Using your pipe collection

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Spud31

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One advantage that pipe smoking has over other fine indulgences such as cigars or wine is the collectability factor: once you smoke a cigar, its gone, and I've never heard wine enthusiasts rave about a particular vintage goblet. Pipes have that wonderful "Collect and trade with your friends" factor that appeals to the boy that still lives in all of us, and the appeal of different styles and briar grains is irresistible.

Every pipe has a story, whether its the pedigree it comes from, or personal sentimental value in our lives: I now have four pipes, none of which will break the bank, but still love my trusty very first Dr. Grabow Grand Duke that I bought for fifteen bucks at a Walgreens 25 years ago.

So how do you all use your collection??

Do you keep certain pipes for certain blends: i.e., one dedicated to Balkan Blends and another for just Aromatics. Or are you a daily smoker who rotates? Or do you simply pick the one that strikes your fancy at that particular moment??



 
All I know about my "collection" at this stage is that I've got far to many pipes.

There are 84 of them sitting all over my office with another 5 on it's way to me.  Maybe I should buy 11 more to top the 100 and maybe (MAYBE) I will stop "collecting" then.

PAD is a horrible decease :(
 
The only hard and fast "rules" I have is that anything that touches lat-weed remains as such. And being as that I'm pretty much off the lat-wagon there are only 2 pipes that are seriously dedicated to this. Just the aroma off the bare bowl is enough to tell me that the lat-weed has left an indelible impression.

Mostly everything else sees double or triple duties in turn. I'm primarily a straight 'ginny/VaPer kinda guy, with the occasional foray into burley blends. So I've never been concerned with cross-contamination (poor term I realise).

Aros, don't usually go there. But do have 2 pipes reserved for these when the occasional mood strikes.

All that said, I do have a Stanny reserved for 5100 as it seems to sing in that and don't want to mess with the vibe there.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it!

:cat:



Cheers,

RR
 
I have around two dozen pipes. Although I usually have a tobacco in mind when I buy a pipe, as often as not the pipe tells me what it does and does not like. Since most of my smoking involves a small number of blends, it all works out well. I have a few pipes dedicated to simple burleyweed (Stokkebye 702, Uhle's, Golden Extra), a few dedicated to straight virginias, a few dedicated to oriental forward/very light on the latakia blends (like London Mixture, 3 Oaks Syrian), a few dedicated to McClelland FMC 2000/GH&co Black and Brown. This covers probably 90% of what I smoke. I have a couple of cob and meers for aros and the rare full latakia mixture.
 
I've never gotten to the point of having a collection. I have a couple friends that visit and bullshit about sundry subjects including the pipes in my rack. All too often they leave with one, along with a wad of assorted tobaccos. I have some that I won't part with, mainly gifted ones or really great smokers. My meerschaums are tucked away out of sight. 8) I have a couple older briars I use for Burley but the remaining ones all get a steady diet of VAs and VaPers. Cobs for Aros and other suspicious blends.
 
Deja vu'?

Seems like I have already said something about this topic, but maybe not?

I have dedicated pipes for what I call 'eccentric blends', and then others that run generalized types. Aros are tough, pretty much requiring their own bowl, so I can not get them muddied up. The problem for me is, I tend to run the gamut on tobaccos, so it requires many hours of making just the right pipe to set off the type of blend(s).

I can see that the growing clutter is both satiating the collector and yet creating complications of too many choices. Like the Divas, I have to take a moment to decide if my shoes match my purse..............
 
Spud31":ovblw4ip said:
I've never heard wine enthusiasts rave about a particular vintage goblet.  
Vintage goblets, no, but about the different types of Riedel glasses (most other brands are sneered at, unless they are running over $100 a stem), the proper decanter for different varietals, etc.? Oh, yes I have heard it! (If I can ever my blood sugar to stay at 'good' instead of 'barely acceptable', I have a few cases of wine aging) I was never one of them, but I met them, on-line and at tastings.

I never paid that much attention to those folks (a little, but not a lot).

As for my pipes, I may have a fair number, but I don't really see them as a 'collection' (that is, as collectable objects in and of themselves), but I can see how some would view their pipes that way. I smoke a fair amount of GH Lakelands, and have 18 pipes for them and similar blends, and one pipe just works great with Lat-blends, but which pipe I select more often depends on the weather than anything else -- windy and not below freezing? cob or meer. Raining? cob or clay. Not windy or rainy? briar. Over 90F? Not a Falcon, the metal stem seems to stay too hot. I try to smoke the briars 1-2 times a month, the others as needed.

