Do You Have Rotations? Do You Rotate Your Rotations? A Rotating Rumination

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SoulStation

Lurker
Oct 2, 2021
46
97
Eastern KS
I usually rest a pipe for a day after smoking it. What do you think about finishing a bowl later in the day? I do occasionally, and sometimes I feel it's a good thing. Sometimes the tobacco tastes burnt.
 

danish

Starting to Get Obsessed
Jun 12, 2017
245
490
Denmark
I usually rest a pipe for a day after smoking it. What do you think about finishing a bowl later in the day? I do occasionally, and sometimes I feel it's a good thing. Sometimes the tobacco tastes burnt.
I almost never finish a bowl in one go and I prefer smaller pipes. The taste of a relit bowl depends on the tobacco, where I found eg Capstan to fit my unorthodox pipe smoking habit well.
 

Cappy

Starting to Get Obsessed
Aug 19, 2016
128
657
Louisiana
I have learned that fewer pipes means nicer pipes. Fewer nicer pipes means they get smoked more often. Since they will outlast me, that is ok. My fewer nicer pipes each gets smoked about twice a week. In the past, when I got a good smoker, I assumed I needed to get a few dozen more just like it. Not any more. Save the bucks for the toby.
 
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pappymac

Lifer
Feb 26, 2015
3,270
4,261
Rotate or to spin. Back in the 80s, in some circle, telling a young lady to "sit and spin, baby!" was a terms of endearment. Now? You can possibly lose your job, friends, and family. But "sit and rotate, baby!" just doesn't have the right ring to it.
I remember hearing young ladies like that being called "spinner bait". Not by me, but I remember hearing it.
 

pappymac

Lifer
Feb 26, 2015
3,270
4,261
This whole discussion has made me think of the pipes I own but sadly ignore on a regular basis.

I have a small, modest collection of about 60 pipes (not counting clay pipes I use to sample new blends.) but I only routinely smoke maybe 15 of them. Some pipes I haven't smoked in maybe over a year. Others I may smoke once a year.

So I decided to do something about it. Last week, I decided I was going to smoke every pipe I own before repeating a pipe. Since Sept. 30, I have smoked 17 of my pipes - including a Salmon & Gluckstein Silver Banded pipe hallmarked for 1896. I'm documenting them with a photo as I smoke them.

Edit: I recounted. I have smoked 12 of them so far. I decided not to include the clay pipes in my count.
 
Last edited:
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mso489

Lifer
Feb 21, 2013
41,210
60,433
Ruminations on rotations, rotarians, and librarians. Blessed be the ruminants who don't pronounce their consonants. Mary had a little lamb. It's fleas were white as snow. Mary knew very well, that's not the way it goes. A little of this and a little of that, and everything I sing is flat.
 

AroEnglish

Lifer
Jan 7, 2020
3,485
11,061
Midwest
I don't think the situation you’re describing applies to me since I only have 5 pipes...

I do rotate which ones I smoke, so there’s that.
 

sablebrush52

The Bard Of Barlings
Jun 15, 2013
19,621
44,832
Southern Oregon
jrs457.wixsite.com
I don’t rotate rotations exactly, more inexactly. I’ll rotate through a small group of pipes for a few months, then remember that I have some really fine smokers I’ve been ignoring, then start a different group of pipes for a few months until I remember that I have still other fine smokers that I’ve been ignoring, and repeat the process.
In the interim pipes get six months to a year between tours of duty.
By the standard of some members I have a small collection. By the standard of sane people I have a stupidly large one.
 

Singularis

Part of the Furniture Now
Sep 11, 2019
554
2,563
Wausau, Wis
I mostly just try not to smoke the same pipe two days in a row, or more than twice a week if I'm on my A-game. I fortunately have enough pipes to do that and smoke about once a day ... AND have certain pipes for certain kinds of blends (though I break my own rules all the time, mostly because I rarely smoke aros and mostly smoke Englishes and don't care if they cross ghost, though I'm pretty good at not using my favorite pipes on the rarely smoked aros).
 

tschiraldi

Lifer
Dec 14, 2015
1,813
3,555
55
Ohio
Excellent! I would love to see a picture of your pipes if you’d be willing to post one.
Here are my current pipes. The ten I love and two travel / yard / camping / etc pipes.
1. Sasieni One Dot
2. Sasieni Eight Dot Barclay
3. Sasieni Four Dot Warwick
4. Sasieni Four Dot Victoria
5. Sasieni Four Dot Ruff Root Pembroke
3 Jesse Jones 1/8 bent , oval shank Brandies and a Jesse Jones Billiard
The last 2 are my extras, a Comoy's Sandblast 334 and an old Jellings I got as a gift.Pipe 2021.jpgPipe Rack 2021.jpg
 

Jeremiah Johnson

Starting to Get Obsessed
Apr 15, 2020
172
752
Westchester County, NY
Wow, you stepped a serious foot into a funny puddle.
I'll try to help, while the chaos gets rolling.

Pipes do need a little down time to cool, dry, and just rest. How long? No one can say. I rinse mine with water each not, and I can usually smoke it again right away, but I don't. Some like to let them rest 24 hours after using, some say a week. But, there is absolutely no scientific data to support any of it. Just experience and an opinion.
I use no set dogma around my rotation. Just let the pipe and tobacco speak to me.

YMMV.
What’s the proper procedure for rinsing them?
 
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What’s the proper procedure for rinsing them?
Proper? @jpmcwjr can probably give you the proper way, if there is a proper way. jpmcwjr is the one who started all of this water washing, so...

What I do is just gather up my day's rotation of spent pipes before bed, and run some warm water through the bowl and out the stem until the water runs clear. I then ream the bowl with a wad of paper towel, run a pipecleaner down the stem, briskly polish the briar with a clean hand towel, then quickly give the stem a tweak with a jeweler's polish cloth to keep my stems untarnished, and return the pipe to the rack. If there is any cake creeping up onto the rim, I might add a little spit to the rim and rub the rim on a piece of stretched suede I have tacked to a small scrap of wood that I keep in the half bath that I do all of this in. The other side of the board has a stretched piece of shag carpet that I use for blasted rims.
My pipes all smell great and look as good as new.