Old thread: >>2774508

This is a thread for enjoying a pipe while doing outdoor activities. If you ask why this belongs on /out/, you've never spent an evening by the campfire with a pipe silently enjoying the nature around you, and you're missing out.

>how to get started
Purchase a Missouri Meerschaum Legend and a pouch of Half and Half or Captain Black tobacco, available at most smoke shops. You will need a lighter or match, and something to tamp it with--a large nail works well if you don't have a pipe tool. Fill the pipe with tobacco, pack it down halfway, top it off, pack it down to 3/4, top it off again, pack gently and enjoy. Smoke slower than you think you need to, the tobacco tastes best when it is burning cool. Tamp and re-light as needed. If you still have trouble, try different methods on YouTube until you find one that works for you.

>smoking a pipe will give you cancer
While any tobacco consumption comes with some risk, the cancer risks from occasional pipe use are pretty minimal. Educate yourself and make your own informed health decisions. Some info here https://aacrjournals.org/cancerpreventionresearch/article/10/12/704/46541/Association-between-Cigar-or-Pipe-Smoking-and

>muh weed
Not the time or place. Start your own thread

>I DON’T LIKE WHAT YOU LIKE REEEEEE
Then leave the thread. Pipes have been a part of outdoors culture for centuries. If you don’t like it, leave.

Old memes edition

>>2797205 (OP)
Do you have a special /out/ pipe? Is it fancy or simple? Old or new? Do you have a special memory of smoking your pipe innawoods?

>>2797205 (OP)
Any tips for keeping a narrow bowl lit? I just got a new MM Huck Finn and the bowl is narrow and tall. I have a hard time packing it and an even harder time keeping it lit once packed. I've tried a few different blends, cuts and moisture but still have difficulty.
Is there some packing/lighting/smoking truck to avoid half a dozen relights with every bowl?

>>2797207
Idgi

>>2797289
Usually for me the narrow bowls are a tone easier to keep lit compared to wide bowls. It’s wide bowls that I end up having to light 15 times per bowl.

Would anyone here consider throwing used matchsticks to be littering? Being made of wood I've always thought of it as nest material for birds but curious to see what others think.

>>2797289
I agree with the other anon that narrow bowls are easier to keep lit than wide bowls. I guess because narrow bowls, one light and you pretty much have the entire thing lit, and then it's all just sitting on top of itself. Wider bowls, you need to kinda make sure to light the edges as well as the middle, and then while you're smoking it tends to be that only the middle really gets worked on, so it requires more relights to make sure the sides are going down too.

Perhaps you're packing it too tightly? Going from a wider bowl back to my MM, it feels like I could really easily overpack the bowl due to how narrow it is, after having grown accustomed to packing wider bowled pipes. If all else fails, you can try the "breath" method of smoking your pipe. I do not prefer to smoke that way, but when I do I only need like 1 or 2 relights max, and usually only at the very end of the bowl.

>>2797299
its as much littering as throwing a small twig on the ground

>>2797299
Depends on how strict laws are there. Some places: "Just don't burn nothing down and we're good". Others: "Oi. You gotta loicense for that Lucifer?".

But yeah, very small twig. Maybe I identify as a tree *shrugs*

>>2797299
Yes, I would, albeit perhaps the most morally permissible type of littering, even more so if it were a survival situation.

But, at the core, you should be aiming to leave absolutely no trace. It's not that matchsticks would never biodegrade, they certainly would, but their light color and manufactured appearance makes them stick out visually until that happens, possibly disrupting the experience for others.

Beyond that, it is on principle alone that it should be avoided. Littering biodegradable stuff is still littering. I don't even like flicking ashes onto the ground but I figure those are almost invisible done correctly. I dunno. It's one of those things I'd love to say I'd never do/have never done but that just isn't reality.

>>2797290
Chocolate kills dogs myth

>>2797372
He won't reply

>>2797299
It is in Hawaii. Last time I was there, the cops rolled up to smoke pits by hotels and restaurants etc. to fish for littering tickets. They would try to get you for butts and matches on the ground even if they were already there. They said matches are a fire hazard even if they're extinguished.
>>2797372
Take your meds

>>2797299
I always try to toss mine into tall grass, hollow stumps, brush piles, ect. If it's not harming the ecosystem and if people have to go out of their way to find them, it's not an issue.

>>2797386
I guess I should've mentioned I live in an extremely humid environment.

>>2797258
I just take my cob pipe if I'm hiking. I went for a trudge along a trail east of the town I'm in, and a few houses on the hill had their wood stoves burning. I had my flask of bulleit warmed by my body heat, and my pipe loaded with Mississippi River. Gf and I played fetch with our dog at a clearing on the peak of the hill. Came back home and I gave her some Christmas gifts.

>>2797291
>>2797301
I am probably over packing, coming from almost exclusively using wider bowls. The problem I'm having is the MM has a looser draw than I'm used to, and I'm probably packing too tightly without realizing it to compensate.

>>2797389
Great answer, anon. One of my favorite pipes that I reach for innawoods is an unidentified Bruyere Garantie bent billiard with a horn stem. For whatever reason it has become my de facto Balkan pipe, and I smoke mostly Lat-heavy blends in colder months. WhiteKnight or its Sutliff Match, or maybe something like Capt. Earle Nightwatch or Fusilier's Ration. In warmer months I have a cheap bent Rhodesian bulldog I smoke mostly VAs and VA/Pers in, or burley blends occasionally in the shoulder seasons of early spring/early fall.

>>2797357
>>2797299
I agree with the leave no trace principal. Even if what you do throw on the ground is completely safe and biodegradable, if it looks human made, don’t throw it on the ground. It’s more of an immersion thing for me when I’m /out/ kek. I’m probably just autistic. The only thing I don’t mind that the leave no trace people hate are cairns. I love seeing cairns. They date back to a time when humans were more “primitive” and in touch with nature, so they fit in nature just fine.

>>2797372
Kek, I love schizoposting

>>2797205 (OP)
Not a pipe, but in the last thread I think I mentioned I was going to try a Nub Nuance Triple Roast 4"x60. I had one last night and really enjoyed it, with a caveat. It's my first "infused" cigar (at least my first quality one), with a nice coffee flavor that did actually taste like coffee and a note of chocolate. 9/10 for flavor.
The main problem is probably my own fault, because the wrapper started to crack, causing a wonky burn and it started falling apart in the last third. I assume it wasn't stored right, though most of my other cigars don't have this issue. But more impetus to buy a proper humidor setup. It didn't go to waste, though. The next day I rubbed out what was left and smoked in a briar. Honestly I think it was better out of a pipe. I might start saving leftover unburnt cigar leaf to add to otherwise uncomplex pipe blends as an experiment.

>>2797591
>I might start saving leftover unburnt cigar leaf to add to otherwise uncomplex pipe blends as an experiment.
I have a jar full of clippings from when I cut the head of the cigar. I have yet to smoke any of it, but I’m curious.

Happy new year fellas. I’d smoke a pipe right now, but I’m too tired and cold.

>>2797205 (OP)
On my second bowl of the evening of Gawith & Hoggarth Dark Flake Unscented out of a Markus Fohr cutty clay. Halfway through the bowl I decided I didn't have enough of this blend and ordered a pound from P&C.
Strong stuff, smokey and savory and a little bit of spice. I also detect the faintest hint of the old Lakeland essence far in the background. I like Lakelands in general, so it's not a problem, but it is extremely subtle. I've seen others describe it as having a cigar note, but I'm not well-versed enough in cigars to say I notice it.
I just wish it was cheaper and more consistently available in the US, or I'd be buying several pounds of it. The only G&H blend I haven't been able to wrap my head around so far is Black Irish X, and even that I find super intriguing and unusual

It’s confirmed. MacBaren (STG now) is discontinuing all HH line tobaccos effective immediately. That means no more Old Dark Fired, Bold Kentucky, Rustica, Burley Flake, or Pure Virginia. I can’t wait to never buy from STG ever again. They can suck a fat dick. Only Gawith and C&D manufactured blends for me from now on. I can’t support a shit company.

>>2798242
Losing Sutliff was heartbreaking, and this is kicking us while we're down. I'm praying another independent producer pops up in the next couple years to help fill the void. Sadly the regulatory environment makes it harder than ever

>>2797205 (OP)
Bought my first pipes, two MM corn cobs, just before Christmas. I'm looking forward to going /out/ when the weather gets a bit nicer, finding a nice spot and enjoying a bowl or two.

>>2798282
Pipes smoke better with in the evening with a fire going. I think it's been proven scientifically to even edge out smoking while fishing for enjoyment.

I might be making that up, but it don't feel like it to me.

latest haul

>>2797804
Now coming back to Brown Bogie after a year's worth of experience with G&H's stronger blends. My initial impression of BB many months ago was a bit harsh, a little one-note and strong enough to turn me green halfway through the bowl.
While it's still one of the strongest I've had, my appreciation for dark-fired tobaccos have given this a new life for me. Not super complex to me still, but I am getting some nice earthy, leathery, barbecue notes going on, a little spice and maybe a cigar note—though like I've said I'm not the best at detecting it. Also a lot of relights, even though it wasn't stored properly and is still a little too moist despite being in the same bag it came in over a year later.
I probably won't finish my <1oz sample any time soon, but I do wish I'd bought another couple ounces just to be safe.

>>2798426
Savor that Mac Baren. It’ll be the last one you ever get. Le Petit Robin is excellent. I should stock up on more semois.

>>2798426
whoa cool, I've never tried any of the semois tobacco. How is it?

One of the saddest things I’ve ever seen. Happy I have 2 pounds of it cellared. I guess it’ll be a special occasion smoke from now until the end of my days.

Going through that phase again where English blends taste horrible instead of delicious...

I really enjoy aromatics, in particular the local tobacconist's blend called Black Cherry American (tastes the same as the branded tins they sell but comes loose and is cheaper) and MacBarren Cube (muh vanilla) but I really want to try a nice latakia for my next camp. Any recommendations?

>>2798697
Try an English Aromatic like Lane HGL. It's smooth and sweet like an aromatic but has enough Latakia to make it interesting.

>>2798696
That happens when I oversmoke them. If I smoke nothing but English for a month, the flavor starts going away and all I get is bitterness.

>>2798697
If you aren't sure you like Latakia, there are some good recs on the last thread for a mild English like Presbyterian Mixture. I recommend Rattray's Red Raparee.
If you want to go while hog, maybe a Balkan like H&H BlackHouse/WhiteKnight or a strong "Kitchen Sink" blend like Nightcap.
Nightcap was my first exposure to Latakia and it kind of blew my mind. It was intense and completely different to anything I'd ever smoked before and I've been in love ever since.
In a related vein, I recommend trying something with Dark-Fired Kentucky as well. If not for the STG disaster I'd recommend Mac Baren's ODF or Bold Kentucky. I go for Gawith & Hoggarth's DFK blends but they can be a bit much at first. Others probably have good suggestions there if you're interested

>>2798697
I consider myself someone who doesn't really like Latakia, but I ended up liking the C&D Epiphany sample that I ordered. It's mostly, for my palate, the Latakia flavor, but there's a hint of some fruit like apricots or something. I'm probably going to order more than just a sample next time I order tobacco and that's probably going to be my go to Latakia for the foreseeable future. I'm not as experienced with blends as a lot of the people here though.

