Who smokes a pipe here?

[Master_Zhifu]

I just placed an order for their Middle Earth Sampler Pack. Thanks for the heads up!

Their sampler pack is pretty decent and a good starting point to get familiar with different tobacco types. Shortcut to Mushrooms is one of my favorites

 

[bill boyd]

Meerschaums are my favorite pipes followed by briars, corncobs, and then clays. Some tobaccos taste better in one type more than the others. Personally, I think cheap(er) briars are ok once they are broken in and well-seasoned. I like to put my few bucks in tobacco and for me, Gawith and Hoggarth is the best company. A wide range of tabaccos. I like it strong and natural with their Dark Flake Unscented my favorite for the last 13 yrs. Its great but it is strong. I love it. I use the cheap czech pipe tool mostly for the poker and tampers I've made from deer antler and brass. I've got half a dozen or so and given away at least that many I've made over the years. I'm pretty computer stupid but one of these days I may learn how to post pics.
--Mike

 

[Lexa33]

Excellent tobacco... One of the best...

 

[Lexa33]

Friend, thank you, very beautiful photo

I smoke a pipe on occasion.

My first pipe, purchased a few weeks after I turned 18.

My small collection as of now.

Lately, I've been smoking some Ruins of Isengard and Shortcut to Mushrooms from Just for Him.

 

[leghog]

I smoke pipes. Latakia blends. Though I own and smoke briars, I can't stand breaking them in. Likely why I've enjoyed Randy Wiley pipes so much. Oil cured so less tanins and easier to break in. That said you'll more often than not find me smoking a cob. Missouri Meerschaum Legends specifically.

Three of my favorite pipes and two of my favorite tobaks:

My Wiley Gallon #44.

This is a Savinelli 310 basket pipe. So many fills Sav ground their stamp off of it. It was nude (unstained) when I bought it dirt cheap. A little olive oil and a lot of smoking have darkened it nicely. Once broken in, this became my best smoking briar. It's an excellent pipe that only cost me about 20 bucks. Can't ask for more than that.

But it's the cob that rules. Those not in-the-know laugh. Those in-the-know know they smoke cool and easy. The Legend makes an excellent flake pipe.

I've gotten myself down to six briars. Gave the rest away. Gotten to the point if I want another, I have to give one away first. Below are my briars --- three handmade pipes (two Wileys and a Tiepen), two factory pipes (a Nording and a Savinelli), and one a mix of both (Tiepen collaboration). Two haven't even been smoked. I just hate the nasty taste of breaking in briars.

 

[iwouldhurtafly]

 

[tiogatires]

I smoke pipes. Latakia blends. Though I own and smoke briars, I can't stand breaking them in. Likely why I've enjoyed Randy Wiley pipes so much. Oil cured so less tanins and easier to break in. That said you'll more often than not find me smoking a cob. Missouri Meerschaum Legends specifically.

Three of my favorite pipes and two of my favorite tobaks:

My Wiley Gallon #44.

This is a Savinelli 310 basket pipe. So many fills Sav ground their stamp off of it. It was nude (unstained) when I bought it dirt cheap. A little olive oil and a lot of smoking have darkened it nicely. Once broken in, this became my best smoking briar. It's an excellent pipe that only cost me about 20 bucks. Can't ask for more than that.

But it's the cob that rules. Those not in-the-know laugh. Those in-the-know know they smoke cool and easy. The Legend makes an excellent flake pipe.

I've gotten myself down to six briars. Gave the rest away. Gotten to the point if I want another, I have to give one away first. Below are my briars --- three handmade pipes (two Wileys and a Tiepen), two factory pipes (a Nording and a Savinelli), and one a mix of both (Tiepen collaboration). Two haven't even been smoked. I just hate the nasty taste of breaking in briars.

Beautiful collection

 

[leghog]

Kickin' back an relaxin'. Likely smokin' Esoterica's E. Penzance. I still have 24 ounces cellared in mason jars. It and Samuel Gawith's Squadron Leader are my most smoked tobaks. McClelland's Old Dog is my fall back tobak.

