How or Why Did You Start Smoking a Pipe?

Log in

SmokingPipes.com Updates

New Cigars




PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor

PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor

PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor

PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor

PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor

Drucquers Banner
Status
Not open for further replies.

mso489

Lifer
Feb 21, 2013
41,210
60,433
My dad was a continual smoker of Granger, after breakfast to bedtime, for most of my growing up. I got sick on cigarettes with a buddy when I was about six. Smoked a few Hav'a'Tampas in college now and then, and later in the Navy. After age thirty, my late wife had a heavy cigarette habit, so I took up pipe smoking in the evening, just to be sociable. I had the ritual down from my dad. When she finally quite, after heroic efforts to do so, I quit in solidarity. I smoked a pipe a little after I lost her, but more often when my second wife was in rehab after hip infections after hip surgery. I'm a moderate smoker.

 

shutterbugg

Lifer
Nov 18, 2013
1,451
21
My dad was a 2 1/2 ppd cigarette smoker but he up and quit cold turkey when I was 7. It was back when even doctors smoked. He never said why he quit and I never asked. Well before I was born he smoked a pipe for a little bit, and there was a meer bulldog in a silk-lined leather case lying in a drawer all the time I was growing up. Once I started smoking a pipe in college I laid claim to it. The amber stem was broken so I had it replaced with acrylic in the early 70s when they had stopped using amber because it's flammable. I still have the pipe (dates to the early 1940s) and it still smokes amazingly well although it never colored nicely and has a bunch of dings over it.
Idk what tobacco my dad smoked when he smoked a pipe, but probably an OTC. His best buddy was a pipesmoker (cigarettes and cigars too), and made his own mixture of equal parts ERR, Amphora (which he pronounced amorpha)and Borkum Riff. Like most oldtimers, he smoked the one mixture and wasn't interested in trying anything else.
My major smoking mentor was my maternal grandfather, who smoked cigars. Double maduros, 38-42 ring size, usually Bances or some decent but not hoity-toity brand. I still prefer a cigar hands-down over a pipe, and gave up the pipe after college until the early 90s when the 30-somethings turned it into a "hobby" and drove the price of a decent cigar through the roof. No way I'm going to burn as much on one cigar as a pound of pipe tobacco.

 

ashdigger

Lifer
Jul 30, 2016
11,379
70,057
60
Vegas Baby!!!
I started smoking a pipe since it reminded me of my grandfather. I loved that dude. He smoked Kaywoodies while in WWII in the Pacific Theater. I smoke Kaywoodies and have two of his, which is also why my Kaywoodie collection focuses on pre-1945 (4-digit stinger or no). The only 2-digit Kaywoodies are with push stems (pre-1929). I've been smoking since 2011.

 

mihailo

Starting to Get Obsessed
Jun 1, 2016
131
43
NW Indiana
I started my first semester in college, I had enjoyed cigars before and still do on occasion, but wanted something to do meditatively and relaxing instead of stressing for exams, so I did some reading and soon enough I purchased a cob, and some half and half and did my best to teach myself some of the ropes.

 

fishingandpipes

Part of the Furniture Now
Aug 24, 2013
654
48
I just wanted to try it.
I had an uncle who smoked a pipe who is mad at me now that I do it, because his wife doesn't allow him to any longer. One day, I plan to get him a pipe and a pound of Peretti to hide somewhere.
But why I started? I just woke up one day and realized I could, but never had, so I went and bought a pipe and some tobacco.

 

emsjunky

Lurker
Jul 31, 2016
8
0
When I was 18 I started working part time at a local Tobacco store at the mall near my house. At first I only smoked cigarettes, but once I started there, I really started to get an appreciation for the hobby. I started out with the small Missouri meerschaum hardwood pipes (which I still use from time to time because they're so cheap. ) and kept going from there. I smoke cigars with some fellow firefighters from my station, but at my age (22) there isn't too many people out there that smoke pipes. So I'm sort of a loner when it comes to this. Especially since the tobacco store owner only smokes cigars and hookah. But it's still something I enjoy dearly.

 

jiujitsubowl

Can't Leave
May 19, 2015
434
0
Muskegon Michigan
For me it was getting back to a time when everyone relaxed in the evening, lit up a pipe, sipped a scotch whiskey and actually communicated/connected with people. Real fellowship. Back to the days when relaxing with a pipe and a friend wasnt demonized.

 

grue

Starting to Get Obsessed
Feb 9, 2016
199
0
Painting is my full time job now so I needed a new hobby.

 

lifesizehobbit

Part of the Furniture Now
Oct 23, 2015
913
386
In 1982/83 I was stationed at Ft. Polk, LA. For entertainment beyond what we called "Sleazeville" a few of us would pile into my 77 Firebird for a trip to the mall at Alexandria. From pure boredom we would investigate virtually every store which included a Tinderbox staffed by a young man named Duncan (can't remember his last name); Duncan took the time to explain pipe smoking in general and showed us countless pipes even though he knew a bunch of PFCs had almost no money.
About a month later, one of my friends presented me with a bent Savinelli and some Half & Half from the Tinderbox; I had no idea when he got it, but I recall at the time that the Sav was about $90 even then. I became the lone pipe smoker in our group, transfers happened and then introduced a new friend to the pipe. Six months later, we were as close as brothers and to this day we've maintained that bond. He's retired now and we're both a lot older. I still casually smoke and collect, he hasn't seen a pipe in his house for almost 30 years.

