I’ve taken up the pipe.
It’s been an interesting journey. I had no idea…
I started it as a way to extend my campfire-like moments.
The rituals, tools, smells and sensations of campfire building and the relaxation such moments bring were something I wanted to extend.
We bought a tiny lot of land up north near the Pere Marquette river. About then I read about the idea of a coffee fire, a tiny campfire made not really for food but just to make water for coffee. I’d go up and work on clearing the land, then go to town for a beer and a chat, then come back and sleep along the river with a good book and our dog and a nip of warming whisky. In the morning I’d make a tiny coffee fire and have a granola breakfast then get back to sawing. I found myself compelled to buy a tiny hatchet to help make these fires. A kindling hatchet, the tiniest, a pricey 10″ Granfors Bruks. That and a nice knife helped make my campfires and my campfire meals into really lovely moments.
The situation just begged for one more step. A pipe!
Then there’s the postprandial aspect: I occasionally enjoy an aide to digestion—an excuse for sitting around a bit after a meal, doing something to help things settle down and carry on in a more reflective mood.
One of my favorite uncles often had a corncob pipe. All my uncles are storytellers. Those on my dad’s side are a bit brash. But this uncle was a bit more twinkly. He’d sit back with a chuckle and his pipe. Was a bit more content to be quiet and listen. Of course it wasn’t that hard to get him relating something of vital relevance, such as explaining a better rig for trapping muskrats (as I recall).
Then there’s the English ruminator angle. The Inklings lead the way here, for me. Lewis, Tolkien, Williams and THEIR role model, McDonald. www.mythsoc.org/inklings.html What’s more, Phooka plays a role. Yes, the Journal of the Overland Mallet Club. (“Founded in 1891, the OMC sought out members who shared three very distinct interests: overland croquet, hard liquor, and the natural history of the Fairy Kingdom. Overland croquet is an odd combination of the traditional game and other sporting endeavors like polo, rugby, and small game hunting.” www.wonderella.org/pamphlets/phooka.htm). Can’t leave out humorist Stephen Potter and his Lifesmanship, www.heretical.com/potter/chess.html. And you gotta know that literary heroes of all kinds knew the pipe. Native Americans, too, of course—they’re in my roots, as well. The peace pipe. The wacky tobacky. But let’s get back on track: there’s Rivendell’s revival of gentlemanly cycling, helping remind me of the marriage of cycling and conviviality. (Sure, it’s always been the heart of cycling lore, or any lore, but reminders are in order. Especially as regards aerobic activities, which tend to veer off into gung-ho so easily!) Why, I’m almost a bag-matcher at this point. Riv put canvas, leather and wool back into biking. I’m just taking it a step further. And taking it off the bike, too. Bill Mason’s “Waterwalker” movie also had an impact, showing me the slow art of bold canoeing all over again. My study of voyageur extremes and the stylishness of Indians also helps. There’s pipesmoke everywhere out there.
I’ve enjoyed a cigarette or cigar as an aide to digestion or accent to strong drink. But the occasional cigar I bought usually just got stale in the frig, and once started couldn’t be re-started. Still, a good cigar was really nice after dinner, with friends and an armagnac, out on the back porch, a couple times a year.
Last year I rode my bike for a few days alongside the DALMAC tourists as they pedaled from Lansing to Mackinaw. I carried all my stuff and camped on my own some of the time. I was looking to both check out the tour and get some time alone. So I bought a little corncob pipe and tobacky pouch and brought them along (very light weight), along with a perforated soup can I’d use as a twig stove for making jiffy coffee fires…and a filter and some coffee (also very light). None of these things are essential, but along with a paperback and notepad, would help me really savor my time on my own. Maybe someday I’ll reach the peak of reality and be able to enjoy just sitting and doing nothing, but for now…
The pipe was very nice. As was the twig stove and camp coffee and riverbank.
I bought my little tobacco pouch from the local, renowned and utterly relaxed Campbell’s Smoke Shop. It’s “Blend 17” and it won me over from the start. It was $2.50 and lasted a couple months.
I then put up a blurb at the OYB site announcing my intention to revive tweed, especially as outdoor apparel.
A few days later I got an email from a reader saying that he had an extra Dunhill Rhodesian “second” and would I care to have it and if so would I send him a pic with it, on a bike, when I got my tweed act together. Now that will be a sight!
Thus began the second, more exotic, phase of my journey into pipes.
I googled what a Dunhill Rhodesian even was. A pipe! The world’s best, in fact. Pricey even. Said to be far, far better than a corncob. I was curious. How could a pipe be better? It’s just a little holder for tobacco.
