Do you use softie bits to protect your stems?

A bunch of e-tailers have these, and a lot of people love them.

4noggins
Frenchy's Pipes

Just a few places - many others carry them as well.

they feel quite uncomfortable, so much that they detract from my smoking pleasure and ruin every bowl. I can not help but notice the extra width and fatness of the stem, the sharp corner where they end and a general squichyness reminensent of munching on raw squid. Not to mention when clentched they also squeek. Pipe condom? No thank you. I would rather deal with the other issues like tooth marks and chewed up stems.

I stumbled across these pipe condoms out of desperation. My 2nd Dunhill has a stem that is shaped in such a way that when I clench it and turn my head the darn thing nearly falls out of my mouth. I was so bothered by this that I was on the verge of grabbing a file and making a flat spot on the stem that I could chomp down on while driving! Then the thought struck me to give a softie a try. I had nothing to lose since filing that stem would have rendered the dunnie worthless to anyone but me totally ruining its value on the estate market. So I went to the B&M and grabbed a pack. Now I must say that at first they seemed huge in my mouth. But a funny thing happened: the Dunhill no longer moved when I clenched it. Also my jaw felt more relaxed since I didn't have to bite as hard to hold that pipe steady. After a couple of days I got used to the thickness of the softie now I couldn't think of smoking a pipe without one (now the bare stems seem too skinny). The last benefit is that they really do protect the stem of the pipe from bite marks! I like my pipes to maintain that "new pipe look" and a pipe with a chewed up old stem bothers me.

How often do you change them? Well, I tend to chew through them after 20 or so bowls (I guess I bite pretty hard huh?) but its no big deal since I have a bunch that I bought from smokingpipes.com in a bag - I just grab one any time I need a replacement and at under a buck a piece who can complain.

I snagged a handful of these to use on my vulcanite stems to minimize the bite marks. I do not mind bite marks, they come along with smoking in my mind, but I thought I would at least give these a shot. Yes, they felt odd, but I figured that I would get used to that. But what made me toss them was the way they trapped saliva against the stem, accelerating the rate of oxidation by leaps and bounds. I pulled one off the day after its first use and there was a 3/4-inch discolored band on a stem that was in pristine condition when I put the bit on the day before.

I will take my minor little tooth marks over that any day. Maybe if I was a big chomper I would think differently.

I just can't be bothered at all.

Sums it up nicely for me, I guess.

I have a couple older pipes with teeth marks that are almost thru. These are a couple of my grandfathers old pipes that I smoke once in a while. I use these bits for a protective measure. For me they don't feel right though and I don't think I would use them in less for dental reasons.
Dave

for me pipes are to use not to collect. I don't care to mark them up as long as they still smokes well.