What's New with Me (AKA: "I Still Exist"), and The Journey

[sardonicus87]

I don't post a lot. I'm not a group-participation type of person. Even if I REALLY enjoy something, I still don't feel the need to talk about it with others who also enjoy it. I never have anything to add to anything. Even if I have a unique opinion on something, I never feel the need to give it. I guess generally you can say I am hermit-like, misanthropic, anti-social.

But I'm bored, haven't posted in a while, so I figured I'd puke out my worthless thoughts in a long post on my journey so far since becoming a regular pipe smoker.

On Tobacco​

I still much prefer English and Burley blends to other things, though I have found that I don't care for "cellared" Burley or aging. Lots of people describe it as nutty/chocolaty, which I never got myself, to me it always tasted floral/herbal. Well, having a bunch of tobacco and not a bunch of time, lots of it has sat around a while. Coming back to burley tins I previously opened 6 months to a year prior, they all taste chocolaty and nutty and all those other typically described flavors and I don't like that.

On the flipside, I have a slightly better appreciation of Virginia blends than I used to (though I never disliked them to begin with). I'm still very picky with them. I prefer the ones more akin to savory bread than the brighter ones more akin to a spicy/peppery taste. So far, the Savinelli Brunello Flake is still my most favorite Virginia, but I haven't been exploring them (again, too much tobacco). I have also found as with burley, I don't like the Virginias "mellowing with age".

I still have so much tobacco, so I don't buy anything unless it is particularly unique (like the recently released Barrel Aged No. 5 Rustica). Trying to pare everything down, particularly burley. Going to start buying that only a little at a time so it's always fresher. I'm in no rush to burn through my English/Balkan blends, they seem to still taste the same no matter how long they've been open.

On Pipes​

So, my collection is still small, I'm up to 5 pipes now. I've taken to dedicating four of them to broad categories. I dedicated my Chacom to English/Balkan, my Savinelli to burley, my Peterson to Virginias, and my Lorenzetti to aromatics. I found that for me, with how clean I keep my pipes, nothing is ever "ghosted", but if I smoke anything in a pipe prior to burley, I had to smoke 2-3 bowls of burley in that pipe before it tasted right again. Burley, to me, is just too delicate of a flavor and easily lost. Virginias seem to sometimes taste off at first but the flavor comes back to normal after about 10 minutes of smoking through. Nothing prior ever seems to alter my English blends. But keeping that burley flavor pure is the sole reason I dedicated my pipes to genres.

My fifth pipe I got as a Christmas present and haven't used it yet.


Pipes in order from left to right:
• Chacom Champs-Elysées (bent apple 871) • Savinelli Roma Lucite (prince 315 KS, 6mm) • Peterson Red Spigot Fishtail (bent bulldog 80s) • Lorenzetti Julius Caesar (straight billiard 03, 9mm) • Hüseyin Ege Unicorn (bent, carved meerschaum).

And here are some other shots of that meer if you want to see the design:

On Accessories​

I got a fancy lighter, a Kiribi Mikazuki (black matte). I absolutely love it. It's featured in the picture above.

Before I got my Peterson, I had three pipes and had made my own pipe stand from mahogany with leather cups for the bowls and a drawer. I made it as best I could with what tools I have. Although the meer is pictured above in my current stand, it actually is only there for the picture, it stays in the case it came in.

Regardless, once I got my 4th pipe, I decided to build a 7 pipe stand (tiered, 4 on bottom and 3 on top). Still working out a design (mostly trying to figure out a better way to do the cups for the bowls). I plan to also make it of mahogany, but with a darker red stain. I have better tools now too. I plan to also line the pipe stem brackets and bowl rests with leather. I'm also going to make accents with hard maple (aka "rock maple").

In the meantime, I got a 5 pipe stand from KAF Pipe since it was only $35 (that's the stand pictured above).

This was the stand I previously built:


That's all.

 

[doctorbob]

I like all of this

 

[mortonbriar]

I like your economy of post approach!

For the bowl cups in the pipe holder, if you decide to use a forstner bit but you dont like the pilot hole it makes on an otherwise flat bottom, you can put down a piece of felt/leather/veneer of wood etc.

