When You Buy A New Briar ...

[Pugsley]

Now, I understand there are people who smoke only Virginias or VaPers, and people who smoke nothing but English blends, even those who smoke exclusively aromatics, but for those of you with a more varied tobacco rotation, how do you decide what to smoke in a new briar? I usually break in a new briar with a few bowls of Carter Hall just to get a cake started, but there comes a time when I must choose a path for it. Will I dedicate it to Virginia blends or English? (I won't defile a briar with aromatics, those are for cobs only.) I have a great many pipes, far too many for any rational man to own I'm sure, but the great majority were pre-owned and a simple sniff test tells me what they were used for in their previous life. For the most part I will just continue feeding them what they are accustomed to unless they smell like the inside of a grandmother's purse, in which case it's repeated reaming, cleaning, smoking, and repeat until the ghost has been exorcised. But when I buy a new, unsmoked briar I tend to agonize over what to dedicate it to. I have pipes that I purchased years ago and I still haven't decided what to smoke in them and they sit in their boxes, waiting to begin their useful lives. So, tell me, How do you make these choices? Do you buy a pipe for a specific style or blend? Do you buy the pipe and wait for it to tell you it's purpose? Am I really unhinged as my friends tell me?

[Haebar]

How do I make these choices? It's hard to say how I decide what type of tobacco to smoke in a pipe. It's more of a decision of gut instinct and whatever type of tobacco I am infatuated with at the time I guess. I never start an unsmoked briar on aromatics.

Do you buy a pipe for a specific style or blend? Not really; when I buy a pipe it's because I like the shape, quality of materials and workmanship, and the reputation of the maker.

Do you buy the pipe and wait for it to tell you it's purpose? Exactly!

Am I really unhinged as my friends tell me? No, you just get really involved in your hobbies. If you are unhinged, then I am too.

I like all genres of pipe tobacco as long as they are of good quality. For high quality briars, I smoke only non-aromatic tobaccos in them then later decide if I want to dedicate them to English blends or let them remain for non-aromatics. For cobs, cheaper briars (estate Dr. Grabows, Willard, etc.), cherry wood, Pear wood pipes, and cheaper meerschaums, I may dedicate them to aromatics. An elder sage of our pipe club once advised me to never smoke aromatics; he said they would ruin my pipes and ruin my health. I think the world of him and he may be right (with the additives they put on some aromatics), but I still enjoy an aromatic now and then. I have this three-row pipe rack on the wall by my desk. I use it to segregate my rotation pipes into three categories, non-aromatics, English and aromatics. All this being said, sometimes the system fails and I smoke a different type of tobacco in a "dedicated" pipe. Most of the time I can't tell the difference. The exception is some Lakeland tobaccos with the Tonquin smell/taste and other additives; often I can detect this in subsequent bowls of a different type. I once had a pipe dedicated to only cherry aromatics but have lost track of that pipe in recent years.

[BryGuySC]

Well, I don't think I can add anything to @Haebar 's answer!
I'll just say I try to break them in with a mild Virginia.

[Pugsley]

I just received a new, unsmoked Il Ceppo bent Rhodesian that I bought on Ebay. A beautiful pipe, and I thought I heard it whisper "English", but it didn't repeat it and I may have mis-heard. So it will wait until I'm sure.

[Cool Breeze]

I usually break a new one in with a Virginia or Vaper.

After that, anything goes (almost).
I'll smoke most anything in a briar. The exceptions are Lakelands and I have also found that SG Brown No. 4 tends to ghost badly as well.

[Bruck]

I'll smoke any tobacco in any pipe. Keeping track is too much like work I've had some ghosting, but no big deal - it usually only lasts a few puffs.

[OnePyroTec]

I'll smoke any tobacco in any pipe. Keeping track is too much like work I've had some ghosting, but no big deal - it usually only lasts a few puffs.

Can't add a thing here, this is my train of thought also.

[Emperor Zurg]

I'll smoke any tobacco in any pipe. Keeping track is too much like work I've had some ghosting, but no big deal - it usually only lasts a few puffs.

Same here. If a blend smokes particularly nice in a particular pipe, I'll tend to smoke that blend in said pipe whenever I reach for said blend. Follow that? But I by no means reserve any pipe for any specific blend.

I usually avoid aromatics of the PG saturated variety but when I do reach for one of those it's a cob for sure.

I like your pipe collection; straight billiards all the way and no bullsh!t. Very functional.

[Haebar]

Same here. If a blend smokes particularly nice in a particular pipe, I'll tend to smoke that blend in said pipe whenever I reach for said blend. Follow that? But I by no means reserve any pipe for any specific blend.

I usually avoid aromatics of the PG saturated variety but when I do reach for one of those it's a cob for sure.



I like your pipe collection; straight billiards all the way and no bullsh!t. Very functional.

Thank you! I do prefer straights and the billiard is my favorite shape. I also like bulldogs and sometimes pots.

[Bruck]

Can't add a thing here, this is my train of thought also.

The one caveat I would add is, I've got a few seriously strong tobaccos - nicotainia rustica, tambolaka, periques, etc. - which I only smoke in my mini pipes.