Too Many Pipes... Is It Possible?

[waznyf]

Hey Everyone,
Now you may call me crazy for ever even thinking such a thought, but I want to know if you think that one can have too many pipes. Yes, it is always nice to get a new pipe. We love getting new things and adding to our collections.
Currently, I have somewhere between 20 and 30 pipes in my collection. This may be just a tiny numnber compared to some collections, but sometimes I find myself looking at all my pipes and wondering why I "need" so many. Too be quite honest, I probably only smoke about half of my pipes regularly.In reality I could do all the smoking that I could ever want to do in just one pipe if I treated it well.
So my fellow brothers and sisters of the briar.... What do you think? Can you have too many pipes?

It could just be that I have not chosen the most suitable pipes for myself and that is why they don't all get the amount of love that they deserve. Maybe this all comes back to Brian Levine's question about whether or not you are a pipe person or a tobacco person. Anyway, I would love to hear what you all have to say!
-Frank

 

[teufelhund]

I have 9 pipes and I'm always looking for more really. Only 5 of them are briars and of my briars I am finding that three of them are just plain awesome; So the other two have just gone to the way side. I figure if I can fill a rack with briars and have a handful of meers and clays and cobs then I'd be pretty happy. It may be weird of me to say, but when counting my pipes; I don't really feel like cobs or clays count. Don't get me wrong; I love them, but maybe it's just because they're so cheap and easily replaced that I just place more emphasis on meers and briars.

 

[peckinpahhombre]

25030 pipes!? Now ... THAT is a rotation

 

[drwatson]

I think yes, but it would be like 2-3 hundred..I often think of the guys you see from the old days that had maybe 2 if they were lucky. I think my dad had four tops! But it's awlays been a personal choice.

 

[lumberjakpipester]

Unless your house collapse under all the weight of the collection... no.

 

[chubbster]

Just an observation I made trough the past few years.
I used to have 30 pipes or so. This was before I bought higher end artisan pipes. I always found something I didn't like about them. They were never fully broken in, and I know at the time, I bought then just to buy.
Fast forward to the present. I have three pipes, and two corncobs (unsmoked). I bought one, and smoked it every single day. Multiple bowls a day. I got te pipe exactly how I wanted, and it joyed me to smoke it. It broke in, and is one of the best smoking pipes I have ever smoked or owned.
I then bought number two. Again, exactly how unwanted it. I liked every single thing about it, and again, it broke in quickly due to how often it wa smoked.
Can someone really et to know 30+ pipes?
I am a huge fan of good smoking pipes. I believe that part of the good smoking qualities come from smoking it and getting it seasoned or broken in. I know that you can, in due time, break it in. But I never received the smoking quality I do now, from a pipe I smoked once a month because of my enormous rotation.
YMMV, but I like to get to know a pipe and all it has to offer. Thy takes dedicated smoking which means dedicated time. I dot have the time to do that to more than a few pipes.
If part of the joy, is the variety of pipes, then for it. I personally get satisfaction from a good ol smoking buddy, that I know. A good seasoned, well loves pipe, that shares it space with very few others an get smoked how it was meant to be.

 

[kashmir]

Currently I care for some 65 racked pipes in my collection. I say "care for" because I see my role as curatorial. I am simply a custodian of these beautiful pipes during my brief stay here, before moving on to greener pasteurs. Their future owners will hopefully appreciate the effort I've maintained to keep them in good stead.
Since I smoke quite a bit, nearly all 65 of them see action on a fairly regular basis. These days my focus is more on cellaring tobacco, rather than pipe acquisition.
One of my recent interests has been to replace my staid black vulcanite stems with exotic Lucite stems. I have commissioned several carvers to create beautiful stems for me from acrylic pen blanks such as the Tru-stone line offered by exoticblanks.com. This has breathed new life into my strumels, and enhanced the smoking experience quite considerably. Of course I maintain the originals in pristine glossy condition in sealed ziplocks.
Anyhoo, 65 is a comfortable number for me and my smoking frequency. When I first started however, I got by with just three pipes for many, many years. That is, until the whole internet PAD frenzy thing came along, what with eBay, PayPal and all the on-line retailers. I tend to avoid looking at new pipes lest the temptation overwhelm me and detract from my cellaring efforts.

 

[lestrout]

You know you have to too many pipes when .....
.... the last 2 dozen or so pipes you have bought haven't yet been puffed, much less broken in.
Not entirely true, though - a good Morley's Club buddy got me a naked bent brandyish author from his friend Alberto Bonifiglioli several months ago, and in the interests of showing him how its coloration progresses from meeting to meeting, I've pressed it into service in the Virginias Project. Also, at the NYC/Newark Pipe Show, I was so taken with the estate Radesian and Becker Morta that I got from a friend that those two got thrown into the puff'em pile. Along with the gorgeous Claessen Danish Egg from another buddy. But I do have those coupla dozen collecting dust, though I love them.
hp

les

 

[puffy]

I have about 25 pipes.That's plenty for me.I still want a couple shapes though that I don't have

 

[mso489]

I have about three dozen pipes, including two MM cobs and two U.S. machine made pipes that cost about $30.

