Starting A Collection/ Returning to Pipe Smoking - Tons of Questions for Vetrens!

[jdb67]

There is a thing called 'Delayed Gratification Technique' in pipe smoking and I also think it applies to buying pipes. Buy one at a time and just pick up one now and then and before long you have a good collection. I for one gravitate to artisan pipes...some cheap and some expensive, but all made by hand by someone that was proud to put their name on their work of art. No offense to factory pipes as I have a number of those too...just saying I have developed more appreciation personally for artisan pipes. Though I do love my Dunhills...and my Castello...and

 

[ssjones]

Forum sponsor Blue Room Briars is also a great place for estate pipes, I highly recommend. Mkelaw pipes is also the real deal.

 

[mikethompson]

You already have a ton of good advice, so I won't muddy the waters further. But if it were me, I'd go slow. Sure you can buy a lot of 50 pipes on eBay, but then what? Are you a 'better' pipe smoker or person if you have a ton of estates, some of which would be junk?

 

[hoosierpipeguy]

I'd rather have 2 $300 pipes or 3 $200 pipes than 12 $50 pipes. To be on the safe side, show some patience and buy a couple of $100 Savinelli or equivalent estates on eBay. Or buy new Moretti on eBay direct from the Carver for around $100 or less. Both smoke about as good as any pipes you'll buy.

 

[ProfMT]

Hello fellow pipers!

After almost a decade of cigarette and cigar smoking I've decided to drop those habits by the wayside and go back to my original love of smoking pipes!

Here's the dilemma, back when I first started there was a fantastic little B&M shop near me called Smokers Haven where I could shop pipes of all shapes and sizes to my hearts desire. They had an amazing staff of older gentlemen who knew exactly what they were doing and even had a little workshop in the back where they made their own customs and repairs. Actually they're still open so if you're ever around Buffalo NY they're absolutely worth a trip, but I digress.

I've since moved to the Western US, Las Vegas specifically, and I have come to accept that this is very much a Cigar town with not too much in the way of pipe B&Ms, so it's online shopping for me. Now, I've already gone and got myself a little corncob for testing blends, a cheap Rossi Vittoria, and a birth year estate for my upcoming birthday from SP and SP.eu respectively.
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I have a TON of questions but the $160-$240 question now on Ebay is, should I buy a 10-30 pipe lot of estate pipes to start building my rotation and collection?

Looking at all the pipes I'd really like to try, Peterson System, Savinelli Trevi 311 KS (per Muttnchop Piper recommendation), 9mm Filter style, Bringham Rock Maple filtered, Churchwarden, Radiator, Meerschaum, I'm going to be spending at least $600 if I get them all new. While I'm not entirely opposed to that I also just got into shooting and that's burning a hole in my bank account as well so I'm trying to balance my hobby spending.

Or should I just bite the bullet and buy them over time from smokingpipes because they're a well known reliable source?
PS. if anyone has better sites I'm all ears, right now I'm just using SP and Cigarsandpipes.

But if I get an estate lot I can learn about restoration as well, or is that such an involved process I'm better off paying a service $10-50 per pipe to restore them? I don't mind spending 2-3 hours sanding/polishing/staining if that's what it takes, what worries me is the Salt bath/odor extraction process cracking vintage pipes.

Like I said, I've got a million questions here hahaha. I appreciate any and all comments to assist me as I restart my journey into the world of gentlemanliness.

Welcome. Love you post. I live in the Buffalo area and frequent Smokers Haven regularly.

 

[elasmo]

I'd space them out. Everytime I wanna treat myself, I grab a new pipe...if you buy them all at once, you might get that itch and then...no money. ? I'm always perusing ebay...normally get my pipes around 70-80% of their retail.

 

[JPremo]

Welcome. Love you post. I live in the Buffalo area and frequent Smokers Haven regularly.

Wow what a small world, that's awesome! I've been looking in on them recently and I'm glad to see they're still doing as good as ever.

I'm debating reaching out to them for a custom pipe job, I know they do solid work even if they're not a big name in the industry. Still I'd prefer to give my business to the place that gave me my first glimpse into the world of pipes than anywhere else.

Ps. Sponge Candy is not the same made at home

 

[hawky454]

Welcome!

