Is a pipe just a pipe?

[Uncle Jackie]

Going back some decades ago, a gentleman used to have just one pipe, maybe two if he was very fortunate. He could smoke 5+ bowls a day, quite possibly for many years, and when the pipe finally burned out he'd buy another. Most of these pipes did not have the best grain, were cheap to buy, and served their purpose well.

I'm the first to admit, I love a good pipe, one that looks nice, reflects my sense of style and personality. As a matter of fact I love them so much I have well over 100 of them. But is this necessary? I know my collection is excessive, but I have pipes for every occasion and type of tobacco. Yard pipes, formal pipes, Burley pipes, Virginia pipes... These two things got me wondering.

A few years ago I went out and bought a 'cheap' pipe to try an experiment with. My goal was to smoke only that one pipe every day for six months to see what effect it would have on the pipe. I did.

Any guesses as to the result of my experiment?

Please feel free to discuss.

[Miles]

Yeah so spill the beans, man! What pipe was it and how did it hold up?

[Mike H]

Scenario 1 – After two weeks of frustration, the briar cracked, and you pitched the wretched beast out the window near the bowels of the Windsor-Detroit Tunnel, where it was pulverized by 40,000 vehicles a day.

Scenario 2. You learned the subtle nuances of the pipe, how to pack it, how to draw. You and the pipe became one. It developed a wonderful patina and cake. It smoked soft and cool, almost every tobacco tasted better. You gave it a name, Serena, and she became you trusted companion. You found it hard to imagine life without her, and felt guilty every time you reached for a different pipe. Your affinity for Serena did not go unnoticed, and on New Year’s Eve, 1998, your Bosewell freehand had enough. It conspired with the massive Oversized Giant Nording to crush your beloved Serena. After months of loving attention, Serena’s carbon cake provided noble resistance to the bully custom pipes. The best carnage the monster briars could do was a minor chip in the stem. And today, Serena remains one of your favorite pipes.

I vote #2, or something like that.

[john.bradburne]

i would say you still have it and smoke it from time to time.

[jwhite]

If you smoked it once a day - I would guess it started smoking wet after a couple weeks and if you cleaned it regularly the tobacco started tasting flat and a lot of the subtlety was gone. Wetness became an issue with increasing dottle as moisture made it more difficult to smoke to the bottom.

About your premise that most men had one pipe that they smoked all day every day. I would ask, are you sure? Did you know anybody that did? My grandfather and great Uncle smoked a pipe. Both their collections were fairly modest. My grandfather's had a 7 day rotation mostly a similar shape, 1/2 bent Dublin, but some were blast, smooth, or rusticated but he was unusual in that variety I came to find. My great uncle is what makes me challenge the myth. He passed when I was a teenager, he always had a pipe going and I thought it was always the same one always with the same tobacco. We always went on at least one camping trip every summer. He taught me a thing or two about woodworking and made much of what you could see in his home. My great aunt, his wife who still survives him, taught me a thing or two about confectioneries and baking. I knew them well. Long after he passed, and I was smoking a pipe myself, I asked how he could stand smoking the same pipe over and over again. I knew I couldn't. She Just laughed and said, "He wasn't a selfish man, but he did like himself." She then walked over to a built in sideboard in the breezeway and opened a cabinet where there were what looked like at least a dozen pipes all of the same make, shape, and finish. She then told me a lot of men would settle on a favorite brand and model and a favorite tobacco and just have enough of those to fit their needs. I started asking around, one old duff looked at me as if I had all the sense of a sack of hammers and said, "I wore a pressed white shirt every working day of my life, you think I had only one?" some guys may have had a pipe they smoked to ruination and replaced but I couldn't find any, so it would seem the exception rather than the rule.

