Your Most Important Discoveries in Pipe Smoking

[makhorkasmoker]

I have been smoking a pipe for only a few years, and when I look back on the experience thus far, I see key moments of discovery where everything changed.

For instance, when I first learned to take small sips, to keep the pipe only barely lit, this was a big discovery. I enjoyed smoking so much more.

When I learned not to touch the flame to the tobacco when lighting it, this was also a big step forward, though not as big as the previous.

Just recently I began to realize how a larger bowl can totally transform the experience with some tobaccos. The smoke seems cooler, more flavorful. It's easier to keep the pipe lit. It's easier to smoke more slowly. I thought I liked pipes with very small bowls. Boy was I wrong. This was a Huge discovery for me.

I realize that some of you have been smoking so long that you must've made those kinds of discoveries long ago. But can you remember any of those those clear Ah Hah! moments, recently or not so recently, that changed everything for you?

Maybe it's discovering a certain style of blend that changed things for you. Or maybe you learned that a curved stem works best for you--or a straight. Or maybe you fell in love with hurricane pipes.

What are your big discoveries?

 

[bullet08]

Most important discovery for me was that every aspect of smoking the pipe is over thought.

 

[ashdigger]

British made pipes over 100 years old.

 

[fireground_piper]

Drying my Virginia blends to near crispy and a light pack.

 

[mso489]

Your taste for blends evolves. Blends you don't like should be jarred and tried again in a year or two; you may find them wonderful with age and with your own evolution in taste.

 

[sablebrush52]

It's impossible to smoke tobacco in a pipe unless you set fire to it or hang it in a shed over an open fire.

 

[Morrison Jeremiah]

Yes, finding the right bowl size is an important factor.
I like a group 4 no wider than 20 mm diameter.

Also, finding that I really like Dunhills and Ashtons has definitely upped my appreciation of smoking a pipe.
Northern Briars are good too.

My other pipes have kind of relegated themselves out of my rotation.

 

[Chasing Embers]

Your Most Important Discoveries in Pipe Smoking

Smoking technique affects the experience more than any pipe can.

 

[Jwebb90]

Learning to retrohale was the biggest game changer for me.

 

[olkofri]

When I learned that vulcanite sux.

 

[Kingsley]

Meerschaum is your best friend.

 

[Cappy]

Drying my Virginia blends to near crispy and a light pack.

YES, YES, YES!

 

[magicpiper]

Cadence. My pipe smoking world opened up when I realized I didn’t need to puff on my pipe so hard and so quickly that it looked like a coal fired freight train. Slow and steady wins the race.

 

[Morrison Jeremiah]

Another big discovery I've made since joining this forum, is that probably no one knows more about smoking technique and pipes in general than chasingembers ?

 

[warren]

Not all pipes are created equal. Blends did not stay the same over time or, even season to season as palates change over time as do harvests. Pipe smoking is simple. Some pipe smokers strive mightily to make it complicated and enjoy doing so. To each his own is my mantra when it comes to techniques, maintenance and such.

 

[condorlover1]

Stick tobacco in the big hole and put the small hole in your mouth and set fire to the stuff in the big hole!

 

[Chasing Embers]

Stick tobacco in the big hole and put the small hole in your mouth and set fire to the stuff in the big hole!

That right there is THE game changer.?

 

[Streeper541]

That you don't always have to fill the bowl full. ?

 

[weezell]

When I learned that vulcanite sux.

YES YES YES!

Meerschaum is your best friend.

That is a given... ? ?

 

[didimauw]

YES YES YES!

That is a given... ? ?

Came here to say these things. Haha