>>2799201
>>2798697
I was gonna recommend Plum Pudding or WhiteKnight too, but alas, they won’t be here for much longer :(

>>2799235
Shit. Is Hearth&Home an STG brand or are they just supplied by Sutliff? If both WhiteKnight AND the Sutliff match both go away all at once I'm swear I'm gonna chimp

>>2799402
They’re both made by Sutliff. WhiteKnight is a bit strange because it’s distributed by STG but made by Sutliff. So I suppose there’s a possibility it will stick around, but if it does it will inevitably taste different since it will be using different tobacco. Pipes & Cigars still has a lot in stock if you wanna get some. Have 8 tins on the way right now.

>>2799402
>>2799413
Well, if you take a plebbitor’s word for it, it’s discontinued.

Trying some HU blends for the first time. I ordered 4 and have tried 2 so far.

Balkan Passion I would liken more to Early Morning Pipe than a traditional Balkan. Mostly Virginia and Oriental with Latakia as a condiment. Very nice in the morning with coffee.

Edward G is also very good. It’s a kitchen sink blend (Virginia, Burley, Oriental, Kentucky, Cavendish, Perique), but it has the profile of a classic codger blend. Basically take Carter Hall, upgrade the quality of the tobacco, add a bit more Virginia, and add a bit of Kentucky. That’s what it tastes like. Definitely could be an all day blend for someone who smokes all day.

I noticed that they burn pretty quickly, which I don’t mind. One of my bigger chambered pipes lasted only 35-40 minutes with Balkan Passion.

>>2798697
Ashton Artisan's Blend is delicious, kinda in the vein of anon's Nightcap suggestion. Has a nice taste of campfire, sauerkraut and a little bit of, don't laugh, old people smell (but in a good way, comfy). It's interesting and very relaxing on gloomy days.

>>2798795
Thing is, I'm not oversmoking them. I only smoke 2-3 times a week at best. And it's not always English blends.

Back in May I decided to narrow my go-to selections down to my favorites after trying ~100 blends. They had to be bulk. I decided on Erik Stokkebye 4th Gen Evening Flake as my go-to VA/Per, Sutliff Balkan Sobranie Match as my go-to English, C&D Haunted Bookshop as my go-to burley blend, Mac Baren HH Rustica as my go-to dark fired blend, and C&D Autumn Evening as my go-to aro. I was planning on smoking only these, with exceptions on special occasions or holidays, for quite some time. I bought a pound of each and was planning on buying a pound of each every 6 months. Now 3 of those 5 blends have been discontinued. I have to start the search again. Sutliff 507-C Virginia Slices was gonna be my 2nd choice for a VA or VA/Per blend, but that isn’t happening either.

Anybody have recs for bulk VA, dark fired, and English blends? I have an idea for some, like Peter Stokkebye Luxury Navy Flake for my VA/Per and Arango Balkan Supreme for my English. I’m probably gonna order a variety of Gawith bulk dark fired blends and see if I like any of them. I tried Dark Birds Eye a while back and seem to remember enjoying it.

I guess the good thing is that I now have a pound and a half left of each of those discontinued blends.

>>2800117
Ive head that Stokkebye's Luxury Navy Flake is (supposedly) very similar to Virginia Slices. I have only had LNF so I can't vouch for that

>>2800117
Balkan Supreme is nice. I prefer it to the other Englishes I've tried.
I'm a newbie pipe smoker though (been smoking only a year and a half): take my advice with a grain of salt.

>>2797299
No, but make sure they aren't liable to light up anything. Douse them or cover with rocks.

Uhhhhh guys? wtf?! How can they possibly reduce the amount of nicotine naturally found in tobacco without adding some weird chemical or chemical process that removes it and will probably change the flavor? The way things have been going lately, I’m just happy I stocked up while I could.

>>2800290
>proposal made by Biden in 11th hour
>quote by Biden guy, who will leave when Trump takes office
I'm just gonna hope it dies with Biden.

>>2800290
What's the appeal of this? I mean... Who has what to gain?

>>2797205 (OP)
How do you guys pack your pipes while /out/?
Everytime I pack my pipe the tobacco makes a mess

>>2800932
Old timers used to have a pouch (of course they mostly smoked the same blend every day) and just stick the pipe in to scoop leaf with it. I tend to create kind of a "funnel" with my left hand to catch any excess from each pinch I load in the bowl. But innawoods I'm not exactly bringing a big selection, so I might start using the pouch method

>>2800932
I’m not an old timer but I do what >>2800942 said.
Before i got a pouch i did the same thing but with a ziploc bag. I also pack over the tin this same way when im not out

>>2800932
I find a place to sit, or at least an impromptu table for my jar lid that I've poured tobacco into and I slowly pack a pinch at a time, then I poor the remainder back in the jar. If I'm without a pack or too far from my home/car I'll take sandwich bags of tobacco and hold the pipe inside the bag while filling and tamping. Doesn't matter if it takes you a whole minute or two to pack if you're going to enjoy it for the next 45 minutes.

>>2797205 (OP)
what plants can you smoke that can be found in the wild? besides tobacco?

>>2801447
I'm sure it will depend on location, but I've heard of people smoking mint, blackberry and raspberry leaves and even catnip. I have no idea about the dangers of different smokables, so I guess so your research.

>>2797205 (OP)
I have 60+ jars of various tobaccos in every category, but I find returning again and again to Gawith & Hoggarth Dark Flake Unscented. I wish it wasn't my favorite currently because it's more expensive than most of the other bulk blends I buy, and it's out of stock regulalrly.
Tonight I'm watching a heavy snow fall in 16° weather out of a Georg Jensen 989 straight billiard.

>>2801611
>the dangers of different smokables
yeah that's my worry. don't want to smoke something toxic (more toxic than smoking is anyway). and things that are normally edible might be toxic to smoke. how do we know?

>>2800290
>>2800881
There are 2 main reasons:

First, is that nicotine has health benefits, so obviously they want to remove anything that's good for you. Inb4 "muh cigs kill", it's all the other chemicals and shit they put in cigs that kill and cause cancer, not the nicotine.

Second, it's been proven that nicotine bind to the same receptors as the MRNA spike proteins from the clot shots, so nicotin blocks the shots from working as effectively, so obviously the gubment can't have that.

>>2801997
Based knower.

>>2801997
Exactly. Nicotine is no more harmful or addictive than caffeine. In fact, I’d say nicotine is better than caffeine in every way. It gives that brain boost without the jitteriness and anxiousness. I still enjoy both a pipe and black coffee in the morning though for the ultimate boost.

>>2797258
I bought a nice wooden pipe about a year ago (apparently it’s a bent Rhodesian style pipe). I really enjoyed taking it out in the Rockies over the summer. Would recommend.

saw a Dr. Grabow at a smoke shop the other day, grabbed it since i didn't have a Grabow yet
currently giving it it's first smoke, and so far, i really like it, i love it's size & shape, and the super clean draw it gives (without a filter)
in fact, this might have just converted me into a briar man
there were also a few more pipes at the shop i saw, might pick those up too just for the hell of it

Mixed some of my cigar scraps (from when I cut the head off) with Prince Albert. Amazing. Adds some of that oomph that’s missing from the codger blends.

any of you anons archived some of the websites you use?
did some very basic screencaps of pages from places like pipedia & smokingpies, just for future reference
i don't know how long these websites may stay up, could be decades, could be just a few years, whatever the case, i didn't wanna let at least some of the information disappear
have any good sites like pipedia to recommend? i wanna try getting a wide variety of sources, ones from old guys are preferred (wisdom with age, etc.)
i don't like being such a downer by saying "everyone is getting old and dying!", but its quite literally whats happening for a lot of places i used to go to now

>>2802940
funny how the same side is called the head or the butt depending on whether it's a cigar or cigarette
>>2802988
fairtradetobacco forum has a lot of good info

>>2802988
I take a lot of screenshots, but they’re nowhere near as organized as you have them. May have to do that myself.

>>2802988
This is also what disturbs me most about the Mac Baren/Sutliff buyout. An awful lot of institutional knowledge (if that's the right way to phrase it) will be lost. Even if some blends remain/return, it will be made in a new factory, in another country, by new people and probably with different leaf. Even though most of the blends Sutliff put out never appealed to me, how many people there will retire after this and never return to the tobacco business? An unbroken chain of 175 years and multiple generations of knowledge on blending and tobacco lead, lost in one fell swoop. Heartbreaking.

>>2803073
thanks
>>2803179
its pretty easy to do on firefox, rightclicking gives the "take screenshot" option, you can select certain things, or the whole entire page itself, then i just ctrl+v & it pastes the whole page down in whatever folder i want
its super useful for stuff like this, if it wasn't so easy, i honestly probably wouldn't have bothered, i don't normally do things like this
>>2803187
i was thinking about that too
i'm a guy who likes aromatics, so i'm a bit screwed on that part with the buyout, i'm glad i always store a sample of every tobacco i buy, just for the smell alone
and yeah, theres other brands, but thats like trying to say coke & rc cola are one in the same
i really do hope that the new ones are at least close enough to what they're suppose to be, assuming they even bother to continue them

opened a mason jar of captain black original i've had stored for about year
i think its sorta mellowed / evened out, but has also gotten more bolder, it has a bit more spice to it too i think, its pretty good
its also smoking a lot better than i remember it, barely any dottle or relights, even when it hasn't been puffed it for a while

These new bulk blends on Smokingpipes are intriguing. Good mix of aro and non-aro blends. Think I’m gonna order a few samples, specifically the oak one, Mystic Moor, and the sunrise one.

>>2803374
A lot of people sneer at codger/OTC blends. I think they're usually better than most give them credit for. I mostly smoke Englishes, but I keep a few pouches of Prince Albert, Captain Black, Borkum Riff and Sir Walter Raleigh on hand for an occasional change of pace. As
>>2802940
shows they are often just a little tweak away from being really nice. If they would just wake up on the heavy-handed toppings and humectants I think they'd be much improved.

>>2803729
>wake up
Ease up*

in your guy's experience, how well do balsa wood filters work for reducing moisture?

saw this video about WW2 pipe tobacco, ended up grabbing a bag of Half and Half today because of it, pretty good stuff
also grabbed a can of snuff, since the place was the only time i ever saw it for sale, just an interesting thing to have

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RreIbzJlURU

>>2805008
>also grabbed a can of snuff
This is probably just a me thing, but be careful about snuff. I've never done cocaine or ever snorted anything because I always thought it was disgusting. But, "when in Rome", I kinda got into rapé (snuff).

It was totally fine for years, but then I decided to quit smoking a few years back, and when I did that I still had a lot of rapé left, and I ended up replacing my daily smoke with rapé (while I was still using rapé before sleep to facilitate dreaming). This eventually spiraled and I ended up addicted to it, whereas I have never considered myself to be addicted to tobacco while smoking it. It was like really bad too. You get addicted to the nicotine, of course, and I think snuff/rapé could potentially be more addicting than smoked tobacco because you're frontloading yourself with a massive hit of nicotine that wanes very quickly, so you can begin chasing the high, but also you can get addicted to the burning feeling of snorting it/blowing it up your nose with an applicator. Even for months after I had finally felt like I was no longer addicted to rapé, I craved to just blow something up my nose or snort something to get the burning feeling. And that's me as someone who had never previously been interested in snorting anything because I thought it was kinda gross - and it is. It's definitely gross and you end up needing to clean your nostrils with tissue or something.

