New Member Introduction - 2017

[Skapie]

Hi all,
Got into pipes around 2010, on my own. Never really stopped but also didn’t smoke very often. Started out with a cheap mass-produced 9mm filter pipe, and soon thereafter upgraded it to a Lorenzo “Sptifire” half-bend filter pipe.
It is only last week that the bug bit me again after speaking to fellow enthusiasts, and I bought the pipe I’ve always wanted, a Savinelli 2614. I have thing for full-bent pipes, and my next will surely be an Oom Paul, named after the former president of the country I live in.
I was also gifted a horribly neglected Peterson’s system pipe which I thought about restoring after reading about it on this forum. Let’s just say it will take a LOT of hard work only to make it seem like a very used pipe as opposed to an abused one, and I’m not even sure it’s worth the trouble. Luckily for me we have a very good pipe and cigar store chain here in South Africa, so I’m sure I’ll get what I need without too much trouble from them.
Looking forward to read some more (I’ll be reading far more than posting), and maybe asking a few questions as I go about the restoration of the Peterson.
As will all things, I think this forum (and the new pipe) will lead to quite a bit more smoking on my side. As it is, just from reading I’m eager to try out non-aromatic tobacco, a thought that previously never crossed my mind.

 

[drbenway]

Hello all!

Finally joined up here. I smoked a pipe off and on about 10 yrs ago. Mac barren vanilla and various B&M aromatics-basically just puffed away knowing nothing. Was a cig smoker. Well gave up cigs 3 yrs ago and missed smoking so got back into the pipe about a year ago. Over that past year I have learned how to actually smoke a pipe and discovered and delved into Balkans, English, VaPer, VaBur, Orientals, Straight Va. I never knew how amazing tobacco could be. I have slowly been building a cellar and my wife has been fairly patient with my new obsession.

I have various briars(peterson, chacom,savinelli) a meerschaum and a few cobs. I enjoy them all. My current favorite tobaccos(in no particular order):

1.)Escudo

2.)Solani 660 silver flake

3.)Ranier long golden flake-this is an odd one, but the flavor is growing on me and its a good cool smoke.

4.)Stonehaven-I have been given some samples by some kind smokers and I am a bit obsessed with it. I have smoked penzance and margate-they are quality and enjoyable, but not worth the price markup.

This is a great forum and a great group of individuals. I have learned a lot from all of you and hope I can contribute back.

Thank you

 

[piippuiikka]

Hello for everybody from Eastern Finland, a few kilometers from Russian border. Surprisingly mild Karelian nights - with complete darkness and the stars above - have given me very pleasant pipe smoking experiences recently. At least when not raining, and yesterday night it did not - ahhh', I decided to write an introduction, after few weeks of enjoying the wonderful articles in this site.
I'm a newborn pipe smoker. I first started, following my father's and older brothers' footsteps, at the age of eighteen. At that time, pipe smoking was only a cheap option to satisfy one's nicotine addiction, intense inhaling needed. In the military service, pipe was very handy tool making it possible to smoke even when standing on guard at the port of our military base. I had only one small pipe at a time, tongue biting and bitter tasting sprays into one's mouth were regarded as normal incidents. How little did I know...
Afterwards came cigarettes. While I never have smoked large quantities of those - like a packet a day, they were part of my life for over fifteen years. In 1996, I stopped very suddenly. My father past away, and I had to renovate the apartment he left behind. The kitchen had been exposed to tobacco smoke for more than 30 years, and after opening an exhaust ventilation I got scared. The 150 mm diameter air duct had turned to a pitiful 20 mm hole - surrounded with some kind of ectoplasm. While removing the stuff to a plastic bag I smoked my last cigarettes in a row. That was it.
After that I've had only few smokes of vanilla cigars over the years, and only when visiting a pub with friends. Now I am 54 yrs old, and about a month ago happened something. An old friend from my youth came to visit us, he smoked cigars, we talked about "old" times and my pipe memories somehow became alive. I did some searches in the net, and found a very different pipe smoking world. The very next day I was in a local "mini store" (kiosk?) buying my first Missouri corn cob and a packet of Amphora Full Aroma. Buying a pipe tobacco seems to be very difficult here, packets are not allowed to inform what aroma the tobacco consists of. They are covered with pictures of lung cancer operations and warning stickers. Of course the youngsters behind the desk know nothing about the products, so you just have to guess or rely to your fading memories.
This country has maybe four or five real tobacco stores as combined, located in major cities, but you can not order tobacco via internet any more. Luckily, once in a month I visit my old home town of Oulu (where I was born and have lived for 53 years), to see my youngest son, my mother and other relatives. There is a little store with decent selection of pipe tobacco blends. Buying two or three tins per visit for the next month to come is enough, I believe. So far, I've enjoyed of "Early morning pipe" and "Irish mixture" (Irish Whiskey - you can't mention the whiskey here), and they have been great. Some of the kiosk brands are ok too - namely the red Amphora and Mac Baren Original Choice. All of those are aromatic more or less, and I'm keen to taste new blends of the real thing, having read so much from this site.
The world of not-inhaling-the-smoke and really tasting it seems wonderful. Looks like of a hobby for the rest of my life. I smoke mostly on weekends - maximum 3-4 bowls a week, and definitely not inside our house. The coming winter probably reduces my smoking even more, although I've already had time to craft my own pipe that has fairly thick walls to nicely warm my hands.
Huh', this is becoming a long post... Just came back from the local centre with my electrified bike. I had to stop at the local railway station, which nowadays is a nice pub with a terrace. Watching trains and people hurrying, slowly puffing my pipe and enjoying a new dark finnish wheat beer. Kippis!
-piippuiikka (aka Pipe Ike)