 
I have a problematic number of pipes. When I see an appealing possible acquisition, I have to think a bit to be sure I don't already have its near twin. One test I use for a buy / don't buy decision is, would the new pipe push an old favorite out of the line? I still have the first pipe I ever bought fifty years ago. My totals are c. sixty briars, more than a dozen cobs, three meers. If the bowl is tall and skinny, it gets fed Va. If it's more squarish in dimension, English. Aros get briars whose bowls seem a good match for the tobacco's cut, coarse or fine. I don't like too rigid a system, because it seems to take some of the enjoyment out of this avocation, for me, anyway. One of the best things I've done to enhance my enjoyment is to keep a "piper's diary." Entries are selective (I wouldn't do an entry on PA in a cob, for examp) and brief (Date, pipe, tobacco, what's remarkable).  With the diary, I can quickly choose a tobacco if I've already chosen a pipe . . . or the opposite.
 
The only pipe I have "dedicated" to any one tobacco is a ghastly Chinese resin pipe given to me by the little woman. After much research I treat it like the old "The Pipes" from the 60's. Super fine shag as in Kendal Kentucky, super loosely packed. It smokes that a right treat but I would fear for the survival of my tongue if I were to try other tobaccos. Otherwise I'm pretty much a whatever mood strikes me kind of guy. I'm not picky about lats or aros mucking with flavors.
 
Spud31":757nd105 said:
So how do you all use your collection??

Do you keep certain pipes for certain blends: i.e., one dedicated to Balkan Blends and another for just Aromatics.  Or are you a daily smoker who rotates?  Or do you simply pick the one that strikes your fancy at that particular moment??
All of the above. Not being a "Smart A$$". That's a good description of the way I use my pipes. :)

AJ
 
I've never considered it a "collection"; more like an accumulation.   Quite a few of them have a history or a story to tell.  But I did (do) have too many pipes.  Over the past few years I have pared it down to around 50 or so, and of those there are around 20 that see regular use.  Part of this is that I don't smoke nearly as much as I used to.

I grab whichever pipe speaks to me at any given moment, but since I mostly smoke the same tobacco it's not much of an issue.  When I find something I like I stick with it; not very adventuresome in that way.  My family laughs at me because I always order the same pizza and mostly order the same thing at any given restaurant; I'm an "if it ain't broke don't fix it" kinda guy.

I did see (and participated in) an entire discussion on another forum about posters' favorite glasses for single malt scotch, so such debates do occur!
 
Spud31":94lap9ju said:
One advantage that pipe smoking has over other fine indulgences such as cigars or wine is the collectability factor: once you smoke a cigar, its gone, and I've never heard wine enthusiasts rave about a particular vintage goblet.  Pipes have that wonderful "Collect and trade with your friends" factor that appeals to the boy that still lives in all of us, and the appeal of different styles and briar grains is irresistible.

Every pipe has a story, whether its the pedigree it comes from, or personal sentimental value in our lives: I now have four pipes, none of which will break the bank, but still love my trusty very first Dr. Grabow Grand Duke that I bought for fifteen bucks at a Walgreens 25 years ago.

So how do you all use your collection??

Do you keep certain pipes for certain blends: i.e., one dedicated to Balkan Blends and another for just Aromatics.  Or are you a daily smoker who rotates?  Or do you simply pick the one that strikes your fancy at that particular moment??


I bought a lot of 100 pipes from a man who was selling his dad's pipe collection (600+) The father was a fanatic about smoking certain blends in certain pipes - he lightly scratched a code # for the particular blend in the stem of each pipe. A little over the top I thought
 
Yeah, we revisit this topic every now and again! It's always fun though. My 160+ pipes are a conglomeration accumulated over 51 years of puffing. I don't have any "dedicated" pipes per se. I do have a few ROTs (Rules of Thumb!). Aros (smoked rarely) go into cobs, maples, cherrywoods, etc.; never into briar or Meer. I only smoke Latweed/s in my Dunnies, Sasienis, Ashtons, Ferndowns, GBDs, Barlings, BBBs, & Meers plus all the "artisan" briars. Burley, straight Ginnyweed, & Va/Pers are reserved for a large group of pipes (some "Firsts", some "Seconds") that just smoke these blends well. I will smoke Ginnyweed, but not Burley, in a "Latweed' pipe. Generally, I try to keep it simple...Pick up pipe, put in tobacco, lite tobacco, smoke!!! This hobby is supposed to be relaxing; not a chore!!!!!! :cheers: FTRPLT
 
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