>>2805011
i got the can just for matter of fact, only time i ever see the stuff is as empty tins / jars in antique stores
i also got bad allergies anyway, so i'm not interested in dirtying my nose more than it already gets, and between addiction, i have a vape for that

>>2801612
Thinking about buying that, or the aromatic version. I smoked Mac Baren Old Dark Fired for a while.
What are your thoughts on the blend? What notes do you get, etc.?

>>2805158
I love Lakelands but I've never had the aro version. I think the unscented compares fairly well to ODF. To my palate, both are smokey, dark, a little spice with a touch of dark sweetness. I think Dark Flake has more of a cigar note, though not as much as something like Dark Plug or some of their ropes. I love Old Dark Fired and consider them in kind of the same category, though different of course. Dark Flake is very strong to me, a bit rougher around the edges, though it hasn't bitten me yet while pushing it pretty hard. I will probably try the scented/aro version on my next order (if it's in stock). Currently I have a couple oz of Brown Flake Unscented and Ennerdale on the way to try. The only downside for me is that it is hard to keep lit. That's probably on me though--I keep it jarred and rarely let it dry enough before smoking, if at all. So better prep would probably mitigate that issue.
G&H and to a lesser extent SG have become my favorite blenders. Last month I bought a pound of Dark Flake Unscented and have a pound of Bosun Plug (not cut plug) cellared away. I top off a smaller jar of DF with 2-4oz at a time every few months. As I say, I just wish it was cheaper or I'd buy several pounds. The tin note actually makes my mouth water. But as always, ymmv. Very much worth trying if you like dark-fired leaf.

>>2805327
I just bought some Dark Flake Aromatic. The unscented version is out of stock. I also bought some Grasmere Flake (I hear Ennerdale is a milder version of it).

Old Dark Fired was great. I'm sad to see her go. I've been smoking some Rattray's Stirling Flake of late, which is more meaty-tasting but also a LOT more biting.

I find I've been chasing after the elusive tobacco which tastes good on a consistent basis, with consistent flavors. My taste must be wacky, I don't know. So far Autumn Evening has been the most consistently good blend for me.

Speaking of Samuel Gawith, I smoked a tin of their St James Flake, which is said to be very good and is out of stock all the time, and hated it. It barely had any flavor. At least it smelled like a nice pastry to other people.

It's nice you've found a favorite blender or two. In my experience I just have favorite blends, not blenders, who just happen to strike out with something good now and then.

Not sure what I'll do if I end up actually liking Dark Flake or Grasmere Flake. They're expensive, that's for sure...

My recent order.
C&D on sale so I bought my two favorites from them plus a slightly nicer version of my Rossi with a rusticated finish instead of smooth. I believe this one has the vulcanite stem, also on sale.

Plum pudding was also on sale. Been hearing a lot so I wanted to try it. I think their sale goes till tomorrow so if you have the cash and have been eyeing something, now would be the the time.

Anyone try any of the C&D Nørding Hunter blends yet?

i've found that with the tenon & shank of a pipe, its nice to polish them with a little bit of bee's wax
had some pipes which stems would fit a bit too tight in the shank or would randomly do so, and it made them fit perfectly, instead of worrying i'd break them
definitely a huge improvement on cobs too, since even getting a little tight can pull out the shank

>>2805717
Interestingly, I've also used beeswax for the opposite problem as well. Tightened up a loose stem on an estate pipe.

I'm not really that experienced with Latakia, but I've been smoking Nightcap for a little bit now and I'd just like to ask a question. Is Nightcap considered to be an aromatic? The only other Latakia I have as a reference to compare it to is Epiphany, and Epiphany is (I think) slightly aromatic in that it has a slight hint of fruit to it, but otherwise tastes like tobacco. Comparatively, and I might sound weird for saying this, but I don't think Nightcap taste like tobacco at all. To me, Nightcap taste like either fresh linen, or dryer sheets and the flavor borders even on something like chamomile tea. It seems very aromatic to me, but maybe that's just how Latakia normally tastes and Epiphany doesn't have a lot of Latakia in it? I'm not really sure, but I thought Epiphany still tasted mostly like tobacco with a small hint of fruit, whereas I don't think Nightcap taste like tobacco at all.

What does Nightcap taste like to everyone else? Am I insane? I have been enjoying it, but it was not at all what I expected it to be. As of right now, I can't see myself ever buying another tin, but I do like it when I end up going for a bowl.

Last year sometime I bought myself some cheap briar blocks with the intent of making a pipe or two. This year I finally got around to it. I used the cheaper ebouchon block, so it has some natural imperfections, but I think it turns out just fine.

For the pipe bowl, I bought a spade bit then grinded it into the rough shape of a spoon bit. The stem I bought in a cheap pack online. I mainly used a rasp and a carving knife to shape it, then smoothed it with sand paper. I then finished it with a semi-transparent red stain and tung oil. It smokes fantastically well, and I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, though I'm going to gloss the finish with a few more layers of tung oil over the next week.

Anyway, thought I'd share. Maybe other anons have thought about making a pipe for themselves, and I'd say absolutely go for it. You don't need much to make something nice.

>>2797205 (OP)
Just tried Gawith & Hoggarth's "Bob's Chocolate Flake" for the first time. I don't know what I expected, way more subtle and tasty than I anticipated. Buying more in my next order

>>2806143
I definitely wouldn't call it an aromatic. But I get where you're coming from. My first experience with English mixtures was Nightcap as well. I had tried a few codger blends and wanted to see what it was all about. The initial tin note and smoke was wildly different from what I expected. Smelled kind of like beef jerky and nothing at all like what I had come to think of as tobacco. The first several bowls were really confusing to my palate and I didn't know if I liked it. We kind of jumped into the deep end of Englishes with Nightcap. I find Latakia can easily overwhelm a blend and smoke out the nuances of the other leaf.
If you're willing to give it another go, maybe try a milder blend that has a light touch with the Latakia. Just be glad you didn't go with something like Pirate Kake as a first Lat-heavy smoke: it's supposedly 75% Latakia. I enjoy it, but rarely. I've seen others on here recommend Presbyterian Mixture or Peterson Early Morning Pipe for something milder. Or maybe it's just not for you. I've really come to prefer Dark-fired Kentucky over Latakia in general. I find myself reaching for dark-fired blends more often than standard Englishes now (though like most people I go through phases). A similar curing process but a different flavor profile.
At the very least I'd recommend a sample or two of each category of blend (burleys, straight VAs, VaPers, VaBurs, Lakelands, et al) to see what types of leaf suit you. Nightcap is a "kitchen sink" kind of blend with a little bit of everything.

>>2806489
I would love to get into pipe-making. Once I have a workspace I can devote to these types of hobbies, I will probably dip my toe in. Your examples look awesome. I've yet to find a pipe that checks all the boxes for me. Making my own might be a good solution

>>2806489
Looks really cool.

>>2801447
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carphephorus_odoratissimus

>>2806693
>At the very least I'd recommend a sample or two of each category of blend (burleys, straight VAs, VaPers, VaBurs, Lakelands, et al) to see what types of leaf suit you. Nightcap is a "kitchen sink" kind of blend with a little bit of everything.
I've tried probably somewhere around 30 blends now, trying to kind of figure out what I like and don't like. I've mostly avoided DFK and Latakia because I just don't really care for the smokiness that much. One of the first blends I tried (second one, I think) was some mess of heavy DFK and Latakia that smelled like a BBQ and tasted like a BBQ, and I still can't smoke that stuff. Turned me off of both, honestly, but now that I've tried "enough" other blends, I'm trying to test the waters again.

My more recent Latakia experience has only been Epiphany and Nightcap. I liked Epiphany enough that I decided maybe I don't hate Latakia after all; it tasted pretty nice, with a very faint bit of fruit aromatic flavoring. The thing with Nightcap is that I really can't even detect any flavor of anything that I know to be tobacco in its flavor profile. It tastes like fresh laundry, dryer sheets, or maybe even slightly like chamomile tea to me. It does not taste anything like tobacco to me. Kind of like a lakeland in that regard, I guess, except instead of perfumy soap or whatever it tastes like a fresh dryer leaning into chamomile tea. I definitely don't hate it, but I find it to be a little bit weird. In my more recent bowls, I've been mixing it with different tobaccos to give it a bit more of an actual tobacco flavor and I've been liking it more this way. It's good both ways, but I think I more often prefer it to taste like tobacco rather than Nightcap, even though that's good as well.

I just want to know if I'm insane or if my palate is messed up or if what I am describing is actually what other people taste with Nightcap.

whats the longest you guys have had a pipe?
oldest i got is from 2019 when i started

>>2797205 (OP)
I keep thinking of starting to smoke a pipe and buy a corncob and some tobacco. I am not a smoker, never was. On one hand it makes no sense to start a hobby that in unhealthy and wastes money, on the other hand I can't get this idea out of my head.

>>2809059
hows the fossil hounding in those rocks?
where i'm at, that type of rock is absolutely filled with fossils
good ones too, all mississippian era, lots of sea life, very well preserved

>>2809063
Permian sparsely fossiliferous marine siltstone and sandstone, there wasn't anything worth picking up, but it was a perfect spot to sit and contemplate life for a few days.

Anybody else like fresh Virginia more than aged Virginia? I’m comparing 4 year old jarred Elizabethan with a new can of Elizabethan. The new can reminds me of why I fell in love with Elizabethan. It has a zest, a tang, a citrusy spice, and some grass. The aged Elizabethan, while mellow and very smooth and sweet, is missing that kick. It’s almost taken on a raw honey/floral note as well. Both are good, but as with other Virginia blends I’ve compared aged vs fresh tobacco with, I like the fresh one more. And truthfully, considering blenders blend with the fresh taste in mind, fresh tobacco is probably a more accurate representation of what the blender wanted.

>>2808645
It’s not mentally unhealthy. It seriously helps clear the mind and gets you into a meditative state, especially when /out/. There’s a reason so many of the best thinkers, scientists, authors, etc. smoked a pipe. I always view it as if I’m lighting incense. It serves the same purpose for me.

>>2809059
Perfect.

>>2797205 (OP)
good blends for/from the desert?

i had a dream where i was at a gas station, and i saw a pipe that was made of 2 pipes
it was one pipe ontop of another, and you could take the top pipe off to smoke it by itself, or smoke the bottom pipe with the top pipe packed
i call it: The Eye Poker

my friend told me i should make it, i think i'll do that with a couple of cob pipes

I smoke legion smoke butts outta a soda can like a man. The aluminum adds flavor

>>2806489
nice work. I have one I made recently that I am breaking in. It isn't as pretty as yours but I grow to love the imperfections of a thing made by my own hands. The Japanese call it wabi-sabi, or valueing a thing that is faulty because of its uniqueness.

see you next time, blood moon eclipse

Time to start my flower beds, boyos. Been a long winter and I need to start off right.

Whittled my choices down to Moontrance and HBS cake. Both have been jarred about a year. What am I smoking?

>>2810295
GL Pease Cairo. The name fits at least. It’s Virginia and Orientals I believe. Any latakia/oriental blend would fit though since they’re from the Levant.

anyone else notice that pipe / cigar smoking helps with their allergies?
something about it seems to stave off a snotty nose for me & makes it easier to spit any phlegm out
helps a lot when going on walks in this season

>>2810486
You could really have a fun product if you make the bottom pipe an actual poker shape pipe to play on words.

Got my first P-lip Peterson a few weeks ago and have smoked it about 10 times. I love the way it smokes. Because moisture doesn’t transfer from your mouth to the stem to the bowl, the tobacco stays super dry and burns completely to ash.

