Building Your Collection

[seacaptain]

I've been mostly a cigar smoker in the past, just now getting back into the hobby after a 5 year break and decided to start with pipes. When looking at pipes, it seemed like 75% of the time I said "wow, that's a nice looking pipe", it turned out to be a Dunhill. So, I now have 3 of them, all Bruyere, my favorite Dunhill finish.

 

[sablebrush52]

Early on, I bought what appealed to me at my local B&M. When I smoked my first Barling I was hooked. Barlings are the main focus, but hardly the only focus, of my collection. My strategy? Buy what you enjoy. The rest is superfluous.

 

[neverbend]

I wrote on another forum about accumulating or collecting and while neither is better (you do what you like) I define them as:
Accumulating = impulse

Collecting = concept
By my definition, if you buy your pipes as Al does with his "Holy Grail" list, that's a concept. Buy what catches your eye is accumulating. I've done both as most probably have and after 30 years of pretty much exclusive collecting I'm now accumulating again.
Accumulating is more instantaneous gratification, collecting more of getting to a destination.
In both cases you're building your number of pipes.

 

[ssjones]

Accumulating = impulse

Collecting = concept

By my definition, if you buy your pipes as Al does with his "Holy Grail" list, that's a concept.

Good one Pete. My wife uses another C-word...compulsion.
A recent Pipes Magazine radio show featured Tad Gage as the guest. He had some interesting comments on "collecting".

 

[iamn8]

Interesting thread! My collection began with a specific brand, but would evolve into collecting pipes I found to be aesthetically pleasing, giving no special consideration to shape or size. The last pipe I purchased was a pricey $245 and was carved by a guy I'd never heard of. You can approaching building a collection one of two ways. Either you take the lead in defining your collection or let your collection take the lead. Years from now I'll look back on my pipes and perhaps instead of individual pipes, I'll instead see trends of my sense of aesthetics. I'm probably explaining this poorly.... I mean you either collect you collection or you collect a pipe at a time. I'm not implying one way is better or worse.... It's like a Dunhill Collector vs a Random collector
Ps. Just saw SS' response and he said it MUCH better than me!!!! ^

 

[cigrmaster]

In the beginning I bought pipes based upon looks and grain with no thought to how it would smoke the blends I was smoking. I bought all kinds of big pipes and was totally clueless. It was not until August of 2012, 12 years after I began smoking, that I finally began to think about what were the best pipes to smoke my favorite flakes in. I finally set up a criteria for weight, size, shank dimensions, stem design, shape and have stuck to it when buying my pipes. I now have a collection of 30 artisan made pipes that smoke my flakes incredibly well. I do own 5 factory pipes that are left over from my early days of buying, that just so happen to smoke my flakes very well.

 

[jmmize]

Collect what you like!

It is your collection!

 

[stvalentine]

I know it´s a wise thing to have a direction or concept or even something like a leitmotif for a collection. Anyway, everytime I decide for a certain main theme I deviate from it in no time! :roll: Having too much of a choice seems to be worse than having just a small variety to choose from. Meanwhile I have decided to upgrade my accumulation of estates and low level pipes to a collection of brands or handmade pipes.
I had a fairly large sum (at least to me) generated from selling a lot of my estates and couldn´t decide on a pipe for days. I felt like a wimp! An hour ago I was browsing through Ebay on an impulse and found a Poul Winslow I was watching for weeks. The price had dropped just hours before to a level I could justify. I was over it like a monkey on a cupcake in no time!

 

[Chasing Embers]

I've always gravitated towards ringblasts and hand fillers. Straights really don't appeal to me though I do have a couple. After 24 years of piping, I am finding myself drawn more to large bent apples, or anything that comes out of Bruce Weaver's shop.

 

[cigrmaster]

stvalentine, at one time I had around 6 Winslows in my collection and have owned probably 10 or so in my years of collecting. I loved his pipes and only bought the hand made letter ones from E to B. Then my tastes in pipes changed. I no longer liked the feel of acrylic for my stems, I got tired of trying to clench pipes that were 70 grams plus so I sold all my Winslows. All of them were faantastic smokers but since my tastes had changed none of them fit my criteria I had established. I got some great deals on his pipe through ebay as not a lot of people seem to know who he is.
chasingembers, I own 2 pipes from Bruce and both are fantastic smokers. I love his blast work and will be buying more of his pipes. I am also a big fan of the apple shape, doesn't matter if it is straight or bent, both of them smoke my flakes really well.