 

[sardonicus87]

I like your economy of post approach!

For the bowl cups in the pipe holder, if you decide to use a forstner bit but you dont like the pilot hole it makes on an otherwise flat bottom, you can put down a piece of felt/leather/veneer of wood etc.

On the first one I made, I actually used a Dremel with a Kutzall rotary burr to cut the cup shape into the wood (because I don't own spooning carvers) and that worked great. I then used a 1/8" thick piece of wood as a spacer above the cup (which isn't cut that deep, only about 5/16") and some thermo-plastic to make a mold of the cup (+1/8" extra height above the stand's surface). I also wrapped the mold in saran wrap to make a negative mold.

I then used this mold to shape the leather (get the leather wet, stretch it over form, let it dry). I used the spacer I made as a clamp to hold the leather on and then stretched it by hand into the mold (sueded leather, backside down). I then molded a second piece of leather on the negative mold (suede side out again). I then glued the back sides of the inverted cups together (so sueded side inside and outside cups) and cut then burnished the edges. Took 3 days per cup.

I wanted leather and it to extend above the wood and to be flexible to better hold varying pipe bowl shapes. Works great on all but my billiard. It holds it fine, but not better than any other pipe stand you could buy anywhere (will flop side-to-side a little).

This time, what I am considering is using the rock maple to make two V shapes (not sure what angle) and put those together in an L shape like a chair of sorts. Like if you could imagine a wooden V-trough that a marble might roll in, but bent 90° or something at one point. The inside of which I will line with leather (probably regular leather, not sueded) since it will grip (unlike most felt). I just have to make a few test chairs to see if I can find a good set of angles that will hold a variety of sizes/shapes.

 

[mortonbriar]

I use the kutzall rotary bits sometimes with my foredom, but I find them annoying how they clog up more than regular ball burrs.

I like your elaborate process there! Last time i made a pipe rack it was oak, but I cheated and told the cnc machine to cut me out perfect little shallow bowls. It could be done with a spherical router bit and a jig and a whole lot more time I guess.

 

[Bob the bear]

Nice post. I like the pipe stand you made. Kurt all burrs are great, you get them in various grades, course medium and fine, the course will remove much skin very quickly if it slips though

 

[Cyxelsid]

made my own pipe stand from mahogany

Well, there is a skill I wish I had. Keep it up, and show us pictures of the new stand! Impressive!

 

[sardonicus87]

I use the kutzall rotary bits sometimes with my foredom, but I find them annoying how they clog up more than regular ball burrs.

I have two of them, one coarse and one fine, both 3/8" diameter (not sure if they make other diameters of these balls). I only bought them for that project. They didn't clog up on me then, but that's the only time I've used them, don't have the experience with them or other rotary burs myself to say how good they are or not.

The new stand I will build, it won't be an issue. The V channel idea I had was basically from holding the pipes in my fingers by the bowls and looking at how they rest in my existing stands. The billiard I have as well as the Peterson bulldog, the bowls make contact at a single point at the very front, and one at the shank, so that's why they have a tendency to roll (balancing on 2 inline points along the center).

The goal for the new one when I experiment with it, is to get two points of contact on the front sides and one at the back near-ish the shank, if thay makes sense? The V shape would allow different size pipes (smaller pipes would just sit lower in the V). I still need to experiment though because different ones have different heels so there needs to be space enough for varying heel and foot shapes to not prevent it reaching two contact points on either side of the front half of the bowl. It doesn't necessarily even need the third contact point on the bowl, the third contact point could be where the stem rests on the stem rest. But that should keep them stable.

Well, there is a skill I wish I had. Keep it up, and show us pictures of the new stand! Impressive!

It'll be a while on that probably. I have a lot on my plate at the moment. I also will have to order the wood and wait since nobody locally carries any hardwood. I already have a source I used before (Ocooch Hardwoods).