>>2811153
Absolutely. A few years ago I had a bad cold that I couldn’t get over. So I started going /out/ every single day, walked about 4 miles or so while smoking my pipe. Each time after I was finished, I’d sit on a bench, lean forward, plug a nostril and blow out the other and I’d get so much snot out. I credit the smoke with clearing my sinuses out.

Smoking Seattle Pipe Club Plum Pudding Cake Private Reserve tonight.

The brick format isn't one I'm familiar with but I just broke off a corner, kinda fluffed it out a bit then packed normally and it seems to be working well.

Goddamn this shit is pleasant. Unburnt it kinda smells pungent a bit like manure to me, but the smoked aroma is amazing.

I smoked all 6 of my Peterson pipes filled with Irish Flake on St. Patrick’s Day. That combined with all the Guinness and Jameson I drank didn’t end up well lol. I remember taking a shot, then waking up on the toilet puking all over the floor smdh. I think I had slight nicotine poisoning. Oh well, I’ll try again next year.

>>2811206
I used to have a constant stuffy nose. I mean 80% of the time I had to breathe through my mouth because of it. Tried various OTC and prescription meds, which barely worked. Once I started consistently smoking a pipe, I guess it dried out my sinuses or whatever, and now I can breathe clearly most of the time. Besides enjoying the hobby, that's a legit quality of life improvement because of smoking

>>2797205 (OP)
Starting out the day (yes I just woke up at noon, I work night shift) with a cup of strong black coffee, a good book about Napoleon my nephew gifted me, and a bowl of GL Pease Jack Knife Plug in a Savinelli 601.
Beautiful spring weather and absolutely nothing I have to do today. An increasingly rare respite from the chaos. Appreciate the small things, brothers. God is good

Just found out Sutliff Frosty Mint has been discontinued. Do any online stores still have some?

>>2812141
As far as I know, almost all websites have sold out of the most popular of the Sutliff blends and won’t be getting anymore in stock. There might be some something from Stokkebye that’s similar though. Stokkebye and Sutliff were always big competitors, and now that Sutliff is gone Stokkebye/STG might pick up some of the old Sutliff flavors.

Camping with the boys

>>2812274
Funny, we also gather in a circle around the campfire to warm our asses in the very same way.

>>2797205 (OP)
>how to get started
>Purchase a Missouri Meerschaum Legend
This one fine? https://amzn.eu/d/cSLJBu2
My brother needs some stuff to reach an Amazon free delivery threshold and I’ve been meaning to trying pipe smoking. Are plastic mouth pieces okay? I’m a bit wary for something like hot smoke going through plastic and then into my lungs

>>2812290
seems okay enough based off the reviews
plastic bits are fine, if you're smoking the pipe hot enough to burn the bit, the smoke will seriously burn your mouth anyway
plus, you're not suppose to breath pipe tobacco like you do a cigarette

>>2812290
Everything by Missouri Meerschaum is quality. May not last you as long as a briar, but it definitely doesn’t have anything bad in it. Technically, all pipe bits (except old amber and bone bits from 100+ years ago) are plastic. The most expensive pipes in the world are going to be using either acrylic or vulcanite, both of which are plastic.

Question!
How long does your acrylic mouth pieces last? In my cheap pear pipes mouth pieces are the elements that give out first. I don't smoke very often (maybe once a week on average), but they still all crack in a year or two, usually when I remove it from the pipe for cleaning (I make sure pipe is cool, I use a twisting motion). I'm not sure if it's because I'm doing something wrong or is that normal or if the cheap bites just aren't supposed to last very long and I should invest in something more expensive.
Any advice? Or recommendations for mouth pieces that can last long? Soon I'll reach the point where I've spent more money on replacing those bites than on my pipes :/

>>2812593
>but they still all crack in a year or two
Oof. Acrylic stems should last as long as the pipe lasts, especially if you’re only smoking a couple times a week. The only ones that have a reputation for getting damaged over time are vulcanite stems because of how soft they are, but even those will last 10-20 years. The only thing I can think of is that if it’s a cheap pipe, the stem hole might not be drilled accurately and might be putting too much pressure on the stem, weakening it over time. There are rubber bits you can buy to protect the stem. Maybe that will help.

Why do all the pipe smokers I see look so gay? Is it their choice of pipe, there person? Or is it just smoking a pipe?

>>2812684
The ones who smoke a pipe and also take selfies while smoking a pipe are usually autistic or LARPers or both. I would never let a picture of me smoking a pipe be shared lmao. I don’t even smoke it in public unless I’m camping or hiking. I assume the ones who want to be seen with a pipe are a little off.

>>2812684
>Why do all the pipe smokers I see look so gay?
I mean, this whole hobby is basically about putting something into your mouth and sucking, so...

>>2812682
>the stem hole might not be drilled accurately and might be putting too much pressure on the stem
That might be it, now that I think about it. And it won't be hard to fix with some sandpaper.
Thanks for letting me know, Anon.

This new GPT 4o image generation is craaaazy

>>2813013
i tried using it & it said that anything regarding smoking breaks TOS

>>2813019
I tried doing one of my cousin passed out with beers all around him and got the notification that it broke the TOS. Damn thing must not like alcohol or tobacco. No idea how my picture of a pipe and Guinness got through lol

>>2797521
No trace isn't possible though. You're causing erosion and leaving a trace just by walking through.

>>2806693
>>2806835
>>2810857
Thanks for the kind words about the pipe. I've become more attracted to it now that I've used it every day. It's comfortable, light, and fills me with a sense of pride. If anyone's thinking about making one, I'll always say give it a go.

>>2810857
Share pictures of yours, I'd love to see it. Mine has some imperfections too. There's some hollows in the wood and my sanding wasn't perfect, but I still enjoy it greatly. Wabi-sabi, I like that.

Anywho, recently I've been enjoying some Scottish Cake. It's quite good. Spicy, a little sour and sweet, and good nicotine content. A nice break over aromatics. Next I'm looking to get some G.L. Pease Quiet Nights to try.

I've been pipe smoking for not too long now, I bought a few different blends at first and my favorite quickly became old dark fired from mac baren. I only smoke once or twice a week and I had bought quite a bit when I found I liked it.
Well I recently went to restock and learned about them stopping production. So does anyone have any recommendations for a blend that would scratch the same itch? I was luckily able to find 2 1.75oz tins at my mom and pop a few days ago but long term I need to find something else.

>>2813480
I recommend giving GL Pease Jack Knife Plug (or the ready rubbed) a try. I got lucky on timing and bought a pound of ODF right before the whole Mac Baren tragedy unfolded. But I enjoy JKP enough that I go back and forth between the two for that similar (though of course not exactly the same) flavor profile

>>2797383
Its specifically the tannins in the cocoa thats bad for them.

Hoping to get some this year. I missed it in 2023 due to a tight budget. Now I have a lot of spending money, but I worry about the reliability of Smokingpipes’ servers. They’ve been shit with recent small batch releases.

https://www.smokingpipes.com/smokingpipesblog/single.cfm/post/aleister-crowley-the-beast-that-inspired-the-beast?utm_source=Smokingpipes.com&utm_campaign=03bd5ae1ad-SUN_MAR_30_2025_DAILY-READER-DIGEST&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_-f341343711-223573404&mc_cid=03bd5ae1ad&mc_eid=e55ba64294

>>2813480
Irish Flake from Peterson is really good and similar, as are quite a few Gawith blends like Dark Birds Eye. Anything that has a decent amount of dark fired Kentucky is going to be comparable tbqh.

>>2797205 (OP)
Been piping out of my corn cob for almost a year now. What a lovely hobby. It’s more expensive than cocaine in Canada these days. I’ll be making a trip south of the border to grab a couple of tins. Do any other leafs do this, or do you bite the bullet and pay the premium?

>>2813637
Think yourself lucky you can drive across the border. Us poor Aussies have to play the customs lottery to see if we get a bill for $2000/kg import duties.

Do you have any actually good stores near you? I went to two fancy tobacconists and they only had cigars and unsealed glass jars of what are likely the oldest driest crustiest aromatics.

The one spot near me that actually has tins, only has maybe 20-25 different blends, and everything is marked up like 3x online prices (in the US).

>>2813830
its a couple hour drive from me, but theres one great one in murfreesboro tn, lots of cigars, pipes, and pipe tobacco there

The Pipe Cottage has been an absolute asshat lately. He thinks he’s the foremost expert on Constitutional history or something. If you disagree with him even a little bit you’re deemed anti-American and/or anti-constitution. You like Trump? You’re anti-constitution. You like Kamala? You’re anti-American. You’re a Protestant? You’re anti-Christ. You buy from Laudisi/SmokingPipes/C&D/GLPease? You worship Satan (not even kidding, he just released a video about how he will never buy from them again, annd encourages his followers to do the same, after they wrote the Crowley article the other anon linked to above). Basically, if you aren’t a learned and wise traditional southern aristocratic Catholic gentleman like he, you are an inferior peasant that is a disgrace to God, I do declare.

>>2813958
its always funny when someone opens their mouth to humble brag at the worst possible moment they can do so

>>2813958
I have no opinion other than that this reads like
>While you were partying, I studied the Blade

>>2813958
>Basically, if you aren’t a learned and wise traditional southern aristocratic Catholic gentleman like he, you are an inferior peasant that is a disgrace to God, I do declare.
awfully ironic given the general historic attitude towards catholics of traditional southern aristocratic gentlemen

are there any blends that have spruce or fir notes?
also any with a kitchen spice (cinnamon, clove, nutmeg) type note? not so much looking for spicy the way people talk about periques

>>2814202
>also any with a kitchen spice (cinnamon, clove, nutmeg) type note? not so much looking for spicy the way people talk about periques
Someone here recommended Oriental Silk a while back. It's got a "cinnamon/cardamom/incense" note to it, which I can only assume is the Turkish flake. It does also have Perique in it though. Overall it's, in my opinion, a nice "spicy" blend that is both somewhat peppery and also somewhat spice-y, with a very soft tanginess to it, and the flavors blend very smoothly together into "silk"

>>2814202
Bosun Plug/Cut Plug from Gawith & Hoggarth has a clove essence along with some of in/famous Lakeland floral notes, which I love but I know it isn't for everybody

>>2814202
>>2814278
Many orientals will give you that cooking spice you’re looking for. Oriental Silk, Sunday Picnic, Virginia Gentleman all have that kinda cinnamon, nutmeg, “autumn” type of flavor imo.

>>2814202
Oh, forgot to talk about fir notes. Latakia is made by using pine trees to smoke oriental tobacco. Commonwealth from Gawith Hoggarth has a noticeable fir note. Father Dempsey from Kramer’s and Balkan Sobranie Match from Sutliff (RIP) also have decent fir/pine notes.

Has anyone tried Match Amphora from Sutliff? I've had some mediocre sutliff aromatics, but this one really took the cake. It smells perfumed and pretty nice, but from the start of the bowl, it smokes completely acrid, like I'm smoking a happy meal toy.

I know some people are gonna miss the boutique stuff they put out, but they also pumped out some real dogshit too.

Bought myself some stuff for my birthday. Not pictured is a bag of Arrowhead menthol I'm gonna try to use for blending, but first I gotta moisturize it.

Got one of those Old Dominion reed stem pipes but it fell out, any way to reattach it well or would it need adhesives that give me giga cancer? Going to get another one anyways but I figured I'd ask in the meantime.

