A Pipe of Tobacco by Isaac Hawkins Browne

A PIPE OF TOBACCO

Little tube of mighty power,

Charmer of an idle hour,

Object of my warm desire,

Lip of wax, and eye of fire;

And thy snowy taper waist,

With my finger gently braced;

And thy pretty swelling crest,

With my little stopper pressed,

And the sweetest bliss of blisses,

Breathing from they balmy kisses.

Happy thrice and thrice again,

Happiest he of happy men.

Who when again the night returns,

When again the taper burns;

When again the cricket's gay

(Little cricket, full of play),

Can afford his tube to feed

With the fragrant Indian weed;

Pleasure for a nose divine,

Incense of the god of wine.

Happy thrice, and thrice again

Happiest he of happy men.

-Isaac Hawkins Browne (1736)

8 easy steps on how to smoke a pipe

The art of pipe smoking is the oldest form of tobacco use, and the one most often overlooked by the modern smoker. In this day and age of instant gratification and fast-paced living, replete with instant coffee and five-minute cigarettes, the pipe remains a comforting bulwark against the general flow. Pipe smoking is a remarkably challenging, yet extremely rewarding hobby for those with patience, and can easily be regarded as the most sophisticated form of smoking.

1. Find a pipe that suits you. Tobacconists are more than happy to help you find your perfect pipe. Prices can vary from cheap to a small fortune.

2. Experiment with different tobaccos in order to find a preference. There are many varieties of pipe tobacco, including Aromatics, American blends, English blends, Virginias, Burleys, amongst others. A tobacconist will be able to help advise you on their individual characteristics. People completely new to smoking may enjoy an aromatic or lighter tobacco, while on the other hand a habitual cigarette or cigar smoker might prefer a heavier blend. Buy small amounts representing several different styles.

3. Pack the pipe. Fill the pipe loosely with tobacco and compress it lightly. Compressed halfway from the bottom of the bowl to the top. Fill again to the top and compress with a little more force. This time halfway from the top of the previous packing to the top. Now top it off and compress a bit harder. Again half way from the last point to the top. It must not be so dense as to prevent air from being drawn through the pipe; you should be able to draw air through with little or no resistance. The tobacco should be springy to the touch. It's best to have your tobacconist or an experienced pipe smoker demonstrate. Correct packing takes practice, and has a major impact on how enjoyable your experience will be.

4. Light the pipe with a wooden match or a butane pipe lighter. If using a match, let the sulfur burn off for a few seconds. Move the flame around the surface of the tobacco while drawing gently until evenly lit, then tamp it gently with a tamper. Let it go out, then relight the same way.

5. Puff slowly and rhythmically. Patience is rewarded with aroma and a cool smoke. Puffing too fast will result in tongue bite - a burning sensation on the tongue.

6. Tamp the tobacco gently and periodically throughout the smoke to ensure the bowl remains correctly packed while smoking. Don't worry if the pipe goes out from time to time. Simply relight, after the pipe has cooled.

7. Make sure you smoke your pipe to the end to create a nice 'cake' (layer of carbon deposits) at the bottom and side of your pipe bowl.

8. Relax and enjoy. Pipe smoking is the quintessential art of smoking.

Source: wikiHow

Here is a youtube video I found which shows the steps. Enjoy! 

Your First Pipe

Let’s clear something up right out of the gate here — no one is going to think you look cool for smoking a tobacco pipe. To the contrary, unless you’re old enough to have fired a few rounds in Word War II, most people will probably think you look like an asshole. And if they don’t, they’re probably assholes.

So let’s say I’ve convinced you to give the pipe a try. Now what? All it takes to become a cigarette smoker is a trip to a gas station or convenience store and a few days of lung “training” (ie, destruction). Taking up the tobacco pipe is a bit like taking up skiing. Before you can hit to the slopes, you need equipment.

Pipes are fairly simple constructions. As with anything, you get what you pay for, but the differential in quality between a $20 pipe and $300 pipe is relatively small – these aren’t violins. Aside from visual aesthetics, when you buy an expensive pipe you are largely paying for two luxuries: weight and temperature. Pricey pipes tend to be lighter than cheaper pipes. They also tend to burn cooler to the touch. Both of these are relevant, as they will dangle from your face. Weight is more of a personal choice, and some people like the heft of weightier pipes. Temperature is across the board important though. After all, you are going to be holding something with a tiny fire in it. It will inevitably get hot, but you don’t want something that is unpleasant to touch. Briar is the most popular basic pipe material, as it is durable, heat resistance, and has a nice appearance. If you’re trying to go cheap, a corncob pipe isn’t as shitty as you might think, but they tend to have smaller bowls and hasty constructions. Stems are made from a variety of substances and really just come down to personal preference, as far as how soft or hard you want the bit to be between your teeth.

