Thread: am i thinking in the right direction.

ok, tell me im not going about this wrong. i have been considering trying out a pipe, if for nothing more than to cut back on my cigarettes, dont know if it will work or not, but i do remember loving the smell of aromatic pipe tobaccos that my grandfather used to smoke. so my question is to all you pipe smokers, i have access to some pipes at an antique shop here local, they wont put me out much. cleaning one up to smoke what should i do, anything i should look for, and so forth. any and all information will be helpful. and to oldGI, when i drank, yuengling was all i drank, i used to live very close to there main plant in pottsville pa, so it was very local for me then.

Pipe smoking is a slippery slope. You will never be satisfied with one and then you'll want the really expensive ones and then all the fancy pipe lighters and fancy tobacco. You'll be sorry if you start.

much like razors and soaps and assorted items to go along with it, oh well, i need something else to get me in trouble, so its not always one thing.lolol

Talk to Jimmy HAD, I think thats the way he gave up cigarettes.

I'm not a pipe smoker nor do I claim to know anything about it. But I do have a friend who is right into it. I do remember him telling me that the enemy of pipe Tabacco smoke is heat, so when looking for a pipe you want to look for one with either a long shaft or a multi chambered shaft.

will keep that in mind, thanks for the insight

You can buy a brand new corn cob pipe for under ten bucks and try it that way. If you do when you look into the bowl where the stem enters you'll see the wood from the stem protruding into the bowl. Cut it out if you can. If not it will eventually burn out, but sometimes it causes a woody taste.

If you do buy a used pipe a thorough cleaning is in order. Plenty of pipe cleaners with pure alcohol and/or pipe sweetener. There's also a salt alcohol treatment that should be done. You basically fill the bowl of the pipe with salt and add ten or so drops of alcohol to it. After letting it sit in the bowl for anywhere from 24 hours to a couple of days you'll notice the salt has turned brown. This should freshen the pipe up for you.

Keep in mind that if you do buy a used pipe you'll probably have no way of knowing what type of tobacco was smoked in it. Smoking an aromatic in a pipe that was reserved for English blends may not be a pleasant experience for you.

John

now when you say should be don, that is after all the other cleaning is complete, it still has to be salted, am i understanding you correctly.

Yes. I would clean it up and get it to where you would smoke it and do this as the last step. It should take any sour taste out of the pipe, pretty much neutralizing it. Another thing you want in the bowl of the pipe is what's known as "cake" which is a buildup around the walls and bottom. You don't want it too thick, maybe only the thickness of a dime or nickle, so don't go chipping out any that's in there unless it's too thick.

Also in regards to smoking too hot, if when you are smoking the bowl is getting too hot in your hands then you are smoking it too fast. It should only get slightly warm.

John

something else to keep in mind, thanks