I do have some rough measurements and design in my head though. I sketched out a basic top-down layout on some cardboard. That'll get adjusted a bit though. I'd like to make my initial rough measures a little narrower front to back, possibly a little wider side to side with a little more space between the lower and upper pipes (I'm clumsy and don't want to knock any off since they sit on a mantle above a brick fireplace).

Probably a little hard to see, but some initial measures top-down view:

 

[mortonbriar]

I suspect the clogging was to do with the wood I was carving when I picked up the kutzall bits, it was partially petrified and was cutting sort of stone-like and sort of wood-like.

I like your V channel idea, and I hope you take the time to customise each one for it's own pipe! They will be so happy in their bespoke home's...

 

[anotherbob]

I don't post a lot. I'm not a group-participation type of person. Even if I REALLY enjoy something, I still don't feel the need to talk about it with others who also enjoy it. I never have anything to add to anything. Even if I have a unique opinion on something, I never feel the need to give it. I guess generally you can say I am hermit-like, misanthropic, anti-social.

But I'm bored, haven't posted in a while, so I figured I'd puke out my worthless thoughts in a long post on my journey so far since becoming a regular pipe smoker.

On Tobacco​

I still much prefer English and Burley blends to other things, though I have found that I don't care for "cellared" Burley or aging. Lots of people describe it as nutty/chocolaty, which I never got myself, to me it always tasted floral/herbal. Well, having a bunch of tobacco and not a bunch of time, lots of it has sat around a while. Coming back to burley tins I previously opened 6 months to a year prior, they all taste chocolaty and nutty and all those other typically described flavors and I don't like that.

On the flipside, I have a slightly better appreciation of Virginia blends than I used to (though I never disliked them to begin with). I'm still very picky with them. I prefer the ones more akin to savory bread than the brighter ones more akin to a spicy/peppery taste. So far, the Savinelli Brunello Flake is still my most favorite Virginia, but I haven't been exploring them (again, too much tobacco). I have also found as with burley, I don't like the Virginias "mellowing with age".

I still have so much tobacco, so I don't buy anything unless it is particularly unique (like the recently released Barrel Aged No. 5 Rustica). Trying to pare everything down, particularly burley. Going to start buying that only a little at a time so it's always fresher. I'm in no rush to burn through my English/Balkan blends, they seem to still taste the same no matter how long they've been open.

On Pipes​

So, my collection is still small, I'm up to 5 pipes now. I've taken to dedicating four of them to broad categories. I dedicated my Chacom to English/Balkan, my Savinelli to burley, my Peterson to Virginias, and my Lorenzetti to aromatics. I found that for me, with how clean I keep my pipes, nothing is ever "ghosted", but if I smoke anything in a pipe prior to burley, I had to smoke 2-3 bowls of burley in that pipe before it tasted right again. Burley, to me, is just too delicate of a flavor and easily lost. Virginias seem to sometimes taste off at first but the flavor comes back to normal after about 10 minutes of smoking through. Nothing prior ever seems to alter my English blends. But keeping that burley flavor pure is the sole reason I dedicated my pipes to genres.

My fifth pipe I got as a Christmas present and haven't used it yet.

View attachment 204640
Pipes in order from left to right:
• Chacom Champs-Elysées (bent apple 871) • Savinelli Roma Lucite (prince 315 KS, 6mm) • Peterson Red Spigot Fishtail (bent bulldog 80s) • Lorenzetti Julius Caesar (straight billiard 03, 9mm) • Hüseyin Ege Unicorn (bent, carved meerschaum).

And here are some other shots of that meer if you want to see the design:
View attachment 204647View attachment 204646

On Accessories​

I got a fancy lighter, a Kiribi Mikazuki (black matte). I absolutely love it. It's featured in the picture above.

Before I got my Peterson, I had three pipes and had made my own pipe stand from mahogany with leather cups for the bowls and a drawer. I made it as best I could with what tools I have. Although the meer is pictured above in my current stand, it actually is only there for the picture, it stays in the case it came in.

Regardless, once I got my 4th pipe, I decided to build a 7 pipe stand (tiered, 4 on bottom and 3 on top). Still working out a design (mostly trying to figure out a better way to do the cups for the bowls). I plan to also make it of mahogany, but with a darker red stain. I have better tools now too. I plan to also line the pipe stem brackets and bowl rests with leather. I'm also going to make accents with hard maple (aka "rock maple").

