Old school alternative to cigarettes

[Kitabz]

Originally Posted by Nick O'Teen

[...] I applaud your taste and refinement, but spare a thought for your Elizabethan, Jacobean and Georgian forebears, who inhaled their pipes because cigarettes had not yet been invented.

We are all Sir Walter's heirs, one way or another

Top post. Shame this forum doesn't have rec'ing buttons.

[TropicalBob]

Nick, I had tongue firmly planted in cheek with that "no inhaling" comment. I'm sure some do, just as some chug fine wine and brandy. Some burp loudly after a meal of prime rib. Some put milk in their Earl Gray. Some use perfume strength fragrance as after shave.

Today's pipe tobaccos are designed to deliver nicotine and satisfy without being inhaled. Their PH is alkaline, very unlike the acidic cigarettes that are meant to be inhaled into the lungs. They are VERY strong tobaccos, in many cases, and even an accidental whiff to the lungs will result in a coughing fit. For many years, I inhaled 30 cigarettes a day; I cannot dream of inhaling even one lung full of pipe tobacco smoke.

Imagine the cartoon charter with bulging eyes. That's someone who inhales today's pipe tobacco.

Anyone who wants to inhale is not prohibited from doing so. But do understand that the lung damage that results will be greater than that from smoking cigarettes. More tar, more nicotine, more carcinogenic combustion products. And a pipe lasts 45 minutes to an hour, unlike the quickie cig with its 10-minute nic fix.

None of that is a problem if pipe smoke is -- properly -- taken into the mouth and exhaled through the nostrils. My main purpose for being erudite was to discourage some newbie from thinking inhaling is the way a pipe is meant to be smoked. It is not. Emphatically, it is not.

Sir Walter would concur were he around to try today's blends.

[TropicalBob]

Lemme try to address Mohave's questions:

1. Do you think (properly) smoking a pipe can be realistic as a more than occasional alternative for a heavy (2+ pack/day) cigarette smoker?

2. Is there any advice anyone would care to offer someone new to pipe smoking: choice of pipe(s), type of tobacco, methods, tips & tricks, etc? Bear in mind your audience is someone who has no experience with pipes, pipe tobacco, or any aspect of using them, knows nothing of the subject, and would rather not make a large investment while he is not certain if he will take to it, or to what extent he might find it satisfying.

3. How do you think the long range total cost compares to other choices?

4. I gather from the above that a pipe involves some degree of complexity in use and perhaps a considerable amount of preparation time. Does this tend to make it difficult to use very often outside of home?

1. Yes, but remember that pipe smokers have all the restrictions of cigarette smokers. No smoking on premises. No smoking within 50 feet of the door. Etc. It IS smoking, after all, even if the smoke does smell better. Still, it satisfies on levels e-cigs can't reach -- taste and aroma. I enjoy my pipes for those reasons most of all. I was a heavy cigarette smoker and now smoke about 4 or 5 pipe fulls a day -- but I also use e-cigs, snus and dissolvables. A pipe is just ONE substitute that can be used when cravings strike.

2. Read, read, read. I'll post some links and you can visit a pipe forum and review site. Your local library might have books on pipes. Certainly Amazon has many. Start slowly, perhaps with a corn cob and some "codger burley" tobacco. These are the tobaccos our grandfathers smoked -- Carter Hall, Prince Albert, Half&Half, Captain Black. Amphora is gone, but try some aromatic Sail. These are all good and you can move on to experiment with English blends later. I personally love a cavendish-latakia blend. Just for Him is an online store where you can select and order many blends. I get Shortcut to Mushrooms and Whiskey Biscuit Gravy regularly from them, and buy Carter Hall tins from my local tobacco store. Expect to spend $20 a month or so. A pound lasts .. a long time. Top tobacco is now a stunning $40 a pound, BTW, thanks to new taxes.

3. Pipe smoking is cheaper than almost anything. Only sniffing nasal snuff is cheaper -- and I strongly prefer the pipe, although I'll sniff nasal snuff every other day or so. A tin of Carter Hall where I live is $17 for 14 ounces. That's a month's worth, at least.

