Dedicating A Blend To A Pipe, Not The Other Way Around

[shanez]

That's right! People always talk about dedicating a pipe to a particular blend or genre of blend for various reasons but I've found I do the opposite with a few blends that I will only smoke in a particular pipe. I'll still smoke other blends in the pipe but when I find certain things line up I stick with it.

I have a Doug Finlay ( @doug535 ) pipe that I find the chamber dimensions are absolutely perfect for Capstan Gold Flake. The pipe will hold perfectly one whole flake from the tin, folded and stuffed, with room on top for kindling. It's a match made in heaven. I get such good and consistent results I almost will not smoke this particular blend in any other pipe now.

Anyone else?

 

[anotherbob]

That's right! People always talk about dedicating a pipe to a particular blend or genre of blend for various reasons but I've found I do the opposite with a few blends that I will only smoke in a particular pipe. I'll still smoke other blends in the pipe but when I find certain things line up I stick with it.

I have a Doug Finlay ( @doug535 ) pipe that I find the chamber dimensions are absolutely perfect for Capstan Gold Flake. The pipe will hold perfectly one whole flake from the tin, folded and stuffed, with room on top for kindling. It's a match made in heaven. I get such good and consistent results I almost will not smoke this particular blend in any other pipe now.

Anyone else?

sort of. Each of my pipes certainly has favorites. And if I decide first on the tobacco I want for some of them it will dictate which pipe I am smoking that day.

 

[peregrinus]

2 dedicated pipes.
I have a cutty mer that seems to really love Salty Dogs, it smokes phenomenal with this blend and so that is all I smoke in it. The other is a country gentleman cob that I smoke my one and only aromatic in so as not to ghost my briars.

 

[cshubhra]

When I started smoking Lakelands, I dedicated a pipe to Lakelands, but I now smoke Lakelands in any pipe

I have two pipes dedicated to Aromatics.

 

[rajangan]

That's right! People always talk about dedicating a pipe to a particular blend or genre of blend for various reasons but I've found I do the opposite with a few blends that I will only smoke in a particular pipe.

 

[Scottishgaucho]

I don't consciously keep pipes for certain blends....just as well as I don't have many.

I'll happily smoke Condor in my one dot Sasieni...which will no doubt send a shiver down the spine of some pipe smokers.

 

[marconi]

I always smoke EMP in the same pipe a MM Apple with a bent Danish stem. I have lots of briars and Meers to choose from but I always choose the same pipe.

 

[saltedplug]

Dedication is stupid. It was sold to me as this very cosy, romantic idea that by such I could achieve sublime smokes. After all the cake, which helps determine taste, in a dedicated pipe would not be tainted by any other tobacco traces, and similarly for the internals.

But this ignores the fact that such is 50 bowls in, and by that time you're going to have second thoughts because you want to smoke the pipe with other blends, but you can't because its dedicated.

Retailers love dedication. I am of the opinion that they smuggle operatives onto the forums to promote the practice of dedication.

Practically speaking if you have 50 pipes with only a few dedicated, you're not going to miss them that much. But if you pursue the practice, and only a purist or a n00b would, then you constrict your available pipes, which is an eventuality that I feel one would not care to court.

 

[Ahi Ka]

I found that I much prefer to smoke blends with a hearty dark fired component in meerschaum.

 

[Scottishgaucho]

I always smoke EMP in the same pipe a MM Apple with a bent Danish stem. I have lots of briars and Meers to choose from but I always choose the same pipe.

Yes I also find I smoke certain blends in the same pipe....habit probably.

 

[craig61a]

I hear ya... I do have some pipes dedicated to one blend, but then again I have some blends dedicated to certain pipes.

Then again, sometimes I’ll just pick up a pipe and smoke whatever in it... ?

 

[danimalia]

sort of. Each of my pipes certainly has favorites. And if I decide first on the tobacco I want for some of them it will dictate which pipe I am smoking that day.