In Iraq and Afghanistan, it's strictly cobs for me.

Iraq

Afghanistan --- Talibanned Cigar Club

 

[raindog101]

I just hate the nasty taste of breaking in briars.

Have you tried the salt method of cleaning your briar pipes, before smoking them?

 

[leghog]

The salt or salt and alcohol treatments are for restoring old pipes, not breaking in new. It's really for cleaning pipes you've bought used or you want to move from one tobak type to another without ghosting the old tobak. It won't remove the tannins from new pipes and really does nothing to break in a new pipe. Only smoking will do that, and I won't use honey gimmicks or anything like that because they almost always result in a too fragile too quickly forming cake. I find it best to just smoke them and get through the bowls until broken in. Love a good smoking pipe. Just hate breaking them in.

 

[raindog101]

The salt or salt and alcohol treatments are for restoring old pipes, not breaking in new. It's really for cleaning pipes you've bought used or you want to move from one tobak type to another without ghosting the old tobak. It won't remove the tannins from new pipes and really does nothing to break in a new pipe. Only smoking will do that, and I won't use honey gimmicks or anything like that because they almost always result in a too fragile too quickly forming cake. I find it best to just smoke them and get through the bowls until broken in. Love a good smoking pipe. Just hate breaking them in.

Well, that's what I thought too. But a member of a popular pipe forum encouraged me to try this on my new Nording, which was smoking like a** the first 2 bowls. Came to find out that many Nording pipes have stain inside the bowl which mightily affects the taste, and the salt treatment leaches it out somewhat. So I tried it. And it did work, to an extent. I could still detect that funny taste, but it was nearly gone. Now, I don't taste it at all, but it took me about 10 bowls to get there. So yes, you're right, the break-in is not accomplished by this technique, but it can help diminish or remove funny tastes from contaminants inside the bowl.

 

[leghog]

The ten bowls, especially if slow, is likely what did it. The nastiness probably wasn't the carbon coating as much as the tannins in the wood. Since Nording makes on the order of about 50,000 pipes a year, they air cure or kiln cure their briar. Not sure which or for how long, but not long enough for the nastiness. Just got to get through it with new unsmoked pipes. The Nordings I've had weren't hard to break in. It's just that I hate doing it, so if I have good smokers, a new pipe may not get broken in for a long time. The two new unsmoked I currently have, I've had for one and two years already. I'm in no rush to break them in.

 

[Lexa33]

 

[Machaira]

I see Dunhills, Petersons, Ascortis and Sasienis in the pictures.

My favorites: Dunhill, Peterson and Radice.

Who is your favorite pipe maker?

M.

 

[tiogatires]

Jake Hackert at the moment

 

[leghog]

Favorites? Teipen and Wiley

 

[1 and 1/2 Knives]

I smoke a Savinelli rusticated Church Warden. So far I've just smoked McClelland's Christmas Cheer out of it, and it's almost gone .

 

[tiogatires]

Also just picked up a Stanwell Nanna Ivarrson model. It's my new favorite already! I've been smoking my local shops blend called Brazilian Cavendish. Don't really know what or how it's blended but it's definitely the best tobacco I've tried yet.

 

[leghog]

For me, the pipe is but a means to an end.

For me it's all about enjoying the tobacco, and then it's latakia blends. My favorites being Samuel Gawith Squadron Leader, Esoteric E. Penzance, McClelland Old Dog and Frog Morton Across the Pond, and G.L. Pease Odyssey. Fortunately I have much of most of these cellared.

 

[Mongo]

I agree... tobacco first, but having a smooth smoking pipe is a close second.

I had my world rocked last week.... I got about an ounce of Jean-Paul Couvert Semois tobacco in a trade. It is the most amazing stuff I have ever tried. Great. I finally find my Holy Grail tobacco, only it's one that is durn near impossible to get!

Any Belgians here that can keep me stocked in Semois?