I get my pipes and tobacco from JM Boswell. He has a shop local to me. Both of my pipes are his creation and he does all his own tobacco blending
Who among us are PIPE smokers?
- Thread starter James Kopp
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I started when I was 17-18 yrs old. First cigarette then the pipe, then cigars. In nam. it was cigars. After I came home it was mostly cigars. I would smoke 5-6 a day. About 20 yrs.lster with my wife's help I guit. Had acupuncture first then wife was the team help. Not smoked in 30 or more years. Still when I smell a good cigar the drool starts.
Still alive today I think because I did guit.
Still alive today I think because I did guit.
I smoked pipes back in the early 1970s just to keep busy! I liked the cherry flavored tobaccos. They smelled great in the pouch, but not after being lit.
I still have those pipes including briars, a calabash, and clay ones.
I still have those pipes including briars, a calabash, and clay ones.
Mike in FL
50 Cal.
I love a good pipe tobacco. No more than I smoke, I buy the expensive flavored tobaccos, my favorite being peach. Like my BP guns, I clean after every smoke.
The silver smith marks say definitely Birmingham 1910. The shop that sold it said he was an officer during the Boer War although I thought the Boer Wars were of an earlier date than that. Yet that does predate WWI. So, I don't know for sure. I did not get a certificate of provenance with it, just pipe in its case, and I researched the the silversmith markings. In any case, as seen by the color of the gourd covering and the case it came in, it was well used.
Looks like the second Boer War was over in 1902, so the pipe wasn't around yet. Could be the Officer served then but the pipe was made until 1910.
That's a nice side effect. And yes, that was a Calabash Pipe!
Mine is a small one. They were generally used in the large size with a smoking jacket, an easy chair, and some type of alcoholic refreshment in-hand. They also usually have a big bowl that holds about twice as much tobacco as a standard bowl briar pipe. They typically smoke very smoothly and comparatively cool because that gourd covering encloses a meerschaum interior. Meerschaum is about the coolest smoking material to make a pipe out of and it slowly colors with use. The oils from your hand can make the coloration blotchy though. So I always used a handkerchief in my hand to hold my all-meerschaum pipe.
The Calabash just puts a gourd covering over thmeerschaum preserving the smoking qualities of the meerschaum while still slowly coloring the the gourd covering without having to worry about skin-oil blotches from you hand. So it looks good, holds a lot, and you don't have to use a cloth to hold it.
I smoke occasionally My favorite blend was Frog Morton's Cellar
That is no more
Now I go through a tin of Early Morning Pipe every year
Campfire and a pipe just seem to go together
That is no more
Now I go through a tin of Early Morning Pipe every year
Campfire and a pipe just seem to go together
I do occasionally. I will be growing my own tobacco next spring orders some virginia gld seeds so we will see what happens. carter hall smells the best but it bites some.
Sam squanch
69 Cal.
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My uncle smoked a corncob pipe. Unfortunately, it was made from a corncob he found in the outhouse……
I had to quit, started to get nicotine stains in my underwear…
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Living in Illinois I’m able to smoke “Longbottom Leaf” in my glass pipe on occasion. Bilbo Baggins stops by every now and then since we are close in age.
Is that in Chambersburg, Pa?
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Sounds reasonable. It might have been part of a collection or estate.
Either way a very cool pipe with some history!
I to enjoy a Pipe and Cigars. I also have been making pipes since 2000 ( Bosi Pipes )
I am in the middle of moving to Indiana and Discovered that I have a lifetime of Pipe Tobacco that I had stored in Places I had forgot about.
I am in the middle of moving to Indiana and Discovered that I have a lifetime of Pipe Tobacco that I had stored in Places I had forgot about.
He has one there and one in Alexandria Pa. I go to the store in Alexandria
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I used to smoke a pipe, but had to give it up due to recurrent pneumonia bouts (not from tobacco). Still, my favorite was a Peterson military mount Mark Twain replica. Preferred Plum Cake or Latakia Blend...had 7 other briars for trade offs.
Yes.
It's not a lot of fun at first but if you don't do it this way, you won't build up the carbon cake on the interior walls of the pipe that make it smoke cool with little or no bite. When you first start smoking the pipe fill it no more than 1/3 way fool (tamped down). Light it and smoke it until there is nothing left to re-light. Do that for at least a week presuming you smoke it each day. Then fill it about 2/3 of the way up for another week and smoke it until there is just ash in the bottom of the pipe. Finally, fill it up and smoke it all the way down for at least another week. This will give you the start of a carbon cake that covers all of the bowl and not just part of it. If you don't do this, when you get to the part without the carbon build-up on it, the pipe smoke will get very hot and "bitey" (is that a word?).
You may need to take these steps for two weeks at a time but if you do it, you will start to get a build up of carbon all the way down to the bottom of the bowl of your pipe. Do NOT ream out the pipe after smoking it. You can tap it out when done smoking it and even use your pipe cleaning tool to remove any remnants but do NOT scrape it or you will remove that carbon coating you are trying so hard to build-up. ***Warning*** when you tap a pipe to get any plug or remnants out of it, hold onto the back of the bowl. If you hold onto the stem and tap out your pipe a little too forcefully, you will break the stem - ask me how I know...
After you have built that carbon cake up, try to be sure you don't just smoke it half-way repeatedly or you will get a bump of carbon around the rim and not below it. 1-16th to 1/8th of an inch of carbon is OK around the inside of the bowl. 1/4" thick carbon cake is excessive and should be reamed back - careful you don't ream it all out. Meerschaum is about the only material that doesn't require a carbon build up to smoke well. The clay pipes we use at reenactments are a close second, but not durable. I have one pipe called "The Pipe" that came with a carbon insert built into the bowl of the pipe and I clean that one well whenever I use it because building a carbon cake up on it is just redundant and gives me less room for tobacco.
When I used to smoke a pipe a lot, I used that "The Pipe" because I didn't need to break it in. Now days, I'll smoke a clay pipe at a reenactment or my Calabash or Meerschaum pipe at home on the back porch while sipping an appropriate liquid, although that is a rare occasion.
Latakia has a very distinctive taste to it. It is often blended into other tobaccos and once you've tried it on its own, you'll recognize it in a blend. Use to get these flat tins of tobacco when I was in college (late 60's/early 70's) and I bought one of those one day. I liked it but actually preferred a blend that had some Latakia in it...don't remember the name though. It was made in Latakia, Syria. Evidently they still grow some there but most of it comes from Cyprus now and even that grown in and around Latakia is processed in Cyprus.
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We have a regular crew at our club. When the shooting is done we plug in the coffee pot, and break out the pipes and or cigars.
It’s time for us to relax, have a smoke and break each others shoes. It’s a social gathering, and alot of days of late, we don’t even get to the shooting!
It’s time for us to relax, have a smoke and break each others shoes. It’s a social gathering, and alot of days of late, we don’t even get to the shooting!
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