[jdto]

My grandfather had a handful which he rotated. His old Brigham was in pretty decent shape when I got it and I think he had 2 or 3 others that have been given as keepsakes to other relatives. He had a few at the cottage and a couple at their home. A couple may have been lost in the various moves my grandparents did, which is a shame as I'd love to have them. I have to think that, even though there was less available variety in tobaccos, that pipe smokers probably had a few in their rotations to keep the pipes from going too sour. My grandfather was not an extravagant man, by any stretch of the imagination. He was very practical, a hard-working farmboy from southwestern Ontario who ended up doing quite well in business, but if having more than one pipe was a superfluous luxury, he wouldn't have done it.

[haiku44]

It was a falcon pipe and you changed bowls everyday and didn't encounter any problems.... Or is changing bowls cheating?

[COHunter]

I actually do smoke 1 pipe everyday. I have a cob that I keep in the truck for the smoke on the drive home from work. Frankly I don't care if it burns out, it's a $6 pipe that I enjoy my Prince Albert toby out of. So I'm guessing you found a pipe that you bonded with and you smoke it everyday without much worry or problem. It gets a bit of a wet heel and you shove a pipe cleaner down the stem. Dottle or cake build up is taken care of with a scrape of the bowl.

I too rotate pipes, I have a very modest collection of about 6 pipes that I use, but I will beat that cob into submission! It's pipe smoking, not rocket building.

[Kazeryu]

Sometimes a pipe is just a cigar.

Err, wait, were we talking about Freud or not?

[Miles]

Maybe it's just not a pipe...

[PugslyCat]

Going back some decades ago, a gentleman used to have just one pipe, maybe two if he was very fortunate. He could smoke 5+ bowls a day, quite possibly for many years, and when the pipe finally burned out he'd buy another. Most of these pipes did not have the best grain, were cheap to buy, and served their purpose well.

From what I have been able to piece together, most but not all guys kept a rack with a few pipes at any given time. They wouldn't routinely have the big collections we see today, but multiple pipes was by no means rare. Keep in mind that pipes would have been easily available and probably less expensive than they are today, at least as far as low end, daily smoker pipes.

My guess as to the result of your experiment was that you probably needed to use a lot more pipe cleaners than normal to avoid a wet smoke, but other than that no real issues.

[Kazeryu]

More seriously, I'll guess this:

If you're smoking for the nicotine, anything will do.

[Uncle Jackie]

Very interesting discussion gentlemen.

It may well be that many people owned more than one pipe. I am just remembering stories from my grandfather talking about the great depression, and him talking about his father who only owned one as well. It does make a lot of sense that some people might have had a rotation of one type of pipe that they liked, I had never considered this.

Anyhow...

I did not become a great lover of the pipe, (I did not bond with it), but it did hold up quite well. I had to shave the cake a couple of times which seemed to make it smoke drier. The one thing that surprised me though was that the pipe did not sour. I was sure that it would. I still do have the pipe, and I still smoke it occasionally, and it has held up as well as any of my other pipes. Perhaps it is just this pipe, but I am now of the impression that pipes are a lot more durable and resilient than many of us give them credit for.

[Argonaut]

You realized smoking one pipe and one tobacco is like purgatory. Variety is the spice of life. You also realized that you could make do with that situation if you had to, because it was better than nothing. It was the the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was a loaded question... Give it up already! One pipe, one 'baccy, sounds like a pointless endeavour to me.

[Uncle Jackie]

One pipe, one 'baccy, sounds like a pointless endeavour to me.

Yet that is what most cigarette smokers do.

[oc_in_fw]

Or is changing bowls cheating?

yes

[Argonaut]

Yet that is what most cigarette smokers do.

Exactly my point, which is, what's the point? To me it's the difference between a habit and a hobby. I have my habit, and I take no joy in it (smokeless tobacco). I love my hobby, one pipe and one tobacco would dilute it IMO. As always though, smoke what you like and like what you smoke, others opinions be damned.

[Uncle Jackie]

as always though, smoke what you like and like what you smoke, others opinions be damned.

amen!