>>2814992
just get a new one, you can get a new missouri meerschaum for the price of a bottle of glue

Finally getting to try The Beast. Opening it up, it smelled like manure and a slight bit of sweet BBQ sauce. Being 51% Perique, I knew it would be pungent. The taste is pretty one dimensional so far, with the Kentucky only popping up here and there. Mostly just earthy, slightly fruity Perique. I’m not getting rum at all, besides a bit of sweetness. Not as spicy as I thought it would be. Nicotine hit is quite strong though.

>>2814992
elmer's glue
just clean the stem a little of the old glue, put a bunch of elmer's on it, and it'll probably never come off again

>>2815026
I'm
>>2811482
So I'm not the only one getting manure smells out of some of these blends. Weird.

I think I'm gonna take up the habit of pipe smoking. I'm gonna follow OP's suggestions and get a cob pipe and some captain black. Should I also consider getting a filter while I'm at it? Also if anyone has suggestions on a blend that has strong coffee notes I'd appreciate it.

>>2815197
A cob should probably come with a little cardboard filter in there already. It's completely up to personal preference, but one of the first things I did was take the cardboard out and I never looked back.

>>2815197
Filter use is a dividing topic. I like them, whether it be paper, balsa wood or charcoal. Would definitely try the different options, but there is no need to stock up on them before you have tested the waters. In my opinion, filters help restrict the draw in a way that is helpful to beginners. You mileage may vary, though.

>>2815202
>>2815203
Thank you for the insight. I will be doing the first smoke filtered and then rawdog it the next day

>>2815197
>>2815204
cobs are pretty good at absorbing moisture, so you probably won't see too much a difference, especially since most times you get a filter with a cob, they're just a dinky little thin paper roll
and if you're using captain black, you're especially gonna have a lot of moisture, its a super wet smoking blend

i'd say to actually use it without the filter the first time or two, see how wet it smokes, then finally try it with the filter

>>2797302
I leave my microplastics filled shit kn the woods and micro plastics filled bears eat it.
Its stored in their micro plastic balls.

I also chuck glimming cigarette bums into the forwsts willy nilly especially during drought season in commiefornia (i hate that place)

>>2797205 (OP)
Sitting out here under the gazebo during a pretty intense spring thunderstorm, smoking a bowl of G&H Bob's Chocolate Flake out of my Georg Jensen straight billiard.
Not a fan of chocolate-flavored aros, so I was skeptical of this blend. Somehow the (very) light touch of chocolate with a little bit of Latakia really works. Now I am wishing I'd bought 3 or 4 tins in my last big purchase. Good stuff

This big old stump has been burning for 2 days. All I need now is a pig on a spit.

>>2815139
Definitely not. These are natural organic products that, in many cases like the Perique here, is fermented. That’ll lead to a funk. The funkiest smelling blend I’ve ever had is the standard Plum Pudding. Smells like BBQ sauce, smoke, vinegar, and cheese. Smells disgusting, but tastes like heaven.

>>2815647
One time I opened a jar of Plum Pudding that had been aging for over a year. As soon as I opened it, it was like I opened a jar of smelling salts. Instant sharp burning in my sinuses and a heavy vinegar aroma. I assume it was a release of ammonia from the tobacco aging and fermenting. I was scared as hell to try it, but it tasted great lol.

>>2815652
If I cracked open a jar and got hit with the smell of vinegar and ammonia I'm throwing that shit out but I'm new to this pipe shit so I dunno

Trebourg & Freyer taster set, anyone tried their blends? And OAP is "Pensioner's mixture" - it's been on my list for a while.

I am again marvelling at how peaceful I feel after smoking up again. Took winter off, just seemed to happen naturally, but my of course my favourite pipes smoke just as good as ever. I'm back in zen mode and it feels like it's been too long.

yay we're alive

Damn, I missed this thread and you anons. Let me just say fuck basedjak party. Anyway, I recently ordered some MacBaren aged HH Burley Flake. It was the one MacBaren HH blend I hadn’t tried. It’s so good. Like a less strong version of Irish Flake with less Kentucky. I wish I had bought more when MacBaren was still going strong. Oh well, I’ll savor the 2 tins I have.

Any good recommendations for Vanilla or more "neutral" flavored aromatics like that, which are available in bulk? Doesn't need to be aromatic, can also be "casing" or whatever it's called when you can only very faintly taste the flavor. Just something "lighter" for summer months.

>>2816021
Maybe try a blend with deertongue. I find it has a vanilla-mint-herbal thing going on that tastes way more natural than most aro blends with vanilla. Crooner or Engine #382 are two that I like, and they're available in bulk for around $4/oz, so maybe worth getting an ounce or two to try

>>2816034
I have tried and enjoy both of these. For me, deertongue is more of an herbal tea kind of flavor more so than vanilla (I want to almost compare it to catnip), but it might be worth revisiting. I think Crooner is too heavy for what I'm looking for nicotine wise, but maybe I'll give Engine another go.

Just tried some Sutliff 203 Coffee, its pretty good, great room note.
The other day ago I got a new tamper, an 8deco Bamboo; I like it, the scraper is actually really nice to use.
Also got a hemp wick attachment for my clipper, and I can really tell that it preserves the flavor, theres way less volatiles being burnt off now, easier to light the tobacco with it too. I'd recommend trying it out.

>>2797205 (OP)
After frying my palate all winter with the strongest DFK blends I could find, straight VAs and Vapers now seem way too mild. Mac Baren Pure Vieginia, Sutliff VA Slices and even my old favorite LNF all taste mostly like hot air. I was going to mention G&H Brown Flake Unscented as an exception, but I realized that contains a little burley and a touch of DFK.
Maybe I should take a week or two off from the pipe to let my tongue recover

Captcha: KTARD

>>2816135
if you got bite, try a tongue scraper
it seems to make it go away a lot quicker (in my experience)

>>2816021
GL Pease Virginia Cream is good. It’s a super light vanilla/cream aromatic made of Virginia and a tiny bit of dark fired Kentucky.

The bit on my new Falcon stem was on really tight, and like an idiot, I just twisted, wiggled, and pulled it ever so slightly until the fucking draft tube came out.
I tried using a torch lighter on it, in an attempt to re-solder it, but to no avail. Quite luckily, I realized that I could gently tap the tube into place with the wood handle of a hammer, which ended up fixing it, having just a bit of wobble.
After that, I took a nail and used it to bend the entrance of the tube to be flush along the corresponding hole of the stem's bowl/condenser. I also put a little beeswax on the bit to ease taking it off.
The draft tube is now steadily solid, the bit comes off easy enough for cleaning, and with a hand on the bowl - the pipe is air tight.
Honestly, I think its an improvement.

>>2816202
the mouth piece and stem is all one piece on those, they aren't supposed to come off

>>2816283
The first one I got came off like any other pipe, so I just figured they did. All's well that ends well I guess.

>>2797205 (OP)
Does anyone know why Solani tobacco seems to be out of stock in every UK website? I wanted another tin of the Silver Blend as its become one of my favourites.

>>2816594
Solani is notoriously never in stock, especially Aged Burley Flake. They restock once or twice a year and sell out within a day or two. It’s the reason why I only have two tins of Solano Aged Burley Flake even though it’s my favorite burley blend lol

>>2816594
I haven't seem it out of stock with UK retailers. Finished a tin of Festival a few months ago.

>>2816651
It really depends where you are. I couldn't get a tin of Carter Hall for love or money, even if I tried. There are many American blends that simply don't make it here for whatever reason, and vice versa. I've been wanting to try Haunted Bookshop for a long time.

Does anyone else remove the ash from their pipe as you're smoking?
I didn't do it at first, but not too long ago I saw a video talking about it, so far I've come to like it.
It definitely does seem to cut down on any ashy taste, I can't tell if it makes relights any easier or harder though.

>>2816679
A small layer of ash is good, seems to protect the cherry. But yes, i do turn the pipe upside down and let any loose ash fall out. I do this maybe once or twice, starting half way through the bowl.

>>2816651
Ah, I must have got lucky last time then. I'll guess I'll bide my time! Thanks for the reassurance.

>>2816660
I checked about 6 different websites, none of them had any of the blends in stock which is why I thought something might have happened to the company.

Just got and smoked my first briar after only smoking cobs and meerschaum, and I'm already worried about burning it. I have a couple jungle pipes made out of not briar, and I was never worried about burning those through but for some reason one smoke made me worried about the briar. Hopefully I'm just being paranoid.

>>2816749
Briar is extremely dense. More than any common hardwood. To "burn" it would take an open fire. Over time, a layer of carbon will form in the pipe's chamber, and the initial carbon will be a small amount of briar and tobacco. After that, the carbon insulates the tobacco from the chamber, and so it'll never get burned or damaged internally.

You've already seen this with cobs, which are extremely soft. If you've never been worried about cobs, I assure you, briar is on an order of magnitude significantly more tough.

>>2816752
I hope you're right (and you probably are). I looked up how to make pipe mud and I'm going to put some in the bottom and let it dry out before I smoke it again.

>>2816749
people can smoke the same pipe for decades, its nothing to worry about

>>2816749
Why not just slow smoke a nice plain virginia through it, after filling it right to the top? Up to you if you want to put a light coat of honey inside the bowl to help the ash stick.

Just build up a nice cake over the next few months, no worries.

Going to have some fun times innawoods.

Canada anon here. Are there ANY online retailers that decent shipping prices to canada? 4noggins charges 35 bucks american at the absolute minimum.

>>2816913
4nogs is my go to. I buy 16oz at a time, 2 pipe cleaners, and a pack of gum. Shipping is $35 like you said, and there's a 50/50 chance it gets through tax-free. I've also tried smoking pipes, but the tax seems even higher on it because its declared.

Honestly, I should just make a US friend who would be willing to send me tobacco and mark it as "Books" or some shit.

>>2816938
When was the last time you tried this?
I think I ordered a year ago and got hit with duties and checked online and others were saying they were even losing packages.
I ordered from them for years with no problem, at some point a year or 2 ago feds started cracking down. I heard its worse for cigars.

>>2798693
I heard about this. I have a few oz but wish I had more. I decided im not panic buying anymore so I just let it go.

>>2816968
The last package I received with no duty was in August of last year. I just placed an order a week ago, and it's about to get to the border. When it gets there, I'll let you know if I get slapped this time. For the record, I'm in central Ontario. I'm not sure if it differs elsewhere in the country.

I'm in montreal and i got hit for the first time i think a year ago, never for years before that. Many people were reporting same thing.

Someone suggest me a good blend to cellar.

>>2817048
Hh pure Virginia
Escudo
Elizabethan
Fillmore

>>2817048
Any straight Virginia or VA/Per will age beautifully. Burleys typically don’t age at all. Englishes are a bit weird because the Virginias and Orientals do age wonderfully, but the Latakia actually loses some flavor. But yeah, anything that is predominantly Virginia will age great.

>>2817234
>buy an ad
Jk. I’d shop at 4noggins all the time if I could, but my card suddenly stopped working with them for some reason a year ago. They don’t charge tax, shipping is free over $95, and their tins seem to be $1-$2 less than other sites. Maybe I’ll try buying from them again.

>>2817048
The best thing is to buy a lot of a cheap bulk blend that has an alright flavor fresh, like Luxury Navy Flake or Luxury Bullseye Flake, jar it up, let it sit for a couple years, and then enjoy the amazing flavor it gains. You get a super high quality tobacco for cheap.