In the meantime, I got a 5 pipe stand from KAF Pipe since it was only $35 (that's the stand pictured above).

This was the stand I previously built:
View attachment 204641View attachment 204642View attachment 204645

That's all.

I have twice as many pipes as you. I don't get to say that here a lot. I am of the mind that a small but loved collection is better then a vast army of pipes that you don't even know their names.

 

[sardonicus87]

I have twice as many pipes as you. I don't get to say that here a lot. I am of the mind that a small but loved collection is better then a vast army of pipes that you don't even know their names.

I'm with you on that. I like the pipes I have, and I don't necessarily need more. I'm not much of a collector in general. I still look from time to time to see if anything catches my fancy, but nothing in my price range does. I'll probably never own more than 7 pipes, and definitely won't own anything that's strictly a piece for show. I have nothing against those that do though, I'm just not like that myself.

I don't need more than what I currently have even for practicality purposes. I smoke pipe once a day (though not always every day, sometimes I just lack time or don't feel like it), just a single bowl in a single sitting. I don't smoke pipes throughout the day, or multiple bowls per day. It takes like 45 minutes to an hour to get through an average bowl. It's just how I unwind in the afternoon. I smoke pipe purely for relaxation and flavor. I'm still a 3/4 to 1 pack-a-day cigarette smoker, so I'm not smoking pipe for the nicotine. Hell, nine times out of ten, I'm having a cigarette immediately after I smoke my pipe due to craving nicotine.

So for my goals and how I use pipe, I technically don't even need more than 2 pipes.

 

[Cyxelsid]

definitely won't own anything that's strictly a piece for show

I am all in on this statement... I don't do "show pieces". Some folks do, and that's all well and good, but I don't have time or space for things that I just look at. I had a '69 Corvette that people wanted me to make a show car and I refused. (Let's not talk about the fact that I totalled that car... still a painful memory).

 

[kcghost]

Certainly, enjoyed your very measure approach to pipe smoking.

 

[metalheadycigarguy]

Well, I guess now that you got that off your chest we won't hear from you for about 6 months. LOL

 

[jpmcwjr]

I hope that is not so!

 

[anotherbob]

I'm with you on that. I like the pipes I have, and I don't necessarily need more. I'm not much of a collector in general. I still look from time to time to see if anything catches my fancy, but nothing in my price range does. I'll probably never own more than 7 pipes, and definitely won't own anything that's strictly a piece for show. I have nothing against those that do though, I'm just not like that myself.

I don't need more than what I currently have even for practicality purposes. I smoke pipe once a day (though not always every day, sometimes I just lack time or don't feel like it), just a single bowl in a single sitting. I don't smoke pipes throughout the day, or multiple bowls per day. It takes like 45 minutes to an hour to get through an average bowl. It's just how I unwind in the afternoon. I smoke pipe purely for relaxation and flavor. I'm still a 3/4 to 1 pack-a-day cigarette smoker, so I'm not smoking pipe for the nicotine. Hell, nine times out of ten, I'm having a cigarette immediately after I smoke my pipe due to craving nicotine.

So for my goals and how I use pipe, I technically don't even need more than 2 pipes.

my next pipe will be very special in some way. Otherwise watts tha point?

 

[mso489]

Looks like a good stable of pipes. That's a handsome Meerschaum for sure; nothing like a Meer for clarity and definition of flavors. I only have one Meer, from the late great fish'n'banjo, but it gives the gist of any blend. I enjoy having way too many pipes, but you have all you need.

 

[sardonicus87]

Well, I guess now that you got that off your chest we won't hear from you for about 6 months. LOL

Depends how long it takes me to get around to building the new stand. I just don't do much. I smoke, that's mostly it. I don't get new pipes often, go to shows, not part of a pipe club. I dunno, I love my Harley and ride daily, I don't go to Bike Nights with it though, or hang out with other riders or anything (other than one trip a year to Eureka Springs and one to Texas to meet a bunch of fogs from a Harley forum, but that's more an "excuse" for the trip than about hanging out with them).

