How did you start smoking pipes?

I started smoking cigars when I was 16, either Muriel Coronella or Optimo Palmas Maduro......years later I really got into some expensive fine cigars. When I was 17 I purchased my first pipe, it was a Yello-Bole Pug.....which I still smoke at times when out between doctors appointments. Three days after smoking my first pipe I purchased 3 more, which still go into my rotation at times👍 For many years I’d smoke both cigars and a few pipes during the course of the day. From 2011 on its now 99% pipes and once in a while a good cigar. Cigars right now don’t fit into my budget since becoming ill. So now a good cigar is a real treat.

If I had to choose between a good cigar or a pipe today......” it’s goodbye cigars “!!!

What do you consider a good cigar? I'd like to pick a couple up and you haven't steered me wrong on pipe tobacco.

I'm pretty sure that about 50 years ago I used a book of matches to start up my first pipe.

I like anything Partagas

I tried a pipe when I was about 19/20 years old with a few CAO blends but was young and did not understand the nature of pipe smoking. I dint understand about taking my time along with many other things that come with the pipe smoking lifestyle.

Fast forward to a time of being older and appreciating slowing down in life and I started thinking about it again. At the same time Cramptholomew messaged me about a pipe, by accident I think but I thought it odd timing as I had been thinking about pipe smoking again. So I started asking him questions and that lead to more questions. Some could be answered, others had to be experienced.

I had my first cigar when I was 8; a Hav-A-Tampa. Took up pipes in 1970 when I turned 18. The owner of the tiny B&M I went to sold me my first "real" pipe, a GBD pot, and introduced me to the world of Dunhill. Bye-bye aros; I was hooked on lat blends. many pipes and blends over the ensuing years and here I am.

   Great having you here👍👍. 
  
   Last September was my 50th year of pipe smoking pleasure. Every time I open a new tin or try a new blend, it’s like when I was a kid in a candy store.

  Enjoy your journey down pipe tobacco road......it’s a long one!!!

I have written this so many times I just can't do it again. If I can find a previous post I will paste it here.

I smoked cigars for several years and then this past fathers day my daughter gave me a churchwarden cob and an ounce of 1q. The 1q got the Spanish archer but the pipe is here to stay. The funny thing is that I had watched pope smokers before and just knew that I didn't want to be one and now I smoke a few cigars but the pipe is preferred. Funny how white happens

Coming from 2 generations of smokers the question was not if I’d smoke but when

Well that ended up blooming late for me as I didn’t pick up cigars until I thought the Mayans were right.

2 years of Black and Milds later and I picked up my first starter kit.

The tobacco was borkum and have been exclusive to that ever since.

Smoked cigs since 14.

In 1994, I think, I bought a pharmacy pipe and some cherry tobacco. I tried, half heartedly. Tongue bite, and acrid cherry smoke killed it.

In 2003, I think, I bought a couple basket pipes (one was a butz choquin bent apple, which WAS a great smoker, and I wish I had it), a tub of SWR and Borkum Riff Whiskey. I hated both, and bought some B&M blends. I like that more. I smoked on and off for a few months, then stopped.

In 2006, I got a couple more basket pipes and some B&M blends, and ordered a tin of 3 P's. Again, on and off for a while. But stopped.

In 2012, I bought a Stanwell 63M as a new -father gift for myself. Again, on and off for a little while.

In 2013, I quit cigs, and all tobacco. Took up vaping instead. I still vape all the time.

In February of this year, I decided to break my pipes out. I did my research, and started ordering proper tobacco from SP. I then started buying eBay estates, and a Pete 303. I joined here, lurked for a while, and then decided to start posting. Well, I'm now up to my eyelids in this hobby! I started MAKING pipes in mid September. This hobby/pastime is spectacular.

I was 14 and I had read Hef smoked a pipe and Mixture 79 so down to the drugstore I went. First day was a cob and a few days later I went back for a slender Dr Grabow black billiard and a black "onyx" Zippo.
I puffed that off and on till I was enjoying my first seasonal layoff back when I was 20. I was back country camping in the Superstition Mountains in AZ. I decided I needed a pipe to smoke around the campfire at night so I went to The Tinderbox in Mesa and got my first "good" pipe, a Peterson and some North Sea Tobacco. The stem turned green a couple of days later and I took it back but instead he gave me a tube of Dunhill Pipe Stem Restorative and a copy of a new book that had just came out called The Ultimate Pipe Book. Anyway that little tube had a Royal Warrant so like with Hef and Mixture 79 if Dunhill was good enough for The Queen it should be good enough for me. I devoured the book and when I got home sent off for every pipe mailer listed and to Tom Dunn and his T.C.O.P.S/The Pipe Smokers Ephemeris. I've been a pipe smoker/collector since.

I bought my first pipe about 35 years ago; somewhere between '82 and '84. At the time, it wasn't any special event; just a different way to try and smoke tobacco. Hence, why I don’t even remember the exact year.

I was in the party store across the street from the university campus. I noticed a token tobacco pipe in the head shop case and bought it on a whim along with a pouch of something. (Like I said, at the time this was not a memorable event for me.) After that, I’d occasionally pick up a couple ounces of whatever bulk store blend caught my eye at the real pipe shop that was a half block from campus. I tried everything from aros to full English. I had no idea what those tin cans where on the shelf, these store made blends had to be better, right?

I do still have that pipe. It’s a small rusticated Dr. Grabow full bent Omega with P-lip. However, it's a no name pipe as it is not stamped Dr. Grabow and does not have a Dr. Grabow logo on the stem. The only stamp is "Imported Briar".

My second pipe, and first good pipe, was bought at a small boutique on Mackinac Island while we were on our honeymoon in the spring of 1987. It was a Jobey partially rusticated Bulldog. The bag of bulk tobacco that I bought with the pipe, led me to discover Malaga Briar Pipe Co. in Royal Oak (Detroit), MI which is where I bought my third pipe in the second half of '87.

I went about 25 years with about a dozen pipes and then the collector gene kicked in. That’s about the time that I started to buy tins instead of store blend bulks, too.

I’ve been smoking cigars for decades. Had to give them up for 10 years because of sinus and allergy issues unrelated to smoking. - One day, for the heck of it, I went into a local cigar lounge. There I enjoyed a pint of locally brewed stout beer and my first cigar in over a decade. No ill effects. I was back in the game !
I first took up the pipe in order to have something to smoke while my newly acquired cigars were resting in my humidor. At home, I only smoke outdoors- and also wanted something I could smoke inside during the coldest months in the winter - without getting complaints from the rest of the family. So, this was another motivation for taking up the pipe.
I enjoy both cigars & pipes. But if I had to choose just one only - it would be the pipe.