Bottom line is, there is no reason you need to spend a ton of money on a pipe. As an apparatus, even the crappiest pipe will still function (as anyone who has built a “naughty pipe” out of an apple knows). That said, extremely cheap pipes tend to compensate for their low-grade wood with a lot of varnish, which could definitely affect the smoke’s taste. It is also entirely up to you if you want your pipe to have a filter. As we’ll get into next time, you won’t be breathing this smoke into your lungs, so a filter isn’t a necessity.

Where you buy your pipe probably will depend a lot on where you live. These days there aren’t a lot of places that sell pipes, mainly because there aren’t a lot of proper tobacco shops anymore. If you’re fortunate enough to have a proper tobacco shop in your area, this will be the best bet. On-line is an easy option for everyone, but I’d advise trying to find an actual store if possible, just so you have the luxury of holding the pipe in your hands to see how it feels and what its weight is. Avoid gas stations or other cigarette-dominated convenience stores. Much like these establishments’ miserable cigar options, the pipes they might have are probably aimed at pot smokers. 

Speaking of pot and “naughty pipes,” you don’t want to smoke tobacco and pot out of the same pipe. The “cake” in your pipe’s bowl is important for tobacco smoking, and pot will fuck shit up pretty fast. If you are an extremely casual tobacco pipe smoker, then whatever, but if you are trying to seriously get into the past time, then you’re wasting a perfectly good pipe. That said, some head shops can actually be a decent place to find a good tobacco pipe – although you’ll probably get confused looks from the clerk if you ask questions about tobacco smoking. Just make sure you don’t get anything with too small a bowl. Small bowls are great for pot, not as great for tobacco.

Pipes come in different shapes and sizes! 

There are a wide variety of pipe shapes and sizes to chose from (that above pic isn’t even close to all of them). What style you chose is entirely up to you, and will likely be determined by how you like to smoke the pipe, if you leave it in your mouth, if you tend to hold it between puffs, where you want the bowl in relation to your eyes/nose, etc. Whatever floats your boat. Unfortunately, no shop owner is going to let you stick a pipe in your mouth to test it out, so you’ll just have to guess.

An Introduction to Tobacco Pipe Smoking

Image from Fractal Artist

Smoking pipes is really all about relaxation. Since tobacco was discovered its been a favorite pastime of men and now some women find themselves smoking a tobacco pipe. There are really only 3 ways to smoke tobacco: cigarettes, cigars, and the pipe. The tobacco pipe is the only option which gives the smoker a lasting sense of pleasure and a total state of relaxation.

A pipe is similar to a fountain pen or a fine time piece. It's truly is a thing of beauty. Some even call a well-crafted pipe a work of art. It's a pleasure to hold, inspect, perhaps tell a story about, and demands a certain amount of respect.

What you'll find over time is that smoking a pipe is actually an art and a science. The first task to learn is packing your pipe. Once it is packed with your pipe tobacco of choice, lighting it evenly is the next challenge. Learning to actually smoke your pipe will also take some time. Don't be afraid though, learning these skills is not a painstakingly long process nor are they hard to learn. It just takes some understanding and patience. The rewards of properly smoked tobacco pipes is a wonderful aroma and a great taste, not to mention a relaxed state of mind.

An Introduction to the Tobacco Pipe Materials

The Briar Pipe

The Briar pipe is always the first choice of any pipe smoker. Briar comes from a tough little tree called Erica Arborea, which is a member of the heather family. It grows no more than 20 feet high, and would never be thought of as a premier pipe material. The burl, which pipes are made from, is found just under the ground. It's not tree trunk nor roots; it's actually the meeting place for the two.

Today nearly 30,000,000 tobacco pipes are manufactured across the world and the Briar Pipe is in reach of nearly every pipe smokers' wallet. Ebay is an excellent place to find a great deal on a briar pipe, so check out their huge selection.

The Meerschaum Pipe

Meerschaum is a mineral that comes primarily from Turkey. This material is soft and easily shaped but wasn't used as a pipe material until the discovery of tobacco. Its scientific chemical name is hydrous magnesium silicate and is thought to be remnants of prehistoric sea shells. Once the pipes are carved they must be dried and polished. Meerschaum's are renowned for the cool, mellow smoke, and remain very popular today. Meerschaum pipes have quite a long break-in period, but the smoker is rewarded with a beautiful autumn brown pipe and a full ripe quality and flavor.

The Clay Pipe

Clay in this case is almost always a very fine white clay. Low-quality "clay" pipes are actually made from porcelain slip poured into a mold. These are porous, of very low quality, and impart unwanted flavors to a smoke. Top-notch clays, on the other hand, are made in a labor-intensive process that requires beating all air out of the clay, hand-rolling each pipe before molding it, piercing with a fine wire, and careful firing.

