Tobacco. Pipes are just another way to enjoy quality tobacco.
What Turned You on to Pipes?
- Thread starter highwaycobbery
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A 20 year pack a day cigarette habit. Tried so hard to give it up, then one day I got me a pipe and a pouch of Erinmore. Kicked those government sanctioned and protected death sticks to the curb like last week's trash. Of course it took a year of pandemic induced back porch smoking and drinking to finally make me realize - hey health is a thing. Mind you I had a hell of a garden last year too so...
I dunno, I went from smoking a cigarette every hour to sometimes not even wanting to finish a bowl, so I'd say it's pretty much got my nicotine addiction under control. I also just really like the motions too, the prep, keeping it lit while enjoying the flavors, the aftercare. I always used to think damn I'd be so bored if I didn't smoke, but now I have something to fill that void. And I'll add that pipe smoking is a heck of a lot more satisfying as a hobby than cigarette smoking!
I dunno, I went from smoking a cigarette every hour to sometimes not even wanting to finish a bowl, so I'd say it's pretty much got my nicotine addiction under control. I also just really like the motions too, the prep, keeping it lit while enjoying the flavors, the aftercare. I always used to think damn I'd be so bored if I didn't smoke, but now I have something to fill that void. And I'll add that pipe smoking is a heck of a lot more satisfying as a hobby than cigarette smoking!
What drew me to pipes and pipe smoking was the whole package. As a kid, I loved the aroma of my Grandpa's pipe tobacco (Amphora, Sir Walter Raleigh Aromatic), even though I really disliked other kinds of tobacco smoke (still do). I liked the ritual of packing, tamping, lighting, relighting, etc. I admired the look of a pipe, which seemed like a cooler way to smoke. Fewer men smoked pipes than cigarettes and cigars, so I developed the impression that pipes were smoked by a smaller population of special gentlemen like my Grandpa.
A couple of times, my Grandpa encouraged my Dad to switch to pipes, and I absolutely loved the frequent scent of his tobacco smoke in and around the house (I remember he liked Borkum Riff for a while). I enjoyed sniffing his unsmoked tobacco from the pouch. Even as a young kid, I looked forward to my first chance to try smoking tobacco in a pipe, and I paid close attention to the technique.
Another aspect of pipe smoking that appealed to me was that you could smoke a pipe as a hobby, rather than letting it become an addictive habit. It never occurred to me to try cigarettes because they didn't appeal to me. Mild cigars had some allure when I was a teenager, partly because they were pretty easy to buy with no problem (life was more permissive in the 80s). The cigars were okay but lacked the nice scent of pipe tobacco. They definitely made me wonder what made people want to smoke cigars because I just couldn't detect a lot of flavor.
I had to give pipes a serious try, so I did - with one of my Dad's pipes. First few experiences were sketchy, but I took to it after a little while around age 15. After I returned Dad's pipe, a friend and I bought Dr. Gs and smoked the blends we could borrow from the pipe smokers in our families. I really enjoyed the slow process of packing and lighting a pipe, savoring the smoke and relaxing for a while. The secrecy made me nervous, but it also added to the specialness of a private bowl. I figured that getting busted for smoking a tobacco pipe might result in a lighter penalty than smoking cigarettes or weed. Thankfully, I was mostly right about that when I decided it was nutty to sneak around with my pipe when I was a college freshman. Parents were already fairly positive about pipes, so they were on board. The generally friendly attitude toward pipes, pipe tobacco, and pipe smoking definitely added to my enjoyment of the hobby.
A couple of times, my Grandpa encouraged my Dad to switch to pipes, and I absolutely loved the frequent scent of his tobacco smoke in and around the house (I remember he liked Borkum Riff for a while). I enjoyed sniffing his unsmoked tobacco from the pouch. Even as a young kid, I looked forward to my first chance to try smoking tobacco in a pipe, and I paid close attention to the technique.
Another aspect of pipe smoking that appealed to me was that you could smoke a pipe as a hobby, rather than letting it become an addictive habit. It never occurred to me to try cigarettes because they didn't appeal to me. Mild cigars had some allure when I was a teenager, partly because they were pretty easy to buy with no problem (life was more permissive in the 80s). The cigars were okay but lacked the nice scent of pipe tobacco. They definitely made me wonder what made people want to smoke cigars because I just couldn't detect a lot of flavor.
