Both my Grandfathers smoked a pipe as did my oldest brother (still does at 75) just seemed the right thing to do. :
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:Why did you first pick up a pipe?
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@simnettpratt "you get to mess with it as you're puffing"
What male wouldn't want to have a small combustion stove sticking out of there mouths, we just love to play with fire!
What male wouldn't want to have a small combustion stove sticking out of there mouths, we just love to play with fire!
My dad who has been a life long cigarette smoker dabbled in pipes for a while when I was a kid. He bought a Peterson System one day and was very proud of it. Like many have said whenever I caught a whiff of aromatic pipe smoke as a kid I always thought it smelled awesome.
When I was 21 I visited a tobacco shop in Spokane, WA and bought my first pipe. It was a half bent no name made in Italy. I remember very well that day 20 years ago. The older tobacconist gentleman behind the counter was friendly and encouraging getting me set up with my new pipe, cleaning supplies and several blends to sample. Been loving it ever since.
When I was 21 I visited a tobacco shop in Spokane, WA and bought my first pipe. It was a half bent no name made in Italy. I remember very well that day 20 years ago. The older tobacconist gentleman behind the counter was friendly and encouraging getting me set up with my new pipe, cleaning supplies and several blends to sample. Been loving it ever since.
Pipes have been in my family since the Cival War. So I was always around them. I picked up cigs when I was in college and tried to switch to a pipe for the the cost and then went back to cigs for convenience. Now I picked the pipe back up because I hate the fact there are so many chemicals in cigs and would like to live longer to see my 18 month old at least get married.
I've always been a smoker, primarily cigarettes and cigars. One year the lady needed suggestions for Christmas gifts, so I told her to get me a few Cohibas. She surprised me instead with a pipe and a pouch of MacBaren Cherry. The rest is history.
I started selling cigarettes, cigars, and pipe tobacco on or about 1953. My parents owned a
store. From the time I was capable of making-change-of-a-dollar, I got promoted from a "gopher"
to manning the front counter after school and weekends. Our Church was directly across the
street and all the Priests would buy their pipe tobacco from us.
We had one wall display rack of a dozen pipes. We never sold a single one of them.
Around 1957 I started admiring one pipe on that display. It was a full-bent burgundy color and
rusticated. When I asked if I could have it, my Dad and Mom discussed it right in front of me.
Dad said not to worry, he'll try it once, turn blue, and give up.
He was correct. He charged me $2 out of my pocket which was his cost. I tried Cherry Blend
thinking it would taste like candy. Nope....Pipe, pouch, and matches went into a drawer and
eventually disappeared.
After retirement, I wanted to try it again for nostalgia, and sought a similar looking
replacement Pipe. I also bought H&H and Granger, which were my biggest sellers in the fifties.
Too bad Revelation was long gone, and Bond Street; never got to try them.
Finally, the Internet led me to the new premium tinned stuff, which added another dimension altogether.
store. From the time I was capable of making-change-of-a-dollar, I got promoted from a "gopher"
to manning the front counter after school and weekends. Our Church was directly across the
street and all the Priests would buy their pipe tobacco from us.
We had one wall display rack of a dozen pipes. We never sold a single one of them.
Around 1957 I started admiring one pipe on that display. It was a full-bent burgundy color and
rusticated. When I asked if I could have it, my Dad and Mom discussed it right in front of me.
Dad said not to worry, he'll try it once, turn blue, and give up.
He was correct. He charged me $2 out of my pocket which was his cost. I tried Cherry Blend
thinking it would taste like candy. Nope....Pipe, pouch, and matches went into a drawer and
eventually disappeared.
After retirement, I wanted to try it again for nostalgia, and sought a similar looking
replacement Pipe. I also bought H&H and Granger, which were my biggest sellers in the fifties.
Too bad Revelation was long gone, and Bond Street; never got to try them.
Finally, the Internet led me to the new premium tinned stuff, which added another dimension altogether.
i never had any pipe smokers in my family growing up(or anyone i knew in general) so it wasnt that influence. never smoked cigs at all but bought my first cigar on my 19th birthday. a few years later when i was in college, i bought a cheap corncob and some even cheaper no name brand of tobacco. smoked for a couple months but couldnt get the hang of it so i went back to cigars. about two months ago i found a pipe i had bought and thought id try it again. getting better but i have a lot to learn yet.
Ill keep this short my mom. when I satrted smoking cig she got me a pipe and said smoke this instead. So when i was at the parents house I smoked the pipe and atleast once a day at my house and found over the years that it actually helped me with some things and I started full time 15 yrs ago with 17 yrs of pipe smoking behind me total now
I've always been intrigued with pipes and of course Sherlock had a lil to do with it but last December I saw an old guy in the Hess parking lot lighting a huge calabash and I said screw it I'm buying one.I went home, got on Amazon and bought a "Sanda classic" and have been hooked since.
I started smoking cigarettes way too young, and I eventually started to hate them.
So I switched to cigars, and found that it was difficult to find a good cigar and then, when you found one, being able to afford to smoke more than one per week was even more difficult.
