Why did you start pipe smoking

[newbroom]

I had quit smoking cigs for longish spells, many times. Whenever I picked em back up, it was due to stress. As the yrs rolled by, so did I as I found that RYO cigs were preferable to me than tailor mades with all the additives.
One day, I thought to eliminate the paper and use a corn cob. A month or two or three later, I found Jesus this forum and learned what I needed to become a satisfied nicotine addict w/o inhaling.
My 'addiction' now is much more moderate, and my enjoyment of smoking is enhanced by great taste, history, and craftsmanship, all with no more cigarette cough.
I see pipe smoking as the most civilized use of tobacco.

 

[lifesizehobbit]

As a kid, I visited family including an uncle that seemed to have Grabows setting in his glass door library cabinet. I used to sneak a pretend puff out of it and be repulsed by the taste. Regardless I was still fascinated by the shape and feel in my hand as a kid. I also used to play with the old soap bubble pipes.
Fast forward to age 22, and I found myself in a Tinder Box with a friend admiring the various pipes. A few weeks later, my friend gifted me a Savinelli pipe and tobacco. Since then, I've been a modest collector and occasional puffer.

 

[johnscs]

Pretty sure I was predestined to take up pipes no matter what, but early role models intensified my desire. My grandpa deeply enjoyed his pipes, and I loved the scent of his aromatic blends, Amphora and Sir Walter Raleigh. My dad smoked pipes now and then, too. As a kid, I was captivated by how pipe and cigar smokers seemed to smoke for the pleasure and the ritual, unlike adults who smoked cigarettes (which never appealed to me). I thought pipes were especially intriguing as accessories, and smoking tobacco in a pipe just looked fun, cool, and classy. My brother and I loved posing with our grandpa's pipes, even though we didn't much like the taste we got from the stems. :-
In my teens, my desire to smoke a pipe just got stronger, but I hesitated to try because I figured there was no way I could get away with it until I turned 18. And even then, I was worried of adult and peer disapproval. On the other hand, as one guy pointed out, pipes are so civilized, so I thought maybe I wouldn’t have too hard a time getting started with pipes. My early attempts pretty much followed the typical pattern - didn’t get the hang of it for a while and didn’t get the experience I was looking for. I did stick with it in secret, though. After all, experienced pipe smokers must enjoy the process or they wouldn’t do it. I slowly got better at smoking Borkum Riff and Amphora in my Dr. G and liked the smoking experience enough to fire up a few bowls every week.
Major turning point: Before starting college (but before turning 18, actually), I bought a nice, simple billiard (a basket pipe) in a proper pipe shop. Even though I had been smoking a pipe for a few years, I was glad to take the shop guy’s lesson for beginners and start breaking in my first decent pipe. I tasted 1Q for the first time and genuinely experienced true smoking satisfaction. As I smoked my first couple of bowls in that shop, I thought to myself: “So THIS is what pipe smoking is all about …” Definitely an “AHA!” moment that made me into a lifelong pipe-lover.

 

[beezer]

I was surrounded by cigarette smokers while growing up, but I loathed the smoke and the smell as a kid and never picked one up. Later while in the Marines most people who used tobacco products chewed or dipped rather than smoked, but again I never was tempted to try it. However, while I was working in Iraq as a civilian in 2007 there was a Marine MSgt that would always be outside smoking a cigar late at night and relaxing like he was somewhere other than Fallujah. Seeing him sitting there enjoying himself like that made an impression and when I got back to the states I bought a cheap humidor and tried my first cigar. A buddy of mine who also smoked cigars recommended I try pipe tobacco and so I bought a Peterson pipe and a tin of Dunhill Nightcap and Presbyterian. As a newbie I grew impatient with the relights and my technique stunk and after scorching my tongue I went back to cigars for a few years. Then at the end of 2012 I stumbled upon my pipe and those tins and gave it another go and I haven't looked back. I bought a ton of pipe tobacco between 2012-2016 and my cellar is pretty well stocked. I've added a few more pipes as well.
Today I tend to smoke between 2-5 bowls per week and absolutely love sitting on my back deck with a fresh cup of coffee and a stout blend to start my mornings. It's probably my favorite part of the day. As for blend preferences, I started off preferring English blends and have shifted to preferring aged Virginias instead. My young son calls my pipe "Papa's bubble blower", which cracks me up. My daughter likes to smell the inside of the tin or jar when I crack it open and describe the smell. Meanwhile, my wife just shrugs and tolerates it. Lol.

