First Smoke

[kingsmedic]

Ok, I stopped by the local smoke shop to get some tobacco samples to try out when the pipe I won at auction is ready. Picked up 3 2oz packs. Pipe Dream, Hazelnut, and Mocha. The Pipe Dream was more for me, and the others are hopefully more pleasing to those around me than my cigars. Didn't plan on it, but since I did not want to wait til I was home, I bought an inexpensive pipe to test drive some blends. I packed the pipe and off we go!
1. Packed too loosely, but recovered and tamped into what I feel was a decent draw.

2. No tongue bite, and compared to cigars a very cool smoke!

3. Discovered that pipe smoking and driving a stick shift simultaneously is an athletic endeavor.

4. Im proud of only having to relight once after getting the pack tightened.
If there is a thread going for first smokes, I did not find it. Anybody care to share their story?

 

[maduroman]

my 1st smoke was with a homade corncob @ age 8 and a couple broken up winstons for the tobacco... not a resounding success.

 

[kingsmedic]

Thats funny, and from those humble beginnings, here you are!

 

[papipeguy]

Good work if you needed only one relight. Smoking a pipe while driving a stick is quite a chore. My summer drive is a 1977 MGB and I'm glad I found my pipe cap. I have also found that smoking a cigar in a convertible cut the smoke time in half. 8)

 

[bootlegbonvivant]

Awesome and welcome. My first experience was at Christmas several years ago. Got the whole package from my wife and brother. 3 kinds of tobacco from Tinder Box, Bent Bob pipe, colibri lighter, tamper, pipe cleaners, pipe bag, and a cheap pipe stand.
I had several relights, but I enjoyed every bit of it.

 

[kingsmedic]

Well, I am the kind of person who reads up on everything, so I probably had the benefit of sites like this, and others, to know what i was supposed to do before actually doing it! Awesome score for Christmas!

 

[james]

Maduroman, sounds about like my first pipe smoking experience, only it was Marlboro Reds...very very bad.

 

[classicgeek]

Out of the blue I started researching pipes on the Internet years ago, BPM*. Did what I could to learn about it and then visited one of the three B&M's in town and kitted myself out with a low-end Brigham, 25g of a bulk McClelland burley, a tamper, some wooden matches and pipe cleaners. Can't say it was a great experience. I didn't know it at the time, but burley isn't my thing. Almost put the pipe away forever.
I think everybody starts off with a bad experience. That's part of the allure of the pipe: there's skills to learn.
Simon
* Before Pipes Magazine

 

[papipeguy]

Amen on first smokes. Mine was Middleton #79. When I finally "discovered" the Dunhill blends it was a grand "aha moment".

 

[schmitzbitz]

I grabbed a pouch of "Sheffields Own Vanilla" (heavily cased vanilla black cav, literally swimming in PG) and a Medico Conq. billiard, packed it as tight as I could, and tried to smoke it like it was something else to ill effect.

Fortunately, I discovered this site within 24h, otherwise, I think I would have relegated said pouch and pipe to the back of the junk-drawer.

 

[winton]

My first smoke was with a $8 bent basket pipe with some RYO tobacco. It is hard to describe how horrible it was. The tobacco finally was used to keep the neighborhood cats out of my wife's gardens. The pipe bowl developed a huge split while I was trying to exorsize the taste of the tobacco.
Moral, start at a real pipe shop, rather than a cigaret shop.
Winton

 

[PeriqueMyInterest]

My first smoke was about 6 years ago when I was 17. I was at an antique mall with a friend and saw a $5 estate pipe, I thought it would be nice as I had just started smoking cigars, my friend gave me a strange look, and I bought it. I asked my dad if he would buy me some tobacco and he came home from the drug store with a pouch of Amphora Full Aroma. Thinking of it I really want some right now, it was delicious! He said he knew how to pack it from watching people back home when he was a kid (he only smokes cigarettes) and he crammed in as much tobacco as he could,lit it, puffed as hard as he could, smiled and handed it back to me to light it again and again and again. I loved it and later learned how to actually pack and smoke a pipe; my dad argued for years that I was doing it improperly because I didn't pack as much tobacco as I could into the bowl. I need to find some Amphora Full Aroma!

 

[capnbellamy]

My first pipe was a rubbish piece of plastic that I got from the local market for a couple of pounds. I managed to crunch through the stem. The first tobacco was either Peterson's Sherlock Holmes (A slightly over the top start) or a peach aromatic. Either way, neither was particularly brilliant.

 

[unclearthur]

1969. Dr Grabow and a package of SWR. Still like that stuff!

 

[nemrod]

My first smoke was a drug store shag for rolling cigs in this. Yeah, that's right, a $3.40 plastic piece of crap from China with a metal cup in the bowl. With rolling shag in it. Combine that with my non-existent pipe smoking skills. It was terrible.

 

[mlaug]

1974 with a Dr. Grabow and a white package of Capt. Black.
I didn't smoke anything else but Capt. Black for four years, before I made my first trip to a Tinderbox.

 

[jimbo]

My first smoke was a King Edward Invincible that I "liberated" from an uncle. I smoked it behind the barn for a few minutes, let it go out and hid the butt for the next "session". I could stretch one cigar for a month or more. :mrgreen:
Much later (in college) I bought my first pipe, a Missouri Meerschaum at a local FedMart and stoked it with Paladin Black Cherry, which I had admired the aroma of when smoked by others.

 

[lordofthepiperings]

My first smoke was some house blended Black Cherry from a local B&M in a Churchwarden I got for around $30. Gandalf's Churchwarden is what poked my curiosity even to give pipe smoking a try. As usual I suffered for a few weeks through the tongue bite until I learned how to slow down and stay lit.

 

[portascat]

Hadn't been that long at all....
Bought a "kit" that included a Grabow Lark, a Czech tool, some cleaners and such, and one package each of Borkhum Riff and some stuff called "Apple".
The Riff wouldn't smoke at all, and whatever I could draw tasted like shite. The Apple smoked well and was mild and a good learning on blend.
The Lark wound up with a hole in the bottom. I don't think ti was burnthrough, but I am not sure how it got there. No great loss, I got other pipes now.

 

[bubbadreier]

I was told a story by a gentleman the other day. He said when he was 17 he wanted to smoke a pipe so bad that he stole his grandfathers pipe and loaded it up with dry leaves, YUCK!!! Imagine that as a first smoke!