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So you talked me into it

brandaves

With a great avatar comes great misidentification
I guess I'm not getting a G&T out of that one.

I remember when you were just getting into it. Boy, when you get into it, you go all the way in. Look at all those pipes and tins!

Good to see it. Enjoy.
You aren't wrong...I tend to jump into things if I enjoy them. The pipe has become a trusted friend. I appreciate your advice which helped me along the path. I try to pay it forward as best I can and help others along.
 
You've certainly been a huge help for me!

And most of the alcohol in the house now is Mrs. Rookie's. It's generally a much better thing if I don't drink. Drinking invites my skeletons out to play. So I smoke and she drinks. It actually works out well because, for the most part, we stay out of each other's stash.
 
So my ride home today I was greeted by 2 separate but connected epiphanies. I was thinking about fire and mindlessly smoking my pipe. For fire to burn, or smolder, it needs air and fuel.

Packing provides the air. Pack it loose so when you draw, you have enough air flowing to stoke it. Too tight and the ember chokes. Too loose and I can tamp it right.

Tamping was the other epiphany. Fire wants to burn up always. Things don't burn down. They burn up then fall down. We want our ember burning down though. Tamp the ember just enough to catch the ribbons is resting on. And they'll start smoldering too. Repeat until you get to wood.

I felt really dense that it took me this long to come to that realization. But tonight's bowl of Edward G. Robinson, scooped from the tin and nail just touching the ember, stayed lit from the true light to the end. That's the first time I can say I had no relights.
 

brandaves

With a great avatar comes great misidentification
So my ride home today I was greeted by 2 separate but connected epiphanies. I was thinking about fire and mindlessly smoking my pipe. For fire to burn, or smolder, it needs air and fuel.

Packing provides the air. Pack it loose so when you draw, you have enough air flowing to stoke it. Too tight and the ember chokes. Too loose and I can tamp it right.

Tamping was the other epiphany. Fire wants to burn up always. Things don't burn down. They burn up then fall down. We want our ember burning down though. Tamp the ember just enough to catch the ribbons is resting on. And they'll start smoldering too. Repeat until you get to wood.

I felt really dense that it took me this long to come to that realization. But tonight's bowl of Edward G. Robinson, scooped from the tin and nail just touching the ember, stayed lit from the true light to the end. That's the first time I can say I had no relights.
Well done and a good explanation of why we do what we do. I was tamping way to hard when I first started. A light touch is all it takes to keep things going. Congrats on the achievement!

This also a well timed reminder for me as I over thought my last bowl and forgot to take the time to just enjoy it 🤔. Those happen occasionally. I was on a run this evening and thinking about my last bowl (I can't be the only one whose mind wanders to pipes while doing something totally unrelated). Sometimes my mind needs a pipe to sit and relax and other times it needs a run...sometimes it needs them one followed by the other. I often think about one while doing the other.

Confused yet? Yeah...I'm a little strange that way I suppose. 🤪
 
I've been admiring a couple Brigham pipes for a while now. The Heritage bent Dublin and Klondike Canadian. Those were the ones that pushed me to pull the trigger on smoking a pipe.

So I'm going to get a nice looking pipe stand from a good antique shop. Then I'm not spending any more money on pipe related paraphernalia (pipe cleaners don't count). I'm going to put my tobacco budget into an envelope. And when I have $400 in there, I'm going to get both of them! And a crap load of tobacco!


I figure this will be good for me for two reasons. First, I really do need to show down buying stuff. It's fun, maybe a little therapeutic if Mrs. Rookie is to be believed, but it's really not helping me. And second, I deserve nice things too, dammit! I like my baskets and $15 antique store finds, but I want to try a name brand. And, as a bonus reason. It never hurts the Rooklets to see that when you want something nice, you have to save up and go without to get it.

And that's where I'm going to struggle. For $10, I can get a decent pipe from an antique store sometimes. Or a brand new cob from many places. Bulk tobacco is rarely more than $3.50 an ounce. I can walk into a pipe store and for $50 walk out with a decent basket pipe, 2 ounces each of 4 tobaccos, and for an extra $5 two packs of pipe cleaners (which, as previously mentioned, don't count). It's easy to go on dollar shopping sprees. I'm sure a few here have leveled up enough to skip B&M stores and get pounds of favorite blends. And I'm sure I'll get there. But darkening the door of a local tobacconist is still fun for me.

It'll take me walking past the pipes at the stores. And staying out of cigar stores. I'll look in the antique stores. If I'm in a place where I can stop in a pipe store, I'll drop $50 in the envelope. If I'm with Mrs. Rookie and I see a good condition Savinelli for a price I'd pay right then and there, that amount goes into the envelope.

It means putting off the order I was planning. But I have plenty on hand. So that's my plan.
 

AimlessWanderer

Remember to forget me!
I've been admiring a couple Brigham pipes for a while now. The Heritage bent Dublin and Klondike Canadian. Those were the ones that pushed me to pull the trigger on smoking a pipe.

