...And The Piper At The Gates of Dawn

So Red mentioned that he picked up a pipe, and I warned of the dangers of falling down the rabbit hole that is pipe collecting. He was interested in seeing some of my collection, so I thought I'd post 'em here.

A bit of background - I was a cigarette smoker for, oh, sixteen years or so. This wasn't a problem when I was a teenager, but when I got older I got tired of not being able to run up a flight of stairs without wheezing, as well as not being able to smoke anywhere. I gave up cigarettes but increased my consumption of smokeless tobacco, which was my father's primary vice for most of his life. After I met my wife, she made it clear that she was none too fond of that habit. I am pretty much resigned to my fate as a nicotine addict, and she finds a pipe the least objectionable method of delivery, so that is how we arrived here. On top of all that I, like many others, have fond memories of my grandfather and his pipes, as evidenced by this picture of me at his house thirty-some years ago:



Aren't I cute? Anyway. I warned Red about the expense of pipe collecting, but the truth is it can be as cheap or as expensive as you want it to be. You can collect $5 corncobs or $50 Savenelli's or $100 Stanwells or $500 Dunhills or $1000+ artisan pipes and have as much fun as the next guy, regardless of the size of your bank account. Here's a few picks from my modest collection:

Missouri Meerschaum corncobs

Few pipes smoke as consistently good as Missouri Meerschaum corncob pipes - even the most elitist pipe snobs will admit that. Considering that most of them are under $10, picking up one of these + a pouch of Prince Albert or Captain Black is one of the cheapest, and most rewarding, ways to start a pipe-smoking career. The chief complaint about MM cobs is the cheap plastic bits. (The second-most common complaint is that you look like a Hayseed smoking them, but I'm past vanity at this point in my life). The pipe in the foreground of this picture came from my local drugstore and lives in my truck, where I don't care what happens to it. The pipe in the background is one of the "higher end" MM cobs with a hardwood bottom, and has an acrylic replacement "Forever Stem" from Walker Briar Works. With the Forever Stem + MM cob, you can be into a pipe that smokes as well as anything on the planet for around twenty-five bucks.

Club bent rusticated billiard

This was my first briar pipe, what would usually be referred to as a "basket" pipe (so called because many manufacturers offer cheaper machine made / factory second pipes at a discount to tobacconists, who would keep these inexpensive pipes in a basket by the cash register, for novices or as cheap impulse buys). I am lucky enough to have a nice tobacconist shop just around the corner from my work, and when I was ready to move on from "drugstore" tobacco, I stopped in and asked their advice. They set me up with this pipe and a sampling of their most popular blends. While not a high-dollar pipe by any means, this pipe smokes nicely.

Nording Natural Freehand

Erik Nørding is a giant in the pipe world, arguably the most famous of the Danish pipe makers, and with good reason. This was my first "brand name" pipe, and it's one of my favorites (I'm smoking it right now as I'm typing this). The "natural" means that the bowl is unstained & unwaxed, which is kind of neat because the pipe naturally darkens over time from the tobacco and the oils in your hands, resulting in a truly "one-of-a-kind" piece.

Falcon straight

The Falcon is an interesting concept - they use an aluminum stem and threaded wooden bowls to create a modular pipe system. See, briar pipes should be "rested" between smokes, to release the retained moisture - some say up to several days for best results. The concept with the Falcon is that the aluminum stem helps cool the smoke, and the customer could purchase several bowls that could be swapped out, eliminating the need for multiple pipes throughout the day. The above Falcon was assembled from a box of parts purchased on eBay that unfortunately turned out to be 90% junk - this is only serviceable pipe that I was able to put together out of all of it.

Kaywoodie Canadian

For a long time, Kaywoodie had a reputation as a good, solid, inexpensive "working man's pipe", although in actuality they produced pipes than ran the gamut from drug-store cheapies to high-end artisan pipes. Unfortunately, after purchase by a new owner in the 1970's quality went in the toilet, and the reputation of the company suffered for a long time. Today, a new owner is working hard to restore the Kaywoodie name to it's former glory, and collectors are re-discovering the higher-quality Kaywoodies from earlier times. Judging from the nomenclature, I believe the above pipe is from 1955 - 1956. I picked it up at my local tobacconists' shop, and it's quickly become one of my favorites.

Dr. Grabow Riviera

There are probably more Dr. Grabow pipes out there than just about anything else. If you start searching thrift stores & flea markets for "estate" pipes ("estate" is just a nice-sounding term for "used") 90% of them are going to be no-name basket pipes or Dr. Grabows. And for good reason - they're not bad pipes for the money, at all. (I think the current high-end Dr. Grabow retails in the $20 range, and is available at most drugstores). I bought this homely little pipe, cleaned & sanitized, for $8 off eBay.

As if the pipes weren't bad enough, smokers bitten by the bug quickly get the urge to try as many different tobaccos as possible, and you will start hearing people talking about their "cellars" - this just means their tobacco "stash", to borrow a less elegant term. Many people buy tobaccos in quantity and age them, like wine. Here is a pic of my modest cellar:



There are more different kinds of tobacco out there than I can even go into here, and many others do a much better job of speaking to that than I could. And I haven't even touched on tampers, or pouches, or racks, or a million other topics that pipe aficionados love to debate endlessly. Here are some links I've found useful:

Pipe Smokers Forum
Tamp & Puff
Pipe Chat
Smokers Forums
Tobacco Reviews.com