The pipes are calling: confessions of a pipe-smoker
Some may say that the advent of the briar pipe saved the pipe smoking pastime from being supplanted by cigars and cigarettes. In the 1820’s artisans from the French town of St. Claude in the Jura Mountains, renown for their wood carving skills, began to produce pipes with bowls made from the burl of the white heath tree. (erica arborea) This wood was called “bruyere” and through the years has become known as briar. The majority of pipes sold today, whether handmade or machine-made, are fashioned from briar.
Though adequate, clay pipes were fragile and were frequently broken, often leaving the smoker with tobacco and no way to enjoy it. By the early 1700’s, meerschaum from Turkey and Africa was beginning to be employed to fashion tobacco pipes. A pipe cleaner can be used to dry out the bowl and, wetted with alcohol, the inner channel. The bowl of the pipe can also become uncomfortably hot, depending on the material and the rate of smoking. For this reason, clay pipes in particular are often held by the stem.
Briar pipes also have the distinction of being uniquely beautiful, and many high-end companies craft gorgeous pipes using this wood. Most often, the tobacco is placed in the pipe bowl and burned by the smoker, who then inhales through the mouthpiece. A lot of pleasant time-wasting, excuse for navel-gazing, and the garlanding of straight nicotine-addiction. Of course, it’s all analogue with a vengeance, though this is half the fun. As the government plans for a smoke-free Britain by 2030, and speaks of the need to promote vaping, part of the appeal is doing something both timeless and untimely. It’s connecting yourself with a habit that goes back centuries, relatively unchanged, and passing (quite literally) the flame.
However, a huge percentage of them are, if not junk, then at least not to be recommended. Purchasing pipes or anything on Ebay can be fun and the possibilities of finding a bargain on a jewel are frequent, but such purchases are best postponed until one has gained the experience to be a savvy buyer. Pipe smoking, as contrasted with cigar and cigarette smoking, is considered a more relaxed and contemplative pursuit. Cigar smokers may dispute this, but I’ve never witnessed a group of pipe smokers standing in a knot in animated discussion, as is common at cigar events.
Clay pipes were once very popular in Ireland, where they were calleddudeens. The stem needs a long channel of constant position and diameter running through it for a proper draw, although filter pipes have varying diameters and can be successfully smoked even without filters or adapters. Because it is molded rather than carved, clay may make up the entire pipe or just the bowl; pipes made of most other materials have stems constructed separately and detachable. Stems and bits of tobacco pipes are usually made of moldable materials like Ebonite, Lucite, Bakelite, or soft plastic. Less common are stems made of reeds, bamboo, or hollowed-out pieces of wood.
It is a matter of experience to determinate the age, but by lack of enough comparable examples this is not easy. Double-sided filter has both ends ceramic that can withstand hot smoke. Single-sided filter has ceramic end to the bowl and plastic end to the stem. Bisgaard Pipes wishes you a nice stay on our website, and we hope that you will find exactly what you need for your best smoking experience. The Chinese call it white copper, but when polished it has the shine of silver. The material is not very sensible to oxidation, but in the course of many years the shine vanishes.
Check out our unique tobacco pipes for sale to find your new favorite smoking pipe. Calabash gourds (usually with meerschaum or porcelain bowls set inside them) have long made prized pipes, but they are labour-intensive and, today, quite expensive. Because of this expense, pipes with bodies made of wood (usually mahogany) instead of gourd, but with the same classic shape, Filling cut tobacco are sold as calabashes. Both wood and gourd pipes are functionally the same (with the important exception that the dried gourd, usually being noticeably lighter, sits more comfortably in the mouth). They consist of a downward curve that ends with an upcurve where the bowl sits. Beneath the bowl is an air chamber which serves to cool, dry, and mellow the smoke.
While both types of blocks can produce pipes of the highest quality, most artisan pipemakers prefer to use plateaux because of their superior graining. Many people think that cigar and pipe smoking is safer than cigarette smoking. The risk of getting cancer from cigar and pipe smoking is lower than it is with cigarettes. But, there is still a higher risk of cancer in cigar and pipe smokers as compared to non-smokers. How high the risk is based on how many pipes/cigars one smokes and how deeply they inhale (breathe in) the smoke. The risks are highest in current cigar and pipe smokers, so quitting does lower your risk.
Patience and perseverance are also necessary to pass through the nearly universal challenge of the beginner’s “ tongue bite” period. Just as with fine liquors and wines, there is a brief period of adjustment required in order to totally appreciate the consumption of fine tobaccos. It is therefore very important that mild, unflavored or Filling cut tobacco lightly flavored tobacco blends that are not too moist be the the choice blend for introduction to the pipe. These two factors alone recommend that a beginning pipe smoker seek advice from an experienced piper when setting out to acquire a first pipe and blend. The first recorded use of meerschaum for making pipes was around 1723.