I currently have 46 ish open tins jared up in pint jars that i puff on at random. Along with a dozen little jars with .5 to 1.5 oz in them. Only unopened tins are ones that are extras of already opened tins. Lifes to short to not try them. I do have bulk stuff cellared thats "off limits" until its aged.
Smoking a Tin Until Done or Whatever Strikes Your Fancy?
- Thread starter brandaves
- Start date
SmokingPipes.com Updates
Watch for Updates Twice a Week
PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor
Site Sponsors
PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor
PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor
PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor
PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor
I order some tins with the express purpose of cellaring for later. I leave those tins alone. The ones I intend to smoke now, I open and jar. I just pull from the jar until it’s empty, which honestly may take more than a year or so, since I smoke a lot of different blends. ?
I do all three! Open and jar; Open and smoke till the end; Open and keep it in the tin, in rotation for months.
I try not to have more than 5 tins open at any one time. Of course my, my smokes are generally all Virginia, VaPer, VaOr or VaBur flakes so most of my smokes are similar.
6 - 8 tins opened and in jars. Try not to open more than that. Works pretty well for me. Usually, two English/Balkan, two Va/Va/Per, and two whatever. Only smoke a bowl everyday or every other day of late.
I rarely, if ever, smoke the same blend twice in a row. Sometimes not even twice in the same day, week or month. I have somewhere between 75-100 different blends available for smoking, though I do have my favorites. I keep about 20 upstairs next to my recliner, and occasionally rotate a few of them back down to the man cave. If I’m in said man cave, I’ll smoke something that’s down there. It usually takes me a few minutes to decide what to smoke next, unless I have a real craving for a particular blend.
I have about 30 blends in jars and maybe another 30 still in the original tins. The ones in the jars drive me bananas. Initially I thought jarring them was good but having developed a palette and some favourites, there are many blends jarred which I am not in love with anymore. The problem is that the tobacco apocalypse has now arrived in NZ and you just have to smoke it all! So I am forcing my myself to smoke all those awful Latakia blends so I can then come back to the precious Burley.
So back on point, at some time in the future I intend to just open the tin and smoke the whole damned thing.
So back on point, at some time in the future I intend to just open the tin and smoke the whole damned thing.
I rotate between a number - I keep about 20-24 blends in rotation.
I keep all of my opened tins and jars in a tote (40 or so) and everything that has been jarred for aging or Unopened tins goes in a big filing cabinet in my basement. It's nice to have a variety at hand, so I prefer this method of storage.
Find someone down under who appreciates Latakia and dislikes Burley. Then you can both be chuffed.
I generally have two or three tins open ant any given time. One is usually a Virginia Flake, one a VaPer or something without Latakia but, with some Oriental and one with Latakia for the car.
Mike S,
Mike S,
I've got a couple on the go but I do find I try to smoke a tin and reward myself with a new blend? once done.
I normally have 25 tins and half a dozen bulks available to smoke at all times. I really enjoy variety and never know what I might be in the mood for.
It's interesting to me how far removed we are from so many of our pipe smoking fore fathers. Perhaps I'm inventing this fantasy in my mind...I just see a man with one, maybe two pipes and a can of OTC smoking until it's empty and then buying a new one of the exact same blend.
I was at a swap meet today and came across some old Grabow pipes that were so heavily caked that I have no earthly idea how they were smoked into that condition. My pinky finger wouldn't have fit into any of those bowls.
I can remember my grandfather showing me how to maintain tools. He would say, "take care of your tools and they'll take care of you." It is such a stark contrast between that sentiment and those pipes. Someone smoked them until they were done. Although, I suppose to the owner they were just drug store cheapies and they were seen as disposable I guess.
Pipes are tools. Take care of them and they'll take care of you. Same with tobacco. Still, my grandfather and certainly my great grandfather would look at me sideways if they saw my tobacco cellar and the number of open blends I have.
I was at a swap meet today and came across some old Grabow pipes that were so heavily caked that I have no earthly idea how they were smoked into that condition. My pinky finger wouldn't have fit into any of those bowls.
I can remember my grandfather showing me how to maintain tools. He would say, "take care of your tools and they'll take care of you." It is such a stark contrast between that sentiment and those pipes. Someone smoked them until they were done. Although, I suppose to the owner they were just drug store cheapies and they were seen as disposable I guess.
Pipes are tools. Take care of them and they'll take care of you. Same with tobacco. Still, my grandfather and certainly my great grandfather would look at me sideways if they saw my tobacco cellar and the number of open blends I have.
I don't smoke enough to open a tin and leave the contents in the tin, so I always jar them, but I consider those "open tins." I have dozens of them. They pick up a little age, and I have a lot to choose from without disturbing anything I'm deliberately aging.
I don't even think they saw the pipe as a tool.. just a delivery device for the tobacco that was replaceable.
Probably cheaper as well to just smoke to oblivion than to buy pipe cleaners!
I keep about 20-25 tins opened and rotate among them. In the past I was jumping randomly among them, now I tend to do 3-4 bowls in a row from the same tin, reason why you can capt some small flavors of a blend if you smoke few times in a row.
Or grandfather's didn't have cell phones. They didn't have the internet. I think their pipe smoking habits were different because the circumstances were different.
With that said, I would water a high percentage of pipe smokers today still have one or two pipes and smoke one or two blends. What you see here on this forum is more the exception than the rule.