Is Pipe Smoking Fading Into History?

[mbmoehl]

"Fading from history" is relative. From the view of the general public, yes, very much so. However, pipe & pipe tobacco production seems a live and well. When i think about the number of factories turning out pipes in large numbers and the all the artisans still commanding prices up into the K's, i can't see it going away. The nature of smoking a pipe seems to be a solitary and decidedly tedious endeavor, one we use to sit and relax, not very convenient when in public spaces. I rarely see cigar smokers in public either. However, someone out there are buying up all those pipes.

I think from the legislative side when pipe tobacco gets lumped into laws really meant for cigs, then there is a lack of knowledge in that process and maybe we need to do more to educate our lawmakers, inform them that this is a pleasure enjoyed typically outside of the public realm, we aren't polluting sidewalks with our trash and putting others health at risk. Thankfully laws are malleable and when we are stuck somewhere with ones we don't agree with we can do something about it.

As people have mentioned above, vinyl and film photography are regaining popularity and i think its for the same reasons as pipe smoking. We are inundated with screens, live by our phones, work form computers, entertained by tv's, all very passive and not interactive. We all have our own individual likes for these things as well, but i think we need to touch and feel what we are doing. I shoot film and have a darkroom because i sit at a computer all day long and the last thing i want to do is spend more time editing digital photos on a screen. I also like using my grandpa's camera equipment and the feel / sound of the shutter and advancing the film lever, it engages my senses in a way that my digital camera doesn't. Pentax is even working on making new film cameras, and Leica has never stopped, but is bringing back its popular M6. The pipe for me is similar, it engages my senses, gives me a reason to relax and just enjoy the present moment or a pause in my work day to reflect on what i'm doing or disengage from it. I wasn't a smoker before picking up the pipe and the nicotine can easily overwhelm me, so i don't do it for the nic fix or some addictive behaviour. Like vinyl and film, i can see pipe tobacco prices continuing to increase more than the rate of inflation, companies consolidating to maintain manufacturing efficiency, but i think its here to stay.

I use to be a hipster basher, but i've come to realize that our lives and technology leaves us feeling more isolated, not less, and we are all just vying for the love and attention of others, so lets just give folks a brake. If a 'hipster' is smoking a pipe, for any reason, they are helping keep our hobby alive and i can appreciate that.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

then there is a lack of knowledge in that process and maybe we need to do more to educate our lawmakers

The problem is the numbers of pipesmokers who insist on inhaling or retrohaling the smoke and being adamantly vocal. We also seem to have pipesmokers who insist on making billowing clouds of smoke to annoy the hell out of people in public. For everything that sets pipes apart from cigarettes, there are going to be assholes who insist on being an outlier. It becomes really hard to say that we are less risky than cigarettes and less annoying.
Maybe if we started beating the hell out of those amongst us who persist on putting our hobby at risk. I kid, I kid...

 

[coys]

A couple of things I might suggest. You can buy a digital scale to measure how heavy the cartridge arm is applying needle pressure to the record. I have three turntables, and keep them all adjusted for perfect pressure. This will curtail skid and skips. I also keep my records clean and never touch the records surface. I have had colas spill on some that dried and seemed to ruin the record, but just a couple of sprays with a vinyl cleaner and a single pass with a record brush bring them back to pristine condition for me.
I have record bough in 1972 that sound crystal clear still,

I also remove the paper sleeves and put them in acid free sleeves, and each album cover gets a new acid free sleeve as well.
I don't care for every form of music on vinyl. I just tend to collect albums where the whole album is a concept to be listened to from start to finish... which is an art form that new musicians and new music fans are alien to. When we listen to albums, we set the time aside for just listening, maybe while flipping through books or magazines. But, for the most part, we start on first song side A, and listen all the way through. If we feel compelled to skip a song, I trade the album.
At this point, I have over 800 albums, all ready to be enjoyed.

However, if you just don't like vinyl, then so be it.

Thanks for the tips. I do enjoy the LP medium when I want to long play something (hah) in the sense of listening to the whole album, and I like that many used records are available quite cheap.

I've got a decent collection of old jazz and classical albums now, and that's the type of music I can put on and just let it fill the house and play the whole side through. I also like that I hear the music as people originally heard it when it was released.

 

[coys]

I use to be a hipster basher, but i've come to realize that our lives and technology leaves us feeling more isolated, not less, and we are all just vying for the love and attention of others, so lets just give folks a brake.

I agree with that. Most people do the things they do because they need something emotionally and that need isn't met in their life. Love, attention, significance. But if they learn the beauty of simplicity and treading the old paths in the process, so much the better.

 

[Andriko]

I saw teenagers out drinking the other night, and the kids are starting to listen to rock 'n' roll again. There is hope for the future.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

I saw teenagers out drinking the other night, and the kids are starting to listen to rock 'n' roll again. There is hope for the future.

I've turned my youngest daughter onto the Stones. She said that she was listening to Let it Bleed when she went through a drive thru, and the lady there asked he how old she was. Ha ha.

 

[mso489]

Maybe it is because I live in the provinces in the U.S., but I almost don't believe in "hipsters." It sounds to me like that is just a description of young people who are annoying in some conspicuous way. Sort of like Santa Clause. Just because the man has a red suit and a beard doesn't mean he owns a sled.

I guess in some places, where young people gather and follow the same annoying fads, I might come to believe in "Santa."