Just as a note, definitely use caution when buying on eBay. When I was a novice I bought a lot of pipes that looked great but at the time I didn’t know what I was looking for. I regretted a lot of those early estate purchases as most of the pipes came with cheap, pre-molded stems and I had no idear they weren’t originals as they just happened to forget to mention that they were replacement stems. I’ve gotten cracked shanks and burned out chambers and some real stinkers. As you go you’ll develop an eye of what to look for but there are a lot of sellers out there that bate the new pipe smokers.

 

[Old School 3319]

I dont think there is anything wrong with estate pipes the majority of mine are. My question would be how much are you going to smoke your pipes. Some guys only smoke once a day others all day. I own lower end pipes and I am a heavy smoker. I smoke upwards of ten times a day. I guess its a matter of what you like

 

[mso489]

Just a note, since I buy some lower priced new pipes, it really pays to study this (or any) part of the market quite a bit. Seriously, take a few weeks to see what is out there, and shop various brands to see what you like and don't. I've bought some excellent smoking pipes, by my lights, at the low end of price, but working at it pays off, and you get stung buying anything on impulse. The same advice probably applies to high end factory and artisan pipes. I definitely think you learn more in the process buying one pipe at a time, so you focus on it and think about it more.

 

[lawdawg]

My recommendation is to get a few inexpensive pipes up front so that you have a halfway decent rotation to start. Thereafter, just buy yourself nice pipes, one or two at a time. If you want a deal on some good cheap beater pipes, check out Tim West on ebay. He's a pipe maker and pipe repairman, and he basically sells refurbished basket pipes cheap on ebay every week. I've still got two I bought from him early on at maybe $10 a pop, and those are the pipes I'll take camping etc. if I want to bring a briar with me.

 

[JPremo]

check out Tim West on ebay.

I have heard of him before but I just saved his store on my ebay, definitely some solid prices on there for decent enough pipes.

I've decided to split the difference with the advice on here, there's a few pipes that I bought outright just to try some different styles and because I liked the looks. Namely the Brigham rock maple, MM Cob, a 9mm T Christiano, a Peterson system, a basic Rossi (which is my least favorite so far) and then I'm doing a few local/online estate buys where I can find them. With estates I'm limiting my price to $10 per piece or $20-30 for something special, so I don't go crazy trying to get a bunch of big name pipes right off the bat. The restoration is actually a lot of fun and I have a few that I'm working on which I'll upload here eventually.

I'm still missing a churchwarden but I've heard it's better to find a pipe you like and get a churchwarden stem made for it than just buying the mass produced ones. I like the idea of having a convertible churchwarden but I'd want it to be worth the investment and I don't really like the look of the Stanwell HCA or the Savs.

I think my most frivolous purchase so far was the birth year pipe from Japan. However, with it being a dated collectable, I figured the price would only go up the more years I waited to get one. Either way, I do love having it in my collection for special occasions and my b-day!

 

[logs]

I agree with mikethompson and hawky454, I'd go slow on the estate pipes. There are a lot of good buys on ebay but there's just as much garbage. $140-$260 is a lot to spend on a collection of untested estates pipes. Out of ten junk estate pipes you might get two that are decent smokers with the rest being ghosted or have some other problem that you'll find annoying. You could get a decent Peterson or two for that much money and that's a much safer bet.
Or corncobs, there's always corncobs.

(nevermind, I see you've already solved the problem)

 

[lordofthepiperings]

The Tobacco Leaf on Lake Mead has a fairly decent selection of Peterson, Savinelli, I think some Stanwells, and some Dunhills. No idea if they're open or not cause of the pandemic.

The Vegas pipe scene is definitely incognito for sure. There are pipe smokers here, but really hard to find them. There is a Vegas Pipe Community Instagram account and I think a Facebook page to find some local pipe smokers to meet up with. I used to meet with a group of 3-4 guys at the Tobacco Leaf on Rainbow and the 215, but Covid came and so 2020 2020'd.

If I had to redo learning the hobby all over again I'd buy one of those grab bags from Missouri Meerschaum and use those to really get my packing and cadence down. To get into briars I'd buy some (4-6) estate Savinellis/Stanwells/Kaywoodies/Petersons from SmokingPipes. Once I got the cadence down and the maintenance of the briars then I'd shift into really saving up and spending around $200-$300 per pipe.