So I'm going to get a nice looking pipe stand from a good antique shop. Then I'm not spending any more money on pipe related paraphernalia (pipe cleaners don't count). I'm going to put my tobacco budget into an envelope. And when I have $400 in there, I'm going to get both of them! And a crap load of tobacco!


I figure this will be good for me for two reasons. First, I really do need to show down buying stuff. It's fun, maybe a little therapeutic if Mrs. Rookie is to be believed, but it's really not helping me. And second, I deserve nice things too, dammit! I like my baskets and $15 antique store finds, but I want to try a name brand. And, as a bonus reason. It never hurts the Rooklets to see that when you want something nice, you have to save up and go without to get it.

And that's where I'm going to struggle. For $10, I can get a decent pipe from an antique store sometimes. Or a brand new cob from many places. Bulk tobacco is rarely more than $3.50 an ounce. I can walk into a pipe store and for $50 walk out with a decent basket pipe, 2 ounces each of 4 tobaccos, and for an extra $5 two packs of pipe cleaners (which, as previously mentioned, don't count). It's easy to go on dollar shopping sprees. I'm sure a few here have leveled up enough to skip B&M stores and get pounds of favorite blends. And I'm sure I'll get there. But darkening the door of a local tobacconist is still fun for me.

It'll take me walking past the pipes at the stores. And staying out of cigar stores. I'll look in the antique stores. If I'm in a place where I can stop in a pipe store, I'll drop $50 in the envelope. If I'm with Mrs. Rookie and I see a good condition Savinelli for a price I'd pay right then and there, that amount goes into the envelope.

It means putting off the order I was planning. But I have plenty on hand. So that's my plan.

Here, "nice" tobacco costs virtually the same as "basic" tobacco. Often cheaper than supermarket brands actually. So I can pick and choose at leisure, with no cost penalty.

With pipes, I'm sticking with the cheapos. The factory seconds I buy are typically made in the Dunhill factory, but without the same level of care and attention. They are still great smokers though, and cost less than five cobs each. While I can see the appeal of pursuing "premium" pipes, for me personally, I'm unlikely to feel the benefit. Function matters more to me, and my neurological issues mean that a quick vertical journey to the floor is all but certain at some point. I don't expect a more expensive pipe to smoke much better, and I'd rather gravity rob me of a £20-£25 pipe than a £150 pipe.

The other prevailing perspective for me, is that you don't know what I pipe will work best with until you smoke it. I don't want to spend three figures on a pipe to fill a specific role, then discover that it's not the pipe for the job. To me, I think you need to want to collect pipes in order to feel any real benefit from the higher cost purchases, and I lack the collector gene/mentality to yield the reward.
 

brandaves

With a great avatar comes great misidentification
I think you have developed sound reasoning in your method to acquire the pipes you are looking at. It takes discipline and you will find a reward waiting for you at the end of the road. It's been exciting watching you travel along this path and even more exciting to see you continue on with it as you have. I don't think you'll be disappointed in your pipes. Inexpensive pipes are fantastic and offer a doorway into a much wider world. I do believe there is a line between form, function and price that can be difficult to walk. Will a $2000 pipe that is hand crafted smoke $1950 better then a $50 pipe? Probably not, but it ought to smoke significantly better and doubles as a work of art. If such pipes are within a person's means to acquire and they achieve significant utility from them, then the juice is worth the squeeze in my opinion. Can't wait to see your new pipes in the near future!
 

AimlessWanderer

Remember to forget me!
Inexpensive pipes are fantastic and offer a doorway into a much wider world.

I'll enjoy that wider world vicariously through you lot 🤣 If had the disposable income, and smoked more than 6 tins a year, I might be tempted to cast the line out a little further. :biggrin1: I think as you say, you have to be able to appreciate the artwork too, and I'm simply not wired up that way.

I have a pocket knife which cost over £200 (from back when I was working), but it's the sub £30 ones that get the most pocket time. How it feels to me, and how it works, are always how I value things - no matter if it plopped off an automated machine at 100 items per minute, or someone lovingly crafted it over three whole days. Same with pens, torches (flashlights), razors, brushes, watches, and many other things. I'm often underwhelmed at the things many fawn over... sadly that realisation often only comes after buying one.

For those that swim into deeper waters, and find greater happiness, I'm very pleased for them. Things are worth what we as individuals are prepared to pay for them, and for the most part, we're all well catered for, whatever our tastes :thumbup1:
 
The Brigham pipes, I'm not really sure how deep that water is. Yes, it'll be the first time I spend more than $45 on a pipe, but in a world where some pipes cost as much as my second car (about double the cost of my first car), the Dublin and Canadian together are in the neighborhood of $270.

Will a $135 pipe smoke $85 better? Maybe not. But will it smoke AND look AND feel better in the hand $85 more? Quite possibly. I don't know how to pull pictures from the net and post them here. But the Canadian has kind of a British cool going on. Like a Triumph motorcycle or Austin Martin. And the bent Dublin has an Italian sexy vibe, like a Moto Guzzi motorcycle or Ferrari. Or, as Mrs. Rookie puts it, the Dublin is "very elegant" and the Canadian is "svelte and dapper".

