When reading the posts here I’m often struck by the comments of some of our inexperienced pipesters. Though the majority of these are valid comments and/or good questions, there are quite a few that have me either scratching my head or rolling my eyes towards the heavens. While it’s not my intention to belittle the rookies (after all, we were all rookies once), please allow me to address some of the common themes I’ve noticed in hopes of reducing the amount of needless effluvium.
PLEASE NOTE: I do recognize that individual tastes vary, so this is not my attempt at swaying a personal opinion or preference. However I’ve been smoking and collecting pipes for literally half of my life, I attend a few pipe shows each year and own approximately 80 pipes ranging in value from a few dollars to several hundred, so what follows are my own opinions formed from time, money, and experience. Please feel free to agree, disagree, disregard, etc.
1. Respect the pipe. Learn to smoke a pipe properly. It sounds simple enough, but this a necessary first step. Learn to pack, light, tamp, relight and smoke so that you can smoke an average sized bowl in at least 45 minutes. Any less and you’re going too fast and not getting the most out of the experience. If you can’t finish a bowl all the way to the bottom you’re doing something wrong (there’s a difference between “don’t choose to finish” and “can’t finish”). Everything else is less important.
2. Sometimes details are important, sometimes they’re not. I’ve seen so many posts on topics like briar cake (“Do I have enough? Do I have too much?”), ghosting (“I smoked a latakia blend once and now I’m afraid the pipe is ghosted forever!”), tamping (“Is my tamper wide enough?”), and breaking in a pipe (driving around holding a lit pipe out the window so one wouldn’t “have to” break it in. Where’s the fun in that?) that it seems like some rookies are focused on a minor point of the process and ignoring the big picture (see point #1 above).
3. Your opinions are just as valid as anyone else’s; in fact sometimes more so as you’ve had less time to form biases. However, please know what you’re talking about. In a recent string a commenter claimed that he enjoyed cobs because they gave a neutral smoke to any tobacco. Perhaps he was thinking about meerschaum and typed “cob” instead (we’ve all had temporary brain f*rts) but this is just incorrect.
4. A pipe is not part of a costume (at least not to us). Pictures of your “smoking jacket” or questions about where to find ‘wild and crazy’ colored pipes, or pipes carved into wacky shapes, or pipes carved out of exotic (and sometimes questionable) materials imply that you’re more interested in the IMAGE of pipe smoking than actual pipe smoking (again, see #1 above).
5. Avoid describing a pipe as “a good smoker”. This doesn’t really say anything. If you like a pipe, say specifically what you like; the look, the feel, the engineering, the price, the sentimental value; all are valid descriptors. But “a good smoker” doesn’t really say anything, other than “I like this pipe but can’t state why”.
6. This applies to both rookies and veterans: If a pipe or tobacco brand is out of your budget, don’t dismiss it as being “all hype”, especially if you have no experience with it (remember the fable about the sour grapes?) Likewise (and this applies to me as much as anyone else) don’t dismiss bargain pipes or drugstore blends as being less than acceptable if you’ve never tried them. This is not to say that we must be politically correct and accept all opinions as being “right”, because if everyone is “right”, then nobody is. But you can disagree with an opinion without being dismissive. Personally I’m shopping around for my first Dr. Grabow and plan on trying it out objectively.
7. Finally, challenge your own opinions. Personally I prefer McClelland English blends smoked in a hand-carved, American-made pipe, but I’ll still pick up some Cornell & Diehl blends, or (as mentioned) a Dr. Grabow pipe just so I don’t get stuck in a rut. If you can, attend a pipe show or join a local pipe club or just hang out at a B&M with other pipe guys. There’s no better way to see what else is out there than first hand.
PLEASE NOTE: I do recognize that individual tastes vary, so this is not my attempt at swaying a personal opinion or preference. However I’ve been smoking and collecting pipes for literally half of my life, I attend a few pipe shows each year and own approximately 80 pipes ranging in value from a few dollars to several hundred, so what follows are my own opinions formed from time, money, and experience. Please feel free to agree, disagree, disregard, etc.
1. Respect the pipe. Learn to smoke a pipe properly. It sounds simple enough, but this a necessary first step. Learn to pack, light, tamp, relight and smoke so that you can smoke an average sized bowl in at least 45 minutes. Any less and you’re going too fast and not getting the most out of the experience. If you can’t finish a bowl all the way to the bottom you’re doing something wrong (there’s a difference between “don’t choose to finish” and “can’t finish”). Everything else is less important.
2. Sometimes details are important, sometimes they’re not. I’ve seen so many posts on topics like briar cake (“Do I have enough? Do I have too much?”), ghosting (“I smoked a latakia blend once and now I’m afraid the pipe is ghosted forever!”), tamping (“Is my tamper wide enough?”), and breaking in a pipe (driving around holding a lit pipe out the window so one wouldn’t “have to” break it in. Where’s the fun in that?) that it seems like some rookies are focused on a minor point of the process and ignoring the big picture (see point #1 above).
3. Your opinions are just as valid as anyone else’s; in fact sometimes more so as you’ve had less time to form biases. However, please know what you’re talking about. In a recent string a commenter claimed that he enjoyed cobs because they gave a neutral smoke to any tobacco. Perhaps he was thinking about meerschaum and typed “cob” instead (we’ve all had temporary brain f*rts) but this is just incorrect.
4. A pipe is not part of a costume (at least not to us). Pictures of your “smoking jacket” or questions about where to find ‘wild and crazy’ colored pipes, or pipes carved into wacky shapes, or pipes carved out of exotic (and sometimes questionable) materials imply that you’re more interested in the IMAGE of pipe smoking than actual pipe smoking (again, see #1 above).
5. Avoid describing a pipe as “a good smoker”. This doesn’t really say anything. If you like a pipe, say specifically what you like; the look, the feel, the engineering, the price, the sentimental value; all are valid descriptors. But “a good smoker” doesn’t really say anything, other than “I like this pipe but can’t state why”.
6. This applies to both rookies and veterans: If a pipe or tobacco brand is out of your budget, don’t dismiss it as being “all hype”, especially if you have no experience with it (remember the fable about the sour grapes?) Likewise (and this applies to me as much as anyone else) don’t dismiss bargain pipes or drugstore blends as being less than acceptable if you’ve never tried them. This is not to say that we must be politically correct and accept all opinions as being “right”, because if everyone is “right”, then nobody is. But you can disagree with an opinion without being dismissive. Personally I’m shopping around for my first Dr. Grabow and plan on trying it out objectively.
7. Finally, challenge your own opinions. Personally I prefer McClelland English blends smoked in a hand-carved, American-made pipe, but I’ll still pick up some Cornell & Diehl blends, or (as mentioned) a Dr. Grabow pipe just so I don’t get stuck in a rut. If you can, attend a pipe show or join a local pipe club or just hang out at a B&M with other pipe guys. There’s no better way to see what else is out there than first hand.
