How Many Unsmoked Pipes Do You Have?

[mso489]

I'm riffing here on something cosmicfolklore posted elsewhere: How many unsmoked pipes do you own?

I think to address the point, we should also count any estate pipes that we have not ourselves smoked,

plus any new or unsmoked estate pipes we have that we've never smoked. To answer my own question,

I have about five dozen pipes including cobs that I try to rotate so I smoke them all, though some get

smoked more often than others, my favorites I guess. I have only one unsmoked pipe, a MM cob with a

Forever stem. I smoke cobs regularly, but seem to be saving that one -- maybe just need to have an

unsmoked pipe around. How about you?

 

[papipeguy]

I'm happy to report that the answer to your question is 0. I view my pipes as elegant tools, not trophies.

 

[easterntraveler]

Have 5 pipes. 1 of which is a Mario Grandi poker that I have never smoked. If I could get a better stem for it I would probably smoke it. Not sure if this can be done or not. I have never looked into it.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

I used to buy just one a month to quickly build up my rotation, and I would be so excited that I would fire up the new pipe before I even returned from the mailbox. And, then when I had my rotation, I started saving for higher end pipes, putting several months worth of my budget into just one pipe. But, every now and then on a slow evening in the shop, I'll cruise the terrible ebay, and see a shape that I don't have, or some cool plateau work on a dublin, and pull the trigger. I do have a few (maybe five) that I haven't smoked yet. One is a higher end pipe that I am waiting for the special occasion, it's another Becker. And, a few I just haven't had the time, or I was disappointment with when I saw it in hand. They seemed a little smaller in the picture, and now that I have it, I would be exhausted trying to clench it.
I keep swearing to myself to wait till I was absolutely sure that the pipe is a masterpiece in my mind before buying. I have 72 on the rack, and I can only smoke ten of them in a day, so I have got to slow down, before I reach hoarder status.

 

[edwinbaz]

I've been smoking for little over a year and a half now. All I had was one corncob and one Dr. Grabow and one or two local store's aromatic blends. It wasn't until earlier this year that I started buying more pipes. I can't believe how early that phenomenon happened to me. About a month and a half ago I counted them and in less than 6 months I had gone from two pipes to fourteen. All in all I have 5 unsmoked pipes. I guess eventually I'll learn which ones are going to move into my rotation and which ones will be going on to a better home.

papipeguy, I agree with your approach, but it's as cosmicfolklore said, you can only smoke so many of them.

 

[cortezattic]

Three:

• Ardor bulldog
  
  GBD bulldog (N.O.S.)
  
  Hilson Vintage Dublin (N.O.S.)

Waiting for a special occasion or motivation.

 

[xrundog]

I have four unsmoked pipes. Two are cased pipes that I lucked into early on when I started buying old pipes. One is premier Redmanol billiard. It's probably almost 100 years old and it is perfect. Second is a WDC Milano from about 1930. Same deal. Pipe and case are like new. Back then I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with them and they have remained unsmoked. 3 and 4 are unsmoked 60s Kaywoodies. One a briar, the other a meer lined relief grain. I have them displayed on a period two pipe stand I received unassembled in the box.

These days when I get an unsmoked old timer, I smoke it.

Wehn I buy a new pipe, I do so with the intention of smoking it right away. So I do.

 

[warren]

Proud to say: No pipe goes unsmoked!

 

[drennan]

I currently have two unsmoked pipes however they're both waiting to be broken in

 

[phil67]

Not a one...
Well, unless I count the two MM Tom Sawyer pipes that I've never smoked simply because they are too small and look more like an accessory for a G.I. Joe action figure.

 

[elpfeife]

I have two currently unsmoked. One just arrived Friday and I will fire it up shortly. The other one, however, was gone unsmoked for months. It is a very, very handsome Bruce Weaver tanshell bent poker. I keep telling myself to smoke it or sell it, but I can't bring myself to do either. So it remains like an idol to gaze upon.

 

[wyfbane]

I have quite a few that remain unsmoked. I go on binges and buy too many to smoke given the amount of smoking time I possess.
Others I am hesitent because they are older or rarer and don't see the need to smoke them just to make them 'smoked'. Especially when I have several presmoked estate pipes that still require my attention.
I look at it this way: I will have a cornucopia of pipes waiting for me next year when I retire from the Army and go to grad school!!

 

[CherokeeBilly]

Zero! They are all tools in the shed and should be used accordingly. I have my favorites that I reach for more often but my meager 10 pipes all get used regularly, none are cast aside.

 

[smeigs]

Zero for me. I have about 30 pipes at the moment. I have smoked all of them at least once. I probably have a couple that I have only smoke twice or so.

 

[natibo]

Just 1. A MM. Saving it for the beach or something. I get too excited and want to smoke my new pipes right away. Even the higher end ones.

 

[lestrout]

I agree with pap that pipes, however elegant and valuable, are tools that are meant to be smoked. But I only puff 3 bowls a day and there are hundreds in the rotation. That said, from Morley's meetings and pipe shows, I have a few dozen that need to be broken in. My break-in process is an inhibiting factor, since I now have a routine of conducting the break-in using a palette of standard blends, usually starting with Prince Albert. I rarely puff the same blend again in a given pipe, since I have hundreds in the rotation. I use my spreadsheet to help decide what combination to load up with, and basically I'm filling in the blanks in the 1200 blend X 400+ pipes matrix.
With the standard sequence of break-in tobaccos, I get to learn the character of each individual pipe, and then I can decide if it goes into the Virginias Project or possibly the VA/Per-Virginias column, or demote it to general purpose. Folding a new pipe with the break-in process on top of my daily routine gets in the way of my regimen of figuring out the inhabitants of my Top200 Cellar.
OCD? Being too anal? Most likely. But I'm having fun.
hp

les

 

[prndl]

i smoke 'em as soon as i get 'em.
no shelf queens here.

 

[mrenglish]

None. With the exception of a few Falcon bowls from the 70s, all of my briar gets smoked. If I am not smoking a pipe, then it gets traded off for something new. It also helps that I limit myself to 50 pipes, that is the most manageable for me so they all see use. I agree with the others in that a pipe is a tool and should be used for its intended purpose.

 

[yazamitaz]

les,
It almost sounds like you are an engineer from MIT :nana:
I can proudly say I have zero unsmoked pipes. Now if les wants to park a few dozen at my place to help with the break in, I would be more than happy to oblige.

 

[lochinvar]

I have three. The first is a Castello Sea Rock bulldog that is being saved for this Christmas and my last tin of Bengal Slices. The second is a Savinelli bent panel I recently bought to try some of the more scented Lakelands in, which should happen whenever this darn sinus infection finally goes away. The last is an unsmoked Kaywoodie from the '30s a good friend gave me. This one honestly may not get smoked. But out of 50 pipes three isn't too bad.