Comfort of a pipe

[Ron LaClair]

Another original pipe that I've had for years. You can smoke when you're turkey hunting, turkeys can't smell you.

 

[tenngun]

What a story. I have some of my dads pipes and oft hear his stories and little jokes while I smoking.Alden may be right and its of an age to retire, but I would not want to retire any of my dads. I do smoke my antique clays and take them on the trail alot. Maybe its foolosh as they can not be replaced,however they were ment to bring joy to thier owners and they still do that job well.

 

[Loyalist Dave]

I'm not so sure about the "sanitary" mindset of the longer stems. It wasn't until the Crimean War or thereafter we even started to sanitize operating instruments when the germ theory came into popular culture.

CORRECT

This is one of those living history myths that won't die... folks knew they trimmed off the tips of tavern pipes, which were often lent or let by the tavern to the smoker, but didn't know why, and somebody thought, "Ah, it must be to avoid germs," which made sense to the 20th century mind...so it has stuck.

Actually, it was probably done to avoid "odd" flavors left by the mouth of the previous user on the stem of the pipe.

LD

 

[Ron LaClair]

Actually, it was probably done to avoid "odd" flavors left by the mouth of the previous user on the stem of the pipe.

They could of dipped the stem in a mug of rum to sterilize it. :idunno:

 

[bpd303]

I actually dip mine in Irish whiskey adds to the flavor & enjoyment.

 

[Loyalist Dave]

They could of dipped the stem in a mug of rum to sterilize it

Well, again, they're not trying to get rid of germs, so not sterilizing anything. :wink:

They may have dipped a pipe tip in spirits, nobody suggests they didn't do that too... but when drinking beer or wine, wouldn't change the taste much.

LD

 

[tenngun]

While they did not know about germs they did know about the cleaning aspects of wine, honey, and distilled products. Mouths have a lot of bugs but in general swapping saliva, from kissing to sharing cups, or pipe stems isn't much of a danger. While people are happy to kiss, even back then people wanted their own bowl, spoon and cup, and clean spot on a stem.

 

[Rick Boylan]

I actually dip mine in Irish whiskey adds to the flavor & enjoyment.

Now there's an idea I will try. My clay with a long reed stem will be a perfect case study in this experiment. :hatsoff:

I'll get myself a shot of Jamison poured out when next I take my pipe out for a relaxing bowl.

 

[Alden]

CORRECT

This is one of those living history myths that won't die... folks knew they trimmed off the tips of tavern pipes, which were often lent or let by the tavern to the smoker...

LD

They knew full well that touching things from sick people caused illness, like passing on a cold from kissing or infecting F&I War enemy natives with the blankets of small-pox victims, a disease Washington had the Continental Army INNOCULATED against, so, give them (and us) a little more credit Dave.

Whereas they added alcohol to water to make it safer to drink as well, no, sterilizing a pipe from germs in strong alcohol would probably not have been on the menu, hence...

...the long-stemmed tavern pipe.

 

[Stumpkiller]

Actually, it was probably done to avoid "odd" flavors left by the mouth of the previous user on the stem of the pipe.

They could of dipped the stem in a mug of rum to sterilize it. :idunno:

I do the same thing. But with my tongue instead or the pipe stem. ;-)

 

[Loyalist Dave]

They knew full well that touching things from sick people caused illness, like passing on a cold from kissing or infecting F&I War enemy natives with the blankets of small-pox victims, a disease Washington had the Continental Army INNOCULATED against, so, give them (and us) a little more credit Dave.

Whereas they added alcohol to water to make it safer to drink as well, no, sterilizing a pipe from germs in strong alcohol would probably not have been on the menu, hence...

...the long-stemmed tavern pipe.

That's fine conjecture and a gratuitous assumption... considering that it was a highly educated, Swiss born general in the British army that contemplated using the infected blankets, and another highly educated man who ordered the inoculations.... I know of a reference where they thought ginger purified water (which it didn't) which shows that they "knew" some things that weren't correct cause-and-effect, but I'm not familiar with a reference where "they" knew to add sufficient alcohol to purify water....perhaps you can supply the reference, and show how it was such common knowledge that the universal "they" may be applied? "They" were digging ground water wells downhill from latrines until an army surgeon convinced them to reverse locations. The civilian population continue to dig wells near barns where the runoff from the animals' dung heap would find its way into the water...until soldiers returned who knew better.

