Expensive Pipes ~ Should I Smoke Them?

[mso489]

It sounds to me like you have two different pipe interests. You enjoy smoking, but you also enjoy collecting, and you feel these are, for you, two very different activities. If I were you, I'd just accept that, and decide which pipes that you own, and which pipes that you buy, go in which category. There are pipe collectors who don't smoke at all, and enjoy that. You have both interests, so just be decisive about which pipes are strictly your collection and which are your smoking pipes, and stick with it. Next you will have to decide if this division is strictly made by price. Do you want to smoke only your less expensive pipes, or do you want to smoke some of your higher priced pipes? The idea with both activities is enjoyment, so only you can determine that.

 

[michail]

I smoke then all. Actually my first collection pipe was a Becker I smoke a lot.

And I owned an ultra rare Barling S-M army mount that was a horrible smoker and had no regrets to sell after a while.

 

[briarbuck]

I am careful about the rim, but don't worry about it. However, I have broken in cobs with a blowtorch.

 

[smokeyweb]

If smoking an expensive pipe is going to cause you angst, don't smoke expensive pipes. Some of my best smokers were very modestly priced.
I do have a couple of pipes that I don't smoke, like my unsmoked 1907 Barling cased set. I have no desire, nor need to smoke it. I have a few other vintage unsmoked pipes that I enjoy owning in their ancient pristine condition. Everything else, I smoke, including several of my 19th century briars. But firing up an ancient virgin briar can be very dangerous for the pipe. Old briar can crack on the first bowl.
Ultimately, it doesn't matter what I, or anyone else thinks about it. They're your pipes. Do as you please.

Old briar can crack on the first bowl??? Is this a common occurrence? Also, is there a way to recondition the briar before smoking an old pipe? Like maybe a quick rub down with some olive oil?

 

[hauntedmyst]

"at the end of the day, is a tool" You answered your own question. I am assuming you aren't running a museum. Light it up and enjoy it.

 

[sablebrush52]

Old briar can crack on the first bowl??? Is this a common occurrence? Also, is there a way to recondition the briar before smoking an old pipe? Like maybe a quick rub down with some olive oil?

Yes it can, especially if it's an unsmoked pipe approaching the century mark. The wood can really dry out, and according to George Dibos, who has dealt with thousands of ancient pipes over the years, the uncoated chamber walls can "oxidize" becoming less robust. What George did for me with the 1883 magnum was apply a silicate coating to act as a buffer, which should allow me to smoke it. Plus, vintage pipes may have been poorly used, smoked too hot or too wet, which can lead to cracks and spider webbing, which in turn leaves them structurally weakened. Ancient pipes are wonderful, but not for the novice.

 

[smokeyweb]

Yes it can, especially if it's an unsmoked pipe approaching the century mark. The wood can really dry out, and according to George Dibos, who has dealt with thousands of ancient pipes over the years, the uncoated chamber walls can "oxidize" becoming less robust. What George did for me with the 1883 magnum was apply a silicate coating to act as a buffer, which should allow me to smoke it. Plus, vintage pipes may have been poorly used, smoked too hot or too wet, which can lead to cracks and spider webbing, which in turn leaves them structurally weakened. Ancient pipes are wonderful, but not for the novice.

Interesting. Seems like a lot of pipe makers age their briar for years, sometimes decades before carving, to cure the briar. I wonder if it’s more of a degradation of material than a matter of dryness. Have you seen this happen to say, 30 y/o NOS pipes? Or just century old pipes?

 

[boston]

Should you smoke them? In my opinion, perhaps when the time is right. The high end pipes for any of us might be defined as expensive or otherwise special. Some feel ok that these might be special occasion pipes. Others seize the day....admirable. Perhaps you have an extrodinary commission, and you are waiting until your ship comes in...or another special occasion... to enjoy it as a reward. Don't sweat it. Smoke the pipe when the occasion calls for it. Perhaps the ship will be a small one, smaller than you expected or wished for. Carpe diem. Reward yourself when you feel you should. Or if you have a terribly long string of rainy days, sell it to help make ends meet. Or, gift it to a special person. Precious things deserve special treatment. It's also ok to collect and not smoke the pipe (or pipes), although I personally feel that one day the instrument(s) should be properly played. But I must say that some pipes are works of art to me and it does take some strong compulsion, at least to this periodically thrifty Yankee, to light them on fire.

I have over a dozen pipes like this, unsmoked. One will be gifted to my son when he graduates college next week.... virtually due to the pandemic. He will choose when to enjoy it someday. I'll also give him a pipe that he can put to immediate use....a very good one, and a special one, but not perhaps the same "special" one. Your call pal, no wrong answers.