 

[PaulTheScandinavian]

Welcome to forum folks and specifically to my country-fellow Mr. Pipe Ike I wanna suggest asking those local tobacco stand-Kiosk to order some Mc Baren Golden blend* tobacco if they don't already have it on their shelves, thats a pretty good one Burley forward non aromatic medium strength blend,(another one which you may fancy is Greve Gilbert Hamiltons Blend a ribbon cut Swedish OTC) Agreed,we here up north are facing hard times when it comes to descent tobaccoes,

Best greets from southern seashore of Finland-Eu-Scandinavia, Paul

 

[admiral]

Name is Ivo. Located in Eastern Europe.
Been smoking for over 15 years. Started with aromatics, gradually moved to Lats, VaPers and etc.

Nowadays 95% of the time got English/Balkan mixtures in my pipe.

Smoking between 2 to 4 bowls a day in all kind of pipes - morta/cobs/briars.

Fan of aged tobaccos and this is what I usually have in my rotation. Unless tasting/sampling a new blend.

 

[danb77]

Hello all, just came across this site with a question that I had and found the answer so figured Id sign up. I started smoking pipes less than 2 weeks ago. Been a cigar smoker for a few years and always wanted to try pipes. Finally pulled the trigger and bought a MM legend and had some carter hall and must say that I enjoyed it a lot. Ive smoked a few bowls of that and last night had some frog Morton on the town which I liked a lot also. Ive got a lot of questions being new but Ill look around and see how many I can find. A little bit about me, Im 47 and live in Tampa and I work at a power plant. Looks like a good site here Im sure Ill enjoy it. Happy smoking

 

[cdillon23]

Greetings from Indianapolis all. I am a very new pipe smoker of 2 weeks! I have enjoyed cigars for some time now and was looking for a little different pace. Decided to try pipes. First few times were not enjoyable but I stuck with it and now I am discovering so much. I look forward to getting to know all of you!

 

[jpmcwjr]

Welcome, gents, all. Hope you enjoy your time!

 

[james72]

Hello all,

Not sure if this is the right button to click to post or not, but I'll give it a go and find out. My name is James and I live in central Texas. I started smoking a pipe when I was 15 or 16. I took a three-decade hiatus from it then started up again about 4 years ago. I tested TAD-positive three years ago and things look pretty grim for me. I'm more of a tobacco-man than a pipe-man, but that could all change given enough time. I appreciate and own all genres of tobacco but lately I'm into Virginias, especially aged ones when I can find them for a reasonable price. Anyway, nice to meet you all

 

[paddypiper]

Welcome to all the new members.

 

[geoff10]

Hello all, Thank you for having me on this forum. I'm very very new to the pipe smoking and so far i'm loving it. I'm from Atlanta area. I would love some ideas and best tobacco to use. I have the FESS wooden pipe churchwarden style. Also should I use a filter or is it best to not use a filter for better flavor?

 

[join63]

Hi everyone, and happy to belong to this forum.

I'm Italian and I'm helping with google translate, so I'll definitely make mistakes, but be patient.

I signed up to have a pipe world view outside the Italian borders, to have more global knowledge and to interact with you.

I smoke the pipe for about 15 years and I prefer English Mixtures and sometimes a bit of Virginia.