>>2817048
>>2817181
>>2817349
Just get the 1lb bulk bags of C&D in any blend that seems appealing to you and stuff them into mason jars. The only risk of fomo is that Virginias will get "betterer" so make sure you have that covered before branching out. And just because something doesn't specifically improve with age doesn't mean it's not worth stockpiling.

>>2817382
>And just because something doesn't specifically improve with age doesn't mean it's not worth stockpiling.
This is true, too. Always stockpile your favorites. Recent events prove that stockpiling your favorites is the safe thing to do.

>>2817643
>Always stockpile your favorites
^^^ this
i keep samples in glass vials of what i liked the smell of
though, its not perfect, they'll change over time since its not a vacuumed or compressed state
at the very least i'll have something that i can smell years later & remember the moments i had with them
i also figure that if i'm old as fuck one day, i'll smoke them if i know when i'm gonna die, even if they're mouldy

I need some advice regarding the stem of my Spanu pipe.
I washed the stem in first fairy dishwashing liquid, then water, pipe cleaner and then using listerine mouthwash, pipe cleaner, then back into some water.
I noticed afterwards discolouration in the entrance of the tenon.
Did I ruin my stem?
Was there a better way to do this?

>>2817693
Is it vulcanite or acrylic? Either way you seem to be going pretty overboard, a pipe cleaner and maybe a little alcohol should be enough to clean your stem

>>2817693
why did you clean it so thoroughly?

>>2817705
The shop listing stated acrylic
Is 99% alcohol too strong?
I haven't used it but I already have some

>>2817710
I had a new third pipe that was second hand so I thought it would be fine to clean the other two stems at the same time.
I saw thespurgeonpiper used a mixture of alcohol and mouthwash so I thought the method I used would've been less abrasive on it.
I guess i won't be using the mouthwash on it anymore for deep cleans and just dishwashing soap

Are the stems fine?
From inhaling without the pipe they don't seem to taste thar much different
The pic shows the one with most discoloration

>>2817712
it sounds like the mouthwash could have done it, i doubt its ruined though
does the material come off easily? if it does, maybe give another wash with some soapy alcohol

>>2817693
I thought the standard way of deep cleaning pipes was
>salt and alcohol in the bowl, don't get any on the wood stain
>plug the air hole with qtip/saran wrap/pipe cleaner
>let it sit overnight

and for stems:
>small tub full of oxiclean mixture
>let it sit over night
>rub any residual residue off afterwards with a piece of mr. clean magic eraser
>maybe scrape it a bit with an exacto knife if anything remains, possibly needing sanding afterwards as well

I'm going to buy my first pipe soon.

>>2817753
Nice. A cob or something else? I still go back and smoke my one cob every once in a while, usually with an aromatic because I think they do well in a cob. Every time I do I'm surprised at how well it smokes for something that only cost $10.

it was pretty nice out today

>>2817749
Cheers anon, I will write that down

>>2817718
Never had the acrylic come off.
Is the potency of the alcohol important?
I have some 99% rubbing alcohol and I would like to know if I have to buy something akin to 50% or something

>>2817891
ChatGPT is telling me Deniclean, which is specifically sold for tobacco pipe cleaning, is probably isopropyl alcohol based.

>>2817891
>>2817897
apparently ethanol & menthol alcohols can discolor acrylic, but i don't know how true that actually is
i think there was probably just something used in the stem that reacted to the mouthwash
i had a container that i put mouthwash in a while back, and it got discolored & cloudy where the mouthwash touched

>>2817891
>99% rubbing alcohol
Back when I smoked pot out of acrylic bongs this is the stuff I'd use. Isoproply alcohol would make the acrylic crack

>>2817925
guess i won't be using rubbing alcohol in my stems then, thanks for the find
i used it once in my expensive pipe, but luckily it didn't seem to discolor it at all, not gonna try it again though

What polish do you anons use?
Do you change it based on material?

>>2817925
>>2817924
>>2817897
Thanks for the info anon

>>2817761
Nah, a classic one. But, I should buy a cob too.

It’s that time of year where I stop taking Claritin and Sudafed everyday. I always notice my nose and taste buds are way more effective when I’m not hopped up on allergy medication. It’s why the summer months are my favorite time to smoke my pipe and cigars.

Be it old or new, how are Kirsten pipes in your guy's experience?

>>2817929
I used to clean my pipe stems with pipe cleaners soaked full of a light vodka occasionally, then rub dry thereafter.
(Ebonite stems only)

grabbed some sir walter raleigh regular
it ended up having a pissy sour smell, but after a bit of a smoke it gone away and ended up tasting alright, i wouldn't smoke it inside though
after reading some reviews online, they seem to have completely changed their blend from what it used to be, as it would have been sweet & nutty previously
what happened?

>>2818551
Yeah, it tastes fine once I start to smoke it, but it smells like tobacco soaked in vinegar every time I open the can. It seems to be a relatively new characteristic, like from the past 5 years or so. Carter Hall is still may favorite codger blend, with Prince Albert right behind it.

>>2817693
Me personally?
Normally I just disconnect the stem and bowl and run a pipe cleaner through them both.
Wipe out any ashes with a dry paper towel.
Wipe the end of the stem on the towel also to remove any tarry buildup.
If I want to deep clean,
I tap out the ashes
Dip a pipe cleaner in whiskey. Whatever I have laying around works.
Tap it a couple times to get the drips off.
Run it through the stem.
Blow hard through the stem to dry and force any loose ashes away.
Run it around the mouth piece same deal.
Wipe the bowl end of the stem on a paper towel to wipe away the tarry buildup.
Dip the other clean end of the pipe cleaner in whiskey again and do the same process to the bowl.
Wet a paper towel with whiskey
Run it along the inside of the bowl, using a fresh section of towel each time until it more or less stops coming back blackened.
Make sure both pieces are dry.
Reassemble.
Smokes awesome afterwards.

>>2817693
I've heard obsidian oil helps for discolored/oxidized stems. I've never tried it myself, but it might be worth looking into.

I was kinda doing errands with a friend in a city that is an hour away from me, and while out I saw a tobacco shop so I stopped by. I wasn't really intending to buy anything, just stopping by to look, but I ended up buying some straight Perique and also some blend that he said he liked, which is some Latakia blend (he said there is also Perique in there but I can't taste it) and what appears to be some Black Cavendish in it but I'm not sure, and it's got a tiny bit of chocolate flavoring to it as well.

At the shop, it was called "Smoker's Delight" or maybe "Smoker's Den" or something like that. I don't really remember. Anyway, I like this blend more than I thought I would. Does anyone know what it might be, or any blends similar to it?

Alright, I got a cob pipe and some captain black.
Whats next?

>>2818992
Smoke it. I think CB Original goes really well with a black coffee.

>>2818992
take it slow, don't be afraid of relights, and very gently blow into the pipe as you smoke
if you start to get to the end & its getting hot yet not staying lit, just call it quits, the tobacco is probably wet & tarred; new pipes & tobacco will smoke like that at first
also try some packing methods as you start out; everyone likes to recommend the 3 step method, but its never really seemed to work out for me purposefully, it all about feel in the end

>>2819000
>very gently blow into the pipe as you smoke
From the stem or from above the bowl?
>black coffee
Cigarette and a coffee used to be my weekend breakfast so I do look forward to this

>>2819001
>From the stem or from above the bowl?
stem, with each draw you take, exhale gently after
you don't want to just be full of blowing really, just keeping an airflow so its not totally sitting there
it depends on how much its still smoking & how hot it is

This Captain Black stuff smells like a fig newton and I can stop sniffing it.

>>2819000
>and very gently blow into the pipe as you smoke
I mean no offense, but I kinda feel like this is a weird and possibly (for them) misleading thing to tell someone who has never smoked a pipe before

>>2819001
I believe the other anon is referring to what is typically called the "breath method" or smoking a pipe. In the "breath method", to put it very plainly, you basically just stick the pipe in your mouth, you do not purposely draw from the stem, and you just let your idle breathing pull smoking into your mouth, and if you do this, kinda naturally the smoke will also be pushed back out through the pipe (slowly, not to blow everything everywhere or upset the tobacco at all). Mechanically what is happening, and you can choose to smoke this way if you want, is that basically your tongue is acting as a diaphragm and is creating a vacuum that "smokes" the pipe for you without you needing to actually draw from the stem. You then very, very, very gently "massage" the smoke back out through the pipe, mouth closed, and you do this slowly, and this is the "breath method" or smoking. The benefits of it is that you probably wont really need to worry about relights until maybe the very end of the bowl, and also generally going this slowly allows you to taste the tobacco better.

You don't need to smoke that way though. Know that it is an option, and give it a shot, but smoke however you want to. You can just draw through the stem and smoke it normally if you want, and that's almost always what I personally do. With aromatics, I find that sipping softly and going slowly allows you to taste more of the flavor, but really just smoke how you want. Going really too fast (like cigarette fast) can end up burning out the pipe, so make sure the pipe isn't getting too hot, but I've never had an issue smoking just at the cadence that comes naturally to me. Sometimes I want it slow, and sometimes I just want to take big sips off it and that's fine too.

>>2819026
>misleading thing
yeah, i just wasn't describing it well at all
i remember when i started out, for whatever season i thought if you blew any air into the pipe at all, it would damage it, so for the longest time i'd always have my pipe going out no matter what i did
after applying the breathe method, it became very easy to use pipes

>>2818978
Probably just some house blend. Just stock up next time you're there if you like it. What was the name of the shop? Or what city is it in?

with the humidity, its becoming cob season

>>2819053
>Probably just some house blend.
I'd be surprised if it was, but for all I know it could be. The shop was like 90-95% cigars and the only thing pipe related was at the back of the shop, there were $8/oz bulk jars and some basket pipes. Didn't seem to have any tins. It was Tobacco Lane in Arlington.

Looking around, if it isn't just a house blend, it might be this Wilke Smoky Sweet Chocolate. Hard to say for sure, but looks about the same, and there's definitely Cavendish in the stuff I've got. Didn't even know Wilke existed, but I'll keep them in mind next time I want to order a bit.
https://www.wilkepipetobacco.com/product-page/wilke-smoky-sweet-chocolate

>>2818978
Some of the most popular English aromatics/Scottish blends are Shepherd’s Pie from The Country Squire, Northwoods from Boswell, and Countryside from Boswell. Shepherd’s Pie is the least aromatic and just tastes like a sweetened English blend. Northwoods is similar, except it’s sweeter and doesn’t have oriental, just Latakia, Virginia, and black cavendish. Countryside is a full blown English aromatic. These are all house blends that you can only get from their websites. I believe they’re all made using Sutliff tobacco, as most house blends typically are, including probably the one you tried. Unfortunately, seeing as Sutliff is now kaput, it might be hard to find the exact blend you tried. There is pic related as well, but I haven’t tried it yet.

>>2819268
Thanks for the list of possibilities. In my first post, I said that I couldn't taste the Perique, but in subsequent smokes I have been able to detect hints of it, so I do think there is Perique in there. Of my google searches and your recommendations, if it's not just a house blend, I think it's most likely to be Wilke Smoky Sweet Chocolate, as that has the Perique in there, has the Cavendish and the Latakia, and is straight chocolate without also being alcohol. I'd order some right now just to see, but due to shipping costs, it is actually cheaper for me to just drive back to the shop and pay their $8/oz than it is for me to order this to see if it's the same, so I'd "need" to wait for the next time I order a stash of tobacco in order to make it truly worth it, which probably wont be for another few months.

