The pipe

[BlackHoleSon]

To accompany the cigar thread... Any older folks here still into the pipe? You don't see it much these days, if at all. Maybe a couple times a year you will spot an older gentleman puffing a pipe.

A few days ago I broke down and bought one (cause of the great price and flavors the tobacco comes in) and am happy about it for sure! Coming from cigars (and always have despised cigarettes) it was a lot more calm, gentle, and took a lot less long to properly puff on. The smell and flavor are to die for... I can smoke it indoors and it leaves the room smelling better than it did before.



(posting picture knowing good and well I'll take a hit or two for the hair and the shirt... I don't mind, I ain't a sissy!)

It's made in Italy, I think the bowl is cherrywood but I might be wrong.

Anyone else around here tangle with the pipe still, or used to?

[Triumph Rider]

Nice looking pipe. I can almost smell the tobacco. I used to smoke a pipe regularly, but don't smoke anything now. I love the smell of almost all pipe tobacco and enjoyed the feel of the warm bowl in my hand - comforting somehow. I can't remember the last time I saw someone smoking one. Properly filling the bowl, tamping it just right so it will stay lit may be becoming a lost art. Good for you for keeping it alive.

And I won't say anything about your shirt or hair as long as you have the Remington.

[BlackHoleSon]

. Properly filling the bowl, tamping it just right so it will stay lit may be becoming a lost art. Good for you for keeping it alive.

And I won't say anything about your shirt or hair as long as you have the Remington.

I feel the same way... What happened to men?

Yeah it's right over here, right beside me.

[Dorkface]

Get a haircut hippie!!!

You knew I had to say it lolol.

[WalkerAK74M]

Love the shirt.... Last time I smoked a pipe was at my last Civil War reenactment... Twas a corncob pipe with cherry flavored baccy...

[BillyOblivion]

To accompany the cigar thread... Any older folks here still into the pipe? You don't see it much these days, if at all. Maybe a couple times a year you will spot an older gentleman puffing a pipe.

Put it down and walk away. Unless you're already a nicotine addict there's not a fucking thing a pipe will do for you that you need.

It doesn't make you look older, wiser, more distinguished or smarter. It does make your mouth taste like an ashtray, so most women who don't smoke will kiss you good night and not return your phone calls. Unless you're hung like an M1 tank, and if you are, why bother with affectations.

I smoked for 20 years. Pipes, Cigars and cigarettes. I quit almost 8 years ago and *still* miss them about once a week. I promised myself when I stopped that it was only until I retired, that when I got "old" I would start up again and I'm *still* looking forward to that day. That's how bad nicotine has it's hooks into me.

And yes, as a pipe smoker you will get nicotine in your system. You will get to the point where you go outside (because you can't smoke inside a lot of places) in pouring rain and freezing weather for a puff. Your clothes and your house (and your car if you smoke in it) will reek of tobacco smoke.

Note as this point I haven't said ONE WORD about what it's going to do to your body. You're 19, and you're invincible. You're not going to worry about mouth and lip cancer (and lung cancer if you wind up being one of those pipe smokers who inhales) and that's fine as most smokers don't get cancer. Most *do* get chronic bronchitis, which severely cuts down on your wind, but that's mostly from cigarettes, and you won't inhale, right?

But you *do* get lots of nicotine. Nicotine is great. It suppresses appetite, so you stay skinny. You also don't get enough protein (unless you work really hard at it) to build the musculature you're going to want and need when you're in late middle age and still want to be able to fight. Also it fucks up your spine, neck and joint cartilage making your knees hurt and causing back and neck problems.

Nicotine, pharmacologically, is a seratonin (and IIRC opate) uptake inhibitor, meaning that while you're on it you feel a LOT better, and when levels drop in your body you're moody and a bitch to live with--because you're fucking around with your brain chemistry. If you're ADD, or have other problems that one would normally get prescribed an SSRI for, this may be a way of managing the problem for a while, if you're a marginal or borderline case. OTOH, it means that when for some reason you have to quit you're going to have it twice as bad until your chemistry gets straightened out.

Oh, and nicotine is a vascular constrictor (this is how nicotine fucks up cartilage, it reduces capillary blood flow into the areas surrounding the cartilage which "starves" it of fresh fluid and nutrition--as cartilage doesn't have much/any other transport mechanism) meaning that it also reduces the flow of blood (and nutrients) to your extremities (your hands and feet will get colder quicker etc.).

Ultimately, unless your brain chemistry is fucked up, there isn't much upside, and the downsides are pretty serious. I'd REALLY suggest you not go there.

I'm not really that anti-smoking overall--I intend to start again some day, at the end of my life. If you want to smoke go for it, it's your life.

But it is a really dumb thing to do.

[WalkerAK74M]

Put it down and walk away. Unless you're already a nicotine addict there's not a fucking thing a pipe will do for you that you need.

