Time Honored Pipes

[mso489]

If you smoke a pipe a long time, chances are it is at least a good smoker, if not better. If they're properly maintained, pipes tend to get better, it seems to me. Here are several reasons, off the cuff, and probably others can add to the list. 1) Pipes break in, of course, but over time they also improve, the briar dries out even more, may lose a little weight, and the chamber gets more seasoned. 2) You learn which blends go best in particular pipes, at least to your tastes, and this makes a pipe work better for you. 3) Once a pipe gains some age, it becomes irreplaceable in the sense that, though that brand and shape may be available, the new pipe isn't going to be exactly like its earlier version. Hence all your pipes become estate pipes, more rare and unique. 4) You've made any needed adjustments like removing a stinger, getting an adaptor for non-filter smoking, replacing a stem for one more suited to you, etc. 5) Slow realization that what you thought was a serviceable pipe is excellent, in light weight, size of bowl, shaping, etc. What else recommends your oldies but goodies? Whether estates or bought new and brought along?

 

[saltedplug]

From "Rusty" on Christian Pipe Smokers: Don't clean pipes until the draught closes. The tars deposited in the airway are part of the taste. Works for me as what a chore it is to remove even a year's deposit with bristle cleaners and high-test alcohol. Mind you, I never found pipes so cleaned to lose flavor, but Rusty did, and he is a pipe smoking virtuoso, dominating that board.

 

[mikethompson]

Much like an old pair of jeans feel more comfortable than a new one.
Part of the appeal of an older pipe, at least to me, is the accumulated memories in it. I have a Straumbach Meerschaum that I just love. It was the first pipe I bought new and has been with me on this crazy pipe adventure. I'm also getting a 1950 Peterson cleaned up by a fellow member. That pipe is as old as my parents. I like imagining a life the pipe had before I got it.

 

[saltedplug]

A much used pipe is like an old friend with whom one has shared fond memories. It the agent through which repeated solace has come.

 

[brian64]

Don't clean pipes until the draught closes. The tars deposited in the airway are part of the taste.

Interesting...I don't seem to recall anyone making that assertion before.

 

[sablebrush52]

Interesting...I don't seem to recall anyone making that assertion before.

Nope, because it's really horrible advice. Sure it becomes part of the taste, the sour rancid part of the taste. But if someone likes sour & rancid, and that's how they think their tobacco should taste, it's the way to go. Plus you get the benefit of never tasting the subtleties of a particular blend since you're getting the stale flavors of everything else you've smoked since the last time you bestirred yourself to clean it.
What's particularly hilarious about this bit of advice is that it completely negates the benefit of drilling with an open draw. Instead you get to suck like crazy while your pipe overheats and your head implodes.
There are a few pipes that evoke special associations, but mostly, the benefit of a familiar pipe is that I've been able to match specific pipes to specific tobaccos that provide me with a result that I enjoy more than other combinations.

 

[brian64]

Sure it becomes part of the taste, the sour rancid part of the taste.

There's no honor in a sour rancid pipe...only time.

 

[mso489]

I think maintaining a pipe and cleaning it after every bowl or smoking session is the key to bringing along pipes so they get better with age. Never bathing probably won't promote longevity.

 

[dottiewarden]

The pipe you choose is as important as the tobacco you choose to smoke in it. The pipes I smoke most often are related to the blends I seem to be favoring at the time. This repeated smoking of specific blends in a pipe creates a desirable ghost that, IMO, contributes to the quality of taste, bowl after bowl. I certainly wouldn't prescribe to cleaning a pipe after each smoke, as I find that to be excessive and unnecessary. I love to pick up a pipe, give it a sniff and be greeted with the delicious aroma left behind from previous smokes of a favorite blend. Conversely, if I pick up a pipe and it smells a little off I'll run a couple of pipe cleaners through it and set it aside for a day or two. If the cake seems to be getting out of hand, I'll scrape it out as well. I rarely, if ever, remove the protective tar and soot from the rim. But that's about it for my pipe maintenance program.
Back to the OP's question, I have to agree with saltedplug when he states:

A much used pipe is like an old friend with whom one has shared fond memories.

 

[seanv]

Keeping certain pipes for certain styles does bring out the best of the pipe and tobacco in my opinion. I have a dedicated set of pipes for certain styles. As for cleaning I almost never go more than two smokes without a thorough cleaning, not salt and alcohol but take it apart and clean it all the way through. I use an alcohol dipped pipe cleaner on the stem usually every other weekend on a heavily used pipe. I want to keep these things in top shape for the rest of my smoking life.

 

[condorlover1]

I am sure there are people out in the near abroad who practice the same philosophy when it comes to underwear or socks. I mean until immediate friends and family collapse due to your personal stench why bother changing them. Its same logic with pipes and nothing smells more funky than smoking a dirty old pipe and I am sure the taste must be indescribable to any normal human pipe smoker.

 

[mackeson]

I am sure there are people out in the near abroad who practice the same philosophy when it comes to underwear or socks.

I guess it would be an advantage to have undergarments that stand up on their own for those times one is tired or exhausted. :D
I don't think I'd be able to let a pipe go even as an experiment. I clean them out of habit

 

[bnichols23]

For me it's more just karma & long-term affection I have for the ones I've kept the longest. I don't link specific tobaccos to specific pipes any more, although I did for a number of years.
The idea of never cleaning out the tars I guess is just another of those subjective things that define part of who we are. Personally, not my taste at all. Having picked up a lot of unrestored estates recently, I've probably made some in the bristle cleaner/rubbing alcohol industry a shade richer. Those pipes are *mine* now, & estate origins or not, I want the draw, taste, tobaccos, they have to be mine too.

 

[mso489]

I'm repeating myself, but I'd say maintaining pipes well and energetically is part of what makes them improve, without question. Same with vehicles.