Dedicated Pipes

[elvishrunes]

For me I don’t and never cared much, just wipe the bowl and pipe cleaner the stem, that includes Lakelands and Englishes. The tiny residual flavour doesn’t bother me and disappears quickly.

However recently this one pipe I have has become my English/Nightcap pipe, just out of routine, not because I care that much.

 

[Choatecav]

I have dedicated a great many pipes to specific blends. I have dedicated many pipes to specific genres. I want to enjoy the flavors I'm supposed to get when I have smoke. I can taste remnants of prior tobaccos when I switch blends, and I really don't want to do that. I'm not a parfait smoker.

If a blend or genre of tobacco doesn't work in a pipe, I clean it and start over until I find the match that suits my preference. I often review with meers so I don't get any lingering notes from another blend.

I know what works for my comfort level, and before long, so do most beginners. All that matters is what makes you happy.

I don't dedicate any pipes to any blends. I find it to be confining when I want to enjoy a particular pipe but maybe not the "corresponding" blend. Honestly, I cannot discern the ghosting taste from one to another enough to matter.

Now, on the other side of the coin, someone with the educated palate that Jim possesses, would understandably want to keep all of the variables as controlled as possible when doing reviews and evaluations. I can definitely see the need for him, and others, to dedicate pipes to blends.

 

[boston]

I have dedicated a great many pipes to specific blends. I have dedicated many pipes to specific genres. I want to enjoy the flavors I'm supposed to get when I have smoke. I can taste remnants of prior tobaccos when I switch blends, and I really don't want to do that. I'm not a parfait smoker.

If a blend or genre of tobacco doesn't work in a pipe, I clean it and start over until I find the match that suits my preference. I often review with meers so I don't get any lingering notes from another blend.

I know what works for my comfort level, and before long, so do most beginners. All that matters is what makes you happy.

I'm in the same camp. I feel the pipe and the genre (presumably Virginia or Virginia perique or Latakia...etc... bluntly) do matter. Some blends can be perfect in the right pipe (and for me the right setting), and really not swell otherwise. Odd.

I do have some pipes for specific blends. Hard for me to find the right fit, and when I do...I stick with it.

I don't have a ton of pipes. And I have half a dozen (ish) for specific blends.

 

[hoosierpipeguy]

Not sure whether this is a basic question, or an Intermediate, or an Advanced... and apologies if a similar thread already exists (I've had a cursory look, but there are so many). Anyhow... given that one can only own so many pipes, and that rotating them is generally considered desirable, I wonder what the hive mind thinks about dedicating different pipes to specific Virginia/Perique blends? I ask, because no blend seems to smoke the same in different pipes, no matter how thoroughly any ghost has been exorcized from them. How much of this, do we think, is actual physics, and how much psychology?

The more dedicated you can be, the more you'll enjoy the blend. At present, I only smoke Sir John's Flake Virginia in my Altinok each morning. I've gotten to where I mostly smoke an entire tin from the same pipe after opening it. I've found significant benefits to this approach.

 

[BenMN]

[...] Dedicating to a specific blend seasons the pipe to that blend, reinforcing its flavors

This.
You may not be able to tell, and if you can tell it may not matter much... but it's a thing

 

[BenMN]

[...]
I know what works for my comfort level, and before long, so do most beginners. All that matters is what makes you happy.

Worth quoting/seconding

Well said Jim

 

[ThermionicScott]

The Internet has a tendency to make phenomena scarier than they might need to be, and newbies are particularly susceptible to that.

I'd venture that most of us who do dedicate pipes, do so because we've had a bad experience at some point with a past blend intruding on a present smoke. I'd agree with others that if everything is tasting fine to you right now, don't worry about it unless/until something changes.

 

[Zeno Marx]

I've only dedicated pipes these days for heavy ghosters, ie a cob that I only smoke with Big N' Burley and Picayune. And I wouldn't have done it, but those tobaccos demanded it. I could smoke paper shavings out of that cob, and they would taste like those two tobaccos. When I first started smoking, before anyone talked of doing this, I only smoked Escudo out of a certain pipe because it was the perfect size for two coins, and I found that to be the perfect length of smoke with Escudo. I wanted everything else I was smoking to last much longer, so it was about bowl size. It had nothing to do with isolating flavors to this wood or that.

