Do You have a Pipe You can’t Bring Yourself to Smoke?

[BigEd]

One for what ever reason you are saving? Post a pic and the inevitable story of why you haven’t smoked it?
I‘ll start.
There was a long since closed restaurant in Nashville called Ireland’s. It was a nice place to eat and had a nice bar. A lot of locals gathered there after work. A fellow I had met introduced me to a nice girl he knew in 1980. Some 5 years later we are married and I was out of town. She met up with a girlfriend for dinner at our old haunt. It was St. Patrick’s day and they always held a drawing for an all expense paid trip to Ireland. Low and behold she won. It was our first of many international trips but we didn’t have a lot of extra money in those days. I had always wanted to visit London and the travel agent was happy to route us through for an extra day as long as we paid for the extra expenses. One place I had to visit was Dunhill’s. They were happy to find me a pipe that I liked and could barely afford.
The Ireland portion of the trip was incredible. I’ve never returned but if you ask me if I could only visit one more place before I die it would be Ireland.
I wish I had visited Peterson when I was in Dublin but it wasn’t on my radar in those days.
The Dunhill I have never smoked and as the years have rolled by it has become harder to smoke. Pipes are made to be enjoyed and yet I just can’t bring myself to break it in. Maybe on my death bed.
Am I alone in this phenomenon or are there others?

 

[OzPiper]

Nice story

I do have an unsmoked pipe - a cased 1912 BBB bent billiard.
One of the earliest old Britwood in the pile, and bought from a fellow Aussie



I fully intend to smoke it - just waiting for the right occasion

 

[hoosierpipeguy]

I've bought hundreds of pipes and the only reason was the smoke them. For me at least, if I had one that had tremendous sentimental value, all the more reason to smoke it. I'd think of whatever the reason was for it holding that sentimental value every time I smoked it. But that's just me, YMMV.

 

[BigEd]

Nice story

I do have an unsmoked pipe - a cased 1912 BBB bent billiard.
One of the earliest old Britwood in the pile, and bought from a fellow Aussie

View attachment 282045

I fully intend to smoke it - just waiting for the right occasion

Beautiful. Is the stem amber or amber colored? Either way I love it.

 

[BigEd]

I've bought hundreds of pipes and the only reason was the smoke them. For me at least, if I had one that had tremendous sentimental value, all the more reason to smoke it. I'd think of whatever the reason was for it holding that sentimental value every time I smoked it. But that's just me,

Completely agree. As I said, they are meant to be enjoyed. It’s a conundrum for sure.

 

[jpmcwjr]

No, but I have a few unsmoked pipes.

 

[OzPiper]

Beautiful. Is the stem amber or amber colored? Either way I love it.

I have a feeling it’s amberoid

 

[hoosierpipeguy]

Completely agree. As I said, they are meant to be enjoyed. It’s a conundrum for sure.

Not really a conundrum. It's your pipe. I'm assuming you have numerous other pipes to smoke. No reason to have any anxiety over your decision. If you to save it in pristine condition, do so. If you feel like smoking it, smoke it. I wouldn't consider making any recommendations other than that as the situation and emotions are unique to you. There's no wrong or right, just your feelings. Go with your feelings and then be happy with whatever you do.

Here's the one thing I can think of. Say you really like smoking it, love it in fact. So you decide to smoke it every day. It is inevitable you will drop it at some point. Maybe multiple times if you smoke it enough. And say one of those drops dings it. If that will be devastating, I'd say don't smoke it.

 

[BigEd]

Not really a conundrum. It's your pipe. I'm assuming you have numerous other pipes to smoke. No reason to have any anxiety over your decision. If you to save it in pristine condition, do so. If you feel like smoking it, smoke it. I wouldn't consider making any recommendations other than that as the situation and emotions are unique to you. There's no wrong or right, just your feelings. Go with your feelings and then be happy with whatever you do.

Here's the one thing I can think of. Say you really like smoking it, love it in fact. So you decide to smoke it every day. It is inevitable you will drop it at some point. Maybe multiple times if you smoke it enough. And say one of those drops dings it. If that will be devastating, I'd say don't smoke it.

lol. Sound reasoning for sure.

 

[boston]

I have a few. More than a few, but I had bad PAD for a few years and scored some beautiful carved pieces. Like the one in my avatar, the Talbert Cote Sauvage, a commission. Trevor knocked it out of the park. Plan to smoke that if I ever get a beach house and have the time to truly enjoy it.

I'll enjoy them someday on special occasions or give them to my son.

One of these days I'll find time to take pictures of some others and share.

 

[OzPiper]

Neither of my 2 sons smoke, nor are they interested in my pipes or cigars. Or wine

I have no plans to leave any to them.

I’ll enjoy them.
And when I’m done, hope someone will like them enough to be their next custodian(s)

 

[olkofri]

Yeah: a kiseru that I bought years ago and that I have just never brought myself to smoke.

 

[jguss]

Neither of my 2 sons smoke, nor are they interested in my pipes or cigars. Or wine

I have no plans to leave any to them.

Could I interest you in adopting me?

 

[sablebrush52]

I'm primarily a pipe smoker, not a pipe collector. That said, I do own a few pipes that I'm satisfied to keep in their unsmoked condition and have no interest in smoking, such as this unsmoked Barling companion set from 1907:

And this unsmoked Lindbergh pipe commemorating his transatlantic flight:

As well as a few others.

They're like little time machines. Once they're smoked , they're just another old pipe, and I have plenty of those.

 

[filmguerilla]

I have one pipe that I'm reluctant to smoke, a Castello collection pipe that I don't want to rim darken. I usually gravitate to sandblasted pipes because I love the look of them and I'm not too worried about the rims--especially if they are plateau. I (wisely) spent the money for a pair of hand made pipes by Eldritch Pipes and got both with sandblast/plateau rims. I happily smoke them.

 

[LeafErikson]

I only buy pipes to smoke and wouldn’t use my expendable income on a pipe that I wouldn’t smoke. However, I love seeing pieces posted by @OzPiper @sablebrush52 @TheIronMonkey and other forum members, but collecting things in general is just not for me. If I somehow was in a situation where I had a pipe that had historical value I would likely not smoke it and either give it to someone/a museum to appreciate or sell it. I completely understand not wanting to fire up an historically significant pipe because once you do, it becomes just another smoked pipe.

 

[Sigmund]

@BigEd
Take that Dunhill to Ireland and light it up!

 

[mikethompson]

I am no where near ready to smoke this gorgeous 1920s globe Meer gifted to me.

 

[BigEd]

I have a few. More than a few, but I had bad PAD for a few years and scored some beautiful carved pieces. Like the one in my avatar, the Talbert Cote Sauvage, a commission. Trevor knocked it out of the park. Plan to smoke that if I ever get a beach house and have the time to truly enjoy it.

I'll enjoy them someday on special occasions or give them to my son.

One of these days I'll find time to take pictures of some others and share.

Yes. Would love to see them.

 

[BigEd]

Yeah: a kiseru that I bought years ago and that I have just never brought myself to smoke.

Post a pic if you get a chance and are so inclined. Would love to see it.