Interesting thread and discussion going on here. I, and my significant other would call my "pipey-ing" a hobby. Its more involved than just eating or drinking to me. I feel like it's more like homebrewing, which I also enjoy. If it was something I just did, like buying a six pack or smoking a cigarette I would say its neither a hobby or a lifestyle, but I personally enjoy learning and reading more, understanding the deeper aspects of it like burn temps and chemistry behind it, learning about tobacco's and how they grow and what makes them different, as well as the history and other things like that. While I love the simple act of smoking too, it's those other things which to me makes it a hobby.
Pipe Smoking: Hobby? Life Style?
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This is a topic very close to my heart .. I smoked a pipe (not in the true sense) back in 1997 during my college days. During my college days, I used it as a quick Nicotine fix, but smoked good tobaccos (Capstan Blue and Gold are what this forum members would be familiar with, and some good (but not widely known) VAs. I picked up a pipe again in 2017 and thoroughly enjoyed it. However, smoking a pipe need you to slow down, and reflect. I have a very fast life, with little down time. I made pipe smoking a lifestyle choice, and tried to fit my lifestyle to pipe smoking. I smoked 5 bowls a day, spent all my free time in researching about pipe smoking, tasted new tobacco every day, bought pipes every two weeks and had a lot of fun (While it lasted).
Too much of a good thing is however is not good for you. One fine day ... suddenly I thought ... “What am I doing?” ... and put down my pipe, and stopped everything abruptly. I probably smoked only 4 or 5 bowls in the following two years.
After almost 2 years, I have started smoking a pipe again. In the true pipe smoking spirit, I hope I will take it slow. I will smoke a pipe only when I have free time for a pipe. Last time it was a lifestyle choice and it did not end well. This time, it is just a hobby and I hope I will continue many years to come.
The good thing is ... the youngest tobacco in my cellar is 2+ years old and the oldest is 9+ years, so I am constantly smoking matured tobacco :D
Too much of a good thing is however is not good for you. One fine day ... suddenly I thought ... “What am I doing?” ... and put down my pipe, and stopped everything abruptly. I probably smoked only 4 or 5 bowls in the following two years.
After almost 2 years, I have started smoking a pipe again. In the true pipe smoking spirit, I hope I will take it slow. I will smoke a pipe only when I have free time for a pipe. Last time it was a lifestyle choice and it did not end well. This time, it is just a hobby and I hope I will continue many years to come.
The good thing is ... the youngest tobacco in my cellar is 2+ years old and the oldest is 9+ years, so I am constantly smoking matured tobacco :D
This is such a fascinating topic. Beer is a great example. Many people, whether they homebrew or not, engage in the pursuit of drinking beer as a hobby. Any lush can buy a quart of King Cobra at the 7-11, but what about the people who wait hours in line for the Pliny beers at the Russian River Brewery or whatever? There has to be some element of hobby going on there. Of course, some of those people in line are also alcoholics and use the hobby element as a cover for their habit, and others still who recognize the habit aspect AND enjoy the hobby element of searching out new beers, tasting and comparing them. I think you could make a sort of similar Venn diagram type analogy for pipe smokers.
For myself I would consider it a hobby. TAD and PAD is just as interesting as learning pipe smoking techniques. As is reading and interacting on this forum. I don’t see myself as a smoker as I don’t feel the urge to smoke a pipe all the time nor have the time to do that. However I don’t think my non-smoking family members or friends would agree if I tried to tell them it was just a hobby. Perhaps I also think this way as I gave up one hobby and then replaced it with this one.
That definition is wide, very wide. Reading or watching TV is not a "hobby" for most people, nor is eating candy and ice cream. Whose definition?
No.
@Embers - I have always enjoyed the pipe when pipe is the main focus. If I am doing something else, and smoking a pipe in tandem, I often put down the pipe after 5/10 minutes. Sometimes I go for a cigarette immediately after that.
This experience is of course very personal.
This experience is of course very personal.
There are aspects to pipe smoking that definitely make it a hobby, such as collecting pipes, or pipes made by a specific maker, or collecting specific shapes, or the perfect exemplar from a variety of admired carvers, delving into the myth, lore, and/or history of pipes and tobaccos, or collecting and savoring very rare vintage blends. None of the above is necessary to the simple act of smoking.
Buying a pack from the corner convenience store and lighting up a cig is one thing. Firing up a bowl of vintage 1950's Craven Mixture in favored pipe and appreciating the flavors that time and chance have wrought, is another. And there are points in between.
As for lifestyle, I think of that as a term best applied toward a broad locus of activities, of which engaging in a hobby may be one.
Buying a pack from the corner convenience store and lighting up a cig is one thing. Firing up a bowl of vintage 1950's Craven Mixture in favored pipe and appreciating the flavors that time and chance have wrought, is another. And there are points in between.