This quest for info sent me off on a trip of discovery. I learned what briar was (the stem-cluster bulb of a Mediterranean shrub, cured for years as “ebauchons” before making pipes…very heat resistant and moisture absorbent).
So I emailed back and said, Sure, I’ll put your idle pipe to good use and see what happens…and include it for sure in my upcoming tweedification.
But I couldn’t stop my quest. I found a couple veritable dens of pipe-chat. My benefactor had said to be sure to break in the pipe properly and classicly and to not listen to quackery. So I searched for such info in the chat-rooms. And found that I needed to build a cake to keep my briar from burning through and to impart essential flavors. Ah, a cake. –No thicker than a nickel, no thinner than a dime. (I wondered: a buffalo-head nickel and a mercury dime, perhaps?) I learned how to do this cake building. (And, please, don’t mix your cakes.)
In my wandering I found the following Forums:
groups.google.com/group/alt.smokers.pipes — a great place
christianpipesmokers.org (An interesting blend here. Rumination is as rumination does.)
forum.pipes.org (Note: This forum is a great resource, but it’s not a forum in the usual sense. It’s highly filtered by a cranky guy. Posters are cautioned!)
I saw where someone once asked their grampa if his expensive pipe was worth what it cost. “Why, no, of course not,” he said. “Unless you ever smoke it.”
I realized some things about pipes. They are crafted wood objects. Well, mixed-media objects. They’re part of a useful art, like knives. Only their purpose is to help people while away time. To savor time. There’s a cadre of artisans out there making pipes. And smokers who support them. There are varying views and ranges. It goes from cheapies to “lots of bang for your buck” ($15) to those who are into DIY and making their own to restoring used old “estate” pipes found at garage sales to value-packed handmades ($50) to over the top glamor ($500) to wild concept art. Man, the whole range of art and craft and lore and appreciation is available here, in this one subject. Just like it’s available in so many others.
Only this subject has to do with smell, flavor and fire.
It’s all about tobacco, too, a plant. All the imaginative names. From the tobacco types—Cavendish, Latakia, Virginia, Burley, Perique. To the blends, such as Blue Winged Teal, Quintessence, Frog Morton, Bombay Court, Kingfisher by Esoterica, Old Ironsides, Mephisto, Haddo’s Delight, “And so to Bed.” Whew! They’re well past booze names. Then there’s all the lore. It’s boggling. Yet totally accessible, breezy even.
It’s about conviviality itself, in a way. So that it seems like the online pipe dens are most pleasant places of sharing and perspective. I now better appreciate the uber-restrained style of my local smoke shop, too.
Interesting…
Then my new pipe arrived.
It’s a lovely thing. Smooth and nicely grained. With a crisp, clean meeting of materials between pipe and stem.
I gave it a try with a fresh pouch of Chateau #17 (a Lane’s Blend).
Amazing.
[UPDATE, 3/08: Since I first started puffing I’ve found I do it once a day or week or month, depending on the season. It fits into some occasions but not others. For instance, after a ski outing, I might puff a bowl on the drive home, with window cracked. I find I usually can’t do it when I’m working in my shop. You’d think pipes would fit with a workshop but when I’m flitting here and there it doesn’t work. Maybe a long sanding project would work. Anyway, I’ve also tested over a dozen weeds. The differences have been great fun to explore. I found a couple amazing standouts. Then I asked at the forums what else I might like if I like X and Y and got the hot tip there, too. But nothing has compared to the 2 “big hits.” I’ve come to love the strongest possible English blend. There are 2 world-famous options here: Penzance and Dunhill 965. I tried em. But our local shop, Campbell’s still wins hands-down with their Full English, at much less than half the price! It’s like $3/oz. Call 517-332-4269 for a good time. No website, just a red door. Tell em I sent ya. The aromatic has its role as the opposite of the English. And it prefers my big freehand pipe! (Which the English hates! It’s obvious, and I’m not even a real buff.) Again, there was a clear standout for me: the Black and Tan from Maison Edwards in the old Nickel’s Arcade in Ann Arbor, barebones site at www.maisonedwards.com, but it does have some nice photos, better to call: 800 662-4145. The B&T has a really nice “room note,” too. Oh: store weed in mason jars. Anything else means tasteless smoke in a week. Yikes! I’ve gotten word that there’s a pipe club in both Lansing and Ann Arbor. And another sweet old shop in Flint, Paul’s. Whoa, he’s like 90+ years old, 79 years in biz. Paul is 6-time world pipe champion! Gotta visit… Still lots to learn, I know!]