Like most of my hobbies, I just don't feel the need to connect about it. I get from a cold, logical, practical perspective it makes sense to connect. One day I might decide I want to try something new, having connections means having collective knowledge to draw on, etc. But that also comes with downsides like gatekeepers, people who take inconsequential opinions as personal attacks, people who get mad that you don't do or like things the same way that they do, the same 5 questions that could be found on a Google search asked ad nauseam, one-upmanship, etc.

I especially don't have much pipe related to talk about right now anyway. Everything is blooming around me, making my allergies a nightmare with itchy throat, so I've not been smoking the last few days.

I have some other stuff for accessories I didn't mention. Got a waterproof hard case with pluck foam insert from Amazon. I haven't gotten around to figuring out how to pack things into it to know how to pluck the foam. Got it for when I go on motorcycle trips. I have one of those two pipe pouch bags from SP (the triangular one with the flop over for the tobacco pouch), pipes would go in that then into the case with whatever tins and some cleaners, etc.

On a whim, I also bought one of those leather tobacco mats from Neerup. Previously was drying tobacco on a piece of printer paper. Threw the mat in when I ordered the Rustica. I like it better than the paper. With the paper, tobacco that fell over the rim had a tendency to slide off when packing the pipe. Also the paper would accidentally be thrown away a lot. The mat has more grip than a sheet of paper, keeps neater, has enough weight to not get accidentally blown off the table. I guess looks classier too.

 

[metalheadycigarguy]

Depends how long it takes me to get around to building the new stand. I just don't do much. I smoke, that's mostly it. I don't get new pipes often, go to shows, not part of a pipe club. I dunno, I love my Harley and ride daily, I don't go to Bike Nights with it though, or hang out with other riders or anything (other than one trip a year to Eureka Springs and one to Texas to meet a bunch of fogs from a Harley forum, but that's more an "excuse" for the trip than about hanging out with them).

Like most of my hobbies, I just don't feel the need to connect about it. I get from a cold, logical, practical perspective it makes sense to connect. One day I might decide I want to try something new, having connections means having collective knowledge to draw on, etc. But that also comes with downsides like gatekeepers, people who take inconsequential opinions as personal attacks, people who get mad that you don't do or like things the same way that they do, the same 5 questions that could be found on a Google search asked ad nauseam, one-upmanship, etc.

I especially don't have much pipe related to talk about right now anyway. Everything is blooming around me, making my allergies a nightmare with itchy throat, so I've not been smoking the last few days.

I have some other stuff for accessories I didn't mention. Got a waterproof hard case with pluck foam insert from Amazon. I haven't gotten around to figuring out how to pack things into it to know how to pluck the foam. Got it for when I go on motorcycle trips. I have one of those two pipe pouch bags from SP (the triangular one with the flop over for the tobacco pouch), pipes would go in that then into the case with whatever tins and some cleaners, etc.

On a whim, I also bought one of those leather tobacco mats from Neerup. Previously was drying tobacco on a piece of printer paper. Threw the mat in when I ordered the Rustica. I like it better than the paper. With the paper, tobacco that fell over the rim had a tendency to slide off when packing the pipe. Also the paper would accidentally be thrown away a lot. The mat has more grip than a sheet of paper, keeps neater, has enough weight to not get accidentally blown off the table. I guess looks classier too.

What I'm gathering here is that you've found the secret to life, and you're keeping it to yourself.

 

[Cyxelsid]

One day I might decide I want to try something new, having connections means having collective knowledge to draw on, etc. But that also comes with downsides like gatekeepers, people who take inconsequential opinions as personal attacks, people who get mad that you don't do or like things the same way that they do, the same 5 questions that could be found on a Google search asked ad nauseam, one-upmanship, etc.

Just my opinion, but you may be making it harder than it has to be... I share your displeasure for gatekeepers and people that feel "triggered". But I try to remember that their problems are THEIR problems, and what they think of me is none of my business. Just like they usually couldn't care less about what I think of them. Take what you want and leave the rest.