 

lotharen

Starting to Get Obsessed
Jul 26, 2016
184
10
Great stories all, I love reading stuff like this.
Mine is similar in nature. I remember my dad smoking a pipe back in his airforce days. Loved the smell of it, remembered the smell on him. Brings back some good memories of dad before Alzheimer's and Dementia set in.
It's also more than that for me. I associate pipe smoking with sophistication and a time long since past. Its something I seem to connect with on a emotional and almost spiritual level. Honestly, its hard to describe and I only wish I had started sooner.

 

fearsclave

Starting to Get Obsessed
Mar 9, 2014
209
0
I got back into cigars a few years back, and a couple of years ago, on a whim (I honestly can't recall what triggered it) decided to try pipes, and so I bought a tin of Solani Black & White and ordered a Rossi Author from SmokingPipes.com. Turns out I prefer pipes to cigars...

 

didimauw

Moderator
Staff member
Jul 28, 2013
9,895
31,635
34
Burlington WI
I honestly dont remember why I started pipe smoking. I happened to be buying cigarettes one day when I noticed the corncob pipes on the counter. I ended up buying a huge pouch of ryo tobacco out of ignorance. The rest is history.

 

hextor

Part of the Furniture Now
Sep 20, 2015
642
6
my dad had a briar pipe, hidden and one day me and my brother were curious and we smoked it or tried to, we were coughing for a couple of hours, Funny thing I had never seen him smoke it in front of us, but the pipe was used, he is a cigar smoker, but the image of the pipe did get stuck to me, I had picked up smoking from a friend who was smoking a tobacco that tasted like beef jerky, unfortunately he moved and i dint know what type of tobacco he was smoking so i started with the basic, captain black and a mm cob, but thanks to the forums I did get a chance to try really good blends, and thanks to you my friend, now i have some really good dependable pipes that will last me a lifetime.

 

jpmcwjr

Moderator
Staff member
May 12, 2015
24,570
27,077
Carmel Valley, CA
It was at college, and I was gifted a Dunhill!! So I had to try it. The Dean of Students always puffed his way about campus, so I talked to him. He put my on to Burlington Arcade and how to mail order it from Philly, and I watched him pack and puff, so some free lessons to get me started.

It—The Burlington Arcade—wasn't real different from The Balkan Sobranie of the day. (The "day" was 50 years ago.) He also put me on the Wilke Pipe Shop and Barclay-Rex in NYC, good basket pipes.
I am sure some Profs smoked pipes, but I can't recall any; just the Dean.

 

crashthegrey

Lifer
Dec 18, 2015
3,812
3,584
41
Cobleskill, NY
www.greywoodie.com
First off, thank you for sharing such an incredibly personal experience. I'll think of your friend during my very next bowl.
I got started on pipes in a very simple manner. I smoked cigarettes and was sick and tired of the smell. But I loved tobacco, and I bought all different types of cigarettes from around the world looking for a real tobacco experience. I tried a pipe instead, and quit cigarettes once I found that tobacco flavor and experience for which I was searching. I didn't really know any pipe smokers before I decided to start. Now I know a whole world of wonderful people, thanks to pipes.

 

tslex

Lifer
Jun 23, 2011
1,482
13
Many of the men in my family smoked pipes, including my dad. But Dad's interest in pipes was fairly minimal and he wasn't much of a smoker -- although he did pick up a cigarette habit during the war that lasted until I was a little boy.
My Uncle Bob, though -- that man was a pipe smoker. Bob had been blind since age 10 (scarlet fever in the 1920s was a big deal) but never let that stop him. He went everywhere in the city (Cleveland) and across the country by public transport -- bus, train and plane -- accompanied by a series of sturdy German Shepherd guide dogs (in my life there was Paula, then Thom, then Xebec). He earned an undergrad degree in civil engineering and no fewer than three Master's degrees, including one in urban planning. He served on local, state and national commissions that gave the first considerations to making cities more accessible to folks with disabilities -- and adopting many ideas that just made them work better. He consulted with all manner of transportation issues all over the world
. His mind was amazing. If you told him what street you were starting on on, and what cross street, then drove him around, he could sound off on each building you passed, describing the architecture, the history, the various tenants and so on. He had a detailed map of Cleveland and several other cities in his head. People used to laugh when I told them that if you wanted driving directions for Cleveland, wanted to know all the best shortcuts, ask my blind Uncle Bob. The man had a WICKED sense of humor.
Bob was never without a pipe. He smoked mostly Half-and-Half(by the can-ful), but he'd try anything anyone brought him. His pockets (he always wore a waistcoat, especially this bright red wool one) were full of cleaners, and pipe nails, and matches and all that.
At home in "his chair" he mostly smoked this enormous pipe fashioned from a birch log. It was a unique thing the size of a can of Fosters beer and heaven only know how much tobacco it held. I'd had a puff or two on Dad's pipes and other uncles over the years, but when I was home from college my first Christmas away, Bob gave me the gift of a pipe. No special thing, just a straight billiard with no name on it (we'd call it a basket pipe today) but that and an envelope (seriously, a manila envelope) filled with Half-and-Half got me started. That was 1978.
A few years later, my own German Shepherd, Elsa, chewed the pipe to splinters when she was a puppy, so I don't have it anymore. (Although I do have a Stanwell that was my dad's.)
This is a great thread. I enjoy reading these reminiscences and revisiting my own.

 

checotah

Part of the Furniture Now
Feb 7, 2012
504
3
Both of my grandfathers and my father smoked pipes. It was a common practice in those days, and all the cool guys, as well as several profs. in college were pipers, so my room-mate and I both decided one day to take it up. That was 53 years ago this Oct.

 
Status
Not open for further replies.