Dock
Well-known member
- Joined
- Dec 15, 2007
- Messages
- 1,934
- Reaction score
- 10
It seems an easy enough question to answer but if you think on it a bit it's really not. Of course you're a pipe smoker! We're all smokers of pipes but some of here also collect pipes that seldom get smoked and I suspect that there's even some folks here like me who occasionally buy pipes that will likely NEVER get smoked!
So now comes the question of how we define a pipe smoker and a pipe collector. I have good friends who collect pipes that cost several thousand dollars. These pipes are carefully smoked but not very often. The majority of these folks smoke one bowl of tobacco per day and have such large collections that it may take months for a pipe to come up again in their rotatation. Some even buy such elaborate and ornate pipes that to smoke them once would devalue them signifigantly. They sit on racks and are ocassionally taken out to look at and admire. I personally have a half dozen of these and have even felt a pang of guilt for owning something that doesn't get used. It seems a silly indulgence at times but when you start looking at them as an investment and tiny works of art it becomes a bit more palatible.
On the flip side of this are folks who buy pipes strictly to smoke. The true value of owning them weather they be expensive or modest is to smoke them. To own a pipe that doesn't get used at all would be rediculous to them.
I find that I fall somewhere in the middle of these two camps. I do indeed buy pipes that are seldom smoked and I buy pipes like my Stans which are smoked often. I usually average out at 4-5 bowls a day.
So, are you a collector, a smoker or a little bit of both?...
So now comes the question of how we define a pipe smoker and a pipe collector. I have good friends who collect pipes that cost several thousand dollars. These pipes are carefully smoked but not very often. The majority of these folks smoke one bowl of tobacco per day and have such large collections that it may take months for a pipe to come up again in their rotatation. Some even buy such elaborate and ornate pipes that to smoke them once would devalue them signifigantly. They sit on racks and are ocassionally taken out to look at and admire. I personally have a half dozen of these and have even felt a pang of guilt for owning something that doesn't get used. It seems a silly indulgence at times but when you start looking at them as an investment and tiny works of art it becomes a bit more palatible.
On the flip side of this are folks who buy pipes strictly to smoke. The true value of owning them weather they be expensive or modest is to smoke them. To own a pipe that doesn't get used at all would be rediculous to them.
I find that I fall somewhere in the middle of these two camps. I do indeed buy pipes that are seldom smoked and I buy pipes like my Stans which are smoked often. I usually average out at 4-5 bowls a day.
So, are you a collector, a smoker or a little bit of both?...