About 6 years ago, a Nording freehand and some B&M Aero blend.
Your First Pipe & Tobacco
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My first pipe was a drug store special for $20 or less, first tobacco. No clue, but I quickly switched to house blends from T Whitaker in Salem Oregon. Brandybuck was so harsh I didn't finish the ounce I purchased, but VA Aromatic was my favorite back then. That pipe lasted a month, then my friend tapped too hard into his palm and broke it. He bought me an $80 +/- Savinelli to replace it.
My first real pipe smoking experience was a Stanwell 2007 POY that my dad gave me from his collection. I smoked some Captain Black in it because that and 1Q is all he smokes.
It's funny how tastes change. I used to be 100% aromatics with heavy sweet toppings. Now I feel like I'm only happy with an English blend.
It's funny how tastes change. I used to be 100% aromatics with heavy sweet toppings. Now I feel like I'm only happy with an English blend.
Mine was a cheap nose warmer cob and a pouch of Prince Albert that I bought at the Ben Franklin with my paper route money. Smoked it so hot and fast that anything I drank burned the hell outta my tongue for a week!
My first experience - I got a cheap corncob pipe and tried some Holger Dansk: Mango and Vanilla... it was certainly a tongue-searing smoke. That was probably back in 2005 or so. I also got sold some Ashton 'Smooth Sailing' which I still have in a jar and have never smoked due to it smelling like Piña colada.
I upgraded shortly afterwards to a local blend (from James Fox on St. James' Street in London) and bought a Dunhill Estate (sadly lost now). My first canned baccy was a can of Peterson's Sherlock Holmes and a tin of Mississippi River.
I upgraded shortly afterwards to a local blend (from James Fox on St. James' Street in London) and bought a Dunhill Estate (sadly lost now). My first canned baccy was a can of Peterson's Sherlock Holmes and a tin of Mississippi River.
My first smoke was, unbelievably to me now, was in a Dunhill billiard, and some OTC such as Sail or Middleton's from the local drugstore in my college town. That was 55 years ago.
A Dunhill, you say? How fancy. Yes, it was, but it was a gift to me from a relative, and it was his father's pipe which commemorated his graduation from the same university I was attending then. I think it was unsmoked when I first lit it up, and dammit, I lost it years ago.
A Dunhill, you say? How fancy. Yes, it was, but it was a gift to me from a relative, and it was his father's pipe which commemorated his graduation from the same university I was attending then. I think it was unsmoked when I first lit it up, and dammit, I lost it years ago.
a thirty dollar bent rusticated red that was half a step up from the basket pipes. The tobacco was black berry brandy and it was incredible. Probably something made by lane it cost one dollar per ounce, what is weird to me. Is that tins cost pretty close to the same as they cost now where as bulk cost like six times as much. O.k. both went up about four or five bucks, however that's not as big a jump for tins.
actually my first pipe was a corncob pipe and frankly it was such a piece of crap and terrible smoker that it made me want a real pipe (trust me even though I love cobs and like M.M. cobs this one came out crap) so I consider it my first weed pipe (which is what I bought it for even if I smoked tobacco in it first). Totally great weed pipe though.
actually my first pipe was a corncob pipe and frankly it was such a piece of crap and terrible smoker that it made me want a real pipe (trust me even though I love cobs and like M.M. cobs this one came out crap) so I consider it my first weed pipe (which is what I bought it for even if I smoked tobacco in it first). Totally great weed pipe though.
Looking back, what was truly funny is the fact back then nobody even looked at you weird as an 11 yr old kid slapping $3.00 on the counter for a pipe and a pouch of tobacco!
As a kid in Oklahoma, I had to say it was for my dad, before they'd sell it too me.
My first experience with a pipe was when I was maybe fifteen or sixteen years old, and I picked my step dad's Peterson P-lip bulldog up from his pipe ashtray and took a few puffs of a half-smoked bowl of some sort of vanilla aromatic. I was disappointed that it didn't taste nearly as good as it smelled when he would smoke it.
My first experience smoking my own pipe was about ten years ago. I bought a Lucienne brand pipe at a local discount tobacco store along with some Middleton Cherry (or comparable cherry aromatic). I think the pipe was some kind of hard wood rather than briar, and it had a stinger. The tobacco was really goopy and was just overall terrible. I couldn't get the pipe to stay lit at all, and could only get it to burn decently after torching the tobacco with a bic lighter, which of course led to very uncomfortable tongue burn the next day. It was such a bad experience that I didn't even mess with a pipe again for about two years. However, I knew that there had to be more to pipe smoking than burning your tongue on goopy aromatics in a cheap pipe, or smoking your stepdads half smoked bowl of 1Q.
Up to that point, I had never considered that there was any kind of real nuance to pipe smoking. I figured any old pipe and tobacco would be fine, and there as nothing for me to learn. I realized from my bad experiences that I was underestimating the complexities of the pipe, so I did some research online where I learned some of the basic pipe wisdom and learned about Iwan Ries. I was living in Chicago at the time, so I stopped by Iwan Ries, and they set me up with a couple cobs and a few different blends. Everything went much better from that point on. I've still got a few pounds of (the no longer available) Iwan Ries Gourmet English in my cellar, which was blended by McClelland and is kind of a crossover aromatic like the Frog Morton series, and is still one of my favorite blends.
My first experience smoking my own pipe was about ten years ago. I bought a Lucienne brand pipe at a local discount tobacco store along with some Middleton Cherry (or comparable cherry aromatic). I think the pipe was some kind of hard wood rather than briar, and it had a stinger. The tobacco was really goopy and was just overall terrible. I couldn't get the pipe to stay lit at all, and could only get it to burn decently after torching the tobacco with a bic lighter, which of course led to very uncomfortable tongue burn the next day. It was such a bad experience that I didn't even mess with a pipe again for about two years. However, I knew that there had to be more to pipe smoking than burning your tongue on goopy aromatics in a cheap pipe, or smoking your stepdads half smoked bowl of 1Q.
Up to that point, I had never considered that there was any kind of real nuance to pipe smoking. I figured any old pipe and tobacco would be fine, and there as nothing for me to learn. I realized from my bad experiences that I was underestimating the complexities of the pipe, so I did some research online where I learned some of the basic pipe wisdom and learned about Iwan Ries. I was living in Chicago at the time, so I stopped by Iwan Ries, and they set me up with a couple cobs and a few different blends. Everything went much better from that point on. I've still got a few pounds of (the no longer available) Iwan Ries Gourmet English in my cellar, which was blended by McClelland and is kind of a crossover aromatic like the Frog Morton series, and is still one of my favorite blends.
My first pipe back in 1994 was a Dr. Grabow I bought at Kmart. I don't recall what tobacco it was but I eventually owned 5 Grabows and one Missouri Meerschaum corn cob. I stopped smoking a pipe in 1996 for cigars. I started smoking a pipe again this past Spring. I currently have 4 Dr. Grabows in my way too big collection of 34 pipes, two of which were brand new Vikings I found on Ebay. I wish I knew what I did with my original 6 pipes.
My first pipe experience was in 1997 while in flight school. Bought it from tinderbox with one of their tobacco blends - I can’t remember which.
You'n me both, bro'. There are a few still left, but VERY few, & they had to "diversify" to survive. Even the old Santa Monica store is long gone now.
It'd make Ed & Karl cry...
Like a lot of behind-the-counter people I learned what few chops I have at a TBI franchise. Still just don't seem right.
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