My hobby is pipemaking for about 10 years, my lab is my paradise and as soon as I have some free time, I take refuge in my bunker ... ::

Thank you

join63

 

[vokaa]

I should probably post a little intro here since I've been posting around!
Hello everyone! My name is Jakob. I'm 18, born in Louisiana but now living in north Maryland. Currently, I'm still in high school as a senior (got held back a year due to switching schools). I started smoking pipes around the 5th with a cob pipe. Later the next day, I went back to the cigar shop and bought myself a pipe and some more tobacco. Since then, I've been smoking anywhere from 2-5 bowls a day, and I've been enjoying it every time. Besides smoking, I enjoy studying religion and art, writing music and playing it and playing the daily game. I hope to get to know everyone better as time goes on! Have a nice day

 

[cwarmouth]

Howdy y'all. I guess I should have posted here first. I've already posted a couple other messages. I'm Carl and I live in Idaho. I found this site via Reborn Pipes which I read fairly often. This looks like a fun site. I have only been smoking a few years. I have a tendency to go overboard in my hobbies and get super obsessive over them. When I started pipe smoking I swore I would have only one pipe which I would smoke a few time a year and be satisfied with white package Captain Black forever., Oops. Now I have amassed quite a good assortment of pipes, none of which I have paid more than $30 for. I am working on collecting all the Dr. Grabow "color" pipes. I have two Peterson System pipes, a Velani, a couple Savenellis, an old Medico briar, a 20's era Royal Demuth, a few more Dr. Graybows, and two beautifully colored generic Meerschaums. I really enjoy restoring old junkers, but someday I will spring for the ultimate expensive pipe. A Dunhill or something statusy like that. Don't know what that is yet though. My favorite baccys is Presbyterian Blend. After that I love Frog Morton On the Town, Nightcap, and Westminster. Mostly smoke Latakia blends but have recently started trying some Pirique blends and really enjoy Plum Pudding and Fire Storm. I'm always open to suggestions whether it be blends like the ones I already mentioned or something totally different.
So that's about it.
CW

 

[jorchamp]

Hi my mane is Jorge. I am 67 years old. Retired high school teacher (Spanish). I have been smoking pipe on and off since my 20s. My preference is Virginia tobaccos. My favorite is Dunhill Flake. I did enjoy Troost flake in my younger days - no longer available. I don't have a particular favorite pipe style or brand, but these days I am partial to longer stem pipes. Glad to joy the group.

 

[preacherpipe]

Hello everyone! Glad to be part of the forum. I live in mid/lower Michigan and have been smoking a pipe for about 20 years, though only actively and intelligently for about 4. Favorite tobaccos at the moment would be HH Vintage Syrian, Frog Morton Cellar, and McClelland's 5100 is growing on me.

 

[skydog]

Hello everyone, didn't see this thread when I first joined a few months back so figured I'd post in here now. I was born and raised in NC and loved getting a chance to go work the tobacco fields with my grandpa growing up. It was definitely his influence that lead me to buy a corn cob around 15 years ago when I was in college and start sampling the OTC blends. After years of occasional pipes I became a cigar guy but never really felt at home with the whole culture or price tag of cigars. My current PAD and TAD may make my previous cigar budget look measly but I definitely get more bang for my buck out of pipes and also enjoy the hobby and the culture much more than I ever did cigars. I've still got some cigars I enjoy occasionally but pipe tobacco feels like home to me now so I'm glad to have found a good forum of educated pipers to join.

 

[dlcorn]

Hello everyone. Cigarette and cigar smoker for 11 years here. Been trying to cut back on cigarettes lately, which is hard to do working in food service. Bought a cheap pipe off eBay a few years ago. It didn't smoke well and I didn't know how to smoke it so I hated it. This year I went to the briar and burley in Bloomington, In and picked up a corn cob and some tobaccos. Traveling through the Balkans currently and smoked all of my tobacco so I'm stuck with wo Larsens at the moment, but enjoying smoking my pipe in pubs and while traveling. Have been reading the forums lately and decided to finally join. Looking forward to trying some of these recommendations when I'm back home in the states.

 

[usrkain47]

Hello! I’ll keep it short and sweet! Been lurking here for some time. Decided to join in a couple threads! Full time pipe smoker with an occasional hand rolled Peter Stokkebye Amsterdam Shag cigarette at work. Thanks to the fabulous forum members that share such superb information that has helped me in collecting (mostly English estate) pipes! Love reading reviews and information about eras gone by! Love seeing everyones amazing pipe collection! What a fine community that this fine forum is! Located in Knoxville, TN. Mostly English smoker.

 

[maddis]

Hi all, new member here. I'm located in Central Massachusetts, U.S. and I've been smoking a pipe for about ten years, and making them for the last seven. Pipes and Tobaccos magazine recently had an article on my pipes and you can see them at:
maddispipes.com
I'm looking forward to being a member of this forum! Michael