And like GL Pease has written, I happen to like when the nuance of past tobaccos shows up in other bowls. They're a seasoning of the pipe, not a bogeyman. I was smoking 507-C the other day out of a pipe I don't smoke that often, and in the bottom quarter of the bowl, I got a couple minutes of a latakia hit, most likely from some old Crown Achievement I smoked in it last year. In experimental music, they refer to that as accidenz. Maybe if I was doing tobacco testing like Jiminks, I'd want to stay clear of such happenings, but I'm not. I find the unexpected like that to be fun, and I smoke for pleasure. Theory be damned.

 

[Choatecav]

I've only dedicated pipes these days for heavy ghosters, ie a cob that I only smoke with Big N' Burley and Picayune. And I wouldn't have done it, but those tobaccos demanded it. I could smoke paper shavings out of that cob, and they would taste like those two tobaccos. When I first started smoking, before anyone talked of doing this, I only smoked Escudo out of a certain pipe because it was the perfect size for two coins, and I found that to be the perfect length of smoke with Escudo. I wanted everything else I was smoking to last much longer, so it was about bowl size. It had nothing to do with isolating flavors to this wood or that.

And like GL Pease has written, I happen to like when the nuance of past tobaccos shows up in other bowls. They're a seasoning of the pipe, not a bogeyman. I was smoking 507-C the other day out of a pipe I don't smoke that often, and in the bottom quarter of the bowl, I got a couple minutes of a latakia hit, most likely from some old Crown Achievement I smoked in it last year. In experimental music, they refer to that as accidenz. Maybe if I was doing tobacco testing like Jiminks, I'd want to stay clear of such happenings, but I'm not. I find the unexpected like that to be fun, and I smoke for pleasure. Theory be damned.

Had to laugh at the reference to smoking paper shavings...... Now THAT is ghosting.

Glad you quoted/referenced GL Pease's mention of actually liking the nuance of a past tobacco. As I've mentioned earlier, I can't always pick up on "ghosted" flavors, but actually do like the subtle influence.

 

[BayouGhost]

Not for specific blends, but I do have 1 dedicated VA only pipe, 2 burley-only pipes and 2 latakia only. I never planned for it to be this way, but it happened as some bowl shapes lend themselves better to certain blends such as my wide pot, bulldog and large billiard shapes for English blends.

 

[Choatecav]

Not for specific blends, but I do have 1 dedicated VA only pipe, 2 burley-only pipes and 2 latakia only. I never planned for it to be this way, but it happened as some bowl shapes lend themselves better to certain blends such as my wide pot, bulldog and large billiard shapes for English blends.

Well, I gotta say that there is something appropriate when smoking an English blend in a good billiard. I find myself going this route when I smoke my Bruno Nutten Bing... All seems right with the world.

 

[MisterBadger]

Not for specific blends, but I do have 1 dedicated VA only pipe, 2 burley-only pipes and 2 latakia only. I never planned for it to be this way, but it happened as some bowl shapes lend themselves better to certain blends such as my wide pot, bulldog and large billiard shapes for English blends.

I am beginning to understand the rudimentary basis of this profound truth. Thank you.

 

[Sig]

There definitely is not a "hive mind" thought process around pipe dedication in this hobby....anything but.
Some smoke whatever in whatever and never think about it.
Some dedicate a pipe to a single blend and think about it constantly.
And, many are somewhere in between.
I personally have pipes dedicated to genres, like in sure many have already mentioned.
Va/Burley pipes, Latakia pipes and one aromatic pipe.
I do however have a couple pipes dedicated to a single blend.
These are lighter Virginia blends that can easily be overpowered.....PS LNF, Mac B Va#1, OGS.....

 

[PipeIT]

I’m not sure any of this was mentioned, I briefly skimmed through the posts.

Dedicating pipes is simply going to depend on the pipes you have, and how they perform with various blends.

The performance meaning, not only will pipes of different shapes and sizes affect the blends, but different grades of material between briar, cobs and meerschaum. All materials are not always equal in quality all the time.

And if you smoke Aromatics as an example, and don’t want those flavors mixing into other blends, since Aromatics can ghost briar, cobs and meerschaum, pipes exclusive to Aromatics can certainly be a good choice.