[UPDATE 3/09 — I attended my first Pipe Club get-together and found out that my Dunhill probably isn’t. Oh well, it still puffs nice! Makes me wonder how anything could be better. Hmm, it might be nice to find out someday… : ) I also found out that my CHP-X freehand might’ve been made by Chuck Hollyday, the first US freehand pipemaker, who lived in Traverse City! Cool! Here’s a couple sites with info: www.pipes.org/FORMATTED/202.html, https://pipelore.net/index.php?id=66]
JP’s new pipe.
There really is a difference. It burned far better and the smoke did more curling up and around. The bigger bowl liberated more smells.
I even tried the Franke Method of bowl-filling, developed for competition. (You massage the tobacco into the bowl.)
Well, well!
Hmmm!
…I was already ruminating with the best of them.
(What would really be bad, a friend said, is if I started pontificating. …I don’t already?)
By the way, here are links to the best online info I’ve found so far…
*Classic posts about pipes: www.aspipes.org/posts/posts.html
*A helpful pipe-ish fellow: members.bellatlantic.net/~vze43wza/
*A few wonderful articles: www.glpease.com/Articles/WISP.html
*Shapes depiction and explanation: www.glpease.com/Pipes/Shapes/index.html
*The main FAQ: www.aspipes.org/faq/faq/official.html
*High value handmade pipes: www.boswellpipes.com/Pipesforsale/Page%202/Sale%20Pipes.html
*Swanky elite pipes: www.savinelliusa.com/models.htm
*A nifty shop: www.cupojoes.com
*And another: affordablepipes.com
*To make your own: www.pimopipecraft.com/index.html
Then I realized that not only is pipe smoking about fire and smell. It’s about perfume.
A swanky pipe-rest for swanky pipes. Finding this image was a bit of an eye-opener.
I kept my kit in my OYB manpurse. After a short while the bag started smelling like lovely #17. I realized that I like the smell of the raw tobacco as much as I liked smoking it. It was just nice to have around. I’ve never been into perfume or cologne. I suppose that there, too, is an arts-craft that stretches out to the whole range of sensation and lore. But I’ve greatly enjoyed having this new smell around. To me, it’s a portable smell of a campfire, of a forest.
Man, what a loss when I have a nose-cold! No smoking then. It’s useless. But when my cold clears up, all the smells come back, both raw and in smoke.
I eventually realized that if I accidentally inhaled a puff of smoke I would choke, but if I *sniffed* a bit of smoke, that was great! Now we’re talking aroma! And, amazingly enough, some tobaccos are good in different ways—some smell best unsmoked, some feel good in the mouth and some are great to sniff. I suppose this isn’t surprising—but when you first realize it, it’s a nice surprise indeed.
Maybe incense is a better descriptor.
I’ve ended up buying, ahem, a lunchbag full of little $3 baggies of tobacky. All different. Some pretty darn nice!
I enjoy blowing smoke rings. What a nice shape. The kids like it, too. (We’re reading the Hobbit right now.) I can also gently puff rings out of the end of the pipe. Fun!
A Calabash, from Jim’s collection of estate pipes for sale. Made from a gourd. Needs a stand. A pipe stand, what a neat idea…
FYI, here’s Jim from Jim’s Cigar and Pipe Page:
Oh yeah!
Now, for those who disaver due to the health question, I suggest that as with everything in our modern society that we’ve been significantly lied to, and not only by one side. Since when is our world, or is virtue, one-sided? Is virtue simplistic? Or binary? Ha.
At any rate, if one googles a bit one finds that the risk for occasional pipe smoking is…negligible. Not measurable. Offering no traction for exploitation by any side. Offering mostly only lore and culture and conviviality. The only exception being the “slippery slope.” Well, if I haven’t found addictions by now…should I start FEARING them? Living life by FEAR? Gimme a break. (Jim’s Page offers an interesting PDF exploring society’s currently demonizing and reverse-exploitive approach to smoking danger: “In Defense of Smoking.”)
I find that I smoke about a thimbleful of tobacco in a sitting. And I have a puff probably every other day. My main thing, after smoking a year now—actually, I would call it “puffing” instead of smoking—is that I’d like to find a pipe with a small bowl. I’ve ended up tossing a few good bowlsful as I try this and that. Often a sitting, for me—but I suppose I’m a fast-moving person—will end up only burning about a quarter-inch of the top of the tobacco. It’s truly a “less is more” kind of world, in ways. Unless you go whole hog, I suppose.
