Clenching?

[juni]

How do you do it??
I've been smoking pipes for a few years and finally got some soft bits to try clenching.
It is awful! If I keep the pipe in my mouth it triggers a gag reflex and feels very uncomfortable. Can one ever get used to it?
I guess I'll always be a handholder.

 

[PeriqueMyInterest]

I clench but it makes me drool.

 

[tobakenist]

Makes me drool as well, can't stand those softy's so I'll never be a clencher, I think clenchers must inhale more.

 

[irish2fish]

I have always clenched, It just came naturally to me.

 

[drsam]

I clench. Walk around most of the time with a pipe stuck in my mouth. When I had teeth I used to heavily dent or even bite through the bit sometimes. Tight jaws I guess. Since dentures I don't bite so hard.

 

[atuukson]

I like clenching, dosent make me drool at all! :: tho I tend to smoke faster

 

[porshcigar]

I just saw a television program on HGTV called Selling Spelling Manor. It is about the sale of the 56,000 square foot, $150,000,000.00 mansion of the late Aaron Spelling, the famous TV producer of Dynasty, Starsky & Hutch, 90210, etc. There are many video tapes of the late Aaron Spelling smoking his pipes around the mansion. He was a GREAT CLENCHER. My favorite was seeing him bowling with a pipe clenched in his mouth. They had a two lane bowling alley in the mansion. A great show for pipe sighting.

 

[withnail]

I can't get on with clenching at all. But as I also prefer the lines of a straight pipe, it is probably just as well

 

[olderthandirt]

I'd say I clench most of the time.

I have tried the Softie bits and they give me the same gag reflex that you describe Juni.
That I'm an ardent practitioner of Breath Smoking, clenching is the only way to go for me.

 

[ace57]

I like clenching, dosent make me drool at all! [::] tho I tend to smoke faster
Same with Me.

 

[juni]

So you hold the pipe with your teeth? Doesn't it hurt after a while?
I guess there are more handholders than me out there.

 

[olderthandirt]

I balance or rest the pipe in my teeth/dentures more so than actually biting down on it.

In order to facilitate this about half of my herd are bents. Most of these being full bent followed by 1/2 bents with a few 1/8. The straights that I clench most are all on the light side of the spectrum.

Hmmm, I s'pose I should weigh the things, can't really say where the weight cut-off for comfort is for me.

 

[puffy]

I never could clench a pipe as well as I could cigars.If I smoke while I'm outside working it's a cigar.

 

[mlaug]

I'm a confirmed handholder. I started smoking Danish freehands 30+ years ago, which tent toward the larger and heavier end of the scale, and just never started clenching.
Besides, it makes the stem look gnarly after awhile. :?

 

[smokey422]

I've been a clencher for 42 years. I started out that way because I needed to have my hands free for doing other things like operating a tractor or fishing. I guess because I started out doing it, it's always felt natural to me. By the way, I can't stand those rubber covers they sell for pipe bits. They taste weird and make the pipe feel less secure in my mouth.
Smokey

 

[drsam]

So you hold the pipe with your teeth? Doesn't it hurt after a while?
No, doesn't seem to hurt at all....Never have had a pipe complain. :lol:

:lol:

 

[nsfisher]

i clench so much and so often, stem only last me bout 3 months, tried the softies but doesnt feel natural, guess its my excuse for always buyin replacement pipes.(great excuse to the wife, i just show her the stem an tell her i need a new pipe) generally works

 

[pjm03fatboy]

I love the soft rubber bites i put them on all my pipes two reasons i bite down i like the rubber than the plastic and most of all they keep the stem like new!!

 

[flipflopsandshades]

I am a holder too. I don't get how someone can just hold their pipe in their mouth for so long. But to each his own.

 

[jship079]

I wold love to clench I have no problem with its comfort my problem is I droll like a sleeping baby and it ruins my smoke.