How to get started smoking pipes

[jkstewart1]

Kudos to Mister Moo as always! Thanks to this thread I re-examined the three step - child/woman/man - loading technique as per Mr. Moo in the Old Farts thread and found that I really had not been loading my pipes with enough tobacco. I was too concerned with getting plugged up and as a consequence, smoke was always thin (not full) and air was too free through the pipe.

I feel that by getting back to basics - Carter Hall and a cob - and re-examining technique, pipe smoking is even more of a pleasure. I'm definitely looking forward to practicing until it becomes perfection (for me)!

Thanks again, Moo!

[lbowles2]

Would you recommend the filtered or unfiltered pipes? I have smoked a briar some but never a cob so I didn't know what the difference would be.

[NCRadioMan]

Originally Posted by lbowles2

Would you recommend the filtered or unfiltered pipes? I have smoked a briar some but never a cob so I didn't know what the difference would be.

Unfiltered. I feel the draw is impeded too much. Doesn't feel right, to me.

If you get a cob, you can always take out the paper filter if you want. Try it with or without and see which you like better.

[WyoBob]

Originally Posted by NCRadioMan

Unfiltered. I feel the draw is impeded too much. Doesn't feel right, to me.

If you get a cob, you can always take out the paper filter if you want. Try it with or without and see which you like better.

Cobs draw a bit too easily for me without a filter. You can cut a paper filter in thirds and this restricts the draw and catches little bits of tobacco. Or, cheaper yet, cut pipe cleaners into 3/4" lengths, fold into a "V" (with some "spring" to it so it stays in place) and stick it into the tenon. This provides some restriction, collects some moisture and tars and catches little bits of tobacco.

WyoBob

[Mister Moo]

Originally Posted by jkstewart1

...I feel that by getting back to basics - Carter Hall and a cob - and re-examining technique, pipe smoking is even more of a pleasure...

Zackly. Anyone who enjoys a pipe discovers proper filling, even lighting and effortless production of opaque clouds of rich smoke by SIPPING is the essence of easy smoking. It also reveals the most flavor from the tobacco. Like a well-oiled golf swing or the consistent clank of a horseshoe ringer, it isn't the easiest or most natural thing to accomplish in, say, the first three tries.

Carter Hall (and Prince Albert and Sir Walter Raleigh) tobacco endears itself to long time pipers and encourages new-to-pipe smokers. Besides the charming nutty taste and loved-by-all-downwind-aroma it has to be the easiest tobacco there is to fill and light evenly, the, most important, "sip" without overheating. After you get a handle on that, it's all gravy.

(WTF? Anyone who wants to smoke a pipe can get what they want and have at it. Me? I was a genius. I started out with these great smelling, super-moist Escudo coin-thingies in a BIG briar pipe. If I had stuffed 20 pipes with a pound of cheese I couldn't have plugged them up worse than I did with Escudo in a giant horn - too many variables for an idiot like me.

It would be cool to start right up with a $2000 Preben Holm goll-danged work of art perfect pipe and smoke the piss out of it and gnaw up the stem and char the rim and, maybe, burn a hole through the side of it. And then pitch the sonnofabich and start again. I wish I had that Emjaysmash kind of money. So why not one of those shiney sweet looking basket pipes or dragon-claw-demon-eye meerschaums for $30? Please.. the range of weird tastes, lacquered interiors, whistle-sounds, bad draws, gurgles and mis-drill issues create too many hassles to predict. Nossir. The cob is THEE low risk, low-variable entry that happens to match perfectly with OTC burley for a cool, dry easy smoke.

If you don't want to discuss cobs and OTC burley for rookies you have come to the wrong place. Now git. )

[Emjaysmash]

Originally Posted by Mister Moo

I wish I had that Emjaysmash kind of money.

Emjaysmash wishes he had that kind of money too!! LOL