When I started out I thought it was crazy to spend so much on one pipe, but reality was I had spent about $3,000 on 30 $100 pipes, so I could have had 10 $300 pipes that were made from better briar and were drilled and finished a lot better. I also learned you honestly don't need a 30 pipe rotation if you're only having 2-3 bowls a day. You really can up the quality of your collection more than you think. If you're going into SmokingPipes estates section at $200-$300 per pipe you can get some really really good smokers from artisan carvers. I have a Sam Adebayo blasted full bent billiard on my way that was only $235.

 

[ProfMT]

Wow what a small world, that's awesome! I've been looking in on them recently and I'm glad to see they're still doing as good as ever.

I'm debating reaching out to them for a custom pipe job, I know they do solid work even if they're not a big name in the industry. Still I'd prefer to give my business to the place that gave me my first glimpse into the world of pipes than anywhere else.

Ps. Sponge Candy is not the same made at home

There’s nothing like the sponge candy from here. It’s truly delicious.
And yes, their pipes are crafted beautifully. I might have a custom one made too sometime in the near future. While I really enjoy their aromatics, I wish the price of a tin in New York wasn’t so much that I have to buy most of my tobacco online.

 

[JPremo]

My question would be how much are you going to smoke your pipes.

Right around 2 to 3 times a day

The Tobacco Leaf on Lake Mead has a fairly decent selection of Peterson, Savinelli, I think some Stanwells, and some Dunhills.

I used to meet with a group of 3-4 guys at the Tobacco Leaf on Rainbow and the 215, but Covid came and so 2020 2020'd.

I checked out each of the Tobacco Leafs in town and that one along with the one in Henderson are my favorite. The lake mead one had a Peterson Deluxe estate with a gold army mount that caught my eye, but the price was waay more than I'm going to spend on anything less than a custom for right now. I used to go to the rainbow store for cigars buuut yeah I guess that's closed until further notice, apparently they didn't get the foot traffic the other stores got.

I saw there was some kind of pipe related store in the indoor swap meet, not sure if it's actual tobacco pipes, but I haven't had the chance to check it out yet. Thanks for the scoop on Sam Adebayo, I hadn't heard of him but those are some interesting pipes!

If you guys end up hanging around any of the other stores and wouldn't mind one more let me know!

 

[badbriar]

Look at nice, low cost estates from good sources. Also, look at Dr. Grabow pipes. Estate Grabows are prefereble at times, as they often have screw on tennons and some are adjustomatics. I have several old Grabows and some are among my favorites. Most old ones smoke really well and have surprisingly good briar. I'd put them up there with Savinellis, Stanwells, etc.

 

[edger]

I guess this is a bit of a personality test, but I'd suggest you not buy pipes by the lot. I find buying each pipe separately, whether new or estate, gives you a chance, every time, to consider all of the specifications, from design, to finish, to shape, to materials, and so on. You learn a lot as you go, and this is very important to both the quality of purchases and your enjoyment of them in smoking. Same goes for blends. Don't stock up twenty tins at a time. Sample a lot for several years, in small quantities. Your tastes will change. Learn as you go. Take it slow. Enjoyment first, buying stuff second, third, or fifth. With pipes, you will find a variety that will fill various niches that you might not find in just buying a lot of pipes. You need a small pipe or two, a large one, maybe a churchwarden, an Oom-Paul. But study each one as a separate problem, challenge, and enticement. This will work much better than just raking in a bunch of pipes, or blends.

Couldn't agree more. Curb your enthusiasm a hair. Take a deep retohale. Enjoy the journey. All will be revealed in time.

 

[sandollars]

Well, you've already got a "collection" of pipes. You only need one pipe to smoke a pipe.

I think it would be much better to purchase one, special pipe at a time over the next few years. You won't know, for sure, which type of pipe best suits you. Go slow, let each pipe teach you the lessons it has to teach.

You are not missing a thing by having three pipes, IMHO.

I wished I had done this from the beginning. I now have a bunch of mid priced Petersons and a few others that I am going to put up on eBay....

 

[CoffeeAndBourbon]

I say, bust buy 3 - 4 MM cobs while getting up to speed. They are cheap, smoke great and you can save up for pipes you may like better.