>>2819019
It has been about a week and a half now and the Captain Black that I originally said smelled like fig newtons now smells like a chocolate cake.

when i was a teenager i had a swag as fuck tobacco pipe. It was orange and white and made of some kind of glazed ceramic sort of material. I don't remember what the style/material was called, does anyone know? I think it had a foreign sounding name.

>>2820527
it was an antique and i think the inner lining of the bowl was meerschuam, but the style had a particular name. I think it was german or dutch or something.

>>2805011
if you take snuff properly then it doesn't really burn

>>2820529
Maybe a calabash?

How does gin pair with pipe tobacco? Total Wine messed up my order and gave me a free bottle of Sassenach Gin, and I don’t know what to use it for.

>>2820775
back when i used to drink, gin & cigarettes were a goto of mine, strangely enough, i don't remember really pairing gin with pipes
maybe use it as a cleaner/sweetener?

>>2805011
Tried this during a kambo ceremony when I was in LA. That shit gives you a fucking rush. I still think the kuripe is neat but it made me never want to do snuff again.

anyone have a Missouri Meerschaum Freehand? how is it?

A while back I made some "pipe mortar", I had put it on a cob & a small pipe.
Over time, I ended up not really smoking them, as I gained other pipes after. The mortar is now fully dry, and is easily damaged, crumbling at any fair touch.
I do not know if smoking them will do any good for the mortar, but from seeing other's posts from across the web which I've now found, I doubt it would help.
Its not all loss, as I can easily just replace the mortar with real pipe mud, it would be very easy to clean out.

I have, however, now tried another idea, which is to use plaster of paris & wood glue to make pipe mud.
I didn't follow the recipe I saw fully, just winged it, but its a $10 pipe, so whatever.

>>2821387
I did this a long time ago with honey and cigar ash and it held up fine. I smoked it, though not in years and its still good.
I wouldn't put wood glue in your pipe.

>>2821433
I used wood glue, as in Elmer's glue.
Its set hard right now, so it seems fine enough; I actually didn't even measure the plaster-water-glue ratio, shouldn't have done that, but still came out fine.

I also did another one on a Missouri Pride that I use, but just did a standard plaster mix with a little glue added in the water. I imagine it works the same as if you were to add eggwhite, as one may do with pipe mud.
I smoke the Missouri Pride one very frequently, so this time I'll actually test it, since the last ended up just getting set in my cabinet unsmoked for like a year.
If I were to do it again, I'd add a fine sand into the plaster, to increase it's porousness & allow any moisture during smoking to drain into it.

I'm not exactly worried if I damage the pipes since I can just buy some more from Missouri Meerschaum, and the ones I've been butchering were flawed when I got them originally too.
Plus, I've been meaning to get some stuff off their site, but spending only $10 feels wasteful with shipping.

Its not great practice & all, but I'd never do this sort of stuff normally, so its nice to test on something, else I never would to begin with.

>>2821451
Did a test with some samples, still no sand though.
I had a standard plaster of paris mix, and 2 mixes with elmer's glue, one in a 50/50 ratio of glue & water, and one with a 1 part glue to 10 parts water.
I let them cure for around a day, then cooked them in a convection oven in 30min intervals of 175f, 300f, and 400f, after which, I tested how strong they appeared to be.
The one without any glue was much weaker than the others, and the one with a 50/50 mix was the strongest; the 50/50 mix had an air bubble however, it wasn't too much stronger than the 1-10 mix either. This tells me its best to avoid a high glue mix, but still beneficial to have even a little glue.
They're now currently soaking in water, after 24 hours I'll test their strength again.

I am going to be doing some extensive testing later on, using a digital force gauge, and having samples kept for a year straight in certain conditions.

>>2821709
I checked on the samples after a few hours.
>The pure plaster of paris mix is mush after being submerged.
>The 1-10 is firm, but able to be scraped away.
>The 50/50 is firm, but somewhat gooey as a whole, and seems to have absorbed more water than the 1-10.
It appears that the 1 part glue to 10 parts water is the best ratio; its stronger & more resistant as a whole, while also being easier to work with.

I suspect that after the 24 hours is up, the 1-10 will still be somewhat firm, with the 50/50 being mush.

>>2821741
You might be interested in this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bq0mOVw8cuY

He uses:
>plaster of paris
>table salt
>activated charcoal
notably does not use glue, which I would personally be very hesitant to add to a surface that I am smoking from.
I've also seen somewhere, and I can't remember where right now, but someone else uses a mixture of the standard cigar ash, but they mix it with ash from burnt wood (as from a fireplace), because apparently there is something about the wood ash (and water?) that makes it harder. I don't quite remember.

>>2821743
That was the previous mix I tried, it ended up not working for me.
It stayed hard at first, but after some time, it became very easily scraped away. Cigar ash would be better than it imho.

My main impetus for using glue is off this guy's tests \/
https://rebornpipes.com/2024/04/21/experiments-with-pipe-mud/
https://rebornpipes.com/2024/09/04/fixing-the-unfixable/

I imagine it would act like egg whites, and give a sort of self repairing property to the plaster, with what micro fractures & cracks which would inevitably form over time.
Egg whites aren't exactly consistent in their chemical makeup however, unlike something such as a standard school glue, so the latter is more appealing to me as a recipe.
In my more "official" tests, I'm going to see how minimal an amount I can get the glue to be, while still being acceptably tough. Even a little glue seems to add quite a large amount of strength to the plaster.

On the topic of the dangers PVA glue could pose, what small amounts that could be burnt are simply not a danger.
The fact that as the tobacco will release water during a smoke, would lead to the glue always being wet, stopping the glue from ever achieving total combustion, as the water would need to burn off before the glue itself does; if you are somehow able to burn the glue, you're smoking your pipe wrong.
Additionally, the smoke from tobacco is already at over a scale of hundreds of times more dangerous, and the same can even be said of the material a pipe is made of anyway, yet we're still smoking none the less.

>>2821741
The 50/50 ended up not turning to mush, they're now almost identical; it less porous than the 1-10 & still has more water though.
1-10 wins then, testing concluded for now.

>>2821387
Mmm, a gum full of wood glue to save $10, for a thing that isn't necessary anyway. None of my pipes have that stuff in them and they are all fine smokers to this day.

>>2821751
>The fact that as the tobacco will release water during a smoke, would lead to the glue always being wet, stopping the glue from ever achieving total combustion, as the water would need to burn off before the glue itself does; if you are somehow able to burn the glue, you're smoking your pipe wrong.
This doesn't even consider the obvious fact that it getting hot at all might be enough to release all sorts of cancer upon you. Just because it's not burning doesn't mean it isn't off-gassing. You're actually smoking glue mate!

>>2822057
Do you know what Elmer's glue releases when it burns?

Even if glue is allegedly safe to inhale the fumes of, I personally would never even think about doing it. I'd sooner buy a new pipe if it came to that.

I only even have 1 no-name pipe where the bottom of the bowl was significantly lower than the draft hole, so I took some pipe ash mixed with some wood ash, added some water to get it into a paste, and then plastered it on the bottom to make the bottom of the bowl even with the draft hole and I've had no issues with it ever.

>>2822113
why did you put pipe mud in the bowl, when you said you'd rather buy a new one?

>>2822156
>when you said you'd rather buy a new one?
If I ever reached the point where I felt that I needed to put glue into something that I'm lighting with fire and inhaling fumes from, I'd rather just buy a new pipe.

>>2822164
then don't buy anything from missouri meerschaum lol

>>2822166
Okay.

around 40 virginia plants waiting to be planted
i dont even smoke all that much these days but i like growing them all the same, nice gifts if anything

>>2822177
man, thats beautiful
i bet it smells amazing

>>2822166
I'm sure after 150 years they have figured out how to use proper materials. I bet even in 1875 people thought putting wood glue in a pipe was odd.

>>2822180
Besides the fact that in 1875, people were huffing aresnic & doing yogurt enemas, I think worrying about glue on a pipe is a bit silly.
When PVA glue breaks down, besides water, it releases acetic acid, i.e., what makes vinegar, vinegar. The other chemicals it releases are aromatic hydrocarbons which already come from the combustion of tobacco & the pipe's walls themselves.

How this is somehow an issue to you people is quite confusing to me, not only is the material already being used in the first place, the material itself is even safer than the very thing we're all enjoying.
We might as well be discussing the dangers of when tobacco burns, it release large amounts of dihydrogen monoxide, a chemical that kills over 300,000 people every year.

>>2822178
i admit it does taste and smell pretty good depending on how much work you bother to put into it
i must have around 4 liters of the dried stuff stashed away, varied quality
maybe this year ill try rolling the leaves into cigars just for the fun of it

>>2822184
Damn I stand corrected about that. Now cobs don't seem as sweet.

>>2822270
I don't really know if it matters to this glue conversation, but MM only uses glue to adhere the shank to the bowl. That guy seems to be talking about putting glue directly into his pipe bowl as a coating.

>>2822298
The glue would just be used as a binder in a mix of plaster of paris & sand, with the glue being only 1/20th of the plaster (plus an equal amount of sand, so its more like 1/40th as a whole) on the current mix I've been testing; the plaster would be used in turn of pipe mud.
t. glue guy

>>2822177
Whats it like growing tobacco? I used to grow a couple weed plants and that was trivial to take care of. I'm under the impression that tobacco should be roughly equivalent in difficulty.

>>2822365
Not that anon, but I grew some last year. Growing is easy. Drying/curing/fermentation can be more of a hassle. Overall, making a low/medium quality product is fairly easy. Making a good/premium quality one i find takes quite a bit of experience and patience, which I don't yet have. My tobacco is decent for RYO and I made some tolerable cigars. High quality pipe tobacco is a whole other story, I haven't made anything even comparable to that. Then again I made mine with little to no equipment, and it has less than a year of aging.

>>2822618
Interesting, I'll be looking into it, thanks for the insight. This'll be a fun project.
>Drying/curing
This is gonna be easy for me
>Fermentation
This is where I'm gonna have to do a deeper dive though

got a new pipe, a Fe.ro vest pocket
they actually got my order wrong, since i wanted a smooth one, not a sandblasted one; i don't mind though, its a good smoker (and i didn't have a sandblasted pipe yet anyway)
its small, so none of my tampers fit it, but i got a regular nail i use, so it works out fine; i'll be getting a new tamper though, i need one for my other pipes
it has a mini savinelli style cooling chamber too which works well, and since the bowl's chamber has a high taper, the tobacco smokes very cleanly
i also like how it came with a nice bag, and even a made in czech pipe tool, that was kind of them to give

My 50s Dr. Grabow gets too hot to hold by the bowl while smoking. Is this down to user error?

>>2822704
are you experienced in smoking a pipe?
if not, yes

>>2822706
I'm mainly a cigar smoker, but have a few pipes. My Butz-Choquin doesn't heat up as badly, and I notice the Dr. G has thinner wood. I just wanna rule out user error. The tobacco I smoke is pretty dry but not too tightly packed.

