Sometimes They Tell Us
We've had a few discussion on the site about dedicating pipes to certain blends. The only consensus we seem to come to is that there is no consensus, some of us smoke whatver we have in whatever we want, others have pipes dedicated to tobacco types (burley, va, english), and others have detailed line ups of what blend to smoke in what pipe. As I said, I'm very middle of the road about this, I have burley pipes, English/Virginia pipes, and Flake pipes. What specific blend I smoke in these pipes is (to me at least) unnecessary detail. This works out fine 95% of the time but occassionally a certain pipe will step out and tell you, "This is the tobacco I was meant to be used for!" That's what this blog is about.
Not real sure why I initially bought this pipe. Sure it was a Kaywoodie but it was a 3-digit, relief grain, billiar (from the late 70's/early 80's) normally WAY too young to even be considered for my line-up. But still, I think in the end, the classic shape and rustication won me over and I ended up buying it. Like all the rest of my Kaywoodies, (and indeed most of my pipes period) it was initially a burley pipe. I was comfortable, light and there was really nothing wrong with the way it smoked. It was just one of those plain Jane kind of pipes that while not bad, was totally unremarkable and quickly made it to the back of the line. It became a second string, once in a blue moon smoke and remained that way for quite a while.
Then my recent NBT (non-burley tobacco) experiment began. Step one was re-organizing the fleet so that I had English/Va and Flake pipes. The old Kaywoodies were untouchable and would definitely remain burley pipes regardless. That left two newer Kaywoodies (the relief grain and the ruf-tone) and six other NKPs (non-Kaywoodie Pipes) French made mostly, Gefapip and Longchamp, with a couple other european basket pipes thrown in.
To make a long story short, the aforementioned relief grain billiard has taken a shine to SG Chocolate Flake and it's the match made in heaven. It seems to smoke this blend better than any I have ever tried in it. Oddly it seems to become a totally different and totally superior pipe when loaded with SG Chocolate Flake. I'm not generally in the habit of assigning specific blends to specific pipes but in light of recent performance I really have to believe that this pipe enjoys SG Chocolate Flake. As a result, I shant be smoking anything else in this pipe. I guess it's true, sometimes they tell us.
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I called out "hogwash" the
I called out "hogwash" the first time I heard the tall tales of dedicating a pipe to a certain blend, and for the longest time I just smoked whatever in whatever, care free and rebellious as I was. At one point I found myself smoking the same blend over and over and I really didn't care for being systematic about pipe rest and all that jazz, so I just packed the same blend and pipe to smoke day in and day out.
From the first couple of bowls in that pipe (I forget which one) it occurred to me that this weed and pipe were a better match than any of the other pipes I had tried. It was a fairly new pipe, so mentionable cake had formed. The blend was Mac Baren Mixture. I continued to smoke Mac Baren Mixture in this pipe throughout the week and then switched to another newish pipe. Completely different experience. I smoked this other pipe also for a week, but it didn't "take" as well as the other did. What was this? Surely a coincidence. This was at a time where I bought a lot of new, although cheap, pipes. I repeated the experiment and found only one in six other pipes that would take to Mixture as the first one did. After that time I realized that dedicating a pipe to a certain blend would be a good idea.
This was two years ago, and I've held to it ever since.
At the time of writing - out of nearly 100 pipes, I have found 5 pipes that are champions when it comes to OGS, 2 for Capstan, 1 for Three Nuns, 2 for Mixture and 1 for Mac Baren Navy Flake.
This is an exiting part of being a pipe smoker, and I hope others will take the opportunity to sample through their collection of briar and find the ones that go above and beyond.
I still don't give my pipes much rest...
My name: Lars Wiberg | My alias: slartie
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One pipe
My Stanwell HCA V was originally in my rack in one of the slots dedicated to VAs (genre, not specific blend). It smoked hotter than hell time and time again no matter how slowly I smoked it or how loosely I packed it. I was about at my wits end with this pipe. I *really* like the shape and finish of the pipe. Add to that the fact that it was a limited edition run with some extra silver trim that really makes my wheels turn. I just couldn't force myself to let her go - I couldn't! But clearly something had to be done. I considered switching it over to a different genre for a long while but that somehow didn't make any sense to me. After all, regardless of what genre the tobacco is in the bowl its still smouldering tobacco so shouldn't the burn temperature be the same each time? Well, that was my reasoning. And I was wrong. The day finally came when I thought what do I have to loose? It was simply unsmokable and I wasn't willing to just sit it on a shelf and call it a pretty pipe. So I loaded up some Va/Burley blend and it was slightly better. I've been experimenting with it over the past year with various VA/Burleys or just straight Burleys and it *seems* to like G&H BB#2 best of all. This still makes no sense to me. BB#2 is still a Burley/Va (stronger Burley content than VA). If its the Burley that makes the magic work then something like Edgeworth Sliced should be miraculous right? Nope. I can't make any sense out of it but this pipe sure likes that BB#2 better than anything else. Its pretty tame with MacBaren Navy Flake if I go slow too. And the Edgeworth ... well, definately slowly and carefully.
