Have You Quit Pipe Smoking In the Past, and Why?

[Zack Miller]

Started in college. My then wife made me quit in the mid seventies.
Swore if I ever got divorced, I would start again. Started again in 1990.
Quit around 1994 after my daughter was born and new wife didn’t want me smoking in the house.
Started again in 2015. We were walking by a tobacconist in Palm Springs. Wife saw me staring at the pipes in the window and said “Go ahead.”

 

[lochinvar]

Most recently after my son was born in September. Since then, I think I've smoked 3 maybe 4 bowls, two of which were last night and the night before. When they're awake I don't want waste time smoking instead of playing with them and when they're asleep, I need to get my.....like.....three, four hours of sleep. As the weather gets better, Ill smoke more at lunch at work.

 

[KafkaStoleMyBike]

Never smoked cigarettes or chewed tobacco, and a busy spell at work or international travel where I don’t want to bother with customs will sometimes mean I don’t smoke a pipe for a few weeks to months.

 

[edger]

Yes. For a short time about 20 years ago to arrest my nicotine addiction. It worked and put an end to my inhaling.

 

[spicy_boiii]

I smoked cigarettes on and off from 14-18.

Then I stopped buying packs and was a RYO guy for a couple years.

Got back into smoking packaged cigarettes, using snus, or chewing for another 6 or so years, struggled to quit, and eventually succeeded when I was ~27. I was a Marlboro red, then later a Camel Turkish gold/silver/royal smoker. Quit because it made me feel terrible as my fitness and diet got worse. Working graveyards and not sleeping didn't help.

I hadn't yet learned how to take care of myself.

Fortunately I never got the cravings to smoke cigarettes ever again.

Re: smoking pipes now, although I do think about the health consequences, I believe that the amount I smoke has such a negligible impact on my health, that the amount of enjoyment I get from pipe smoking is plenty more of a benefit than the whatever minor health cost.

Call me blind to the truth or in denial. I'll admit that if I had to walk away from pipe smoking right now, forever, that it would be tough for me. I really look forward to it.

I just wish I wasn't so busy that I could smoke more.

It's been three-ish days now that I haven't smoked anything due to a bad laceration I sustained to my upper lip, and I want my pipe!

Hopefully tomorrow

 

[Sgetz]

Stopped all tobacco use for 46 years. But always fancied pipe again. Resumed pipe on 70th birthday. Only about once or twice a week though.

 

[Grazer]

Took most of 2020 off as my wife was pregnant. Just started enjoying a bowl here and there again a couple weeks ago since the weather started cooperating.

 

[mikethompson]

I don't think I've smoked a pipe since the fall, lots of different reasons, but i just don't 'crave' it.

 

[PaulTheScandinavian]

Back in the days I mainly smoked cigarettes and RYO along with occasional pipe and cigars but due to wrong technics back then I never got hang on how to properly smoke a pipe until a few year ago when I seriously started learning the ropes'of smoking pipes with the help of this forum and Y Tube, finally I feel I have succeeded,though now and then,I still do occasionally RYO cigarettes

 

[pappymac]

I've never smoked cigarettes. Started smoking a pipe and cigars in the summer of 1972.
I stopped smoking in or around the house in 1990 when we found out our youngest daughter (5 years old at the time) had asthma and allergies. It just made sense not to smoke in or around the house. I still had occasional cigars or a pipe, but never when I was home. When she graduated high school and left for college, I started smoking again but I still don't smoke inside.

 

[SoddenJack]

I’ve used nicotine in some form off and on since my teens. Cigarettes, than moved to a snus, cigars and finally a pipe for a short while. Gave the pipe when my first son was born, a combination of being too tired to smoke, the ritual not fitting in to the new parent routine, and not wanted to hold my child reeking like smoke and Latakia breath.

Still enjoyed the occasional social cigarette, vaped for a while, and occasional cigar. Dusted off the briar during quarantine and here I am today. I’m a light smoker maybe a few bowls a week at most, often less. I think I appreciate it more because of it.

 

[sablebrush52]

I stopped pipe smoking for a few years in the late '70's. Just stopped enjoying it.

 

[johng99]

I started smoking cigarettes in my early teens, and switched to pipes and cigars around the age of 20, back in the 1970's. I kept this up until 1998 when someone close to me died from lung cancer. i stopped smoking for 10 years and after a divorce decided to do what I like and have been smoking since.

