So, about to start working out where I am with all of this.....
New coils have not yet arrived..... And a search of local vape shops proved unsuccessful......
Until someone told me that Totally Wicked have just become the main UK agent for Joyetech.....
So half an hour later, I am sitting at home with a couple of new coils (TW BF1.5 LVC), not joyetech by name......
The drip tips did arrive, but they are pipe stem lookalikes .
They look the same as the my pipe mouthpieces, but really are not right for me.
I have spoken to a chap who used to make my pipe stems. He made a master for me in 1989, when I had my pipes. He has never made one for an e-pipe, and I must admit to never even thinking about asking him before. Not that he would ever be a major manufacturer. Partly because he is in his 80's and has been custom making pipe stems by hand for 70 years. And takes 2 months to tune it to the customers satisfaction. He is going to get everything ready, then when I get to Harrogate next week, he will fit it to my mod....
Some of his customers have been customers longer than I have been alive
They are not cheap, but it will make everything feel more natural.
The problem being that a pipe stem is not made from just ABS.. it is a a form of vulcanised rubber I believe.
These are also custom shaped to a design I have been used to smoking for years. The master gets modified only when a customer is happy, maybe over a couple of years.
The only bit he now has to change is where it now first a tank, rather than my old Peterson.
I also got a another bottle of 50/50 custard today as well.
I have kept this bottle of custard at 0mg.
I now have a cleaned out tank with a brand new coil filled with this.
The plan is to spend the next couple of hours playing with settings to get the best flavour out of this liquid. Once I am happy with that, I will then add a nicotine salt shot to take it to 6mg and see what difference that makes.
Tomorrow I shall spend a couple of hours playing with the flavour that the 6mg creates and see what settings are best for that.
(Am thinking about getting another identical bottle of liquid and using a clean coil again try an normal(not salt) NIC shot in that, just to see what difference that makes)
When the next bottle of custard arrives, I shall then use those same settings to give be a direct comparison. I can play with those settings over the next few days.
That should get me to a base point.
Now some of you will be wondering by all this fuss? (They will be the non pipe smokers!)
I guess part of that is not only trying to recreate my past vaping experience, bit it is also part of being a pipe smoker.
Because of the way pipe tobacco burns and flavours the bowl of the pipe, a bad choice can mean the replacement of the bowl and stem.
Because of the way the flavour of the wood develops, you are looking at a process that will take years to get right.
As I typically pay up to £130 for a pipe stem, that is not something I want to do often.
I used to pay even more to have a Peterson bowl modified to how I wanted...
For my pipe, it HAD to be, and only could be Petersons Irish Whiskey. I would only use Swann Vestas matches, never a lighter, and if I did not have the right brand of matches, I would not light my pipe.
The flavour of different matches not only changed the flavour of that specific bowl of tobacco, but again would change the flavour of that bowl forever. Again leading to the potential loss of a few hundred pounds for a new bowl.
But even a new bowl takes time to absorb the oils and carbon, so it still takes months to get back to a state of normality.....
I hope you do not find this boring, but it partially so you will understand some of the reasons for the way I am approaching this.
Over the years, I have never found an eliquid that is the same as what Petersons Irish Whiskey provides. So I do not use tobacco flavours.
I like vaping custard.
I do not want to try different things, because what I am after is that same feeling of picking up my pipe. I never thought about what the tobacco was, as it was always the same. I now need to find that one thing that does not change as far as possible.
Also the mouthpiece also absorbs flavours. So I do not want to be changing flavours as far as possible.
Why am I so obsessive? Well, I still have pipes that I have owned for 30 years, and they are still developing. They flavour differences are so subtle, that there is no way of describing it, other than to use the same tobacco and bowl and matches and mouthpiece 20mins per smoke, only a maximum of 3 smokes in 24 hours from that pipe and a minimum of 12 hours drying in a stand every 24 hours for 30 years. (Even then i had favourites,)
As can be seen, pipesmoking is designed to satisfy OCD...
So I guess I am trying to say that pipe smoking is a very peculiar mind set, and not only develops over decades, but is typically passed on from a mentor.
It really is a strange mindset, and seeming more strange when I try to explain it.
I remember it was an old guy in the 1980s who taught me how to appreciate a pipe.
And the initial learning from care and appreciation took maybe a couple of years before I dared take the bold step of finding my own taste in tobacco. And I have smoked Petersons Irish Whiskey since the early 1980's
As far as ''drip tip', you would laugh if you could hear my chap saying "electronic what? Well I shall make it as your usual model and then I will see what it connects to..... Am sure I have never heard of electronic . .(mumble)"