4. Not really. You soon learn how to pack the pipe to keep it lit. That's the hardest part. And you learn which tobaccos to stay away from because they "bite" your tongue. I had to quit pipe smoking three times because my mouth couldn't take it. Now, using Carter Hall mostly, I do not have such problems. Forums can direct you to blends with the least tongue bite, if that proves a problem for you.

Some links. The first is a very helpful forum. Search for topics of interest to you before posting a question that been addressed a hundred times -- and thus turning off the veterans who can help you most.

http://forum.pipes.org
/~discus/cgi-bin/discus/discus.cgi

Next is an excellent site where pipe tobacco reviews are kept. When I want to try a new tobacco, I search for "four-star" blends.

TobaccoReviews.com - The largest collection of pipe tobacco reviews on the internet

Welcome to a brave new world.

[smokingclam]

Ah tobaccoreviews.com....that site cost me lots of money after reading the reviews there!

[SnarkyClark]

I'm drying out my C&D Snug Harbor a bit due to a smidgin of bite, but love the flavors and yes it is quite strong in the nicotine department. Enough to make we want to just sit there and daydream for about half an hour after finishing one pipe. I use it when I first get home from work and it keeps me for the whole evening.

I will have to try out some Carter Hall next month. Any particular fav CH blends to recommend TB? I prefer very slow and cool smokes, but not too dry. A pleasant room note is a must.

As for usage (cost), I was a pack a day Camel full flavor smoker for over 20 years. I am now using one-two M401 carts a day (eight-sixteen drops of 18mg fluid) plus about 1-2oz of strong pipe tobac a month (based on how fast I used a half ounce).

[smokingclam]

The strongest pipe tobacco I have nicotine wise is Samual Gawiths Black XX. This stuff comes in a chunk or rope as its referred to I believe. Definitely a unique smoking experience.

[Nick O'Teen]

Originally Posted by TropicalBob

Nick, I had tongue firmly planted in cheek with that "no inhaling" comment.

Fear not, I took it that way

Originally Posted by TropicalBob

I'm sure some do, just as some chug fine wine and brandy. Some burp loudly after a meal of prime rib. Some put milk in their Earl Gray. Some use perfume strength fragrance as after shave.
Today's pipe tobaccos are designed to deliver nicotine and satisfy without being inhaled. Their PH is alkaline, very unlike the acidic cigarettes that are meant to be inhaled into the lungs. They are VERY strong tobaccos, in many cases, and even an accidental whiff to the lungs will result in a coughing fit. For many years, I inhaled 30 cigarettes a day; I cannot dream of inhaling even one lung full of pipe tobacco smoke.

Another factor, and I think it's a more important one, is the bore of the pipe bowl. My cat's head meerschaum has a bowl that's over an inch wide - that is a LOT of tobacco smouldering and smoking all at once (it holds over half an ounce!) My mini cob holds about 1 rollup's worth of tobacco, with a bore little wider than a commercial cigarette (and some of the Elizabethan clays were even smaller - half that size,) so there really isn't that much smoke being produced. I know if I tried to inhale a rollup an inch thick (even with the lightest tobacco,) I'd cough myself inside out But a cobful of Parson's Pleasure or Curly Cut goes down very nicely - and lasts about as long as a cigarette.
And more importantly makes me a lot less wheezy than cigarettes used to (I switched entirely from cigs to pipe because the wheezing was beginning to interfere with my bagpipe playing.)

And I can tell you from experience that, on the occasions I've been given duty free RYO tobacco by family members returning from foreign holidays, and smoked it in my pipe, I've developed that old cigarette wheeziness by the time I've got through a 500g box (but it passes once I've got back to the pipe tobacco.) It also tars up a pipe a lot faster than pipe tobacco. And yet I get no wheeziness from inhaling regular pipe tobacco.

Originally Posted by TropicalBob

Imagine the cartoon charter with bulging eyes. That's someone who inhales today's pipe tobacco.

Anyone who wants to inhale is not prohibited from doing so. But do understand that the lung damage that results will be greater than that from smoking cigarettes. More tar, more nicotine, more carcinogenic combustion products. And a pipe lasts 45 minutes to an hour, unlike the quickie cig with its 10-minute nic fix.