I had to give pipes a serious try, so I did - with one of my Dad's pipes. First few experiences were sketchy, but I took to it after a little while around age 15. After I returned Dad's pipe, a friend and I bought Dr. Gs and smoked the blends we could borrow from the pipe smokers in our families. I really enjoyed the slow process of packing and lighting a pipe, savoring the smoke and relaxing for a while. The secrecy made me nervous, but it also added to the specialness of a private bowl. I figured that getting busted for smoking a tobacco pipe might result in a lighter penalty than smoking cigarettes or weed. Thankfully, I was mostly right about that when I decided it was nutty to sneak around with my pipe when I was a college freshman. Parents were already fairly positive about pipes, so they were on board. The generally friendly attitude toward pipes, pipe tobacco, and pipe smoking definitely added to my enjoyment of the hobby.
Pipe smoking is amazing. nox player for pcJiofi.local.html
Pappa always smelled like one when he took out the garbage.
You could meet interesting women with handle bar mustaches? 
For me, pipes have always been a staple with the men in my family. In fact, when I was young everyone who farmed tobacco smoked or chewed. I think it was to keep from getting sick in the tobacco fields. When a young boy was old enough to go in the fields, usually around 9 or 10, he usually started driving Farmall tractors pulling drags. When he was a little older he would start cropping. To keep the tobacco gum from making you sick, you'd have to chew or smoke tobacco for awhile to get used to the nicotine, as I'm sure it was obsorbed through the skin. When cropping, I'd pull the tobacco leaves with my right hand and throw them under my left arm until I couldn't hold anymore. Then you'd place them in the drag. Your arms were totally covered in sticky tobacco gum all day, and during July and August the hot sun didn't help matters. All of us kids used to go down the the river with a bar of lye soap in the evening and scrub the tobacco gum off. A lot of the guys chewed back then, but I smoked a pipe like my Dad.
When I was a boy you could get clay pipes for blowing bubbles, then a friend of mine found this weird fibrous plant that actually smoked quite well. We would go and sit in a cave and puff away. So now when I smoke a pipe maybe I'm that kid again in his cave " Go away world. " But then I come out refreshed and the big bad world actually seems rather welcoming.
I am attracted to women who are attracted to Hobbits so I thought this might help them like me more.
Well, just sitting here thinking about this and my answer to the question is, my Paternal Grandfather and my fathers youngest brother both smoked pipes and I was always fascinated with their pipes and when I was 5 years old my Grandfather gave me a small bent stem briar pipe and I would follow him and my uncle around with my pipe clenched like them. When I was 9 years old I started picking up cigarette butts and salvaging tobacco from them to smoke in my pipe and a neighbor man that smoked a Greybow Viking pipe saw me doing that and he took me under his wing and turned me on to Captain Black and I purchased a Greybow bent stem Viking then and then really got bitten by the Briar Bug and now 50 years later I am still at it. I have enjoyed tobacco in one form or another from 9 years old on,but I have always had my pipes and always chewed snuff throughout the past 50 years! And I am proud to say that I have a nephew who is more like a son, that is following in my footsteps and has a great collection of pipes going on his self and will be adding a modest collection from me to his collection at some point, when I am gone. A very comforting thought, knowing that my cherished briars will continue to be enjoyed after my passing.
My grandfather smoked a pipe. I had no desire to emulate him until I read about Charles Spurgeon (who smoked cigars) and C. S. Lewis.
Along with Barabbas I was commuted to a life of servitude in the Sicilian sulphur mines, and I gotta tell you digging sulphur all day gets pretty boring.
So a few days after arrival, chained to Barabbas, my head and stomach still reeling from the rigors of the voyage there, in the bowels of a wretched stink hole the Romans only very infrequently remembered to monitor, and after checking if the coast was clear, I brought pipe and tobacco to bear.
So if you ask me what turned me on to pipe smoking, it was this one iconic bowl, for which I was not caught nor beaten.
So a few days after arrival, chained to Barabbas, my head and stomach still reeling from the rigors of the voyage there, in the bowels of a wretched stink hole the Romans only very infrequently remembered to monitor, and after checking if the coast was clear, I brought pipe and tobacco to bear.
So if you ask me what turned me on to pipe smoking, it was this one iconic bowl, for which I was not caught nor beaten.
