Isn't that cool? This light bulb moments where you gain suddenly clarity. You figure it out in a way that makes perfect sense. I'm glad you got it. Even more glad you were rewarded with a good smoke.
A Bakker's Dozen
- Thread starter Bakker1964
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AimlessWanderer
Remember to forget me!
On the subject of loose stems. If vulcanite, you can hold it over a cool flame like a lighter rolling it around and it will return to its original size. Vulcanite has memory. Also works rather well with bite indentations. Just don’t heat it to where it melts; be judicious. I’ve heard of a method where you run a wet q-tip around the inside of the shank and let it dry overnight. I haven’t tried that one though.
I've used Teflon plumbers tape on loose stems a few times. At first I was worried about possible toxins but when I was reading up on Teflon frying pans, it seems you need to heat it up hotter than normal cooking temperatures for it to break down so I don't think it should be a problem.
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- #225
Smokes have been going rather well of late, trying aromatics after the Virginias. Today I received my Capri Warlock, and a Lorenzetti Augustus Caesar 24, as well as a Brigham ashtray.
I ran some Mark Twain through the churchwarden, and think this will be my "aromatic" pipe. The wife likes the "bigger" aroma, but I am not finding as much enjoyment in them. Pipe was a smidge gurgly towards the end of the bowl.
The Lorenzetti was a beauty smoker . . . I put an English house blend through it for a start and it smoked a treat. 1 relight, and puffed to the bottom of the bowl with no thought whatsoever. Comfortable in the hand, stayed reasonably cool throughout, and just a gorgeous looker, too.
I ran some Mark Twain through the churchwarden, and think this will be my "aromatic" pipe. The wife likes the "bigger" aroma, but I am not finding as much enjoyment in them. Pipe was a smidge gurgly towards the end of the bowl.
The Lorenzetti was a beauty smoker . . . I put an English house blend through it for a start and it smoked a treat. 1 relight, and puffed to the bottom of the bowl with no thought whatsoever. Comfortable in the hand, stayed reasonably cool throughout, and just a gorgeous looker, too.
AimlessWanderer
Remember to forget me!
For gurgly tobaccos, I drop two or three Denicote filter crystals in the bottom of the bowl. They do help, and reduce the amount of dottle too. I always have a box here. I've read that churchwardens can also have a habit of luring you into puffing harder, which won't help matters with taste or smoking residue. There might be a bit of a learning curve to get the best from it.
I have a long Savinelli that cools the smoke so much it lures me into puffing harder. I was surprised how much a couple of inches would affect the temperature so much.
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- #228
Interesting information, gents. Thanks. Also, I slipped another baccy purchase past the revenooers . . .
4 oz. of Lane 1Q
2 oz. of GL Pease Quiet Nights
50 g of Presbyterian
2 oz. of C&D Autumn Evening
2 oz. of C&D Haunted Bookshop
1.75 oz. of Mac Baren HH Old Dark Fired.
The Lane 1Q is likely all I will sample in the immediate future. The rest can wait, but I wanted to make sure to have them to try.
4 oz. of Lane 1Q
2 oz. of GL Pease Quiet Nights
50 g of Presbyterian
2 oz. of C&D Autumn Evening
2 oz. of C&D Haunted Bookshop
1.75 oz. of Mac Baren HH Old Dark Fired.
The Lane 1Q is likely all I will sample in the immediate future. The rest can wait, but I wanted to make sure to have them to try.
- Thread starter
- #229
Ran some Presbyterian through my Zulu Dog . . . I think I am going to need some time with this. I liked it . . . but if you asked me why, I am not sure I could point to anything specific. Strange . . . I mean, it just smoked really nicely, did not heat the bowl at all, took a couple of relights . . . but there was nothing that really made me go "yowza". It is a bit breezy here today, so that puts a damper on aroma (it certainly noses nicely enough).
Sometimes you'll have smokes like that. I really like Presbyterian as a go to mild English.
AimlessWanderer
Remember to forget me!
Yup, I liked Presbyterian Mixture the same way. A pleasant smoke that you don't have to pay attention to.
When I started with the samples, I quite liked paying attention to the subtle differences between blends. Now, I like ignoring them. I just want to enjoy the smoke I'm having at that moment, rather than try to "understand" it, and pick out individual flavours, etc.
The more samples I try, the more simplistic my smoking becomes. I like a blend, or I don't. I'm no longer interested in why. I just want to know whether or not to buy it again
When I started with the samples, I quite liked paying attention to the subtle differences between blends. Now, I like ignoring them. I just want to enjoy the smoke I'm having at that moment, rather than try to "understand" it, and pick out individual flavours, etc.
The more samples I try, the more simplistic my smoking becomes. I like a blend, or I don't. I'm no longer interested in why. I just want to know whether or not to buy it again
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- #232
I will get to that point, but I am still doing the whole "subtleties" thing, to determine just "which" ones I really like and why. I liken it to anything else, whether it's booze, or foods . . . you have to understand what you like, before you can just ignore the reasons why and buy it.
AimlessWanderer
Remember to forget me!
I know where you're coming from. I felt exactly the same way at first. I've now got a rough appreciation of what I like, and what I don't - enough so I can read a write up or sales line on a blend, and think I might like this, or probably won't like that. That understanding only came this year, and from smoking samples, as I stuck to a "safe" range of tobacco in my previous pipe smoking.
Some will be obvious as to what you like or don't. Others won't be. Some will keep you in awareness of the bowl, while others will let your mind wander, such that when you finish the pipe, you realise you hardly paid any attention to it.
I guess what i'm saying is, not all tobaccos need understanding, and it's perfectly OK to like something without knowing why. I find a lot of easy smoking tobaccos are like that. I Have a really nice smoke, but if someone asked me afterwards what it tasted like, I wouldn't know, as my mind was free to go elsewhere. For me, Presbyterian is one of those blends.
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- #234
I find myself wondering if I am just going to settle on a short list of codger blends, and augment with the occasional "flavour of the month". I was rereading my Holmes anthology for the umpteenth time, and there was a passage that describes him reaching into a slipper to refill his pipe, and I was left to wonder, "a slipper?" Were there no tins in the Victorian era?
It was one of his eccentrics.
Below from the internet:
Holmes often smoked a “before-breakfast pipe, which was composed of all the plugs and dottles left from his smokes of the day before, all carefully dried and collected on the corner of the mantelpiece.” The mantelpiece was also where he kept his tobacco in the toe-end of a Persian slipper next the jack-knife transfixing his unanswered correspondence. His cigars were kept in the coal-scuttle, which is something like a pail typically for holding coal for a coal-fired stove.
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- #236
Working through an aromatic sampler (that will not be rebought) . . . I can see why morning bowls are enjoyable. Just me, the birds, my tea and a pipe
.
.
The morning pipe is indeed special.
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- #238
Weekly disassembly and cleaning has now been taken care of. Just pipe cleaners and alcohol with a bit of a rub in the bowl with some clean paper towel.
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- #239
This coming week I plan to start working through blends that have failed to impress. I am also going to start smoking with an eye towards dedicating particular blends to specific pipes.
If you stay away from strongly aromatic tobaccos and Latakia blends you won’t need to dedicate your pipes. Perhaps just having separate pipes for those exceptions. When you try a new blend, stick with it exclusively for at least a week before going to another. It takes some time to understand a blend enough to get a comparison to another. I believe it is better to concentrate on the simplest blends in the beginning to develop your palate as well.
