The pipes are calling: confessions of a pipe-smoker
And best of all, it is far more durable than either clay or meerschaum. The history of the tobacco pipe is long and quite fascinating and could fill many volumes. As it is the purpose of this piece to cover many and several aspects of pipes and pipe smoking, a limited and general look at that history seems the practical course here. Matches, or separately lit slivers of wood are often considered preferable to lighters because of lower burning temperature. Butane lighters made specifically for pipes emit flame sideways or at an angle to make it easier to direct flame into the bowl.
Pipes and thoughtful contemplation have been good companions to each other, and Man, for many centuries. I love pipes and pipe smoking and find little to rival the sublime experience of sitting, smoking and thinking. Indeed, some of my fondest memories are of sitting at a sidewalk cafe, smoking a good blend and being “present” to experience life unfolding all around me. I have done this on four continents and never tire of it, nor will I ever lose my enthusiasm for time spent with a clan of pipe smokers, invariably engaged in a fine conversation. These small, ancient, and revered objects, thus employed, have fostered great friendships, delighted the senses and soothed souls for millennia.
One should not ask for advice when buying a new bird gun in the fishing dept. Again patience and deliberation are called for at the very beginning of a pipe smoker’s odyssey. What is fortunate is that experienced pipe smokers are pretty much Fashion tobacco pipe universally pleased to help, advise and mentor those who wish to take up the pipe and join our venerable ranks. Classic English shapes encompass the silhouettes that we are most familiar with and mostly originated in France and England.
Systematic review of cigar smoking and all cause and smoking related mortality. Because I am a North American pipe maker, I shall not even try to list all of them in fear of leaving out a deserving friend. I may be able to dedicate a future posts just to North American pipe maker’s, so stay tuned.
There are several methods used to help prevent a wood pipe from burning out. These generally involve coating the chamber with any of a variety of substances, or by gently smoking a new pipe to build up a cake (a mixture of ash, unburned tobacco, oils, sugars, and other residue) on the walls. Plug tobacco is maintained in its pressed block form and sold in small blocks. The plug will be sliced into thin flakes by the smoker and then prepared in a similar fashion to flake tobacco. It is considered that plug tobacco holds its flavor better than rubbed or flake tobacco.
The word “meerschaum” means “sea foam” in German, alluding to its natural white color and its surprisingly low weight. Meerschaum is a very porous mineral that absorbs elements of the tobacco during the smoking process, and gradually changes color to a golden brown. Old, well-smoked meerschaum pipes are valued by collectors for their distinctive coloring. The bowls of tobacco pipes are commonly made of briar wood, meerschaum, corncob, pear-wood, rose-wood or clay. Less common materials include other dense-grained woods such as cherry, olive, maple, mesquite, oak, and bog-wood.
This draught hole (3), is for air flow where air has travelled through the tobacco in the chamber, taking the smoke with it, up the shank (4). At the end of the shank, the pipe’s mortise (5) and tenon (6) joint is an air-tight, simple connection of two detachable parts where the mortise is a hole met by the tenon, a tight-fitting “tongue” at the start of the tobacco pipe stem (7). Many of these Chinese water pipes are signed, not by the maker but on request of the shopkeeper or trader who sold the pipe. The fashion for these pipes emerges in the 1820’s and doesn’t disappear for a century. Thereafter production continues for the tourist market, even nowadays, although the craftsmanship is no more than a shadow of the past.