 

[jttnk]

As a teen I was a closet cigarette smoker. I would smoke at parties, beach, weekends away from parents. Same through college, always a weekender! I played high school and college club water polo, which kept me in check. After college started working and golf became my excuse to smoke. Always at the range smoked away from home. Mid 30’s I was overweight unhappy and smoking cigarettes more than ever. I got fed up quit cold turkey, pulled out my road bike and started riding again something I hadn’t done since college. Didn’t smoke more than a handful of “hey I’m drunk let’s have cig” for 10 or so years. Don’t worry I’m getting to the pipe part. In my mid 40’s I started to play drums again something I always loved, but never played in a band until now. At 47, my guitarist is a cigar officianado and bass player a weekend smoker. So I don’t really like cigars, my father loves them and I’ve been around them forever. I didn’t want to start smoking again... here it comes, but I have always loved the idea of the pipe. So, I got my first pipe and some 1Q about w years ago and the rest is... well 29 pipes and 52 blends in jars and starting to add tins of what I like to cellar. I love my pipes and time to enjoy them like so many of you posted.
Thanks for sharing your stories. It’s interesting how much we’re all drawn for so many of the same reasons.

 

[shayde]

I used to smoke pipes after high school just because I thought they were neat. I stopped for a while and started dipping, because it was far more popular in the Army, now that I’m trying to quit dipping in order to save my gums some heartache I have taken back up pipe smoking. The only issue is there doesn’t seem to really be any nice B&M stores here in Hawaii and everything is super expensive here. The heavy price I must pay for being stationed in paradise :wink:

 

[deleon]

I've been a cigar smoker for almost 20 years, but was always curious about pipe smoking just never tried it. I'm always surrounded by great friends who only smoke cigars so I never wanted that to change. Eventually I pulled the trigger and bought myself a GBD pipe some Peterson Sunset Breeze pipe tobacco and never looked back. I smoke cigars from time to time. To be honest my cigars are just in my humidors aging, while enjoy smoking my pipes, cigars don't compare. I think Smoking a Pipe brings a kind of freedom; much like riding a Harley Davidson when people ask what freedom means. It's something different to everyone you just have to do it to find your freedom.

 

[mikethompson]

 

[taildraggin]

Dunhill's London Mixture.
I was a cigar smoker and wasn't satisfied with the variety. I caught a wiff of a clerk's smoke at Georgetown Tobacco and he loaded a cob with DLM for me. I walked out with a small Peterson Kildare 25 billiard and a tin of London Mixture and Light Flake. Still use that 30 y/o pipe.

 

[lochinvar]

I grew up surrounded by people who smoked or used to (except Grandma, she was a Red Man woman) and told me it was horrible. When I was young though I loved Sherlock Holmes and the old 39 Steps/John Buchan movies and other old movies where there was a ton of pipes. When I was about six or seven a friend who owned a 5 and Dime gave me a full bent Grabow so I could play Sherlock, but I only ever was interested in the pipe not actually smoking it.
Later at 15 I had to fill in at one of the family businesses for the summer, a pay parking lot. That's a lot of free time to fill in, and there was a gas station nearby whose attendant sold cigars and couldn't do math with birthdates (but to be fair I was bigger and had more facial hair than he did). The cigar boom was in full swing and every restaurant and shop had a humidor, so from Hav-A-Tampas I moved to high ends, and was quickly smoking about $100 worth of cigars a week. Then I found my old Sherlock pipe, and shredded up some of the cigars and started smoking them. That was ehh. Then I walked in my local smoke shop and discovered Latakia (in the form of their house blend GatlinBurley) and the brand Rattray, specifically Highland Targe. A few weeks of mixed cigar and pipe smoking later and cigars dropped from 50% to about half a percent of my smoking due to "there is no Latakia in cigars, so why waste my time." An even more expensive day was when I first smoked (original) Three Nuns and Gawith, and my conversion to Virginia started.

 

[autumnfog]

There is many reasons why.
The taste and smell, the aesthetics and traditions, the calm, the nicotine.
Never smoked pipe to look cool so my pipe time occur in splendid solitude.

That way I seem to get more out of it.

 

[Chasing Embers]

I use and enjoy all forms of tobacco. Pipe smoking is just another way for me to do that.