Any pipe smokers?

I may cop a lot of flack for this, but I am actually considering taking this up as a hobby. I was given a pipe for Christmas a couple of years back (a meerschaum lined briar which unfortunately had quite a cake - undesirable I believe in meerschaum). I have carefully but successfully reamed out the bowl and thoroughly cleaned the thing out, and am considering going to the local "tobacconist" (there are no real ones where I live - most of them wouldn't know a pipe if it tripped them over) and buying some Amphora Full Aroma (with the red packaging). Problem is, here in Australia the tax on tobacco is about $300 per kilogram (~$130/lb). That's pretty steep.

I'm not really sure why I posted this, but does anybody have any comments? I know the anti-tobacco line, but somehow I still would like to try this. I hate cigarettes and I hate cigars more, but I just love the smell of most pipe tobaccos (yes, even the English blends).

Pipes smell better than they taste. You may cheat the chances of lung cancer compared to a cig but, you increase your chances of oral, bladder, throat or stomach cancer. Additionally, why pay any more taxes than you have to. They dish the tax money out on nonsense anyway.

Bad idea! I know, I know, there are plenty of romantic ideas that go along with smoking. You can buy cool lighters, sample "the best" tobaccos, have a favorite pipe. It's all crap! Romantic hoohey! Do yourself, your family, and your friends a big favor and don't "enjoy" a nice pipe in the evening....

I fooled around with pipesmoking for a year or two a few years back. Mainly because I liked the smell of some of the aromatic blends. I discovered that the blends that smelled good tasted bad, and the ones that tasted good smelled like a garbage dump on fire. Also, the ritual of filling your pipe properly so it would burn awhile, keeping it clean, and dealing with all the related hardware got to be a bit much. Basically, more trouble than it was worth to me. Also, in light of the health hazards, I'm glad I gave it up.

LMU

My Father-in-law was a pipe smoker. He even wrote a book on it. If I remember correctly, he sent a couple of copies to the library of congress.

Pipe smoker is also a term used by car salesmen to describe cool headed customers who are not easily rattled, but stay focussed on thier objective;

A good deal on a good car up and down and all around.

Pipesmokers are usually the most dreaded customers for salesmen of any trade.
Lotsa coolheaded questions and not a lot of money, or comission in return for all of that, more often than not.

Tried it for a while many years ago when I first went to college. I never really enjoyed it much, but they do smell good. At the time I guess I thought it made me look more adult and sophisticated.

Geoff

Hey, my dad smokes a pipe.

He also got mouth cancer. The initial treatment suggested by the first doctor he saw was to cut off his lower jaw/mandible.

Fortunately (if you could say that) he found a different cancer specialist who put him on chemotherapy/radiation. It was no fun. Multiple chemo threatments, over a dozen radiation treatments. Had to have all teeth removed because of the radiation treatments.

After all that, his addiction is so strong he still smokes that pipe.

My advice to you - don't pick up the habit.

My grandfather smoked a pipe for YEARS...died of emphysema in his mid-60's.

JM-99

Funny thing is I know two different people who have pipes hanging out of their face all the time...neither one actually ever lights it.

I just don't think I'd ever get started with anything tobacco related.

zespectre said:

Funny thing is I know two different people who have pipes hanging out of their face all the time...neither one actually ever lights it.

I just don't think I'd ever get started with anything tobacco related.

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This is a good idea, all of the "looks" of a pipe, none of the whole cancer thing. My uncle died in 2001 from pipe and cigarette smoking, though probably more from the cigarettes (He had a heart attack from the massive cholesterol build up that smoking apparently causes). I was actually consideringing buying a pipe to walk around campus with, but more of a joke though, I don't think anything could ever make me look older....

I've tried cigars (Butera's), and Nat Sherman Fantasia lights, but have never been able to finish even a third of one. Tobaccos is just so....not for me.

There are really only 2 reasons to consume tobacco in any form: (1) to look cool and (2) to feed an addiction to nicotine. Since you are not already a smoker, I assume that number 2 is not your reason.

If you want to look cool, I think that you would get far more impact from getting some nicer clothes and losing a little weight. Not that I have ever seen you, but the point is that smoking a pipe is not going to do anything for you except give you an expensive and time-consuming habit that is most likely annoying to other people and unhealthy for you. I don't see how that will improve your life.

Maybe you should think of your pipe as a collectable rather than something to actively smoke.

Good suggestions. You may win me back from the dark side.

Actually, I have been walking around at home with my pipe hanging out of my mouth. Even after all the (very thorough) cleaning, I can taste and smell the ash, which I like. Maybe I'll just keep it that way and never light the thing. That would be a heck of a lot cheaper too.

But I'm not sure about the two reasons Lurker. You're right that that second reason is not mine, but I don't expect to look cool either. I actually feel like a right royal idiot with the thing hanging out of my mouth (and my wife says that she thinks the same ). I think I would do it simply for an excuse to sit and relax and "pipe dream."

But, as I said, you guys are quite convincing ...

Back in my college days I may have smoked a pipe or two. I don't remember if the bowl contained tobacco - then again I didn't inhale...

Maybe smoking tobacco in your pipe isn't putting it to it's destined use?

I tried a pipe (the tobacco kind, not the pot kind) when I was 14 or 15; but didn't much care for it.
Haven't picked up another one since.

bindibadgi said:

I think I would do it simply for an excuse to sit and relax and "pipe dream."

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A warm cup'a tea has the same effect.

The pipe is not getting you to sit and relax, but rather a concious effort on your part to take a break and meditate about whatever you want to think at the end of the day.

If you really like the smell of smoke, ash, etc. go camping. I'm serious. Every single time I'm outdoors I come back smelling of smoke and campground. I absolutely love it.

One of the BIGGEST mistakes I ever made was starting to smoke at 10
I have tried the gum the patches and the pills plus cold turkey and still smoke.
I will not lie about it; I do not enjoy it, I am addicted to nicotine. Please reconsider starting to smoke I honestly think it is not a good idea. If you toss out all the many health and or moral issues you still have a money issue. I smoke cheap cigarettes, a carton or so a week so I figure around 1500.00 a year right now----that pal is a few flashlights I could have bought had the cash not gone up in smoke.
Topper

MongoMadness said:

Back in my college days I may have smoked a pipe or two. I don't remember if the bowl contained tobacco - then again I didn't inhale...

Maybe smoking tobacco in your pipe isn't putting it to it's destined use?

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In college? We learned not to smoke in fourth grade.

Nicotine has been shown to foster the connections between neurons in the brain. The ill effects are obvious though and my uncle would kill me for saying this as he has emphesyma (spelling?). I smoke only when drinking and this translates to around a pack every 3 weeks.

I lost an Uncle to lung cancer last January.
At 2+ packs a day for almost 40 years, added up to almost 800,000 cigarettes over a lifetime if my math is correct.
His life ended in diapers just as it had begun.
The lung cancer had gotten into his brain, liver, bones and a few other places.
Lung cancer and other health risks related to smoking are really more serious than most people who start smoking realize until it's too late to quit!

Nicotine addiction often doesn't end until death makes it impossible for it to continue.