 

[DAR]

I quit because I inherited an African Grey parrot. Parrots can not tolerate pipe smoke or any smoke. Even smoke from non-stick pans can kill a parrot so I stashed the pipes and the non-stick pans and lived without for about 5 years. Then we had to move overseas due to work and I had to hand over the parrot to a my brother because although parrots can fly, they don't do well flying in airplanes. A year later I was back in the states and that's when I re-entered the pipe and cigar life (and non-stick pans).
I miss the parrot greeting me every morning with, "I can talk, can you fly?" but she's happy with my brother and I'm happy with my pipes and cigars.

 

[GDWTVB]

Never Smoked cigarettes. I tried pipes a couple times but could never smoke enough to get good at it. (No mentor and cheapest tobacco and pipe I could find) I stuck to mostly cigars for the better part of twenty years. I've never been a big smoker, maybe one or two cigars a month, but at other times none for six months or more. About five years ago I tried pipes again, got a Peterson when on a trip to Ireland, and have had maybe one cigar in the last three years. I'm still not a big smoker, maybe five bowls a month. Of course I just ordered another pipe tonight, bringing my collection up to six. Looking forward to breaking in my new Nording next weekend.

Grizz

 

[OzPiper]

Quit when my wife was expecting our first - I'd promised her that I would not smoke around our children. Took up cigars @2000 when the kids were grown and smoked cigars exclusively for over 15 years.
A few years ago I was killing time at an airport duty free cigar shop, spied some tins of pipe tobacco, tossed a can along with the cigar purchases, and it's been a slippery slope since.

 

[carlomarx]

Quit for about ten years after two bouts of pneumonia. Always doubted there was a strong connection but whatever. Wish I would have stocked up on Brindley's mixture and the original Troost while I was off the pipe. When I started again those two were unavailable and the local Pipe shops had closed for good.

 

[burleybreath]

Quit the pipe for six months out of disgust at having my tongue scorched and fissured by the indulgence. I smoked Mac Baren blends like a fiend. An ignorant fiend. I not only quit, I snapped the bits and trashed the pipes. Yes, there were some good ones. And yes, I'm an ass. Promised myself at the time that I would only smoke an occasional small premium cigar.

Six months later I found myself in the Dunhill store in New York buying a Group 4 Shell Billiard. Reeling with self-delusion, I promised myself I'd limit myself just to that one pipe.

The rest of my story is a history of mindless accumulation of redundant briars, friggin' meerschaums, cobs, and closets full of aging, or maybe rotting, tins of the demon weed. It is unlikely that I will ever give it up again.

 

[Lochstar]

Years and years ago I was heavy into historical re-enactment, not civil war stuff though, medieval/rennaisance. I picked up a pipe to use at events, a generic briar churchwarden, figuring it'd better complete my outfit (this was the 90's don't h8), and wasn't entirely sure about the historical accuracy but a lot of others seemed to tuck them in a belt and smoke them at night around campfires.

Decades and a divorce later I came across a few pipes I had stashed with my reenactment costumes while sorting through stuff and thought "hmmmmm maybe I should see if I was doing something wrong" because towards the end they really were tasting awful so I went back to cigarettes and cigars. Lo and behold I found countless sites (much like this one) with proper packing, smoking and cleaning techniques. They had some age-related issues but managed to elbow grease them out, grabbing some Bokrum Riff and a couple cheap meerschaums to practice on in the meantime. Those pipes still function great and I'm about to embark on full refinishing, but that's a "on the way" thing. I found I really really enjoyed it again, barely touching my vapes (which got me off the cigs, and I still do enjoy a good vape), and started to really admire the craftmanship and artwork that goes into a pipe.

I went a little pipe crazy in late winter and made big expansions Now I'm figuring out storage and display options and beginning to age and store extra tobacco (especially in the current country climate). Quite simply I put it down for lack of knowing and picked it back up for knowing more. I'm loving it!

This site btw, is invaluable for information and a huge boon to pipe culture in general.

 

[mparker762]

I stop every summer. Houston does not make it pleasant to smoke outside. Longer cessations have occurred a few times when my migraines would become too frequent. i've since figured out what causes them though.