Put that in Your Pipe and Smoke it.

One of the many joys of life I've discovered over the last couple years is the joy of smoking pipes.  Yep, those evil, cancer causing, tobacco laden, no better than poison pipes.  So what got me started and where am I now?

For the last twenty years I've smoked, off and on, cigars.  This all started in the fall of 91 when a friend,  coming to visit me after he got off work, brought a machine made cigar to my house he got from a friend celebrating the birth of his daughter.  We both enjoyed the stick so much he brought over two more the next night and the rest is history.  From there, whether it was to celebrate the birth of his firstborn, finishing a late class assignment, camping trip, or "guy time" we would include a pack of Swisher Sweets.  This routine continued until my friend moved and I became more interested in "real" stogies, the hand made (and more expensive) kind.  This pattern of on-again-off-again continued for some time but each time I would go to my favorite tobacco shop, I was drawn to the pipes section.  After several years I broke down and started asking a about the differences between smoking pipes and cigars.  After doing an amount of research and watching YouTube videos, I broke down and purchased a cheap corncob, an ounce of three types of tobacco, lighter, pipe tool and a pack of cleaners for under eleven bucks, an amount I was more than willing to lose if I decided pipes were not for me.  After trying and more than once failing, I went from cobs to cheap briar's (around thirty bucks each) One thing I know about myself is I have a tendency to devour large amounts of information on a specific subject, then either abandon or reduce interest in the subject.  For example, I have a sister in law who spent time in the Iron Lung due to Polio.  When I learned this, I looked everywhere for information on Polio and its victims including those who spent time in the Iron Lung.  Not long ago I did the same thing with beer, after detesting the stuff most of my life, all of a sudden I developed a taste (more like love) for the stuff and at first, spent amounts of time and money learning more about it.  When I discovered pipes, I fell into the same routine and purchased ounces of tobacco and at four or five pipes, on of which was WAY over my budget.

With all this happening at once, I failed to realize how difficult pipe smoking can be, and it was not too long I became very discouraged (even going so far as smashing two pipes I smoked to pieces, a very stupid move I might add)  Had I not invested in so many pipes (I didn't break them all) one of which was worth more than the three or four of the others combined, I no doubt would've packed up the pipes, thrown out the tobacco and called it quits.  Remember, I was used to smoking cigars, something very different. The biggest challenge to smoking stogies is clipping the top off and lighting.  My twenty year experience taught me they were very low maintenance to say the least.  With pipe smoking it's a different story, how you pack the pipe, light the tobacco and the number of draws will determine the success or failure of your smoking pleasure.  It's no surprise smoking pipes have been called "the gentle art of pipe smoking"  Something else I learned, and had to make my peace with, is the fact pipes will go out and it's not unusual to relight your pipe several times during a forty to sixty minute smoke.  It is this reason I do not use a pipe lighter but instead light them up with matches.

At about the time I was ready to quit a friend of mine who, unbeknown st to me, had smoked pipes for some time and was recently getting back into the habit, took me under his wing and taught me some very needed packing skills.  Between his teachings and the amounts of practice, it was not long before I had broken in my collection of pipes and added time and satisfaction to my smoking experiences.

From there I have gone from a single corn cob to a total of thirteen pipes, twelve briers (the one most common among pipe smokers) and one meerschaum (a white mineral used in making a certain type of pipes) My smoking takes anywhere from forty five minutes, an acceptable smoking time considering I was luck to get a half hour when I started out to over an hour average time probably fifty five minutes.  My tastes of tobacco have also changed.  I still like flavored tobaccos but have learned to like the "English" or natural favored blends.  

Another joy of the art of pipe smoking is how relaxing the experience can be.  On warm  nights it's not unusual for me to go out to the patio, turn on some big band music and light up the pipe.  As for the number of smokes, I usually smoke one or two smokes a day.  

I could go on and on and maybe at a later post I will but for now this in formation will have to do.  I have a cup of coffee to pour and a pipe to smoke.