What Are Your Top Five Pipe Accessories?

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Sobrbiker

Lifer
Jan 7, 2023
4,194
54,996
Casa Grande, AZ
Seriously lads, some of you have mentioned using their index finger as a tamper.

Quite honestly I wouldn’t mind not having to carry my tamper tool with me so how do you do it without getting burned? The less tools the better in my honest opinion and I’m one advocate for minimalism. Cheers!
I struggle with smoking too fast/hot. Using my finger got me to slow down.
I carry a bamboo golf tee, because I see value in a concave surface to a tamp.
 

Choatecav

Part of the Furniture Now
Dec 19, 2023
547
1,474
Middle Tennessee
Seriously lads, some of you have mentioned using their index finger as a tamper.

Quite honestly I wouldn’t mind not having to carry my tamper tool with me so how do you do it without getting burned? The less tools the better in my honest opinion and I’m one advocate for minimalism. Cheers!
Years ago, my summer job, while in college, was with the local Electric power company. I was on the Right-of-way crew which cut trees and cleared the pathway for new lines to be built and/or trimmed the trees back from existing lines. Of the six men on the crew, I was the only kid and three of them smoked pipes. I never saw a single one of them (nor my dad, back in the sixties) use anything but their index finger to tamp. Granted, they were used to heavy labor and their fingers were callused, but the key is speed. Just a quick tamp to lower that top layer of ash and you keep going. We get all detailed in how to pack and light and smoke and tamp, etc...... but back in the day, it was not labored over in such detail.

Just lightly touch your finger to the ash, quickly and move it away. Even with my tampers, I do it with my finger half of the time.
 

dunnyboy

Lifer
Jul 6, 2018
2,594
32,407
New York
Years ago, my summer job, while in college, was with the local Electric power company. I was on the Right-of-way crew which cut trees and cleared the pathway for new lines to be built and/or trimmed the trees back from existing lines. Of the six men on the crew, I was the only kid and three of them smoked pipes. I never saw a single one of them (nor my dad, back in the sixties) use anything but their index finger to tamp. Granted, they were used to heavy labor and their fingers were callused, but the key is speed. Just a quick tamp to lower that top layer of ash and you keep going. We get all detailed in how to pack and light and smoke and tamp, etc...... but back in the day, it was not labored over in such detail.

Just lightly touch your finger to the ash, quickly and move it away. Even with my tampers, I do it with my finger half of the time.
Ahh ... smoking a pipe outdoors—the best. Invert the pipe to dump the excess ash, then use your pinky to tamp.
 

Old_Newby

Part of the Furniture Now
Jan 1, 2022
564
1,453
Texas
seriously without sarcasm..

1. Bic Lighter
2. Golf Tee (Tamper)
3. Soft and Rough Pipe Cleaners
4. Good Tobacco
5. Cup of Coffee
 
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Jesster109

Lurker
Dec 2, 2022
40
104
Illinois
Thinking of my current set up, and I can't come up with 5.
1. pouch or ziplock for on-the-go.
2. Lighter
3. Pipe nail, or other suitable tamper.

Pipe cleaners and paper towels for maintenance, but I wouldn't consider those as accessories. I guess I'm a prety simple pipe smoker.
 
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Manawydan

Can't Leave
Apr 24, 2024
357
2,343
Southern California, US
These are the five items I use every single time I smoke a pipe at home (my primary use-case):

1. Hide & Drink leather mat
2. Hide & Drink leather pipe stand
3. Savinelli Table Pipe Accesssories Kit (with bonus item: White Elephant pipe cleaners)
4. Savinelli Oceano pipe tamper (my most-used tamper, sometime gets swapped out for others)
5. Corona Old Boy lighter (my most-used lighter, sometimes gets swapped out for wooden matches or my Kiribi)

IMG_4762.jpeg
 
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Snook

Can't Leave
Oct 2, 2019
360
1,259
32
Idaho
seriously without sarcasm..

1. Bic Lighter
2. Golf Tee (Tamper)
3. Soft and Rough Pipe Cleaners
4. Good Tobacco
5. Cup of Coffee
I always feel like smoking makes my coffee taste really weird. Do you find it alters the taste, but you just don't mind it?
 