So, has this pipe claimed BB#2 for itself? Seems so. The cake is building - although there still isn't as much as I'd like to see. Perhaps when it builds more I can switch to any VA/Burley ... but for now it's pretty particular about what I feed it.
Rick Piatt
I'm a believer!
I guess like most amatuers when I started I would smoke whatever in whatever and never gave it much thought. Considering my class (TS) my pipes would pretty much get a different tobacco every smoke.
About a year ago when breaking in some newbies for the herd I started to dedicate pipes to various genre of tobaccos. After some thourough cleaning some of the others became genre dedicated. Currently I have pipes for EBO's, VA's-VAPer-VA-Burley, and Burleys and a few are still undedicated.
Last week something happened that really effected my outlook on pipe dedication. I had had a couple of bowls of CH. It was not ringing any bells, in fact it was quite the opposite - mild, bland and boring. I just couldn't get in to it and dreaded the next bowl. I wanted to give it a fair chance so I thought about it for a bit. I had this green freehand that had been dedicated to EBO's, mostly Oddessy, Nightcap (currently in it), SG SL and McO#14). The problem with this pipe is the walls are slightly thinner than I like them and it smokes hot. This made me think that possible a burley would burn cooler than the EBO's. So I packed it up with some CH and gave it a spin.
After it was lit and I was into it for a few puffs I was totally spellbound. I liked it, suddenly I had a silk purse from a sow's ear. It wasn't the CH that was ringing my bell it was the latakia ghosting from all the EBO's. It was so good I immediately decided to doctor up the CH with some blending Latakia. So this was a good crossover.
I have also had a bad crossover. I had a cob dedicated to Lane's Black Raspberry. At the time I was having my first affair with Lady OGS and for reasons unknown two cobs were right next to me. I grabbed one and decided to have some OGS in a cob. I light it and took a few puffs and I honestly believe it was the most disgusting smoke I had ever had. I dropped that cob like a hot potato, ran to the bathroom, squeezed a dose of toothpaste out and brushed like a madman.
Seeing the light, I know look back on my time when every pipe was undedicated. What blends were good but I couldn't appreciate them because of the pipe? or What blends were not up to par but were more appreciated because of the ghosts? Just some thoughts, I am not going to cry over spilt milk but I am going to expand my dedicaion of pipes and if I ever do have a regular rotation I would carry it further to seperate blends.
As far as pipes speaking up as to what they like, only the POS has cried out Give me Prince Albert and the POS is got to be the most tempermental pipe I have ever had.
Fume in pace, ckr
Me too
I too was never a believer. Now I'm a slow convert. But at this stage I only distinguish English (Latakia) & other. I'm going to have to become more sophisticated. I seem to sense which pipes will do well with which tobaccos, but more experimentation is needed. Interesting that two of you have found that hot smokers do well with burleys. Hmm, a new project..
Anticipating
the problems in dedicating pipes as one more of self discipline, I chose to limit my sphere of tobacco interests, so that all of my pipes might be comfortable in the land of burleys. Funny though, even with a narrowing of blends, I have found that all burleys are not smoking equally. Some blends, crimp cuts as PA or Union Leader, smoke better in a smaller KW billiard, so I have tended in that direction. Coarser cuts, ERRd, smoke better in larger bowls. Flakes, UF or Irish flake, prefer a Barling smaller dublin. My greatest success in 5Bros has been in an apple shape meer.
It is difficult for me to sort out the structure of the pipe from the material from the affinity to a blend or category. Trial and error has identified what works better, not best necessarily but better, and I believe that I should follow these instincts.
"What would the world be, once bereft Of wet and wildness? Let them be left, O let them be left, wildness and wet, Long live the weeds and the wildness yet. " Gerard Manley Hopkins
Small thread jack: Thanks for the heads up Morleysson!
I was going to sample some of the rehydrated ERR tonight and thanks to you it will be in a larger diameter bowl! My thought during work was do smoke it in one of my cobs, but now its going in my Kaywoodie (large group 5+ish diameter bowl). Way cool. Look at me: Edgeworth Ready Rubbed in a 2 Digit Kaywoodie!
*shaking my head in disbelief*
Whats that rattling noise I hear? Oh, just a bunch of Dunhills and a few tins of aged VAs walking out of the basement going on strike!
A Pox on your Burleyphiles!
Rick Piatt
So Here's the Deal
I was thinking if I had a bunch of Dunhills, I'd probably sell them off to some unenlightened rube and use the profits to purchase the absolute sickest collection of 4-digit Woodies ever. I'd probably have more than enough left over to buy several years supply of codger burlies and multiple kegs of beer.
"Our greatest fear is not that we are inadequate but that we are powerful beyond measure."
LMAO
I think you are on to something Oldgi
"The pipe draws wisdom from the lips of the philosopher, and shuts up the mouth of the foolish; it generates a style of conversation, contemplative, thoughtful, benevolent, and unaffected..." - William Makepeace Thackeray
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