What Do You Do After Major Upgrades?

[coming to_falling too]

I should just do whatever I want

This, right here

 

[Chasing Embers]

Everyone says you have to rest pipes to avoid burnouts but then every anecdotal story is about some old timer who’s smoked one pipe 13 times a day for 40 years with no issues…

For the first 15 years I smoked pipes I only had three, and they were constantly smoked. Here's one of them that was given to me in '92. Look damaged?



I regularly smoke the same pipe multiple times per day often for a week or more at a time with no issue. The only way you're going to hurt one is if you're trying to burn a hole in it. Briar doesn't retain much moisture and the idea of resting and rotation was marketing insuring that you'll buy more pipes.

 

[Chasing Embers]

I should just do whatever I want

Exactly.

 

[Fo0zle]

Run a pipe cleaner down the stem and draft hole, wipe out the mortise with Qtips, and wipe out the chamber with a paper towel.

You take your pipes apart after every smoke?

Yet another pipe myth. People say only take pipes apart when you absolutely have to.

Out of all the hobbies I’ve dabbled in, this one is probably the most dominated by misinformation.

 

[Chasing Embers]

You take your pipes apart after every smoke?

Yep, immediately after. The gunk is easier to wipe out when it's still warm.

 

[bullet08]

Hey! Get a hot glue gun and make an art and craft project! Name it something nice like "The Pipes in the Smoke" and sell it to the ultra rich! Latest fad. Forbidden objects of anti-smoking horde.

 

[Seeleybc1]

You take your pipes apart after every smoke?

Yet another pipe myth. People say only take pipes apart when you absolutely have to.

Out of all the hobbies I’ve dabbled in, this one is probably the most dominated by misinformation.

ive For sure noticed some conflicting tidbits of advice, but that makes sense I guess. What works for some may not for others, or how one persons taught differs from the next. The whole pipe cleaning, breaking pipes down etc etc was something I initially got hung up on and suppose still am to an extent. I think the “I’ll just do whatever i want” mentality you spoke of earlier is great! I need some of that to rub off on me lol

 

[Chasing Embers]

or how one persons taught differs from the next.

That's what's great about how I learned. Pre internet and didn't know of another pipe smoker. I just worked it out and treated pipes just as I did guns.

 

[Seeleybc1]

That's what's great about how I learned. Pre internet and didn't know of another pipe smoker. I just worked it out and treated pipes just as I did guns.

That’s awesome! Love the analogy there! So true on so many levels.
One aspect I can surely relate to is becoming slightly obsessed/compulsive and having way more than I can intelligently use at one time lol!

 

[FLDRD]

Some pipes are crap.
Some will magically improve after your technique improves.
Sometimes you just don't end up liking something you thought you would, so off it goes.

 

[Honkytonk Man]

So I’ve found myself in a situation where my newest pipe smokes at least twice as good as my other two.

The difference is so glaring that I find myself struggling to be disciplined enough to rotate my pipes.

What do you do when a new pipe just puts everything else to shame? Do you immediately retire the inferior pipes and list them on eBay? Do you just bite the bullet and keep smoking them? Or do you throw caution to the wind and start buying more nice pipes?

Yeah!
Buy more pipes.

It's always buy more pipes.

But seriously. As mentioned in other posts, give the older pipes a darn good cleaning and see where that leads.
Still not satisfied? Sell them on. Don't mean they won't be good for somebody else.

 

[tschiraldi]

Clean the other two very well, then use them to try out new blends, especially ones that might ghost. That way you're not risking your "good" pipes. I keep a couple around just for that reason. Buy one more pipe from the maker of your new favorite and see if it compares favorably before going on a spending spree. You may have struck gold in finding a new favorite maker, or you may have just gotten lucky. I have discovered two makers I prefer to all others and I only buy those now, but keep a couple of others to experiment with.

 

[PipeIT]

What do you mean by keep them clean?

Take a paper towel or napkin and wipe the chambers out after smoking, also, so that in time, there will only be a 1mm carbon layer inside the chambers, except, it’s my understanding, you don’t need to build a carbon layer in Meerschaum.

Be sure to also run cleaners through the stem and shank. Maybe, after a few bowls smoked, then I remove the stem, and take a q-tip and run it around inside the mortise/shank area.

Then, at some point, maybe 6-12 bowls later, I dip the cleaners and q-tips in Everclear.

 

[gwease]

So I’ve found myself in a situation where my newest pipe smokes at least twice as good as my other two.

The difference is so glaring that I find myself struggling to be disciplined enough to rotate my pipes.

What do you do when a new pipe just puts everything else to shame? Do you immediately retire the inferior pipes and list them on eBay? Do you just bite the bullet and keep smoking them? Or do you throw caution to the wind and start buying more nice pipes?

smoke the one you like and trade the others also try different tobaccos in the others as some pipes smoke better with certain tobaccos

 

[kcghost]

Just treat them like pipes. You can sell them, you can smoke them less often, give them to organizations that wants them, put them on eBay, trade them to folks who want them, etc.

 

[sigaholic]

I prefer an open draw. That was a game changer for me