All the rest are mid-levels in a pretty wide range of prices. I smoke them all, rotate them all. Pipes I didn't

want to smoke, I traded. I have nearly all briars, made in all of the major pipe making countries including the

U.S. I have a wide variety of shapes. I think the selection means a lot to me. I've though of reducing the

pipes to many fewer high-grade pipes, but too many that I have are gifts and connect to stories that

mean more to me than owning high-priced pipes. Some of my pipes are nearly 40 years old, many were

bought in the past three years. I don't want to just accumulate pipes, so I'm probably at capacity. I only

have one unsmoked, and that is only because I am working up to breaking in a new pipe. For me,

fifty would be too many. Any in storage would be too many. Any I didn't smoke from time to time. But

even if I quit smoking, or smoked only a few times a year, the pipes would still be esteemed by me. At

that point, the pipes would become a collection.

 

[keith929]

How many is too many? When you run out of room to move around in the house without bumping into them. Seriously though I don't really have a magic number. My collection is over 80 now and I still smoke all of them. My wife hasn't told me it's time yet and I don't comment on her shoe collection. Ahhh married bliss. :wink:

 

[john218]

I am 71, started smoking pipes in 1960, stopped for about a dozen years and started again last spring.

Over the years, I've accumulated 74 pipes, mostly briars, so I probably have more than enough. However, there are some brands of pipes I would like to acquire.
By the way, without discounting the years I didn't smoke, I averaged only 1.45 new pipes a year. It sure sounds better than saying how many pipes you actually have!
There are about 35 to 40 briars that are my favorites and I smoke consistantly. The meerschaums and a calabash rarely get smoked, but I do enjoy the different smoking qualities they offer, now and then.
I smoke two to three bowls a day and like to give my pipes several days rest The size of my rotation allows me to smoke one bowlful in a pipe and pick up another for the next smoke.
From a practical standpoint though, I would consider about 20 pipes a good working rotation.

 

[metalheadycigarguy]

I agree with others when they say it depends on the person. For those that have a large collection but find time to enjoy them all, then no there isn't a limit. If you have a large collection and only smoke a certain portion then yes. Then again if you consider yourself a pipe collector along with being a pipe smoker then you can never have to many pipes for your collection whether you smoke them or not.
I currently own 20 pipes:

7 MM corn cobs (2 unsmoked)

2 Meerschaums

11 Briars
I recently eliminated 4 Briars from my collection as I found that I didn't smoke them anymore and felt they were best suited for someone else to enjoy. I had them all refurbished and then found good homes for them.

 

[pipinho]

If i find that I don't smoke certain pipes i just sell the, on the bay

 

[thesmokindragon]

after my first dozen I thought yes, now closing in on three dozen,

with PAD beast rage'in...answer is....Nope, can NEVER have too

many

 

[smokeybiker]

I've only been pipe smoking for about 4 months and I've bought 3 pipes so far but I don't think you can have too many pipes, there are far worse things to spend your wages on and if you love collecting, smoking and admiring them.. then go for it, collect as many as you can.

 

[guhrillastile]

I am embarrassed to admit numbers and to be absolutley honest I don't know how many I actually own. I do have about a dozen go-to favorites but I rotate through a rack that I cycle through. Add a couple, retire others. Ect. Too many in rotation and they just lose the personality in my opinion.

In total I'm probably right about the 1500 mark right now but that includes inventory and projects that I'm working on so that isn't an accurate number for pipes I would really consider "mine".

 

[fitzy]

I've got about 8 pipes at this point. About 20 years ago I had probably 2 dozen but they some how were misplaced during a move. Anyway I'm perfectly comfortable with those 8 pipes and I smoke 4 or 5 of them regularly.
I personally have a list of some very specific pipe manufacturers that I hope to one day own a pipe from. Other than those on the list I really don't see myself going out and purchasing a bunch of other pipes.

 

[numbersix]

Right now I own about 20 pipes, 15 of which get regular use. I wouldn't mind owning a hundred or more pipes if I could afford it. It would mean greater rotation, less cleaning, and more choices.
I think the only time one can own too many pipes is if they cannot afford to buy more, but continue to purchase anyway.
Or if one is a collector but they have so many that a large number of them are put away in drawers or boxes in the basement, then I would venture to say that they have too many.

 

[foggymountain]

Current inventory 116 briars, 11 meers and 3 cobs. That's 130. For me, 135-150 will be enough, any more, too many.