Let's see,
- I had a few uncles who smoked a pipe, and I have fond memories of them from childhood.
- I'm a big fan of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien.
- Everyone smoked a pipe on those Antarctic exploration expeditions in the early 1900s.
- Lee Van Cleef was the coolest in his Spaghetti westerns.
- I watch a ton of 50's sci-fi movies, and pretty much every single scientist who figured out how to defeat the giant insects or monsters smoked a pipe, so there had to be something there.
- The huge variety of tobaccos available, the fact that they're not too expensive, and the fact that you can put them in a jar and they'll last forever.
- I had a few uncles who smoked a pipe, and I have fond memories of them from childhood.
- I'm a big fan of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien.
- Everyone smoked a pipe on those Antarctic exploration expeditions in the early 1900s.
- Lee Van Cleef was the coolest in his Spaghetti westerns.
- I watch a ton of 50's sci-fi movies, and pretty much every single scientist who figured out how to defeat the giant insects or monsters smoked a pipe, so there had to be something there.
- The huge variety of tobaccos available, the fact that they're not too expensive, and the fact that you can put them in a jar and they'll last forever.
It was the only thing to stick in your mouth that would not result in people questioning your masculinity at the boarding school I attended! 
I think that it has long been true that 1950s scifi scientists were the epitome of intelligence and style, and that it was inevitable that they all, to a man, smoked the pipe. How else to explain that they prevailed against all manner of monsters?
There was a small period in my teens that is filled with fond memories. I used to get to spend the summers out with my aunt and uncle in the countryside cleaning out and looking after the horses, building campfires, reading and going fishing in the surrounding lakes and rivers.
That uncle smoked a pipe. and I'd be whisked off to the village pub (filled with other pipe smokers) to play darts and bar billiards and enjoy a cool shandy while listening to songs and jokes.
Both my paternal and maternal grandfathers and my old great-uncle Jack were also pipe smokers. Though we weren't a close family.
So for me smoking a pipe recalls the memories of family and a home that are all now either long gone or very far away (indeed largely both) and a place lost to time.
That great uncle Jack (who lived to 104 or so) had stacks of Capstan Blue and Dunhill DNR tins (repurposed for fishing flies and all manner of haberdashery). He'd worked on code-breaking during WWII and was a bit of a crazy physicist come travelling musician. Interesting chap.
I find smell acts powerfully on the memory and those memories came to me after I smoked my first pipe in my late-20's. I'd smoked cigarettes for a few years after moving to the city (London) and didn't really get anything from it other than a way to fill spaces of time or an excuse for breaks at work. Happy to have quit the filthy things and very happy to have discovered a partner for reading and relaxing in pipes.
That uncle smoked a pipe. and I'd be whisked off to the village pub (filled with other pipe smokers) to play darts and bar billiards and enjoy a cool shandy while listening to songs and jokes.
Both my paternal and maternal grandfathers and my old great-uncle Jack were also pipe smokers. Though we weren't a close family.
So for me smoking a pipe recalls the memories of family and a home that are all now either long gone or very far away (indeed largely both) and a place lost to time.
That great uncle Jack (who lived to 104 or so) had stacks of Capstan Blue and Dunhill DNR tins (repurposed for fishing flies and all manner of haberdashery). He'd worked on code-breaking during WWII and was a bit of a crazy physicist come travelling musician. Interesting chap.
I find smell acts powerfully on the memory and those memories came to me after I smoked my first pipe in my late-20's. I'd smoked cigarettes for a few years after moving to the city (London) and didn't really get anything from it other than a way to fill spaces of time or an excuse for breaks at work. Happy to have quit the filthy things and very happy to have discovered a partner for reading and relaxing in pipes.
@Latakia Dave Same here, when I got my first clay pipe I started picking up cigarette butts but found they tasted horrible!
The first time I smoked my clay pipe was with a half smoked cigar salvaged from a pub ashtray...
Then fellow pub drinkers would give me a pipeful of RYO cigarette tobacco and it wasn't until a fellow pipe smoker gave me a pipeful of Skandinavik that I discovered pipe tobacco.
It was seeing re-enactors smoking clay pipes that started my interest in them; I like the smell of pipe tobacco especially when smoked by a re-enactor in a clay pipe.
I've won the @Maddogsmokers clay pipe smoking competition; I'll be getting 3 clays and a jar of baccy!