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current pipe tobacco status: I found some Sunset Harbor Flake I forgot I ordered and it’s hitting the spot. Gives me a little time to start building another order with all the recommendations I’ve received - they all seem like great suggestions. One more step on the march towards smokingpipes gold VIP status.
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Mar 6, 2024 21:24
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I found a fun little video that I think this thread might enjoy: https://youtu.be/iPYUwVZ0kq4?si=HHPGejk6-TAQ7rn2 I’m only about ten minutes in so hopefully it doesn’t get weird E: oh poo poo I really want a Disneyland branded table lighter NewFatMike fucked around with this message at 23:34 on Apr 20, 2024 |
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Apr 20, 2024 23:18
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NewFatMike posted:I found a fun little video that I think this thread might enjoy: I wonder how much an unopened tin of that Disneyland Special Blend would go for today. I imagine it was probably some burley-forward blend in the vein of Edgeworth RR or Sugar Barrel.
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Apr 22, 2024 09:35
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 Playing around on a brisk morning with the very first pipe I ever bought, 20 years ago today. It’s a Brylon (artificial briar) Yellow-Bole billiard. I hadn’t a clue about pipe shapes OR materials, much less how to pack and light it and keep it going. Finishing off a bowl of Early Morning Pipe, made by Peterson instead of my dearly-departed Dunhill tins. Edit, why not?:  My latest pipe, a Missouri Meerschaum Cobbit Dwarf. Same EMP, which goes wonderfully after eggs, sausage, and toast (the dog gets the last bite of everything!) and a pot of coffee with Bailey’s crème liquor. Sorry for subjecting y’all to me in the morning, but the Cigar & Pipe threads were my favorite posting holes and I miss the days when you could F5  and the threads were active enough to read and learn something new about fine tobaccos and stories from Flyinglemur and Canadian Cuban cigar store adventures from PT6A. Humor an old man.
DerekSmartymans fucked around with this message at 15:57 on Apr 23, 2024 |
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Apr 23, 2024 15:33
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Cleaned out my meerschaum lined snifter on my Falcon today. It was getting pretty grody in there, so I decided to try some pipe cleaners and blue shop towels with vodka to get the crunge off, and it worked out great. I made sure to run through with some dry towels and pipe cleaners after to make sure nothing got pulled in since I’m trying to get stuff out. I give it a good wipe down after it’s cooled down after each smoke, so I’m glad I found a good solution for my periodic cleanings. Worked like a charm, the Ennerdale is tasting so fresh. I feel like once a year something about pipes becomes less mysterious or clicks into place for me. I don’t think they’ll top cigars for me, but I sure am enjoying these a lot more than I was three years ago, or really seven years ago when I bought my first pipe.
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May 17, 2024 19:30
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NewFatMike posted:I feel like once a year something about pipes becomes less mysterious or clicks into place for me. same. Did you clean it up to the point where the bowl interior was white again, or just get all the cake buildup out of it? I have one meerschaum I’m probably not taking good care of and could use some tips.
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May 17, 2024 20:09
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Meerschaum shouldn’t build up any cake at all, ever. The only way you should be able to tell an older, well-used meerschaum is by the change in color via tobacco oils and the natural oils on your hands/fingers where you hold the bowl.
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May 17, 2024 21:05
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Empty Pockets posted:same. Did you clean it up to the point where the bowl interior was white again, or just get all the cake buildup out of it? I have one meerschaum I’m probably not taking good care of and could use some tips. Nope, just cleared the gunk out. It was still darkened on the interior. It was back to being a uniform texture. DerekSmartymans posted:Meerschaum shouldn’t build up any cake at all, ever. The only way you should be able to tell an older, well-used meerschaum is by the change in color via tobacco oils and the natural oils on your hands/fingers where you hold the bowl. I think it’s just dark residue that builds up that looks like cake because cake is…another dark residue that builds up with use. Cake won’t come off with a pipe cleaner and hot water, the crud in meerschaum can. I went for vodka and it worked out alright, but just from looking online it seems like a bunch of folks go with hot water and bent in half pipe cleaners for their deeper periodic cleaning.
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May 17, 2024 21:11
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NewFatMike posted:Nope, just cleared the gunk out. It was still darkened on the interior. It was back to being a uniform texture. This is likely what they were referring to as cake. It just scared me for a bit be I don’t know how you would even start to build actual cake in a meerschaum bowl 🥲. I hope I didn’t come off like an rear end, more a concerned meerschaum owner 👴🏻
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May 17, 2024 21:14
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I will absolutely cop to reading that when you told me the same thing and reacting with, “this guy is telling me not to believe my lying eyes??” I think it’s probably a common misidentification because you’re supposed to look out for cake in briars and this doesn’t really have a name. I’d probably just leave it at “it’s not cake, it’s meerschaum pipe crud, definitely clean it off because meerschaum can’t build cake like a briar and it tastes bad” 
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May 17, 2024 21:21
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NewFatMike posted:I will absolutely cop to reading that when you told me the same thing and reacting with, “this guy is telling me not to believe my lying eyes??”  Yeah, you can absolutely get dottle/crud in your meerschaum or calabash, but for God’s sake clean it out after you smoke it through!
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May 17, 2024 22:48
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I guess it’s time to quibble to the death then because I had always heard not that meerschaum is incapable of developing a cake, but that you must not allow it to because the thermal expansion behavior can damage the pipe, and there’s no good reason to do it anyway because meerschaum doesn’t need it the way a briar pipe does. My personal experience seems to support this, after a few weeks of smoking (during which time I’ll at least clear the dottle and give the bowl a quick wipe after each smoke) I’ll use my tsuge reamer to scrape down the bowl and what I get out of it sure looks and behaves like the same carbonized buildup I see in my other pipes.
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May 18, 2024 15:26
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Yeah, I think one of the things that has made pipe smoking difficult for me in the past was that secretly everything is “no rules just right”. Everyone smokes different, there’s a ton of variables, so what works for one person may not for another. Wild poo poo because pipes and cigars have a reputation for lots of rules, ritual, and “doing it right” when you’ve really got best practices in the strongest case I think I wasted a bunch of time and good tobacco trying to do exactly what internet people or even pipe shop people said when I should have been less afraid to experiment.
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May 18, 2024 16:20
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NewFatMike posted:I think I wasted a bunch of time and good tobacco trying to do exactly what internet people or even pipe shop people said when I should have been less afraid to experiment. 100% agree, the only advice that seems to hold up is “don’t smoke it so fast.” I’ve discovered the truth of that at least 6-8 times now and I’m still trying to slow down.
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May 18, 2024 23:55
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The one thing I don’t like about pipe smoking is that the tobaccos I really like are also the most punishing for quick smoking: Virginias. I end up taking longer than I do with most cigars and I’ll still get tongue bite, which discourages me. Edit: it typically takes me around an hour thirty to smoke a 1926 No 47, which is a Toro. So I’m not a quick smoker to begin with. ThatOneGuy fucked around with this message at 02:34 on May 19, 2024 |
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May 19, 2024 02:31
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I’m a mega quick smoker. Falcon pipes with the little rings and meerschaum bowls really seem to have been able to keep up with dottle and condensate for me. I’ve been finding packing techniques that work well and letting myself take my time more often lately, it’s just a different way of smoking from cigars that’s taken some on again off again for me to figure out. Not buying ten gazillion new tins all the time has really helped, too. I’ve been smoking basically just Ennerdale and Bob’s Chocolate flake, so I’m getting to know the flavors well. I’ve really struggled with how many variables there are. The tobacco, the pack, the pipe, and every single one is its own rabbit hole. I kinda wish I hadn’t looked anything up on the internet in the first place and kinda struggled it out instead. It might explain why all the happiest pipe smokers on forums have been doing it since like the 70s
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May 19, 2024 16:38
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NewFatMike posted:I’ve been smoking basically just Ennerdale and Bob’s Chocolate flake Thought you might like this from my email today!
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May 19, 2024 19:33
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| # ? May 21, 2024 21:32 |
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Oh dang that was a great video! I saw your post as soon as I finished a bowl, so I packed one more to go with it. I certainly agree about the quality of the tobacco involved — I think a lot of mass market manufacturers maybe use toppings to cover or supplement tobacco, where with Gawith and Hoggarth it really comes through how high quality the leaf is in the first place. I’m extremely tempted to pick up that Clarin Cutty clay pipe, it’s only $66…
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May 19, 2024 20:45
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