As for lifestyle, I think of that as a term best applied toward a broad locus of activities, of which engaging in a hobby may be one.
If someone wants to call it their hobby, lifestyle, obsession, past-time, or magical time transportation, I could care less, and I wonder why we let such things bother us. For me, it's an addiction, and if someone doesn't like what I call it for myself, then I will enjoy seeing you squirm every time I say it. Thanks for telling me what your buttons are. I will be sure to hit those buttons as much as possible. Backy, backy, backy. :
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But, as mentioned, there is much more to this "thing" than just delivering nicotine. I smoke cigars, but I couldn't care less what company makes what, but some guys make more of a hobby out of cigars than me. When I smoked cigarettes, I didn't research cigarettes endlessly and stay up all night watching videos of people smoking cigarettes. However, with pipes, there is so much more to it than any other method of smoking that we search for things to call it. Hobby, past-time, lifestyle... different pipemakers, styles, tobaccos, tobacco companies, genres, there is so much to explore that it is hard to tag it along with cigarettes, dip, snuff, or cigars. So, we struggle to give it a category. I don't think that anyone who calls it a hobby thinks of it along the same vein as model airplanes or golf, but it fits better than just calling it a time suck.
Eh, I just say we roll with whatever someone wants to call it. Whatever burns your backy. He he! ::
:But, as mentioned, there is much more to this "thing" than just delivering nicotine. I smoke cigars, but I couldn't care less what company makes what, but some guys make more of a hobby out of cigars than me. When I smoked cigarettes, I didn't research cigarettes endlessly and stay up all night watching videos of people smoking cigarettes. However, with pipes, there is so much more to it than any other method of smoking that we search for things to call it. Hobby, past-time, lifestyle... different pipemakers, styles, tobaccos, tobacco companies, genres, there is so much to explore that it is hard to tag it along with cigarettes, dip, snuff, or cigars. So, we struggle to give it a category. I don't think that anyone who calls it a hobby thinks of it along the same vein as model airplanes or golf, but it fits better than just calling it a time suck.
Eh, I just say we roll with whatever someone wants to call it. Whatever burns your backy. He he! :
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Yeah. One reason I started the thread was to make clearer it's a hobby if it is for you, and not a hobby if it isn't. Those anti-hobbyists have their lobbyist.
Labels! Gotta have 'em. Life gets angsty for some if they can't comfortably "cubby hole" everything. Me? I'm not a fan of labels be it people or their activities.
An interesting and, for me, thought-provoking thread with a satisfying conclusion.
Agreed. Brings to mind the old adage, "A language is a dialect with an army and a navy." I personally happen to dislike the use of "hobby" for smoking (I would most likely not commit assault if kept from, say, my crochet hooks), so I won't use it unless the "hobbyists" can make me. And the once-a-weekers who smoke less in a month than I do before breakfast are kind of a different breed anyhow, so they can call it whatever they want as far as I'm concerned. Unless it's "piping" - in which case I'm raising an army. :D
I would say that smoking isn’t a hobby, I’m just legitimately addicted to nicotine. Anyway I can get it is fine by me. However, not everyone receives me spitting everywhere while I am dipping or appreciates the odor of cigarettes. Pipes give me the ability to consume tobacco with the least friction in public places. I would consider collecting pipes a hobby of mine as I sometimes buy pipes that I have no intention of smoking (or at least have no intentions of letting people see me smoke!) I’ve got to say calabash’s, Churchwardens, and anything with too much of a bend on it make me look super goofy...maybe it’s just my face shape, my age, or even just my face :lol:
I long for the days when I’m old and grey and can look mystical smoking a Churchwarden. But right now I just look out of place smoking one, like those teenagers who wear fedoras with several fashion faux pas. Although maybe I just need a half decent beard!
I long for the days when I’m old and grey and can look mystical smoking a Churchwarden. But right now I just look out of place smoking one, like those teenagers who wear fedoras with several fashion faux pas. Although maybe I just need a half decent beard!
For me, I enjoy the fact that there are so many different types of blends of tobacco and so many types of pipes. It's exciting to pull out different flavors in a blend and truly enjoy the experience. I'm a solitary smoker (as a lot of us are) and the activity helps me to focus my thoughts and calm my breathing. It has ritual. It requires patience. Discipline. I love that.
"Hobby" always struck me as something trivial, with respect to the upstanding gents above. But when I sit down at the keyboard to write--my profession--my pipe is with me, makes me feel more like an academic and a writer. Ever see a picture of J.R.R. Tolkein (whose picture is above my desk) without his pipe? What was your reaction when someone suggests you give up the pipe? Do you explode in rage when they confuse your pipe with a misspoken word, "cigarette"? I don't consider that a hobby. It's part of who I am.
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