How or Why Did You Start Smoking a Pipe?

[hmhaines]

Always loved the smell of cigars, my grandfather smoked them all the time.
Read about Perique a couple years ago, became mildly obsessed with the idea of it.
Starting smoking cigars last year, sort of a birthday gift for myself.
Spent ages trying to find someone to trade a handmade briar for a bit of my steel or glass.
Finally got a pipe a month or so ago.
Lit it up with a friend.
Loved it!

 

[thebadkitty]

I started in 2010 after thinking about it for years. In 1984 I spent 2 weeks smoking a pouch through a pipe I had pinched from my uncle’s garage: Middleton’s Apple and a Kaywoodie bulldog, if I remember the big red apple on the pouch and the clubs on his pipes right. He had two of those, one orange and one blue, and I think I had the orange. He’d already quit smoking so I was able to get it back in his rack with no problems, and I had been thinking fond memories.
Anyway, I took the plunge in 2010 and even during the first week when I was so clumsy I could barely light up without fumbling and dropping everything, it felt so natural to me that it stuck. Stuck hard and I often think of all the years of cigarettes between 1988 and 2010 with some distaste. Since 2010 I can’t remember having regretted lighting up tobacco at all, in any way. So there’s that.
Thanks for prompting me to think about this again!

 

[akfilm]

I started with smoking cigars, and found it a very relaxing evening activity, but the cigars I liked were expensive and being fresh out of school, I did not have the income to support buying the amount of cigars I was smoking. When I was in an antique shop, I found a cheap briar pipe (which I still smoke), and went and found some pipe tobacco, read on the internet how to pack and smoke a pipe, and the rest, as they say, is history. So here I am 10 years later happily smoking away, with a beautiful collection and a full cellar.

 

[Chasing Embers]

My paternal Grandfather smoked a pipe and chewed Beechnut. In highschool, we had a student smoking area, and while everyone else was smoking cigarettes, I had to be the different one and smoked a pipe. That was back in '91.

 

[flyboy82]

I got started after I started doing Civil War re-enactments. I saw all the other guys sit around the fire enjoying a pipe, and I have always loved the smell of pipe tobacco, So I decided to bring some old pipes I got at a yard sale when I was 10, (had them on my desk just for show) and get some tobacco and fire it up. I loved it.

 

[dread]

I don't normally revive old threads, but I recently ran across a pic that reminded me of this thread. A pic of a buddy of mine and me from college in the 1980s. I think that was a Medico billiard I owned.

 

[deathmetal]

Simple answer: I wanted something more intense than cigarettes.
Long-term answer: I love tradition.

 

[hobie1dog]

Grandfather smoked pipes, but mostly I was always drawn in to the Tinderbox stores in the Mall.

 

[mso489]

Tinder Box has made many a convert as a national chain. I still visit mine at the mall now and then, though last time I was there both the pipe and tobacco inventories were thin. The cigar humidor was still brim full.

 

[oldmansmoking]

I smoked a pipe ages ago when in the Royal Navy, then got heavy into fitness, gave the few pipes I had away.

Then in 2013 cancer stuck me. I thought hell why not go back to smoking a pipe.

I bought a cheap pipe at first and some OTC tobacco to see if I liked it.

Smoking a pipe has helped me find peace and contemplation. I love it and will not stop now.

Have a few pipes but still pine for one of my original ones.

Use the pipe tool I originally had a chec tool which I kept in my tool box.
On a resent cruise I was the only pipe smoker. But when I go to Warner's, adults only Butlins there are quite a few pipe smokers.

 

[cosmicbobo]

Love the smell

 

[voorhees]

As a cigar smoker, I always wondered if smoking the nub of a cigar was possible. So, one day in 2011 while at an antique shop I picked up a Kaywoodie Prince I thought would be perfect for smoking the last couple of inches of the cigar. Could it be done? Yes. Should it be done? Hell no. Bitter, rancid, wet tobacco. However, it got me interested in pipes and led me down the dark path. ::

 

[huntertrw]

In answer to your question allow me to re-post the following which was first posted here some two years ago under the title "First Pipe of Tobacco":
I smoked my first pipe of tobacco on the night of Saturday October 27, 1973. The pipe itself was a Dr. Grabow bulldog which I purchased under false pretense (I claimed that it was to be a birthday gift for an Uncle, for otherwise I do not believe that the owner would have sold it to me) from a local combination bookstore and office supply shop where I was not known. The tobacco was a pouch of Irish Meade which I purchased from the drug store where I was known, and again under false pretense, this time at the request of a "visiting Uncle from out of state."
After supper I waited until it got dark, and then excused myself to take a walk. The question was, where could I go to sample these new wonders without drawing undue attention? I'm not certain why, but I ended up on the athletic field of the local junior high school. As I gazed around me I felt somewhat conspicuous, the darkness not withstanding, and so (and to this day I am not certain what possessed me to do it) I climbed one of the goal posts and sat on the crossbar with my right arm around one of the uprights. Fishing pipe and pouch from the pockets of my denim jacket I loaded by feel, and then lit-up using a kitchen match, just like I had seen my Grandfather do on occasion.
Sitting atop my perch I felt something akin to what the owl must feel as it surveys the night. Cars hissed by on the streets to the south and west, their headlights chasing the corners, tail-lights dimming with distance. A couple nearly a block away walking their dog could clearly be heard chatting as they passed - isn't it funny how some sounds seem louder in the dark? The stars and planets shown bright in the clear cold sky over my head. And I changed.
In the time that it took to smoke that first bowl I discovered what I had so hoped for. The enticing aroma as I opened that pouch. The sweet fullness of the smoke as I rolled it in my mouth, the live warmth of the bowl in my hand. A feeling of utter contentment embraced me, and I was sorry to have to eventually climb down and start the trek homeward. As I walked alone in the dark I reached for and felt the comforting bulk of pipe, pouch, and matches in my jacket pockets, and my spirits lifted.

