When Did You Start Smoking A Pipe?

[sparrowhawk]

I seriously started smoking a pipe about a year and a half ago. I had tried the pipe before as a substitute for cigarettes, but that failed because I tried to smoke a pipe the way I smoked cigarettes, not realizing that smoking a pipe is a different technique and approach. I learned here and on some online videos that I was doing it all wrong. Anyway, I had kicked the cigarettes and returned to the pipe because, quite frankly, the pipe smoker looks more sophisticated and since I've always associated the pipe with academics and the like, I thought it would be more appropriate for me, being a writer, scholar, and self-styled intellectual. Now you couldn't pay me to smoke a cigarette, and I have about 20 pipes in my collection. And like larry above, this forum has been enormously helpful.

 

[jmsutton]

I was fifteen years old. My buddy had just gotten two pipes for his birthday. He lit one up with some sir walter raleigh and I opted for some captain black cherry. The following two years I smoked cigars about once a month with my dad. When I turned 18 my dad bought me a small box humidor full of quality cigars and a pipe with some captain black gold. Since then I've been smoking regularly and love it. My wife loves the smell of all tobacco, so i'm a lucky man.

 

[algenib]

For my 18th birthday my mom bought me a Butz-Choquin pipe, and I picked out a variety of Peterson aromatics to try. That was seven and a half years ago, and I remember it being easy to find Penzance when I started. I stopped smoking it every day when I went to college, and ended up mostly smoking cigarettes, but I never really put it down. I quit the cigarettes over a year ago, and decided to go full steam on the pipe again. I used to stick to English and aros, but since coming back I've branched out a bit, and found VAs, VaPers, and Oriental blends are my favorites. I still haven't given burley a fair shake, but that will change in my upcoming TAD order.
I hope someday I can be posting here that I've been smoking as long as some of you old timers.

 

[redstar]

Summer 2011, aged 36. Realized good cigars were costing me a fortune and even occasional cigarette smoking was doing me no good at all.
Bought a cheapish pipe and burnt my tongue with CB cherry, but occasionally found smoking nirvana.
Got a decent Peterson and some Davidoff blends and sort of liked it.
Then I discovered Virginia blends in flake format and have never looked back.
I'm not allowed to smoke at home but I travel a lot for work and always have three or four pipes and a few tins with me. Aside from occasionally smoking Seven Seas Gold, I'm a huge fan of Davidoff Flake Medallions and Samuel Gawith's FVF, Best Brown, Golden Glow, as well as Capstan's two offerings.
I now have a lot of tobacco hidden away, six Petersons and a lovely Ropp billiard that's just arrived. Two cobs recently bought for Irish Flake and 1792 Flake for when I have time for something really strong.
Almost never smoke cigs anymore and love snus at work or when on a plane - or for when I need to feed my acknowledged nicotine addiction surreptitiously!
Currently looking forward to HH Latakia Flake to see if Latakia is for me or not.
In the last three years I've never once had the chance to enjoy a pipe with a friend and haven't been able to convert anyone to the pipe... That is, until last week, when I spent a wonderful evening eating steak and talking work and pipes with a pipe smoker my age in jo'burg. It was wonderful to enjoy a smoke and a laugh together!
I do a lot of exercise and don't feel that pipe smoking affects me much at all.
Sadly, more and more hotels no longer offer smoking rooms, and life doesn't allow for a good hour's pipe related relaxation, but I will battle on regardless.

 

[phred]

I started about a month AFTER I joined the forums, oddly enough, in January of 2013. A friend of mine picked up a pipe on a whim in November, and hanging out on the porch with him seemed very convivial. At the time, my mother-in-law had just entered hospice due to complications from lymphoma and lung cancer, so picking up a habit with known cancer risks wasn't something I just wanted to dive into, especially since my father had also died of a lung ailment (pulmonary fibrosis)...
But - the risk to the lungs is connected more to smoke inhalation, which I don't do. I do try to get regular cardio exercise and I'm not in any of the other higher-risk categories, and the numbers on pipe and cigar smoking are based on a much heavier habit than the one I've developed, so I figured the risks were acceptable.
My mother-in-law passed in December of 2012, and I picked up a pipe the following month - a Bjarne Viking Classic, bent egg sitter with a saddle stem. The fellow at the B&M was very helpful, and got me set up with some Lane's 1Q (rebranded by the store as "Victorian Standard"), a pipe tool, some pipe cleaners, and a lighter. Turns out my friend was quite right - smoking at the B&M is quite convivial, event though 90% of the other customers are cigar guys. And smoking solo on the back porch is quite meditative as well. Definitely worth the risks.

 

[cigarsmker]

I Started about 20 years ago. A Dr Grabow and captain black

 

[huntertrw]

October 27, 1973. For details please see the thread titled "First Pipe of Tobacco" under the Forum's General Pipe-Smoking Discussion heading.

 

[lazydog]

1967 Granger & Mix 79, Amphora. My Father & Grandfather were pipers....

 

[tallguy]

I started about two months ago (at the age of 46). My brother started pipe smoking at the beginning of this year. While I was at his place this summer during my vacation, he asked me if I wanted to try. Which I did. I have been hooked since.
I remember wanting to try pipe smoking since I was in high school. During some of our school trip, one of the teacher always smoke the pipe in the bus. Always liked the aroma. Well, it took me about 30 years to start this hobby, but better late than never. Too bad my wife doesn't like my new hobby.

 

[wilson]

Thirty five years ago. I was in college. I stopped at a drug store to get some cigars (they had an entire aisle of cigars, pipe tobacco and chewing tobacco) and came out with some Captain Black and a Grabow. I still have the Grabow. The Captain Black, however, is long gone.

 

[northernneil]

I've been enjoying my pipe for about 3 years now. So glad I decided to randomly stop into Burlington on Whyte Tobacconist on a whim those couple of years ago. That was the start of my journey.

 

[hierophant]

I've been smoking a pipe off and on since I was 18 (48 currently). Up until quite recently I was strictly a drugstore pipe and tobacco kind of guy though.
My dad occasionally smoked a pipe and an uncle did as well. I suppose that along with Sherlock Holmes and reading Tolkien is what more or less sparked my interest. Mostly I just wanted to see what it was like, and I liked it. I had a brief flirtation with cigarettes, but they smell and taste so awful I could never understand the appeal.