It doesn't make you look older, wiser, more distinguished or smarter. It does make your mouth taste like an ashtray, so most women who don't smoke will kiss you good night and not return your phone calls. Unless you're hung like an M1 tank, and if you are, why bother with affectations.

I smoked for 20 years. Pipes, Cigars and cigarettes. I quit almost 8 years ago and *still* miss them about once a week. I promised myself when I stopped that it was only until I retired, that when I got "old" I would start up again and I'm *still* looking forward to that day. That's how bad nicotine has it's hooks into me.

And yes, as a pipe smoker you will get nicotine in your system. You will get to the point where you go outside (because you can't smoke inside a lot of places) in pouring rain and freezing weather for a puff. Your clothes and your house (and your car if you smoke in it) will reek of tobacco smoke.

Note as this point I haven't said ONE WORD about what it's going to do to your body. You're 19, and you're invincible. You're not going to worry about mouth and lip cancer (and lung cancer if you wind up being one of those pipe smokers who inhales) and that's fine as most smokers don't get cancer. Most *do* get chronic bronchitis, which severely cuts down on your wind, but that's mostly from cigarettes, and you won't inhale, right?

But you *do* get lots of nicotine. Nicotine is great. It suppresses appetite, so you stay skinny. You also don't get enough protein (unless you work really hard at it) to build the musculature you're going to want and need when you're in late middle age and still want to be able to fight. Also it fucks up your spine, neck and joint cartilage making your knees hurt and causing back and neck problems.

Nicotine, pharmacologically, is a seratonin (and IIRC opate) uptake inhibitor, meaning that while you're on it you feel a LOT better, and when levels drop in your body you're moody and a bitch to live with--because you're fucking around with your brain chemistry. If you're ADD, or have other problems that one would normally get prescribed an SSRI for, this may be a way of managing the problem for a while, if you're a marginal or borderline case. OTOH, it means that when for some reason you have to quit you're going to have it twice as bad until your chemistry gets straightened out.

Oh, and nicotine is a vascular constrictor (this is how nicotine fucks up cartilage, it reduces capillary blood flow into the areas surrounding the cartilage which "starves" it of fresh fluid and nutrition--as cartilage doesn't have much/any other transport mechanism) meaning that it also reduces the flow of blood (and nutrients) to your extremities (your hands and feet will get colder quicker etc.).

Ultimately, unless your brain chemistry is fucked up, there isn't much upside, and the downsides are pretty serious. I'd REALLY suggest you not go there.

I'm not really that anti-smoking overall--I intend to start again some day, at the end of my life. If you want to smoke go for it, it's your life.

But it is a really dumb thing to do.

Woo.... Great speech. Lets just cut out all of our vices... Booze, tobacco, fast cars, cool guns, tasty food... I mean every single one of those things can kill us. Who cares? This is the Warrior Bon Vivant thread... We aren't talking chain smoking a pipe full of meth here... Live a little. That's what separates us from the liberals and PC sheeple types... Need versus want, Rolex vs Timex, Marlboro vs Romeo y Julieta, Moonshine vs Cognac, Yugo vs Ferrari, Etc....

[Shdwdncr]

Put it down and walk away. <snip> It doesn't make you look older, wiser, more distinguished or smarter...

I couldn't agree more.

Sebastian, you seem to be a smart and mature young man. I usually enjoy reading your posts and I believe that you have a good head on your shoulders.
But if I didn't know you and you came to me looking for employment or wanting to date my daughter I would show you the door in half a heart beat.

Brother, get a freaking haircut and lose that ridiculous t-shirt and I'm sure more people would take you seriously.

S.

[Netpackrat]

I agree entirely with BillyOblivion and Shdwdncr... It's just not worth the risk of saddling yourself with a nasty addiction at such a young age. The various cancers that can result are pretty %^*$ing horrible, too. As for the hair, it almost looks as though you are trying to look like Che Guevara... Is that really what you want?

[SPQR476]

On the tangent: Ditch the shirt, get a haircut. Anyone who doesn't summarily dismiss you based on the totality of that "look" isn't worth talking to.

On the original topic: Yes. I have a flat panel Dublin Meerschaum. I only smoke about a half dozen times a year, give or take. I prefer a mix of roughly 1/2 Virginia bright and 1/2 Cavendish, usually with a touch of Perique thrown in, depending ony mood and the nature of the accompanying spirit, if any. Meerschaum has some drawbacks to a briar or other wood pipe, but you don't have to "cake" or break it in, and it allows you to switch tobaccos without any residual flavors from the previous batch.

I find myself adding more Perique with something on the sweeter side like a mccallen or balvenie, and less with the smokier, peatier scotches, like talisker on the light side or laughvalin on the heavier side.

Pipe smoking leaves a much improved "after taste" the next day over cigars, but it teaches you patience....smoke too fast, and you can burn your tongue.