None of that is a problem if pipe smoke is -- properly -- taken into the mouth and exhaled through the nostrils. My main purpose for being erudite was to discourage some newbie from thinking inhaling is the way a pipe is meant to be smoked. It is not. Emphatically, it is not.

Sir Walter would concur were he around to try today's blends.

Possibly. But he would even more readily concur if he was expected to consume them in a huge briar as large as are now common-place. He would have smoked a far more modest crucible.

The description that "tobacco was a rare commodity and just a small amount was used for a smoke" is conventional, but I disagree (at least that this was the sole reason.) Even when tea was a rare and expensive commodity, people didn't drink it from tiny dolls' house cups - I maintain that small pipes were intended to inhale

[Nick O'Teen]

Originally Posted by Mohave

Thanks in advance to any who might feel like taking the time:

1. Do you think (properly) smoking a pipe can be realistic as a more than occasional alternative for a heavy (2+ pack/day) cigarette smoker?

Definitely. But if you want to inhale (the temptation is very strong, and I shall confine my suggestions to this scenario, since it reflects my own experience,) get a very small pipe. The Elizabethan clay I posted a link to is very good, but you have to clean them in a fire - pipe cleaners are too fat for these in particular, and generally unsatisfactory for clay pipes because of their porosity (the tar soaks in, and is then released again when the pipe heats up the next time you smoke it.) But, having been fired in a kiln, they're massively heat-resistant, so you can stick them in the coals (or on a barbecue,) and burn the tar out of them. If we had a real fire in the house, I'd have stuck with them, because I do prefer a clay, but they're a PITA to clean over a gas ring on the cooker several times a week!

Originally Posted by Mohave

2. Is there any advice anyone would care to offer someone new to pipe smoking: choice of pipe(s), type of tobacco, methods, tips & tricks, etc? Bear in mind your audience is someone who has no experience with pipes, pipe tobacco, or any aspect of using them, knows nothing of the subject, and would rather not make a large investment while he is not certain if he will take to it, or to what extent he might find it satisfying.

I found the mini corncobs suited me best - you need to burn a new one in for awhile before it's comfortable to inhale - jamming a bit of matchstick in the mouthpiece to choke it helps a lot. Once the bowl is evenly blackened, you no longer get the harsh taste of burnt cob. If you're not planning to inhale, this may not be so necessary.
The stems are too narrow for pipe cleaners, so you'll need to twist up bits of tissue paper to clean out the mouthpiece regularly, but they're easy to keep clean, and generally last 2-3 months of heavy smoking before the bowls start to split. And then it's time for a new one (you could rotate them, and they'd probably last longer, but they're cheaper than atomizers, so what the hell )

Originally Posted by Mohave

3. How do you think the long range total cost compares to other choices?

Pipe tobacco is slightly cheaper than RYO tobacco over here, so it depends how much you want to spend on pipes and gadgets. Start collecting fine, carved meerschaums, and you can easily spend hundreds of dollars at a time Stick to cheap cobs & clays, and it will be noticeably cheaper than cigarettes.

Originally Posted by Mohave

4. I gather from the above that a pipe involves some degree of complexity in use and perhaps a considerable amount of preparation time. Does this tend to make it difficult to use very often outside of home?

Not really - make sure you always have a pipe knife and reliable lighter with you, and you don't even have to worry about flat batteries or dying atomizers. Pipes require more maintenance and fiddling with than prerolled cigarettes, but rather less than vaping 'on the go'.
If you prefer a "flake" tobacco, you might want to keep a quantity of it already rubbed, so you're not having to try to rub it while walking in the rain, or with an armful of shopping etc.
How much of a routine you want to get into with cleaning is up to you. I tended to give mine a stem clean every day or so, and scraped down the carbon in the bowl a couple of times a week. The pipe will let you know if you're not cleaning it often enough by dribbling rancid juice in your mouth

[Mohave]

The responses to my questions have been very helpful. Thank you.

[dhiraaz]

Hi,

I smoke regularly five to ten times.I want to know if it will create any kind of disease which will effect my body.Please suggest................