Howdy! I'm Mike; I'm from Indiana. (If you read my post on the New Members Introduction, I apologize for repeating... but I felt like adding the background here too.)
Our family was vacationing at Brown County State Park a couple weeks ago, and we kept running into this older gentleman who was smoking a pipe. My wife said it reminded her of her dad, who occasionally smoked a pipe. She really loved the smell of the cherry blend that he would smoke. My dad also occasionally smoked, and I had kinda always been interested in the idea. We looked in a couple "men's toy stores" in Nashville, but didn't see any pipes for less that $40. I figured there must be a cheaper way to try this out.
So, when we got back home, I started researching "how to get started in pipe smoking". I quickly discovered that this site is THE PLACE. I've been lurking here for a couple weeks. I also researched local tobacco shops; I found a B&M whose website listed all sorts of stuff I recognized.
So, I stopped in on Tuesday and picked up a MM Legend, sampler packs of Lane 1Q and MacBaren Cherry Flake, some pipe cleaners, a tamper, some matches, and some filters - all for about $22. I showed it all to my wife when I got home; she didn't know that I had been looking into all this. Considering the fact that she is 100% against cigarettes (as am I), I took her approval as somewhat surprising.
A quick note: I especially love the "Cheat Sheet for New Pipe-Smokers" - very helpful when trying to start from a point somewhere other than total ignorance.
So, today I had my first bowl - of 1Q. I went through an entire box of 32 matches - for a couple reasons: (1) I was a little tentative and not sure what to do, and (2) I was outside on the front porch, where it was windy and rainy; about half of the matches didn't stay lit long enough to do any good. There were a couple times where I got the bowl well-lit where it would stay lit for 10 minutes or so, and that was also when I enjoyed my smoke the best.
I could tell that I wasn't inhaling about 98% of the time, because I could really tell the 2% of the time that did inhale.
I really did enjoy this first bowl. There was very little dottle left (a couple flakes); mostly ash. Took me about 45 minutes altogether.
I think that I will try the Cherry Flake tonight, after supper.
- Gronk
Our family was vacationing at Brown County State Park a couple weeks ago, and we kept running into this older gentleman who was smoking a pipe. My wife said it reminded her of her dad, who occasionally smoked a pipe. She really loved the smell of the cherry blend that he would smoke. My dad also occasionally smoked, and I had kinda always been interested in the idea. We looked in a couple "men's toy stores" in Nashville, but didn't see any pipes for less that $40. I figured there must be a cheaper way to try this out.
So, when we got back home, I started researching "how to get started in pipe smoking". I quickly discovered that this site is THE PLACE. I've been lurking here for a couple weeks. I also researched local tobacco shops; I found a B&M whose website listed all sorts of stuff I recognized.
So, I stopped in on Tuesday and picked up a MM Legend, sampler packs of Lane 1Q and MacBaren Cherry Flake, some pipe cleaners, a tamper, some matches, and some filters - all for about $22. I showed it all to my wife when I got home; she didn't know that I had been looking into all this. Considering the fact that she is 100% against cigarettes (as am I), I took her approval as somewhat surprising.
A quick note: I especially love the "Cheat Sheet for New Pipe-Smokers" - very helpful when trying to start from a point somewhere other than total ignorance.
So, today I had my first bowl - of 1Q. I went through an entire box of 32 matches - for a couple reasons: (1) I was a little tentative and not sure what to do, and (2) I was outside on the front porch, where it was windy and rainy; about half of the matches didn't stay lit long enough to do any good. There were a couple times where I got the bowl well-lit where it would stay lit for 10 minutes or so, and that was also when I enjoyed my smoke the best.
I could tell that I wasn't inhaling about 98% of the time, because I could really tell the 2% of the time that did inhale.
I really did enjoy this first bowl. There was very little dottle left (a couple flakes); mostly ash. Took me about 45 minutes altogether.
I think that I will try the Cherry Flake tonight, after supper.
- Gronk
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