deal of struggle and frustration fell away for me by just doing those two things.

 

[hoosierpipeguy]

Some may consider it a hobby. Pipe smoking to me is not a hobby. A hobby is something you do occasionally to keep yourself entertained and occupied. So for some, pipe smoking is a hobby. When you smoke 5 to 8 bowls of tobacco per day, you're past the point of it being a hobby. I consider it an important, enjoyable part of my life. Now, one may argue that is a sad statement regarding my life, but I believe it is accurate.
As another example, using npod's bondage tape for things other than cushioning the bit could be considered a hobby. A kinky hobby for certain, but still, a hobby. At my age, I'm lucky to do that once per week much less 5 to 8 times per day. I'm too proud to take Viagra.

 

[milehighpiper]

Welcome to the forums! Great 1st post! I had a similar time like you but I have a great mentor/salesman/friend/village pervert that convinced me to try an aromatic and an english blend as my first two pouches. I also found latakia blends to be tasty early on. In addition, performing a urethral swab as you smoke tends to rid excess moisture for me. I mean for my pipe. It clears the moisture, fixed my tongue bite and reinvigorates the smoke. I don’t take viagra either.

 

[willyspiper]

The first year can be tough. You must love pipe smoking to have made it this far. Congratulations! I beg to differ however in you calling it a hobby as it is an addiction that fuels a hobby.

Shhhh. Don't say that too loud. :laughat:

 

[cosmicfolklore]

but only for a short time as even a 35 year old piper was an oddity where I lived.

I don't comprehend this line of thinking. I have never done (or not done) things that I have wanted to out of what other people think. Well... except now, I wear my pants when I go out to check the mail, but that was different... it was court ordered. ::
Welcome to the forums. Never give in to peer pressure, or else we will beat you up (/irony)

 

[piper64]

Welcome to the forums.

 

[jpmcwjr]

Welcome, indeed. I had a long layoff between starting in college and a few years ago. For me it does not fit my definition of a hobby, even though I have now a pile of pipes and tobaccos.