Pipe Smokers!

[flashgordonv]

Living in New Zealand, the range of pipe tobacco is limited and the price is expensive - typically NZ$80 per 50 gram tin (US$61, E55). A few Petersons blends, Borkum Riff blends, Erinmore flake, and a couple of Ashtons blends and that is it. I decided to try a little experiment and ordered a single tin of Danish Vanilla (US$^ + $14 for shipping) from the Pipe Guys. Best case it would be delivered, worst case the customs people would hit me up for excise. It arrived yesterday, no excise, no customs inspection. So potentially big saving there.

From what I hear on a local forum, a few things play into my favour here. One is the low value of the item, another is that the description was simply "vanilla",and third is that many customs people are not tobacco Nazis and are happy to let pipe tobacco through untouched. It would be a different story if they were cigarettes, as cigarettes have been declared the tool of the devil.

SO my strategy is to ship 1 or 2 tins at a time and trust that they will continue to arrive untaxed.

 

[flashgordonv]

The other interesting thing is the pipes themselves. Having done some extensive reading, it seems that some pipes smoke hot, some pipes smoke wet, some tobacco smokes hot, some tobacco smokes wet. One blend in pipe A can taste completely different to the same blend in pipe B. And price is no guide.

The big factor seems to be the actual briar used to make the pipe, where it was grown, how it was dried, how it was handled during the making. My current strategy is to acquire a few "estate pipes" of different brands and see if I can find a few good smokers. Estate pipes are a good way to buy seasoned high quality pipes without paying a premium. I have 3 pipes on the way - a Nob Hill Dublin for $25, a Petersons System 304 for $80 and an Ashton XX for similar. I will post as to how this goes in a few weeks. In the meantime I am using a falcon pipe I bought locally and a Royden I bought fr $5 at a garage sale.

 

[987baz]

The other interesting thing is the pipes themselves. Having done some extensive reading, it seems that some pipes smoke hot, some pipes smoke wet, some tobacco smokes hot, some tobacco smokes wet. One blend in pipe A can taste completely different to the same blend in pipe B. And price is no guide.

The big factor seems to be the actual briar used to make the pipe, where it was grown, how it was dried, how it was handled during the making. My current strategy is to acquire a few "estate pipes" of different brands and see if I can find a few good smokers. Estate pipes are a good way to buy seasoned high quality pipes without paying a premium. I have 3 pipes on the way - a Nob Hill Dublin for $25, a Petersons System 304 for $80 and an Ashton XX for similar. I will post as to how this goes in a few weeks. In the meantime I am using a falcon pipe I bought locally and a Royden I bought fr $5 at a garage sale.

Thanks for the info Flashgordonv, I had no idea different pipes could make such a difference!

I'm glad I found this thread, I just ordered a pipe, to be honest more for a "backup" way of smoking as I roll my own organic tobacco, but I'm looking forward to learning more about pipe smoking.

You can smoke normal roll your own tobacco in a pipe can't you?

 

[s-kur]

The other interesting thing is the pipes themselves. Having done some extensive reading, it seems that some pipes smoke hot, some pipes smoke wet, some tobacco smokes hot, some tobacco smokes wet. One blend in pipe A can taste completely different to the same blend in pipe B. And price is no guide.

The big factor seems to be the actual briar used to make the pipe, where it was grown, how it was dried, how it was handled during the making. My current strategy is to acquire a few "estate pipes" of different brands and see if I can find a few good smokers. Estate pipes are a good way to buy seasoned high quality pipes without paying a premium. I have 3 pipes on the way - a Nob Hill Dublin for $25, a Petersons System 304 for $80 and an Ashton XX for similar. I will post as to how this goes in a few weeks. In the meantime I am using a falcon pipe I bought locally and a Royden I bought fr $5 at a garage sale.

I also considered acquiring an estate pipe just for variety. I have several non-used pipes made of briar and it needed a lot of time and smokings to get satisfaction of smoking. The first issue for me was break in the pipe, that provides reinforcing and livelinees and specific taste, individuality to the pipe.

I did bad snuff that was got with wrong breaking in which led to wet smoking and excess warming. Fortunately it didn't lead to breaking the pipe, I cleaned up the bowl and broke in it again.

After more or less good breaking in the pipe the issue of excess warming appeared again and now I know that it's individual for each pipe. Each pipe required specific smoking i.e. strengh and intensity of smoking. There is one interesting thing I learnt that is called "cold smoking": after you had smoked up the pipe the smoking should looks like: make 3-4 short mid strengh puffs, stop smoking for a while (till bowl's steam stops), and then you breath in cold tasty smoke from the pipe. The thing forced me to look for different smoking methods is mouth's dry. I had to drink a lot of water during smoking. Undoubtly, it's not so bad at all, I just thought that something goes wrong:)

Apropos dry tobacco I would like to suggest to put several little apple pieces in can\pouch you keep tobacco in for some time (it depends on how tobacco dry is) till tobacco get the state you need. In case of too wet tobacco you may just dry them a bit putting out of can\pouch.

I know that number manufactures make pipes with carbon surface inside of the bowl that release the need to break in the pipe. Though, I think the pipe doesn't get its specific flavour...in this case

FWIW

 

[SeekinTruth]

You can smoke normal roll your own tobacco in a pipe can't you?

Yeah. You would have to try it and see how you like it. It depends on the tobacco and your taste / preferences.

The thing forced me to look for different smoking methods is mouth's dry. I had to drink a lot of water during smoking.

FWIW, if I don't inhale while smoking pipe, my mouth dries out much more and I have to drink more water. It doesn't seem to matter if the tobacco is more moist or dry either. So, that's another, additional reason I inhale whatever I'm smoking, cigar, cigarillo, or pipe, besides cigs.