>>2822707
its probably a mix of experience, the pipe being thin walled & old, and the tobacco being dry
the thin walls & old dry wood make it heat up quick, and the dry tobacco burns well, so its hard to easily keep cool
next time smoking, if it gets hot, just wait for it to cool down, then start smoking again

>>2822680
PRETTY COOL

>>2797205 (OP)
Just tried Samuel Gawith's Chocolate Flake. I absolutely loved Bob's Chocolate Flake but have a hard time getting a hold of it in any real quantity. Crossed my fingers and bought 8oz of CF. They are definitely not the same flake, but they're brothers for sure. A touch less of the Lakeland hint than BCF. I also think the Latakia is different, either in leaf or in proportion. The extremely subtle chocolate casing is more on the bittersweet end than Bob's. I get this flavor more in the aftertaste/mouthfeel than the smoke itself. I've heard that the base flake is FVF, but not sure if that's true. Either way, I'm a big fan.
Still probably prefer Bob's, but this will fill in nicely until I can buy a couple lbs of that.

>>2822365
>>2822618
as anon said growing is the easy part
what ive done is pile the ripe leaves into around 15cm piles and moist them and then press them down for 2 weeks between few pieces of plywood in a warm place
if everything goes right you should be left with this solid gooy black brick that smells really nice

>>2824261
final step is just cutting said bricks into thin slices of your preferred size

>>2824261
Looks good. You piled them up right after taking them from the stalk? No color curing first or anything? How ripe were they? Completely yellow/brown, or some green? I'm surprised it didn't mold since they contain a lot of moisture, especially the stem.
I piled mine on a table, turning the whole stack over once a day to create some airflow. Put it inside a towel if it got too dry. Even checking and turning daily, i still had some mold issues.

>>2824262
And how does it taste after 2 weeks? From what I've read tobacco needs a minimum of 6 months to a year of natural fermentation to make it smoke well. That is, if you're not speiding up the process with a kiln or similar method.

>>2824262
I suppose i do see the ends have cured somewhat green. Still, considering how little effort this takes compared to turning a pile leaf by leaf every day for weeks, i am impressed with the result. Think I'll try hanging them up this year, but maybe I'll get a couple clamps and try pressing as well. Thanks for sharing

>>2824261
>>2824262
Looks good. You piled them up right after taking them from the stalk? No color curing first or anything? How ripe were they? Completely yellow/brown, or some green? I'm surprised it didn't mold since they contain a lot of moisture, especially the stem.
I piled mine on a table, turning the whole stack over once a day to create some airflow. Put it inside a towel if it got too dry. Even checking and turning daily, i still had some mold issues.
And how does it taste after 2 weeks? From what I've read tobacco needs a minimum of 6 months to a year of natural fermentation to make it smoke well. That is, if you're not speeding up the process with a kiln or similar method.

>>2824262
I suppose i do see the ends have cured somewhat green. Still, considering how little effort this takes compared to turning a pile leaf by leaf every day for weeks, i am impressed with the result. Think I'll try hanging them up this year, but maybe I'll get a couple clamps and try pressing as well. Thanks for sharing

>>2824285
>>2824286
i did the turning over thing first year i grew but it was so tedious that next time i just pressed them not caring if it fails and it worked out great so now i just do that
good luck anon lets hope we get good crop this year

how does this look as a guide for what to get to smoke a pipe? i based it off OP

>>2824407
I get that Captain Black gets recommended frequently because it's an aromatic and available basically anywhere, but any noob that tries to smoke that shit is going to steam their tongue to a nice medium rare. Most people are going to mail order anyway these days, so why not recommend something a little more forgiving?

>>2824453
The stuff online is so varied though.

When I started out back in 2019, I didn't buy any tobacco online for a few years since I didn't really know what to get.
And then when I did finally buy some, I absolutely hated the taste (sweet & smooth my ass, that stuff tasted like burning tires), which made me pretty hesitant to buy anything for a while.
Each company also likes to carry their own blends, so saying get "Special Smoker 94-C 25", doesn't really appeal to newbies.

Plus, they're gonna be burning their tongue anyway, so they might as well learn how to smoke off that to start, then everything else will be easy.

>>2824407
>>2824453
I think the graphic looks good, but I also don't really get the Captain Black recommendation. It's... alright, and I think it's wonderful with a black coffee, but I don't think it's really that good overall. I think it really is just because it's available everywhere. Walgreens and CVS and gas stations and stuff and even Walmart don't carry any tobacco products anymore, at least not here they don't. I went on a reconnaissance mission a while back going to every grocery store and drug store in my area, and the only one that had anything was a Kroger and all they had was Captain Black, which was hidden behind the cigarette case's dividing bar in such a way that the workers didn't even know they carried it. No other pipe tobacco anywhere.

Which I suppose raises the question: if a person is looking to get into pipe smoking and does not have a brick and mortar pipe shop near them, how are they even acquiring a corncob pipe in the first place unless they're already ordering online? And if they do have a brick and mortar where they are able to acquire a corncob pipe, why not just ask the guys at the counter for a recommendation of a bulk house blend or something? You can even stick your nose in the jars and see which one you think you might like.

>>2824460
>how are they even acquiring a corncob pipe in the first place
every smoke shop i got to has cobs, shit quality, but still
even vape places too, since they'll carry weed stuff, my first cob was actually from a vape store

>>2824407
>>2824453
>>2824459
>>2824460
I don't know if you can buy it in not gigantic quantities but I'd recommend Carter Hall for beginners. It's extremely easy to keep lit and of a reasonable quality, and crucially, easy to find.

>>2825044
I haven't smoked Carter Hall in a long time. The grocery store near me used to sell it in pouches (not sure if they still do) but I'm pretty sure the websites that carry it only have it in tubs.

>>2825510
I've seen it sold in a pouch on either Smokingpipes or Pipesandcigars, but I've never actually seen it in stock in a pouch. Last time I checked, I think the pouch option was completely removed.

The Carter Hall MATCH that they sell is pretty decent though, and cheap. It's like 2.50$ per oz.

>>2825517
I might have to try the match. CH used to be my go-to back in the day, until I started finding it a little too cigarette-y..

mushrooms are funny

Have any of you restored a pipe before?
If you have, some tips would be nice to hear.

>>2798693
I'm going to miss their Balkan Sobranie clone (as well as White Knight) and HH Old Dark Fired the most. All I have left to remember them by are a couple ounces of Balkan S and some of Mac Baren's HH Rustica.

>>2826144
Beyond cleaning stem oxidisation and sanitizing, I'd leave the patina to the wood. Fine grit sandpaper or a toothbrush and baking soda for the stem, followed by obsidian oil. Some people recommend olive oil but I've had it strip stain from a bowl.

When were you guys gonna tell me about this? It's fucking great and I'm probably going to order a pound of it now.

>>2826383
If it's ghosted you can pack the bowl with kosher salt and some high proof liquor - everclear works best but bourbon or vodka are good too - don't flood the bowl, just use enough to soak the salt and leave it overnight. Also be careful not to get the liquor on the finish, use a dropper or straw to put it in.

>>2826383
Thanks.
The "patina" isn't really patina, just a bunch of dirt & mottled coat, the camera doesn't really show it however (very obvious irl though).
A brush seems to be the way to go for both the bowl & stem. I'll get some stem & bowl polish for it.
>>2826501
I heard that was actually pretty bad, no so much the alcohol, but the salt, on account of the salt entering the woodgrain then swelling with each smoke. Its been done plenty of course, but still.
If its ghostted, I'll just ream the bowl a bit, then smoke some aromatics in it while intermittently washing it with everclear.

>>2826501
Try some C&D Exclusive as well. It's my favorite VaPer.

i've just bought a MM Diplomat off amazon using bing rewards, thanks for the "free" pipe, microsoft

>>2826589
That looks great, thanks for the rec, definitely going on the next order.

>>2797205 (OP)
So bummed that the hot weather makes it real hard to enjoy my pipe, which has become my daily habit to unwind after work. I work in a factory that is 100°+ inside all day long.
Unironically thinking of dropping a few thousand $ on a small shed with AC just as my smoking area. Maybe a little wood stove for cozy winter smokes

>>2797205 (OP)
I've been trying to get into pipe smoking recently and my God this hobby is dead here!! I'm not sure if it's all of Europe or just my country since we're a nation of cigarette smokers, but you can't find one place that sells pipes or tobacco in person. Everything has to be ordered online.

>>2826860
Pretty much the same in the US.
The only places I've found pipes for sale (that wasn't also for weed) was a cigar shop that had some from an old guy who restores pipes, a smoke shop owned by an old couple, and another tobacco & pipe shop thats family owned.
All of which are near me, and the only reason these shops are here is because this area is a famous growing zone for tobacco, elsewhere else seems to be pretty devoid.
The only other places I've found pipes is antique stores, but they're usually pretty ratty looking.

Online though, I've seen a lot of euros who like pipes or at least don't mind them.
In the US, if it has anything to do with smoking, you get treated like you're advocating for child sacrifice or some shit.
The scare tactics really affected people here, even insinuating that pipe tobacco can smell good, and not like the cheapest cigarette around, is a preposterous idea that only someone who's clinically insane would believe.

>>2826860
I'm lucky, and there is a cigar and pipe shop about 30 minutes from me. There is nothing else though. There are multiple cigar shops, but they sell weed and vape paraphernalia rather than pipes or tobacco.

What sucks is that I still prefer to order online. I'd like to prefer to go to that shop, but it's so much more expensive than ordering online, and it's out of the way. I still go occasionally if I'm in the area, but I can buy 3 tins and pay for the shipping online, or I can buy 2 tins irl for the same price and drive 1 hour total to get it.

>>2826864
>The scare tactics really affected people here
Like r*ddit making r/pipetobacco NSFW while doing nothing about multiple subreddits that promote hard drug usage.

>>2826864
>In the US, if it has anything to do with smoking, you get treated like you're advocating for child sacrifice or some shit
Same here in the EU, our politicians decided to discourage smoking in the late 2000s by forcing companies to put pictures of gore and tumors and disfigured cancerous people on cigarette packs. Naturally this made them 2-3x more expansive, also you pretty much have to buy a cigarette case if you don't want to see something grotesque every time you put the pack on a table.

If our politicians weren't such hypocritical pieces of shit, restaurants would have framed pictures on the walls of morbidly obese naked women to discourage people from overeating.

>>2826933
>smoking causes blindness
of all the things i've heard, that hasn't been one of them lmao
at that point it just sounds ridiculous, might as well say it causes your ears to fall off

>>2826937
Everything bad under the sun from blindness to your dick not working. A decade ago I've looked into the raw stats without the media spin, iirc it was 1 in 17 women and 1 in 15 men develop lung or throat cancer from cigarettes specifically. That's basically it, also there was no evidence that secondhand smoke does anything to a grown adult. As for cigars, they're dozens of times safer since you're not inhaling directly but they could still cause throat cancer. The same is probably true of pipe smoking if you don't inhale.

>>2826942
1 in 17/15 are honestly some pretty good odds, but i wonder how much thats skewed by people who quit smoking & those who continued? could either be much lower or much higher then; same for those who are infrequent smokers
i also wonder what that rate is compared to other things we do, like eating highly processed foods or working around plastics that off-gas heavily

>>2826944
Those odds were for daily smokers, but that's not saying much since it could be people who smoke a pack a day or ritualistic smokers who only smoke 1-3 cigarettes max.

I'm glad I used a filter on this one's first smoke lol.
Its also the only MM I've had that seemed to actually properly char on the stem's draft hole, my others never really did that, I think thats just because my experience over time though.
On this one I did a way better job of keeping the tobacco lit, since I use hemp wick now, and I've been keeping the tobacco in a traditional jar, so its much drier than it normally would be.

New thread
>>2827097
>>2827097
>>2827097

Just made an offering to The Lord George Washington. I burnt pipe tobacco soaked in high-rye whiskey. Happy 4th!