 

[TinCup]

I think it goes back to what were your intention/s when you bought them & have your intentions changed in the interim

Did you buy simply to enjoy owning, did you buy for the pleasure of looking at them in real-life or did you buy thinking you’d smoke them?

Or 'D' all of the above

lots of opinions and 'if it were me' in the thread for you to mull over what others would do but ultimately (as you know) it comes back to you, just be happy with your choice

 

[sablebrush52]

Interesting. Seems like a lot of pipe makers age their briar for years, sometimes decades before carving, to cure the briar. I wonder if it’s more of a degradation of material than a matter of dryness. Have you seen this happen to say, 30 y/o NOS pipes? Or just century old pipes?

Pipe makers age their briar for anything from a few months to a few years to let it season so that it will be dimensionally stable before being shaped and joined. Not really any different than any kind of fine wood joinery.
My plantation secretary bookcase is close to 200 years old, still performing the same function for which it was made. But I did need to fix a few joins when I bought it, due to dimensional changes over it's long life. And the uncoated boards in back show their age a lot more than the waxed and fed front surfaces.
Will a 30 year old pipe crack? Sure, why not. Your brand new fresh from the factory pipe may crack. It's just not likely. Unsmoked pipes hitting the century mark are not quite the same thing.

 

[smokeyweb]

Pipe makers age their briar for anything from a few months to a few years to let it season so that it will be dimensionally stable before being shaped and joined. Not really any different than any kind of fine wood joinery.
My plantation secretary bookcase is close to 200 years old, still performing the same function for which it was made. But I did need to fix a few joins when I bought it, due to dimensional changes over it's long life. And the uncoated boards in back show their age a lot more than the waxed and fed front surfaces.
Will a 30 year old pipe crack? Sure, why not. Your brand new fresh from the factory pipe may crack. It's just not likely. Unsmoked pipes hitting the century mark are not quite the same thing.

Interesting. Thanks for the info! Chances are I will probably never purchase a century old pipe, but some of those ancient briars with amber stems and silver accents sure are eye-catching!

 

[Chasing Embers]

There's always the gardening option.

 

[python]

I wouldn't buy a pipe I wouldn't smoke.

This right here ^^^^^.

If I buy a pipe, I intend on smoking it.

 

[mso489]

Despite my earlier post splitting the difference, personally I subscribe to the idea that if I buy a pipe, I intend to smoke it. For some strange reason I let a Savinelli Prince of Wales (long-stemmed prince) hang around for about a year before packing it, but there was never any doubt I would. It's like owning a number of cars you don't drive. It's important to some, but not to me. It's a smoking pipe, so smoke it.

 

[saltedplug]

The assumption about smoking a very fine pipe is, of course, based on one's money and the ideal of perfection not to be besmirched by that activity. As only a very few have ample means, only they can test their ideal of perfection against the reality of smoking such a pipe.

But let me indulge for a moment in the fantasy that I have more and much more means such that making haste to rescue a $1000.00 pipe from the doldrums of a much visited banner on a much-visioned website means absolutely nothing to my budget. But hark! Did I have such means I would no longer have a budget. Do any of the Waltons with their three-way split of Sam's loot, 40 billion a piece, have a budget? Not for $1000 dollars. Maybe for the $800 million palazzo in Monaco.

With such money, owner of 100s of fine pipes, I think I might not smoke some of them if for no other reason that I hadn't gotten around to them. But then, with an entire room whose walls were covered with pipes in racks, I might then indulge myself with the idea that in my subjectivity I could discriminate between perfection and utter perfection, and not smoke the latter.

But, again, this is not a problem I will ever have.

 

[jpmcwjr]

Going back to the thread title, there really aren't many "shoulds" in pipe smoking.

 

[F4RM3R]

If you don't plan to resell it, or give it as a gift. If it's yours to keep, smoke 'em!

 

[autumnfog]

It's quite strange.
I find utilitarian, classic, robust pipes meant for smoking the most beautiful.
If it looks like a good tool, it is beautiful.
This aesthetic goes for other stuff too. Like knives, belts, furniture, lamps etcetera.
I just don't like the ornate or pompous.

Yet I haven't come to put fire to the Castello for the reasons mentioned.
The next pipe might be a commission work.
I'm thinking about saving up for a Ryan Alden.
It might get smoked, or it might not.
Either way I'm happy.
This is hardly a problem.

 

[smokeyweb]

I guess the concept of buying a pipe just to look at is not all that unique to our niche hobby. People collect cars they will never drive, guns they will never shoot, bottles of wine they will never drink... so... whatever floats your boat!

 

[logs]

I understand the collector mentality. I've been there myself many times, although not so much with pipes. Pristine pipes can be beautiful but for me the coolest pipes are battered relics that have character and a story to tell. The kind of estate pipes most people think are eyesores and would never be sold at Blue Room Briar or even Ebay.