Also heavy Latakia blends can certainly get left behind in pipes to some extent, and then wanting to smoke a straight blend like a VA, might not be as enjoyable, with Smokey Latakia flavors possibly intermingling in with the other blend, until it burns out.

Have you read The Myth of Brand and Maker in Pipesmoking?

https://47eb33e2-aa5c-4340-b7df-6575ebac3ba3.filesusr.com/ugd/17b259_acdce5ca70354ca7a5f64775f95ae600.pdf

Dr. Fred Hanna is quite knowledgeable in the area of pipes on many things.

Meet Fred Hanna, Doctor of Pipes | Smokingpipes.com

Read our interview with Fred Hanna, Doctor of Pipes and author of Pipe focused books such as <em>The Perfect Smoke</em>.

www.smokingpipes.com

 

[BenMN]

The Internet has a tendency to make phenomena scarier than they might need to be, and newbies are particularly susceptible to that.

[...] if everything is tasting fine to you right now, don't worry about it unless/until something changes.

Fully agree.
Nothing to be scared of

I would add that I dedicate because I really like certain blends. Those of you on the "what are you smoking" thread will see me smoking Pegasus by the pound. When I dedicate a pipe it becomes more special to me, if that makes sense...

 

[BingBong]

I would like to smoke any blend in any pipe and be happy. It doesn't work like that, though, in my experience.

I love SG Cabbies. Try as I might, it will not reveal its full glory except in one pipe. Some other pipes, I can get "very good", maybe 75% of what I'm looking for. Some pipes, it's a dead loss and I think "nobody would smoke this stuff if it was always like this". So what's the trick? I don't know - yet!

As for other blends, they're often more forgiving but still smoke better in some than others. English/Balkans sit very well in my Peterson Aran bulldog. Folded and stuffed SG flakes, my Peterson Cara prince and, to a lesser extent, a Savinelli 315. My Invicta Briars pear, very good with everything. Revor plug? The Falcon, every time. Etc.

It's a world of slow, considered exploration.

 

[MisterBadger]

<SNIP>

Have you read The Myth of Brand and Maker in Pipesmoking?

Thanks, @PipeIT - I have now. Brilliant article, and reassuring to a peasant like me, to whom a Stanwell or a Peterson is the affordable top shelf of availability. It seems that at all levels, you pays your money and you takes your chances

 

[pappymac]

With around 70 pipes in my collection I could dedicate a single pipe to a single blend if I wanted to but I don't.
My taste buds are not as educated as @JimInks so I've never worried about ghosting.

That being said, I have found myself sometimes reaching for a specific pipe or two when smoking some blends. For example, I am currently smoking my way through a tin of Night Train and I'm always reaching for one of three pipes that I have found I like Night Train in.

I do have three pipes that I dedicate for smoking flake tobacco and they all have narrow chambers.

 

[BingBong]

Update: the science has now been done as to why Cabbies tastes so good in the one pipe.

It is the calabash principle. I tried my unused Sarome Cambridge and have had an equally delicious smoke to the first. These are 9mm filter pipes, except I've never used filters. Therefore there is a substantial chamber after the bowl and by leaving it empty, the calabash effect is obtained.

I will now experiment with my 6mm filter Savinelli sans filter or bridging tube - the effect should be less owing to the smaller chamber volume, but I'd expect something rather than nothing.

 

[PipeIT]

Thanks, @PipeIT - I have now. Brilliant article, and reassuring to a peasant like me, to whom a Stanwell or a Peterson is the affordable top shelf of availability. It seems that at all levels, you pays your money and you takes your chances

It’s true, price doesn’t always equate to a better smoking pipe. But it also depends on someone’s tastes/likes. Because if someone is smoking a simple blend, or one dimensional, then it’s not going to matter much, unless someone had an extremely bad pipe for whatever reasons. Or someone’s palate isn’t very refined to appreciate the complexity of a complex blend.

And, very important, depending on the blend, you might have to adjust the preparation, drying packing, and changing the smoking cadence.

As an example, blends that are delicate, subtle complex blends, have to be sipped/smoked slowly easily, and keeping the fire heat to a minimum.

To much fire/heat destroys complexity, this is the reasons I don’t keep my pipes lit. Barely lighting, a few sips, letting it go out, cool down and repeat, will yield maximum flavors in complex blends. You have to be like a Wine Taster, sipping and hunting and going slowly.