A friend nudged me about them 12 years ago, and I ended up being way more interested in pipe smoking than he ever had been.
So I switched to cigars, and found that it was difficult to find a good cigar and then, when you found one, being able to afford to smoke more than one per week was even more difficult.
A friend nudged me about them 12 years ago, and I ended up being way more interested in pipe smoking than he ever had been.
Growing up, my dad smoked a pipe occasionally and I always had loved the aroma (I later discovered that what he was smoking was 1Q, no surprise). Later when I came of age, a friend of mine said that he loved the smell of pipe tobacco too. We wound up buying a couple of pipes and a couple ounces of cherry cavendish. We both thought it was enjoyable and would smoke our pipes once or twice a week. Eventually, it became a fascination for me and I stuck with it...he didn't. To me, it is a very relaxing hobby that helps to relieve stress and I have found that pipe smokers are some of the most interesting people to have a conversation with!
Long time cigar smoker, wanted something a little different and with a pipe, you actually have something left after all the tobacco is gone 
Love all the craftsmanship that goes into a pipe and yes I have my favorite shapes. Even as a total beginner, art is art and though there has been some sticker shock so far, I look at it like this. I've spent $250-300 on a box of cigars on many occasions, after I finish them, I have an empty box. with a pipe, I have something left that leaves a smile on my face. G1
Love all the craftsmanship that goes into a pipe and yes I have my favorite shapes. Even as a total beginner, art is art and though there has been some sticker shock so far, I look at it like this. I've spent $250-300 on a box of cigars on many occasions, after I finish them, I have an empty box. with a pipe, I have something left that leaves a smile on my face. G1
I wanted a tastier and healthier alternative to cigarettes and other tobacco products out there. Plus, I always thought that pipes looked cool as did those who smoked them, so I picked up an Italian Briar and it has grown from there!
My Grandfather, whom I lived next door too until I was 4 used to smoke a pipe, my dad smoked a pipe when I was little. I smoked a pipe for a little while in college. Since then I often looked at pipes and always loved the smell of pipe tobacco. I think my resurgence into the pipe was brought on by watching Mad Men and then finding this great web site. This forum has made my pipe smoking this time around far more enjoyable and successful.
When I was a kid, my dad smoked a pipe, but my mom wouldn't let him smoke it anywhere near me. His dad smoked a pipe and his brother smoked black and mild cigars. I was always really interested in pipes, maybe because my mom kept them away from me. I started smoking cigarettes when I was in high school. When I was in college I made a few extra bucks by cutting the lawn for this old retired navy chaplain who smoked a pipe. I really liked the smell a lot better than my cigarettes and thought it looked a lot classier. I went down to my local pipe and cigar shop and bought a cheap pipe and some carter and hall and have been smoking a pipe ever since. It got me completely off of cigarettes too.
I smoked cigarettes for years so I was already a smoker (luckily I'm done with that habit). I knew that my grandfather had smoked a pipe and quit shortly after I was born. By 2006 he had passed and I wished I had a better connection to him when he was alive. I was a big fan of The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings and the LOTR movies also were an influence on some level. I had gotten the extended edition trilogy and was watching them quite a bit around the time I decided to try to give up cigarettes and switch to a pipe. I talked to a friend of mine and told him I was thinking about picking up a pipe to try and he excitedly told me his wife had just bought him one for Christmas and he had just tried it out. He was excited about the prospect of having someone else to smoke a pipe with.
So those 3 things were all contributing factors in me picking it up for the first time. I didn't really know any pipe smokers and I pretty much had to just figure it out on my own with the help of online pipe forums. I went to the local Tinderbox and picked out a bent billiard basket pipe and a couple of ounces of their best selling aromatics (Wilshire - which is Lane 1-Q and a house blend called 101 that was 50% 1-Q and 50% something else). My friend and I used to go to a local Irish pub (when you were still allowed to smoke indoors) and smoke our pipes as often as we could. The bonding that we did there over pints of Guinness and our pipes cemented it as something that I have such good memories attached to now.
So those 3 things were all contributing factors in me picking it up for the first time. I didn't really know any pipe smokers and I pretty much had to just figure it out on my own with the help of online pipe forums. I went to the local Tinderbox and picked out a bent billiard basket pipe and a couple of ounces of their best selling aromatics (Wilshire - which is Lane 1-Q and a house blend called 101 that was 50% 1-Q and 50% something else). My friend and I used to go to a local Irish pub (when you were still allowed to smoke indoors) and smoke our pipes as often as we could. The bonding that we did there over pints of Guinness and our pipes cemented it as something that I have such good memories attached to now.
It was September, 1959, and I was starting off to college, and pipes were the ultra cool thing for the Joe College set. That feeling lasted only as long as my first puff, when I realized I'd acquired a life-long obsession.
I was in a mall years back, and a grizzly came out of a shoe store and started to mawl my date. So, I ran into a pipe shop, picked up my first pipe ever and beat the grizzly back with it. I think it was a Nording.
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