Yeah, this is pretty much my approach. I would not say I am consistent enough most of the time to call it true dedication, but there are blends I smoke pretty exclusively in one pipe. I don't really have the quantity in my collection to dedicate pipes to any specific blends, so when I get a good combination, I try to stick with it.

 

[Sincerely]

Naw, never gotten to that point.

I have a rack of English pipes, rack of Virginiaish pipes, and a cheap (but good) Volkan reverse calabash for Aros.

 

[hoosierpipeguy]

I'd say 60% or more of my pipes only have straight Virgina blends smoked in them. No exceptions. Have around 5 each dedicated to VaPer and the same for VaOr. I absolutely find it makes a difference, a significant difference. At least it does for me. I have more than enough pipes, I see no justification for doing it any differently.

 

[verporchting]

The absolute ugliest (to my eyes anyway) pipe in my collection is a Mitchell International sandblast Canadian pipe that I won for $11 new and unsmoked off eBay. To this day I can’t really explain why I even bid the opening price because it was just ugly, but I did and I won it. When it arrived it was even worse than the pictures showed. Okay, I bought it so I started smoking it. To my surprise it’s an absolutely fantastic smoker.

One day I loaded it with either Ennerdale or Kendal Flake and it was sublime. While I smoked many different blends in it there was just no denying that those two blends were outstanding. Eventually that’s all I smoked in it continuing to this day.

I suppose you could say I’ve dedicated those blends to that pipe. Even though I smoke both blends in other pipes my first thought when I want to smoke either is to grab that pipe. While most of my pipes don’t need reamed often I forget how many times I’ve reamed that one. Seems like the blends picked the pipe to my way of thinking. The damn thing is still ugly but I wouldn’t sell or trade it. Love that pipe. I call it the war hammer rather affectionately, and it doesn’t get pampered. Not like there’s anything I could do to make it uglier, lol. If any Orcs or Visigoths attack my study they might get clubbed to a pulp with it, although it would irritate me no end if I knocked the tobacco out prematurely.

 

[ray47]

I quit dedicating pipes to blends or visa versa because I'd forget what pipe or blend went together and it took the fun out of pipe smoking for me. I'm at that age where my memory is not all that great, so I make thing simple .

 

[bullet08]

Certain pipes just smokes certain blends better. But I don't "dedicate" anything. It's like dedicating chicken blood for voodoo. I mean, what is pork blood works better?

 

[Chasing Embers]

If I dedicate a blend to a pipe, that's the only pipe it gets smoked it. Currently have 16 pipes that way.

 

[danimalia]

The absolute ugliest (to my eyes anyway) pipe in my collection is a Mitchell International sandblast Canadian pipe that I won for $11 new and unsmoked off eBay. To this day I can’t really explain why I even bid the opening price because it was just ugly, but I did and I won it. When it arrived it was even worse than the pictures showed. Okay, I bought it so I started smoking it. To my surprise it’s an absolutely fantastic smoker.

One day I loaded it with either Ennerdale or Kendal Flake and it was sublime. While I smoked many different blends in it there was just no denying that those two blends were outstanding. Eventually that’s all I smoked in it continuing to this day.

I suppose you could say I’ve dedicated those blends to that pipe. Even though I smoke both blends in other pipes my first thought when I want to smoke either is to grab that pipe. While most of my pipes don’t need reamed often I forget how many times I’ve reamed that one. Seems like the blends picked the pipe to my way of thinking. The damn thing is still ugly but I wouldn’t sell or trade it. Love that pipe. I call it the war hammer rather affectionately, and it doesn’t get pampered. Not like there’s anything I could do to make it uglier, lol. If any Orcs or Visigoths attack my study they might get clubbed to a pulp with it, although it would irritate me no end if I knocked the tobacco out prematurely.

Alright, now you have to post a picture of the pipe...

 

[verporchting]

Alright, now you have to post a picture of the pipe...

The grain pattern looks like runny duck poop, the stem turned green the moment it was first smoked and the rest of it is just ... blah. Smokes as good as any pipe I’ve ever owned. Go figure.