Comfort of a pipe

[Rick Boylan]

I've not smoked the small corncob yet. I bought it more for novelty than anything else. But the clay's are for smoking. Hard to put my briar aside since it's breaking in nicely. I only smoke about once or twice a week at most. Usually when i walk the dog.

I'm looking forward to smoking the clay pipes though.

Hey, where can you buy the reeds used to make the stems of these pipes? Just in case I want to make a longer stem for a corncob.

 

[Loyalist Dave]

I just wandered around the Fort Fred Market Fair until I found some loose reeds without pipe bowls for sale. I'd contact folks that sell the clay bowls with the reeds and ask them. I also found at a local hardware store, some untreated reeds for use as tomato stakes one year.... worked great, BUT the local hardware stopped stocking them and now stocks them dyed green and waxed...maybe an "organic" garden store would be a source??

LD

 

[Loyalist Dave]

BillinOregon Said:

Bill: Can you clarify? You mean, like, you put the pipe into the campfire or the fireplace? I don't know what cone the pipes themselves are fired at, but have you ever cracked one or changed its temper?
I have some research to do, as I have a crazy idea in the back o' my lumpy old noggin to make some pipe bowls of my own.

Or the coals in the barbecue (after I'm done cooking). Put the pipe in the coals and then layer some more on top. All the crud will burn off. Just let the coals burn out and cool. Remove pipe and dust off. I've only cracked one, at this point

I cure my pipes the same way. I have four I bought three years ago but haven't smoke two of them as the first two are going strong.

Safey tips... #1 You must cure them dry. If you smoke a bowl, then later in the day decide "hey that was nasty, I need to cure this pipe" any residual saliva or tobacco juice will turn to steam and shatter the pipe, and toss very hot bits of ceramic pipe around. :shocked2: I would suggest a good 24 hours of drying before curing...

#2 The pipes will sometimes glow as they get so hot...not to worry. However when you remove them from the coals (note NOT flames) use some sort of tongs, AND let them set a good time before trying to touch them and mind that nobody else reaches for them either. The ceramic may be very very hot and not look any different than at room temperature. Save your fingertips!

LD

 

[spudnut]

just leave em till the coals cool

 

[gearheart]

LD, Like the blacksmiths all know, "be wary of black iron". Red is obviously hot but black could still be hot. Best to consider it as hot and check it out carefully. Sure beats thinking it's cold and picking it up.

 

[bpd303]

Don't take me long to look at a horseshoe... or a pipe. :rotf:

 

[Loyalist Dave]

just leave em till the coals cool

That idea works for folks in a solo camp, but myself, and several others have done that, placing the pipe in the coals and turning in...only to find another person awoke before me, or them, and broke the pipe while starting the morning fire, not realizing the grayish pipe was among the grayish ashes.

Also, some events require a fire to be doused at night so one can't let the coals burn out, or if you leave the pipe in the coals and they are banked, and while you sleep the fire blazed up, and the event Provost or Fire Watch douses the fire, that cold water on the hot ceramics = a shattered pipe.

So I always cure my pipe, then remove it and let it cool.

LD

 

[Rick Boylan]

Thanks. I'll check local hardware stores first. We don't have any Rondys scheduled here for a while. Guess people don't like to setup tents and camp in snow and -0 temps. :haha:

I appreciate all the help you fellas have given me. Now I have another vice to enjoy. :thumbsup: :rotf:

 

[bpd303]

You can find reeds growing along river/creek banks. Some call it river cane or river bamboo. http://www.cherokee.org/AboutTheNation/Culture/General/UsesofRiverCane.aspx

 

[Rick Boylan]

From the article you posted it sounds like it's becoming hard to find. I'll check around some streams in my area, but we don't really have much in the way of swamps.

 

[Alden]

That little corncob pipe is so CUTE! Aawww...

Flehto would REALLY be embarrassed by that one and would have been better than you sooner if he'd only had THAT pipe to quit at the time...

 

[Loyalist Dave]

You can find reeds growing along river/creek banks. Some call it river cane or river bamboo.

I had just found two stands of the stuff three years ago, when the People's Republic of Maryland went on a rant about "invasive species" and started spray poisoning Asian bamboo stands in parks and along the roadways.