 

[hobie1dog]

I nominate that post for "Post of the Year"

 

[dread]

That's an awesome story huntert. My grandpa smoked a pipe and I started when I was 19' the year he died. I picked up that cheap medico and started with captain black, then got high falutin with Borkum Riff. Smoked those two blends exclusively Thor the next 10 years, my time in the Navy, and cigars, then stopped. Picked it back up again I guess 7 or 8 years ago, but with much better pipes and tobacco.

 

[PaulTheScandinavian]

due to the new tobacco regulations which directed reducing nicotine and tar contents in Eu cigarttes evantually causing a decline in taste and overall quality of all ready rolled cigarettes and in lesser degree in Ryos, got me quite smoking them no more,and needless to say,theres this health factor ,pipe when used in moderation without inhaling the smoke is less harmful

 

[cranseiron]

I didn't start with the pipe until about eight years ago at age fifty not long after the passing of my father. He was a pipe smoker of the classic type, single blend-- Borkum Riff-- put the pipe in the pouch, stuff it with his thumb and fire it up with his Zippo. He had a shop with a cubby where he would smoke and it was furnished with an old salvaged military desk and squeaky chair-- he was a retired USAF Master Sergeant. I have many fond memories of him leaned back in that chair, feet propped up on the desk, Popular Mechanic magazine on his lap quietly smoking his pipe. He kept his pipes in the shop, too and I would often pick them up and smell the aroma of the carbonization and kinda tinker around with them. His pipes were usually part of his day whether coaching my little league ball team or relaxing in his shop. Pipes were an essential part of his essence to me and even before I picked up the pipe I wanted to inherit his and asked him to save them after he got older and gave them up. Unfortunately, he must have forgotten and after he passed we couldn't find any of his pipes. So, somewhat out of the blue as I was thinking about my dad I wondered what it was about pipes he found so attractive. I started searching the internet and ended up on eBay where I bought my first pipe and then found Cornell and Diehl as a tobacco source. Eight years on I smoke primarily to remember my father and I have come to appreciate pipe smoking's history and tobacco's history, also. I'm glad I started this journey and it will always remain my closest link to my dad. He was a fine loving man and the steadfast foundation of our family.

 

[mawnansmiff]

Nice story Eric, alas the reason I took to the pipe is not at all as interesting. I have always enjoyed the smell of other folk's pipes but was a RYO smoker for thirty odd years and was quite content with my 'Old Holborn', 'Sampson' and 'Drum' blends.
Unfortunately it got to the stage where my health was being seriously affected so decided to give up. I had already mentioned to a neighbour that I had wondered about taking up the pipe but left it at that. Then out of the blue he turns up with a pipe he had bought just for me...a fine gesture indeed. It was only a basket pipe but I was bowled over by his generosity.
Then the hunt was on for some tobacco to put in it...that was only two years ago and I now have more pipes than I know what to do with but it's been a great journey of discovery for me. Not touched a roll-up in all that time and though my health is far from perfect, it is much better since I took to the pipe ::
Regards,
Jay.

 

[didache]

Back in 1972 I started a university course in chemistry in Northern Ireland. It was roughly the beginnings of the 'troubles' and I was about 18/19. In those days in Ireland there was still something of a pipe smoking culture, mostly among older people but also students who, I guess, thought it made them look studious.
Anyway, a lot of students took up the pipe, including me, although I wonder how many of us are still part of the brotherhood after all these years?
My first pipes were Petersons - by far the most common - and my first tobacco, which I smoked faithfully for a long time, was Players Whiskey Flake. Just occasionally, for a treat, I had a tin of Balkan Sobranie which I thought unspeakably exotic!
I have been more or less faithful all this time. The only time I temporarily gave it up was around ten years ago when I had a minor heart scare which necessitated coronary stents. I didn't smoke for a couple of years although I don't think the tobacco had anything much to do with the heart (it runs in the family). In any case, I really do believe that moderate use which leads to relaxation is probably not such a bad thing. So I took it up again and haven't regretted it one bit.
Mike

 

[bigbehr]

I was a cigar smoker but wanted something I could have on a lunch break. While there are cigars that you can smoke in a short time, I had trouble spending $5-8 bucks on each one. While researching I was on another forum. On that forum I commented on how I liked a certain pipe and wanted to try smoking a pipe. Then 3 days later I was bombed. By a nice fellow "stonedog". What showed up was 5 ish samples and a nice estate pipe. I was hooked after that. Not only did it fill the niche, I also enjoyed the flavor more than any cigar I had smoked. Thanks stonedog where ever you are.