By-the-way the saliva from a pipe smoker goes several inches along the inside of the stem, so nipping off the tip of the tavern pipe that was actually within the smoker's mouth, didn't actually prevent transmission of a cold from the previous smoker...

..., and if "they" knew this so well, then how does one explain the custom of "lets all drink from one glass" ?


LD

 

[Vaino]

Started smoking a pipe at 16 and hid it from my parents by using a water proof bag and hiding it in the woods. Buying the tobacco wasn't difficult because I was very tall for my age.
Anyways when 17 I was allowed to "openly"
smoke my pipe.

In 1985 at 53 yrs old, decided to quit smoking my pipe and really psyched myself for the exact time of quitting. Immediately after quitting, went on a strict diet and the hunger for food was greater than the "hunger" to smoke, so never even thought of smoking again....it was gone.

How did I psyche myself into quitting? Outside of the "talk" of lung cancer, the idea of putting a "pacifier" in my mouth, like a baby, made me feel foolish and I never liked feeling foolish.

Anyways, it worked and from the day I quit, never took a puff or really had a yen to smoke. My food didn't taste any better nor did it help w/ my coughing....I didn't cough anyways. Where it did do some good, was mentally....another step in fully controlling my life......Fred

 

[tenngun]

Most good pipe tobaccos are light in nicotine, so your quiting did not represent a drug withdraw like quiting ciggerites. Myself I don't plan on quiting this side of the grave. I do go sometimes two or three days without a smoke, and no shakes or nervousness.
To L D we sometimes confuse the wrong knowledge with lack of knowledge. Just a few years ago we would put people with treatment related coagulation problems with heperin an anti coagulant. The idea was to interrupt the coag cycle and let it reset... Didn't work. Likewise we used to put spinal injuries on steroid infusions. All that did was drive up blood sugars and make healing harder. I remember a Star Trek show where doctor Macoy complained about 20th century medicine where people were cut "like pieces of cloth". Even the uneducated did things they thought would be cleaner and healthier. Even after 2000 years Galen offered a lot of good advice.

 

[Billnpatti]

For many years I smoked cigarettes, about a pack a day. Then for whatever reason, I switched to a pipe and smoked them for several more years. Then I "discovered" cigars. It was love at first puff. It was as if that was what I had been searching for when I was smoking cigarettes and a pipe. Yep, I inhaled every puff. Then, one day my toddler son ran up to me and accidently stuck his face on the lit end of my cigar. It scared the life out of me. I thought I had blinded him. Fortunately the cigar had struck him between the eyes and he suffered only small burn to his forehead. At that moment I knew that I did not need to do something that could injure one of my babies. I threw that unfinished cigar away and the next day, I took the cigars remaining in the nearly full box to work and gave them to a friend. From that to this I have never smoked another thing....and I never missed it. I decided that I was not going to be crazy enough to put leaves in my face and set them on fire so that I could breathe the toxic fumes. It no longer made any sense to me.

 

[Rick Boylan]

Here is a picture of my pipes. The only one I've smoked so far is the little briar pipe. It's a dandy.

I'm waiting for the weather to warm a bit before I take the clay's out and try them.

[/URL][/img]
I hope the picture works.

 

[Rick Boylan]

I got it to work finally. Yahoo.

 

[tenngun]

Little cobbs like that need a lot of care to smoke. any pipe that short care needs to be taken least you get all your smoke right under your nose. With short pipe I like a small light breeze comming off my side. Looks like many hours of joy waiting for you come spring. Although I have to say cold ait and warm wool combinded with Gods great winter wonder land is well enjoyed with a good smoke :wink:

 

[Loyalist Dave]

OR...
Because I don't like the smoke that hot from such a short stem... I cut off the stem at the bowl...then I use the awl attachment on my Swiss Army knife to widen the small hole in the remaining piece a bit... then I take a replacement reed stem from a clay bowl pipe, and cone it in a pencil sharpener, which is then inserted into the wooded bit that used to be the stem, and voila... a long stemmed, corncob pipe. When that little corncob burns out, do it again.

LD

 

[tenngun]

Boy that sounds better then my tieing the pipe Im smoking to the weather :grin:

 

[spudnut]

Bill: Can you clarify? You mean, like, you put the pipe into the campfire or the fireplace?

The pipe that is so foul within
reminds us our souls are stained with sin
It doth require the purging fire
Think of this when you smoke tobacco
(old traditional)