NOBODY taught the nabob's the difference between Asian bamboo and North American River Cane...so the yahoos sprayed that too. Pretty nasty herbicide too as it killed the stuff pretty quick...so now I continue to scout for the wild stuff as the stands where I located it I cannot trust to be completely herbicide free...geesh :shake:

LD

 

[Rick Boylan]

Yes it is cute. LOL

I bought it long ago. I found it at a local tobacco shop. The one that I recently bought my briar pipe from. It's made by a company named Missouri Mershum (SP?). They seem to sell a lot of corncob pipes. I've never smoked it. Just bought it because I thought it was kinda cool. It's not for smoking, it's just for looking at. :haha:

Once the temps get out of the single digits here I'm going to take my clay pipes out and give them a try. Too cold to sit outside and enjoy a pipe right now. :cursing:

 

[Al Bently]

I have stock piled a lot of tobacco. I smoke English blends, and my pipes have brought me lots of joy over the years. By the by the SG of the United States did a study and found pipe smokers out live non smokers by three years. Lately some groups tried to undermind that study. Sweeden SG found that pipe smokes die about 2 years earlier. (if they smoke 7 or more bowls a day)

It's absolutely ridiculous to infer that using tobacco (in any form/way)has the ability to lengthen one's life. Tobacco/tobacco smoke is a powerful carcinogen. Its usage doesn't "relax" the user -- all it does is feed an addiction.

Tobacco use simply doesn't have the ability to lengthen one's life.

I suspect a very shoddy "study" (where variables were not correctly controlled) could have yielded the results you suggest, but drilling down deeper on the raw data would have yielded other reasons for the difference in longevity.

Let's see the study, and the sampling criteria.

 

[Alden]

Sorry Cal, even owning a cat lengthen's one's life. And you don't have to inhale them either, just pet 'em. You're trying to make this about pathology when it's about physiology.

Missouri Meerschaum has been making lots of corncob pipes forever -- they are everywhere, and their name is kinda a running joke. I have some -- I think a straight and a bent-stem at the moment, not that short one though. Have a cherrywood pipe of their's too I haven't tried yet and saw a carboard display of theirs two weeks ago (the kind you pull one of a dozen pipes off of held on with an elastic loop) in a local cigar shop. Old company... They make what I used to think of as "real" corncob pipes, not the cheaper disposeable ones -- MacArthur vs. Halloween if you know what I mean.

 

[Rick Boylan]

:hatsoff: :hatsoff: :hatsoff:

 

[Billnpatti]

As a Certified Industrial Hygienist with a background in the medical field, I fully agree with you assessment of this highly questionable study. One of the basic admonishments in statistics is that an apparent correlation does not guarantee a causal relationship.

An' dat's da fak, Jack!

 

[tenngun]

The study was done by the surfin General of the U.S. in the mid 60s. Attempts to debunk the study was repeated in the 90s in Sweden and briten and could only find that heavy pipe smokes would tie with non smokers or lose a year when they got to seven to nine bowls a day. Type two personalities tend to out live type 1. Pipe smokers tend to be type 2s

 

[ketoman]

The study was done by the surfin General of the U.S. in the mid 60s. Attempts to debunk the study was repeated in the 90s in Sweden and briten and could only find that heavy pipe smokes would tie with non smokers or lose a year when they got to seven to nine bowls a day. Type two personalities tend to out live type 1. Pipe smokers tend to be type 2s

I have read 4 studies (the S.G. study and 3 that tried to de-bunk it) and they all basically say the same thing pipe smokers live longer than non smokers. But it is not heavy pipe smokers, 1-2 bowls a day. The pipe smoking actually helps them de-stress if you will, and they are not smoking enough to damage their lungs. I know myself after smoking my pipe my blood pressure lowers about 3-5 points on average. Which is opposite of what the effect of cigarette smoking studies have found. The mind set and personality of pipe smokers as stated also play into effect I am sure. Like everything else in moderation most likely won't kill ya. So I say relax fill a bowl and puff, oh do not forget your favorite alcoholic beverage :wink:

 

[Rick Boylan]

:hatsoff:

I should be safe only having one pipe, filled 1/2 way and smoked every other week, or one cigar a month during the summer months (if even one a month).

I must admit, I don't take the smoke into my lungs, but enjoy puffing on either one and blowing out the smoke and watching it drift away on the breeze. It is very calming. :v