What's the Minimal Number of Pipes for Good Smoking

[hoosierpipeguy]

1 for each genre of blend you smoke.

 

[Briar Baron]

Firstly, I find I need different sizes for different time constraints or moods, if time is short I need a prince sized pipe or flake style pipe. Also I may want to smoke a smooth pipe or rusticated or a meershaum. Sometimes I want to smoke a particular shape, irespective of size, so bent billiard, straight billiard, rhodesian, poker, acorn, churchwarden etc etc. So by adding in all these variations, I need a minimum of 25 pipes to be satisfied, currently I use semi regularly about 40 and I am happy with that number.

Sure I could reduce that significantly but why? I can sell some anytime in the future, their value will stay about the same in 1 year or 5 years time so no urgency to move any on if they all get a turn over several months.

 

[frozenchurchwarden]

My dad was pretty practical about his pipe. He wasn't attached to it. I never heard him mourning a burn-out, he'd just go to the newsstand in the lobby of his office building and buy another pretty-good pipe, though he could summon the heights of sentimentality lamenting the "poor little lonely potato" I hadn't eaten on my plate. I ate it. He would be thoroughly disapproving of my "pipe shop" in my study. "What do you do with them all? Why do you need them?" He would have said, or thought anyway. He was an interesting, somewhat complex soul.

We do know people as far back as the early 1900's were collectors though, this is a human trait, surely your dad must have collected something.
Maybe it was just collecting a tab at the local pub, but it's a very rare person who does not have any possessive idiosyncrasies.

 

[cshubhra]

The magic number is 47.

You can get by with 10-15 or even 1, but to answer these questions in the forum you must have 47

 

[tobefrank]

One for pure functionality, 9 for my smoking and collecting pleasure. Just the right amount to smoke each at least once and a while.

 

[paulfg]

going on my current smoking experience 2 meers would do .
1 in use one resting ,however I have 32 pipes and my eye on a couple of other old meers

 

[elnoblecigarro]

I have five briars in regular rotation and unless one breaks or something I feel that's good enough. Enough to dedicate a pipe to a blend type but all still get smoked regularly.

I don't care about owning stuff just for the sake of owning. Not a collector.

 

[timelord]

42

 

[telescopes]

30. One for each day of the month in September.

 

[Sgetz]

42

Being the answer to the big question !!!

 

[timelord]

30. One for each day of the month in September.

Do you have a non-smoking day in 31 day months?

 

[telescopes]

Do you have a non-smoking day in 31 day months?

Typically I do

 

[5star]

As I thought about it the number grew some. - briar Lakeland pipe, briar Latakia pipe, cob, clay, etc - I could probably get along with 4, but would be more comfortable with 6-10.
In any case, I have far more than that.

 

[mso489]

For most of us, buying pipes is a pleasure all of its own, almost aside from pipe smoking, for which six or seven pipes is plenty, maybe with the occasional replacement. The hunt, the infatuation, the decision to buy, the waiting for its arrival, the adoration when it is unveiled from the shipping package (if you're lucky), the first smoke, the sixth smoke, etc. The admiration of the wisdom of your purchase if you are still smoking the pipe in eight or ten years. It's amazing how the pleasure can be sustained through the fiftieth, hundredth, etc., pipe. You'd think you'd have long ago moved on.

 

[Sloopjohnbee]

For most of us, buying pipes is a pleasure all of its own, almost aside from pipe smoking, for which six or seven pipes is plenty, maybe with the occasional replacement. The hunt, the infatuation, the decision to buy, the waiting for its arrival, the adoration when it is unveiled from the shipping package (if you're lucky), the first smoke, the sixth smoke, etc. The admiration of the wisdom of your purchase if you are still smoking the pipe in eight or ten years. It's amazing how the pleasure can be sustained through the fiftieth, hundredth, etc., pipe. You'd think you'd have long ago moved on.

I think the thing about obsessively buying pipes is it's a byproduct of finding the right pipe
honestly I still don't think I've quite found it/them yet
don't get me wrong - we all have great pipes - and some love their cobs which are easy to obtain but there's so much variation -
but reserving commissioning a pipe -I find it hard to find a solid rotation that works the way you want it - hence we stock up on a lot of excess

 

[MARC52]

I can easily make do with a couple of briars or a Falcon stem and a few bowls. You don't need dozens of pipes to be a pipe smoker.

 

[timt]

One minute I lament the fact that I won't live long enough to color my meers adequately and the next minute I'm eyeballing squashed tomatoes online, dangerously close to pulling the trigger. Why? I've never really wanted one before. And, I'm looking at briar versions for Pete's sake! I can't remember the last time I smoked one of my briars.

 

[Bax Burley]

Just one more...

But I could probably pick 7-10 if I had to and only keep those...but I don't want to. I have 33 currently, which isn't too crazy in the larger picture, but I have no plans to stop.

My brother in law only owns two pipes, a Grabow that's over 20 years old, and a Molina my mother bought him last year that she had me pick out for him. He's happy with the minimalism.

 

[jewman22]

31 seems about right. A different pipe every day of the month, you don't want a repeat you know.

 

[newbroom]

IF I had not jumped into piping with both feet, I might not have continued with it at all. I think the enjoyment of pipe acquisition and its attendant connectivity explored, coincided with my exploration of tobaccos, and each amplified the other's value to my experience. Then, of course, there's the sharing of that enthusiasm with you guys and gals.