In my city, the local branch of the state university has many young people who are the first in their family to attend college and curriculums in engineering, business, and agriculture are strong, they mostly seem to adhere to the time-honored ways of being annoying by drinking too much beer and playing their music way too loud. Not hipsters.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

Yeh! I don't believe in hipsters either.

 

[mbmoehl]

I didn't say "i don't believe in hipsters", i know they exist. I have just decided not to judge them. I think someone famous once said "don't judge least ye be judged", but Christ if i could ever remember who...

 

[Lumbridge]

Maybe it is because I live in the provinces in the U.S., but I almost don't believe in "hipsters." It sounds to me like that is just a description of young people who are annoying in some conspicuous way. Sort of like Santa Clause. Just because the man has a red suit and a beard doesn't mean he owns a sled.

I guess in some places, where young people gather and follow the same annoying fads, I might come to believe in "Santa."

In my city, the local branch of the state university has many young people who are the first in their family to attend college and curriculums in engineering, business, and agriculture are strong, they mostly seem to adhere to the time-honored ways of being annoying by drinking too much beer and playing their music way too loud. Not hipsters.

A "hipster" is usually defined as one who eschews anything that is popular just because it is popular, while "ironically" liking relatively unpopular things just because they are unpopular. Hipsters are obsessed with projecting an image of uniqueness and being perceived as "avant-garde" but in reality, they are just imitating the true trend-setters that don't care what others think.
I know hipsters exist because I've met quite a few and am friends with one. They can be a little annoying, especially when they try very hard to remind you how unique and interesting they are, but they're not entirely terrible.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

A "hipster" is usually defined as one who eschews anything that is popular just because it is popular, while "ironically" liking relatively unpopular things just because they are unpopular.

Hmmm, people who consciously like things that suck, and hate things that are good. Nickleback fans?

 

[mso489]

My last two years of college, I was in journalism school and being asked to cover a regular city newspaper beat. So I'd wear a sports jacket with my slacks, and sometimes a tie, so when I went down to report on the police blotter, I'd look less like a suspect, and also have a little more formality asking for interviews other than the police blotter.

It was getting into "the Age of Aquarius," and I think some of my classmates really found it annoying, the jacket and tie. One young woman student reporter really got onto me about it, but I shrugged it off. I thought she might like me and was just being provocative, but it didn't proceed in that direction. Such is life.

 

[Lumbridge]

Hmmm, people who consciously like things that suck, and hate things that are good. Nickleback fans?

Nickleback is mainstream garbage, bro. It's all about the Dutch post-bluegrass dark noise dreamwave scene. If you don't listen to it, you're just another conformist poser.
*sips $15 stevia and hempmilk latte*

 

[Lumbridge]

My last two years of college, I was in journalism school and being asked to cover a regular city newspaper beat. So I'd wear a sports jacket with my slacks, and sometimes a tie, so when I went down to report on the police blotter, I'd look less like a suspect, and also have a little more formality asking for interviews other than the police blotter.

It was getting into "the Age of Aquarius," and I think some of my classmates really found it annoying, the jacket and tie. One young woman student reporter really got onto me about it, but I shrugged it off. I thought she might like me and was just being provocative, but it didn't proceed in that direction. Such is life.

Anyone bothered by your choice of attire must have been pretty thin-skinned.

 

[FurCoat]

I have to take you to a biker rally...

I went to an Easy Riders rally some years back. No words to describe it.

 

[Chasing Embers]

we are all just vying for the love and attention of others,

Yeah, that's not universally true. My closest neighbor is over a mile away and I work a 12 hour 7 day shift alone, all by choice.

 

[TN Jed]

I'm a mere 56 yo but I've never seen more interest in pipe smoking. The free market seems to indicate a robust community as well.

 

[Peterson314]

You can now spend $159 on a new Bluetooth-enabled CASSETTE PLAYER. I don't think anything truly dies.

I like this hobby because of the nostalgia. We'll never return to the Jimmy Stewart era of pipe smoking, and that's ok. For me, it's pure indulgence. It will stick around as long as the tobacco industry is alive.

I finally had a chance to have a few pipe-smoking sessions with my cigar-smoking brother, and after three days with my Vauen, I don't think he'll look at a cigar again. From pipe selection to the variety of tobaccos to the variety of smoking styles, there's just a lot more to do with a pipe than with other forms of smoking.

 

[Coreios]

There have been a number of articles published over the last few years about how tobacco pipe smoking is actually increasing in certain spheres. The two main groups of new pipe smokers seem to be: younger folks attracted to pipe smoking for various reasons (nostalgia often mentioned), and smokers of cigarettes and cigars who want to try pipes for reasons of health or economy or just to see. We see lots of examples of both groups on this forum, which the last time I checked seems to have a pretty high enrollment rate.

If I had to bet, I'd say pipe smoking will become much more popular in the near future. Here's why: some of the people in the group of younger pipe smokers are not just hipsters. They are genuinely cutting edge types--leaders in various ways. These are the people who start fashions. Sooner or later others will catch on.

I actually think you're right. We're already seeing it with young people switching back to flip phones. Everything makes a come back and the pipes over due. I myself switch from cigars to a pipe and to try to off cigarettes So theres that point you made too.

 

[OverMountain]

The best way we can all ensure a future for pipe tobacco is to do this:

Buy pipes
Buy tobacco.

Support those bringing great products to market.