I'm not sure I'd call myself a collector. If an estate pipe, or one in the basket, really speaks to me, I have no problem coming home with it. But it really has to speak to me. Except for the giant billiard, who's attracting quality is the cavernous bowl for loading up and enjoying by the fire for 1.5-2 hours. Collectors I thought will get one because they don't have one, or because they collect X, and that's an X they don't have. That's not why I "collect".

But right now this is academic. I'll get my couple brand names and see.
 

AimlessWanderer

Remember to forget me!
Don't read too much into my earlier comments Rookie, I'm quite possibly rummaging around in the dark for understanding, and getting hold of something I shouldn't :D
 
Are they any one of these images?

The #47 in a smooth cherry finish. And the Canadian is a smooth walnut finish with the slim stem.
 
Screenshot_20200830-110635_Chrome.jpgScreenshot_20200830-110605_Chrome.jpg
I suddenly realized I can do screenshot pics! So those two cousins I'm saving up to dance with.

And I'm happy I posted those pics here. A little extra motivation as I read about all those wonderful blends and pipes others here are trying.

Also I've come to the realization that snuff doesn't count either, like pipe cleaners. But I'm going to not get any more until I'm on the last third of my last tin. Snuff is way too useful at work when I can't always step out for a cigarette. And for doing family/social things when it's inappropriate to light up.
 

brandaves

With a great avatar comes great misidentification
Snuff is way too useful at work when I can't always step out for a cigarette. And for doing family/social things when it's inappropriate to light up.
This is me too. It's easy to get a little toot here or there while working without drawing attention.
 
If you remember a page or so back, I had picked up a funky little Medico Jet Stream for a steal from an antique shop. But then she got pretty sour on me, so I have her a whiskey bath. 3 nights of Maker's Mark soaked cotton balls in her. Then I let her dry for a few days.

But then, well, I lost the foolish pipe! I tore the closet apart looking for it. Ok, it's fine, I tell myself. It's a cheap pipe when it was new, it's cheap now. And in the course of daily Covid stuck at home cleaning, it'll turn up.

Well it did! 15989226154656968424287864495296.jpg1598922643685765864338446489100.jpg My little upside down weirdo is back! And ready to try out! Loaded up is a mix of Jackknife Plug and PS English Luxury with a ginger ale to help with cadence. I've found that when dry, a ginger ale will help with that the same way knowing you're about to slap on some Captains Choice Co9T helps ensure a good shave. Yup, it'll punish bad behavior.

Anyway, the bowl is strong with this one! These two blends combined should be strong enough to cut through any ghosting, that's for sure. But they'll pick up on any sourness along the way. And so far so good. I'm happy with the results. At least so far. Although I do wish I had dried out the tobacco a little bit more. It's a bit harder to keep lit. But that's certainly not the pipes fault. Nor does it pertain to the purpose of this smoke.

What I am getting is a deep base of latikia. Not a bomb, but think John Bonham of Led Zeppelin. He's great and nobody ever told him drums aren't a lead instrument. I'm picking up on a spicy Oriental leaf. I can taste enough to know there's 4 or 5 leaves used, but I can't tell you what. Like the Beach Boys singing, the harmony made its own six greater than the sum of its parts. And there's some JP in here. To keep with the theme, you've got Tony Iommi on his favorite drugs grinding out a heavy steady tune. Finally, way in the background, threatening to tell on us for sneaking into Rookie's fantasy classic rock concert, is a barest wisp of lemony grassy goodness we all know and love.

I'm not getting any hint of sour. What I am getting, ever so very faintly, and not every draw, is the suggestion of bourbon. Not enough to notice, sometimes there, sometimes not. A weak acid flashback at the concert from the light show. A quick *** was that?! then it's back to the good times. Since this is a dedicated lat pipe, I'm not worried in the least.

And I'll call this a success! I have successfully sweetened a vintage estate pipe that once belonged to someone with either a unique sense of style or wicked sense of humor. 15989244044625525013711611098136.jpg But either way, I was proud to smoke her tonight! And I'll be happy to smoke it in the future. And if she ever gets sour again, I know what to do.
 
You guys can really describe those flavours eh. I'm like, it's great, it's good or it's rubbish.
So far I've determined anything other than Virginia is rubbish and most flavourings are rubbish.

Obviously by rubbish I just mean I don't like it.
 
You guys can really describe those flavours eh. I'm like, it's great, it's good or it's rubbish.
So far I've determined anything other than Virginia is rubbish and most flavourings are rubbish.

Obviously by rubbish I just mean I don't like it.
Oh, don't get me wrong. I use the same rating system you do. I really don't go in for what I did up there. But this time I was paying more attention than usual, looking for any hint of sour. Usually my thoughts go as deep as "Hey I like this! Hey, that's gross!"
 
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