 

[maxx]

Brand loyalty: how persuasive is this in building your collection? Or theme? I'm driven in general by the concept of logical structure and therefore consistency. That influences my interests and choices in areas where these concepts may only be applied analogically, as in building a collection of pipes. There is no literal inconsistency in a collection of objects, unless the collection is considered to be representing a theme or type. A circle, a square, and a triangle are all geometric shapes, but the circle differs from the other two if you want to separate the one category into two. If you add a cube, still a geometric object, then that is the separable one, Adding more geometric objects, such as different types of triangles, various dimensioned rectangles, a cone, a sphere, and so forth leads to more partitions within the main category. Extending this example could eventually lead to the notion of topology.
I started with Peterson pipes and feel some loyalty to the brand, but I also don't want to have "redundancy" or "inconsistency" in this part of my collection. For example, I want a Pot and I have a Peterson Billiard, so I find myself driven by the analogy of logical structure to get a Peterson Pot, but not a rusticated model, because then it would pair in a subcategory with my B5 Bent Bulldog and not my Billiard, where it "belongs". Yet I don't want the Pot to be too similar in finish with the Billiard, because then there'd seem to be redundancy and it'd impose two distinguishable subcategories based upon shape and finish, putting the B5 alone in either case, which makes "sense" on one view and doesn't, to me, on another. (Yes, I know how this probably sounds to those not driven by the same abstract concepts.) So I'm almost compelled by my nature to choose a sandblasted Peterson Pot, which would share similarities with both the rustication of the B5 and the shape of the Billiard. This would also link, in a conceptually interesting way, my Radice Rind G sized Billiard with the Petersons, as you can probably see.
Buying what one likes is typical advice, but how much do like it, and why? What drives you?

 

[menuhin]

I think 'theme' or 'concept' is an grand excuse for both allowing one to collect more and allowing one to see an 'end' or 'limit' to what he is looking for and focusing in.

I do have these 'concept' or 'theme' indeed, so that I won't be buying everything , and that also ensure what I get fit certain already thought of criteria.
Of course, every collector can have more than one theme to work on.

 

[menuhin]

@maxx
I don't have much 'brand loyalty' but I am sure that if I am going to get pipes from a brand, I would try to stick to its major lines and stay away from its second if I can afford. That requires looking up the history of pipes and brands and it is part of the fun I get from pipe smoking.

Buying what one likes is typical advice, but how much do like it, and why? What drives you?

See if it is an answer, not universally true but verified by quite a few empirical studies: we like what look familiar to us. Of course there are factors of novelty and curiosity, but there is (almost) no totally novel shape in our eyes. And the more you make yourself familiar with it (e.g. the more you look at the picture of a certain pipe), the more probable you are going to like it.

Therefore the best way to keep PAD at bay is not to check out pipes too much and also not to think about them too much - just use them, like your fountain pens and your watches or your cutlery. The moment one thinks about them more then the more like one wants to do something to them.

 

[bigpond]

I don't view my pipes as part of a collection as that connotes curation. Rather, I see them as mere tools and treat them as such. Some tools are finer than others but all are means to an end. I don't smoke much and don't need a correspondingly large rotation.
The way I go about buying new pipes is I first try a variety of different price points to find a baseline level of quality I can live with. Then I'll add pipes that add something new. A new material or a new source for the same material (grecian briar vs...) a new bowl geometry, a new length...a new experience.
I've found pipes that I like to look at aren't always the pipes I like to smoke the most. I try to keep aesthetic concerns as a minor consideration because I've seen a lot of "wrong" choices result.

 

[okiescout]

My strategy? Buy what you enjoy. The rest is superfluous.

Well said, sable!

I have zoned in on the line I enjoy most but I know my PAD is going to wonder off from time to time. There is a certain mystery in the unknown that always reaches out to me. :wink: