How do you dedicate your pipes?

[LandonColby]

I don't dedicate anything. I pretty much know what I like so if there's a little ghost in my pipe after smoking a stronger blend I don't really care (most of the blends I smoke are Va forward blends anyway, I don't care if it's Va/VaPer/VaBur/VaPerBur or whatever the hell the condiment tobaccos are. Maybe 20-30% are english). Kinda like eating a nice juicy burger and some of the drippings fall on your fries..I certainly wont fuss about that!

As Paul said originally, I'm one of the people who wont smoke an aro in any of my pipes though. If it's an aro I'll bust out a cob for that.

[mooster]

I would have agreed with that as recently as last fall, but I'm starting to rethink my ideas on 'dedication', most likely as a reaction to my current approach of smoking just one tin at a time. I have a rotation of about ten pipes right now, as I smoke about ten bowls a week. When I switch from, say, Hal o' the Wynd to Hamborger Veermaster, that first bowl of the lighter HV doesn't taste anything like it's supposed to because of the HOTW. By the second bowl, it tastes fine; Virginia ghosts aren't noted for their strength! However, with ten pipes, hell, I've just wasted half the tin of HV to get the pipes ready for the second half. It just doesn't seem to make much sense anymore.

[Aguineapig]

I just designate approximately. For example, yesterday I smoked a cob that I normally smoke Virginias and VaPers in, but with C&D Pegasus. I burn burleys like that occasionally in that pipe, just because they smoke so well in it. I've never noticed any crossover or anything. A little dark Burley flavor from one of those C&D burleys, though, wouldn't exactly bother me if they came through in a Virginia or something. I do have some pipes that I'm more stringent about, but for the most part, if it seems like a good idea (blend+pipe combo), I just go for it.

[NeverBend]

I do and don't dedicate.

I smoke Virginia (flake) >90% of the time and once I'm familiar with and like a tobacco I tend to rotate them in my venerated smooth smokers without too much internal debate, so they're basically dedicated to these types of tobaccos.

Virginia with higher acid levels or non-Virginias (latakia) I smoke in sandblasts or rusticated and I do differentiate based on how the pipe smokes.

Pipes that I'm auditioning tend to get a wider variety of tobacco based on their shape, finish and size. I have made the mistake of trying some poor tobaccos in some of my front line pipes and neither of us appreciated it.

I know that some folks like to smoke specific tobaccos in specific pipes. I've found that not to be necessary as long as the mixture is of the same type, meaning that a VA/Lat flake isn't the same as a 100% VA flake. I smoke any Gawith (Sam or Hoggarth) in the same pipes but never Lancer's Slices.