(obviously directed to doper smokers 
)
Going over some of my older threads I came across this
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=266355&highlight=churchwarden
and wondered how my fellow dopers enjoyed their first pipe smoking experience.
We’re talking tobacco here and not <ahem> other interesting combustibles?
I was a cigarette smoker and had gotten to the point I got no enjoyment to speak of from cig smoking, but I still craved the nicotine. Bought a briar, a tamping and scraping tool, some pipe cleaners (hey, these look like those things we used to use in kindergarten, called…um…pipe cleaners…oh never mind), and a bag of Revelation pipe tobacco.
It was hard for me to get used to the notion that I should not inhale the smoke.
All in all, it was quite nice when I started, considerably less nice once the pipe began to accumulate gooey tobacco resins and baked-in cruds. Pipe cleaners can only do so much. After a bit I learned that you need a collection of pipes and you rotate them so they can dry out a bit.
Pipe smoking didn’t break me of cigarette smoking although it reduced it somewhat. And I was inhaling some of the pipe smoke and worrying that it might be significantly worse for my lungs. It seemed thicker, richer, a lot smokier.
When I quit, I took all my pipes and pipe tobacco, plus what was left of my cigarette supply, out back, doused it all with gasoline, and lit it. Bye bye. That was 1984 and I haven’t smoked tobacco in any form since.
I had been smoking cigars for about a year when I tried my first pipe. Getting to the point of lighting up took getting past a few mental hurdles. First, I didn’t really know what to look for in a pipe, and spent some time looking at the rack in my cigar store without wanting to admit I was lost. Finally I admitted my ignorance and the store’s “pipe guy” helped me pick out a decent briar. He threw in a pipe tool and some pipe cleaners and a bag of one of the custom mixes they sell to help me get started.
When I got home I found that I felt a little foolish lighting it up. I’ve always been comfortable lighting up a cigar when I’m around people I know won’t mind, but going through the preparation of the pipe just seemed pretentious, somehow. I ended up smoking the first few bowls in private just because I didn’t want to look stupid.
I’ve kept at it though because I really do like the particular taste of a pipe. In retrospect I know that I smoked the first few bowls too hot because I was trying to keep it lit, but I’ve developed a rythm now and it doesn’t take so much attention as it did at first. I’ve never cared for flavored cigars, but I find I like the flavors of pipe tobacco. I still only own two pipes, but I’m going on a trip to the Middle East next week and I have it in mind to see if I can find a third pipe there. Maybe something in a Meerschaum.
Curate