I’ve had interesting reactions to the pipe. I don’t know anyone, in person, who smokes one. I’ve had a couple fear responses, including the outlandish. But I’ve been surprised and pleased, in today’s climate, that most people have said they like the smell of the smoke and think it’s a neat thing.
Because I’m in a learning, tasting situation—I find that I’ll have a few puffs of several types of tobacco in a sitting. Wasteful with a big bowl. —And a bit hot if only a little is loaded. I suppose this is why people end up with several dedicated pipes. Or one reason anyway.
I had an experience with Medium English when I took a walk with Boy Henry. I got a bit dizzy and nauseous. I must’ve inhaled some or just smoked too fast. Pipe *puffing* is a slow thing. You can’t go too slow, in fact. Sound like addiction to you? Sometimes just a couple puffs is just enough. Less is more. It took me awhile but now I’ve decided that Full English is about my favorite blend. And my old faithful, Chateau #17, is a bit, um, simplistic. Oh-oh! Old Onyx #11 is sweet like #17—but is steam-pressed (whatever that is—it’s dark and moist) and its smoke smells like raisins. That seems good, more character. Anyway, I’m finding that I like both the sweeties and the fiesties. The mild in-betweens less so.
I discovered that pipers (and cigar buffs) are also into aging, like wine buffs. I haven’t tried any such yet, but it looks as though any good tinned tobacco over a year old will have some age benefits. But several years seems better. The buffs will go on quite a bit when they get ahold of good 40 year old weed. They get all excited when they find an old tin. They bid hard for them on ebay, too, doncha know. (I’ve read that cigar buffs like to let their smokes rest a few months, I think, after getting them in the mail. And cigars definitely have to be aged like 6 months or they’re green. You should see them go on about pre-Castro treasure-troves. “But provenance is so hard to determine!” they moan. Ah, the rough life of the buffs.) Still, I found an old tin myself, neglected on a store shelf, so we’ll see! (Even some tobacco shops these days, what with the passing of the old generation, don’t realize that aging enhances value. They sometimes even mark it down.)
I notice that some people complain about not being able to keep a pipe lit. I noticed that a bit, too—until I read about the proper way to light a pipe. (Man, there’s lore coming out the seams with pipes.) You need to get a bed of coals going, is the trick. So, you light up, puff a bit, let it die out and tamp down. Do that maybe a couple times til you get a little fine ash on the top of the tobacco, then re-light and it’ll stoke along nicely, like a banked campfire. Of course, puffing being a slow thing, relighting is encouraged. Let it sit, they say. Who cares if it goes out, that’s what lighters and matches are for! Put it down! Take your time! (It’s a different scene, I tell ya.)
A churchwarden, for cool, cool smoke.
I’ve noticed that while I live at a relaxed pace, my pace is nonetheless a pace and that I tend to keep moving. I only rarely have a moment for a pipe. I don’t feel bad about this, but I do notice it. Sometimes weeks go by. I do always enjoy the aroma from the manbag.
I’ve also learned about DGT. Delayed Gratification Technique. Unlike other smokes, with a pipe you can start a bowl and set it aside. With some tobaccos the next-day’s smoke is even better. Things happen with time, don’t they.
Do you know why pipers (?) have a rack of pipes? Because pipes have to be rested. Ideally 2 days, but many prefer up to 5 days. A briar needs to dry out. So that 5 pipes makes a nice set. Or perhaps 7.
Did you know that a pipe for walking has a little lid flap?
Billiards, a la Bing. (photo courtesy G. L. Pease)
I can see myself with a few. Martha has added pipes to her list of things to keep an eye out for at garage sales. Say, a cob, a bulldog (my bent DR), a churchwarden (long), a billiard (straight, short) and a Calabash (imputed to Sherlock, made of a gourd). Delightful shapes, one and all. Yeah, another thing to collect and to take care of. But I won’t go TOO far. Having a few of these delights around might be kinda neat.
Update: if you just occasionally smoke and if you enjoy a variety of nifty tobacco flavors, you’re going to want to store your weed in little mason jars. I found out the hard way that the baggies and tins that tobacco comes in don’t keep it well. A few weeks then it’s stale. Sad. Also, there’s a role for a little $1 metal soaker disk thingy to keep your “carry with” packs moist. I guess a lot of flavor is in the moisture in weed. When it dries out—thru the baggy—the flavor is gone. You should also double- or triple-bag in thick little baggies. No waste!
