How many...
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This is so true.
For a year or so I owned one pipe only. I smoked several bowls a day, most days and it never saw a pipe cleaner. I loved that pipe but don't know what happened to it. my collection then grew to about five pipes which was all I owned for the thick end of 30 years.
Now I am getting the "collecting" bug and have nearly 50.
Smoke them all but only have a few favourites.
This is me. I have pipes I don't even smoke. I enjoy collecting. When I was younger, I did a lot of hunting, and collected old Winchester Model 12's......... I had about 28 of them at one time. Sold most of them, kept a few favorites. Now slowly thinning the pipe herd, but its hard to resist buying more....... its a sickness I guess........
Let's see...
Besides the few dozen crap pipes that I bought as projects for learning restoration, I probably have about 140 pipes, ranging in period from 1882 to 2014. With the exception of a few "museum pieces" I smoke all of them at one time or another. The largest group are the Barlings, hovering in the upper 80's. While I enjoy looking at pipes, I'm pretty much done buying them.
If one's only concern is for a Nic deliver system, one pipe is enough. Above that it's wasteful effeminate extravagance.
If one has a brain that functions on a more complex level, the numbers start to rise.
I like a wide variety of blends so I don't smoke English/Balkan blends in the same pipes that I use for Va/Pers. I like to taste what I'm smoking as opposed to what I had yesterday or last week.
Nic content is not important to me. It's about flavors, so I've cellared a variety of blends that I like, and have experimented to match blends to chamber shapes and sizes. Not all blends deliver equally well in all pipes. A range of sizes and shapes helps deliver the flavors in the blends I like to smoke.
Besides flavors, I'm interested in the history of pipes and tobaccos, the esthetics of pipe design, and the shapes and styles of pipes from the early 20th century as well as a few contemporary artisan makers. These interests also raise the body count.
There are a lot of ways to enjoy pipes and tobacco, ranging from a couple much used and loved pipes and blends, to enormous far ranging carefully curated collections of rare pipes and rarer tobaccos and tobacciana, all of which may just be for visual display and not for actual use. And there are all sorts of points in between. It's all good.
Besides the few dozen crap pipes that I bought as projects for learning restoration, I probably have about 140 pipes, ranging in period from 1882 to 2014. With the exception of a few "museum pieces" I smoke all of them at one time or another. The largest group are the Barlings, hovering in the upper 80's. While I enjoy looking at pipes, I'm pretty much done buying them.
If one's only concern is for a Nic deliver system, one pipe is enough. Above that it's wasteful effeminate extravagance.
If one has a brain that functions on a more complex level, the numbers start to rise.
I like a wide variety of blends so I don't smoke English/Balkan blends in the same pipes that I use for Va/Pers. I like to taste what I'm smoking as opposed to what I had yesterday or last week.
Nic content is not important to me. It's about flavors, so I've cellared a variety of blends that I like, and have experimented to match blends to chamber shapes and sizes. Not all blends deliver equally well in all pipes. A range of sizes and shapes helps deliver the flavors in the blends I like to smoke.
Besides flavors, I'm interested in the history of pipes and tobaccos, the esthetics of pipe design, and the shapes and styles of pipes from the early 20th century as well as a few contemporary artisan makers. These interests also raise the body count.
There are a lot of ways to enjoy pipes and tobacco, ranging from a couple much used and loved pipes and blends, to enormous far ranging carefully curated collections of rare pipes and rarer tobaccos and tobacciana, all of which may just be for visual display and not for actual use. And there are all sorts of points in between. It's all good.
96 briar, 3 meerschaum, 12 cobs. Been collecting them for 26 years, so in my head that's not too bad.....maybe
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My collection was pushing around 100, but I sold almost all of them. I think I'm around 15 briars and 6 or 7 cobs now. I'm pretty selective in what I get now - not in a cost sense, but in that I only get pipes I know I'll enjoy that fall into a few categories of shapes I like. 24-36 briars seems manageable to me.
I think I have around 30. I went a little pipe crazy two years ago when I had a very bountiful year for work. Work has slowed, so my pipe buying has as well. I'm pretty settled in at the moment with the variety of pipes. There's a couple I like, and I'm paying one off right now. I've gotten a lot pickier about my pipes.
2 dozen briars that I smoke on a regular basis. A dozen cobs either marked up for specific blends (like Lakelands, straight Virginia, straight Latakia, blending tobaccos, etc) or they're in the car. Another 30-40 briars that are either out of favor, still unsmoked or are in need of restoration. Plus a few dozen unfinished stummels that I bought at auction, slowly getting around to working on them. Lestrout has one of those.
I perhaps "need" a dozen pipes, say ten briars and two meers, but have ca. 80 briars and five meers. And I just added a very clenchable Barling, but my Darling Barling collection is 1/10th that of Sablebrush's size wise, and some small fraction of its worth.
About 80 with a lot of coming and going. 17 of them are cobs (yes, I really like them). Some are just for collecting and a lot of my pips are estates that I have refurbished myself. There is a box with another 25 or so still to refurbish. Do I need so many pipes? Err, no....
As most people have admitted here, they actually need somewhere between a few to maybe a dozen. Beyond that and you are probably just collecting them because you have the pipe addiction. The problem with collecting though is the more you buy the more you see gaps in your collection needing to fill! Me, I'm currently at fourteen and holding after 45 years and each fills a different niche, but I just broke down and bought a cob and I like it, so I'll probably buy a few more.
Someday.
Someday.
Ahh...only 13 right now. I've had more, gotten rid of some throughout the years. I'm pretty selective about what I buy and can say that those 13 are all pipes I actually smoke.
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