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Old_Newby

Part of the Furniture Now
Jan 1, 2022
564
1,453
Texas
I always feel like smoking makes my coffee taste really weird. Do you find it alters the taste, but you just don't mind it?
For me its the opposite. I find the coffee makes my pipe taste good. Kinda like a coffee and dessert or PB&J, or milk and cookie. I put cream and honey in my coffee although on occasion I drink it black. I always smoke in morning so coffee is a standard. Noting that I dont usually smoke VA or VaPer with coffee because the coffee interferes with me being able to taste what those offer. Bready, Grassy, Figgy, etc gets washed out with any drink for me. If anyone knows of a drink the accentuates VAs please share.
 

hakchuma

Part of the Furniture Now
Jan 13, 2014
884
530
52
Michigan, USA
This showed up yesterday. I thought I’d spoil myself a bit. This is a nice brass box that has a real nice weight to it. Apparently the inside is going to tarnish because of the tobacco but I think I’ll just let go as is and see what happens. Some advice for the tin found in the product description is to line it with food grade carnauba wax , mineral oil, or simply keep the tobacco in a plastic bag. I’ve rubbed beeswax around the lid to improve the seal which doesn’t look great.IMG_0088.jpegIMG_0087.jpeg
IMG_0085.jpegIMG_0086.jpeg
 

Chasing Embers

Captain of the Black Frigate
Nov 12, 2014
45,258
119,303
This showed up yesterday. I thought I’d spoil myself a bit. This is a nice brass box that has a real nice weight to it. Apparently the inside is going to tarnish because of the tobacco but I think I’ll just let go as is and see what happens. Some advice for the tin found in the product description is to line it with food grade carnauba wax , mineral oil, or simply keep the tobacco in a plastic bag. I’ve rubbed beeswax around the lid to improve the seal which doesn’t look great.View attachment 346531View attachment 346525
View attachment 346527View attachment 346528
You may want to line it with wax paper. Brass can make the tobacco taste off.
 

Sigmund

Lifer
Sep 17, 2023
3,148
30,439
France
Dont mix the tobacco with sardines!

Really tho...cool find. Brass does taste bad so wax paper is a very good idea. You can find the shape that folds over the best and that will also help keep moisture in. If you are handy maybe a strip of raw leather folded over.
 

gord

Part of the Furniture Now
Like most everybody here, I've a drawer full of tampers, accessories, lip condoms, buck pocket knives blah blah blah . . . what I took a snap of here are a few favoured things that I use that might be a bit out of the ordinary.


Tools.JPG

From top to bottom, a telescoping magnetic dowel I use as a tamper. Have two of them - one large one small. Let's me pick up lots of stuff magnetically, like reaching for a jar of tobacco rather than getting my butt up off the chair, as well as tamping the pipe.

Below that, a cosmetic tool I picked up. Original purpose was popping zits - the point is useful for enlarging the draft hole on cheap cigars, and the hook end is useful for loosening up tobacco in the pipe when the occasion arises. Q tips are always useful. The wirecutters are almost my most used accessory - I have a dozen or so longstems, and I use Churchwarden pipe cleaners almost exclusively. I cut them down to different sizes, or after running the long pipecleaners through the pipe. Drop pieces on the floor? The telescoping magnet gets double duty.

Then there is a small LCD flashlight and a pair of locking tweezers which finds a myriad of uses. The pipe cleaner is there for purposes of illustration and the TP, which I'm sure everyone has at hand, has a myriad of uses for slobs like me. I also use the stuff to clean the threads on my Falcon bowls and stems. Works great.
 

gord

Part of the Furniture Now
Years ago, my summer job, while in college, was with the local Electric power company. I was on the Right-of-way crew which cut trees and cleared the pathway for new lines to be built and/or trimmed the trees back from existing lines. Of the six men on the crew, I was the only kid and three of them smoked pipes. I never saw a single one of them (nor my dad, back in the sixties) use anything but their index finger to tamp. Granted, they were used to heavy labor and their fingers were callused, but the key is speed. Just a quick tamp to lower that top layer of ash and you keep going. We get all detailed in how to pack and light and smoke and tamp, etc...... but back in the day, it was not labored over in such detail.

Just lightly touch your finger to the ash, quickly and move it away. Even with my tampers, I do it with my finger half of the time.
You'd find a different story amongst symphony musicians, many of whom smoke pipes and/or cigars. They don't use their fingers to tamp, especially the string players :ROFLMAO:
 
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