Traditionally, clay pipes are un-glazed. Clays burn "hot" in comparison to other types of pipes, so they are often difficult for most pipe-smokers to use. Their proponents claim that, unlike other materials, a well-made clay pipe gives a "pure" smoke, with no flavor addition from the pipe bowl. In addition to aficionados, reproductions of historical clay styles are used by some re-enactors. Clay pipes were once considered disposable items and the rapidly changing designs in the past are often used as an aid in dating by archaeologists. They were once very popular in Ireland, where such a pipe was called a dúidín.

The Calabash Pipe

Calabash gourds (usually with meerschaum or porcelain bowls set inside them) have long made prized pipes, but they are labour-intensive and today quite expensive. Because of this expense, pipes with bodies made of wood (usually mahogany) instead of gourd, but with the same classic shape, are sold as calabashes. Both wood and gourd pipes are functionally the same. They consist of a downward curve that ends with an upcurve where the bowl sits. Beneath the bowl is an air chamber which serves to cool, dry, and mellow the smoke. There are also briar pipes being sold as calabashes. These typically do not have an air chamber and are named only because of their external shape.

A calabash pipe is rather large and easy to recognize as a pipe when used on a stage in dramatic productions. Early portrayers of the character Sherlock Holmes, particularly William Gillette and Basil Rathbone, took advantage of this fact when it was required to portray Holmes smoking. This is why Holmes is stereotypically depicted as favouring a calabash. In fact, most stories, particularly The Adventure of the Copper Beeches, described him as preferring a long-stemmed cherry-wood or a clay pipe.

The Corn Cob Pipe

Did you know that a small town in Missouri pumps out 15,000,000 corn cob pipes a year? The corn cob pipe industry has been supporting farmers since 1969. Farmers can sell the corn kernels then hand over the cobs to the pipe makers. The corn cob pipe is a great starter pipe since they are readily available and extremely cheap. Most pipe smokers prefer corn cob pipes only to the coveted Briar Pipe.

An Introduction to the Tobacco Pipe

5 Parts of a Tobacco Pipe

A pipe is a very simple tool used to hold burning tobacco. The smoke released from the burning tobacco is then drawn through a small tube and into the pipe smokers mouth. As simple as a pipe seams there is an incredible amount of skill that goes into making a finely crafted pipe. The Indians of North and South America over the course of a thousand years were only able to craft crude pipes made out of stone or clay. However, the European craftsmen were able to perfect the art of pipes in only a couple of centuries. 

Below you will find a diagram of a pipe and the 5 different parts that make up a pipe.

1. Bowl - This is where the tobacco is burned

2. Shank - Generally part of the bowl is used to neck the pipe down.

3. Stem - Stem fits tightly into the shank via a mortise and tenon joint

4. Lip - Raise ring around the Stem

5. Filter - Generally a metal piece attached to the Stem

Once a pipe is assembled, filled, and lit the smoke travels from the bottom of the bowl, through the shank, around the filter, through the stem, and into the mouth. The lip provides the mechanism to keep the stem from slipping from the mouth. The total design of the modern day pipe comes from years of trial and error and experimentation.

The World History of Pipe Smoking

The history of smoking pipe use is as diverse as the people who use them for ritual, religious, and spiritual reasons. The Catholic Church has used incense as part of their ritual of purification for centuries. Hippocrates of Cos II or Hippokrates of Kos (circa 460 B.C. circa 370 B.C.), the historic first specialist of scientific medicine, prescribed inhaling for his patients with gynecological infections. The Romans inhaled the smoke of lavender, mint and oregano. They used a simple reed or a modified marrow bone as a pipe. They also used a pipe made of clay.

According to archaeologists and historians, the first pipes were found during a dig in the region of Yorkshire, United Kingdom. The second pipes that were found were very small and called elfin pipes. But, these finds were excavated in the 17th century. The story of the ritual, religious, and spiritual use of the pipe has been traced to before the 15th century A.D.!

In the New World, the Aztecs, Mayans, Toltec, and other Native American cultures for health purposes as well as to celebrate religious and business events. Africans used tubes to sniff or inhale various types of herbs. Historians say that the first culture to use tobacco with a pipe-like device for smoking was the Mayans of Mexico and Central America.

Explorers coming to the New World found natives smoking pipes. In 1519, the Spanish explorer, Cortez reported finding tribes in Mexico smoking from perfumed reeds. The French explorer, Jacques Cartier, said that native Canadians in the Northwest using pipe smoking for ritual ceremonies. In 1559, Spain imported the first tobacco from the New World. They used tobacco as a medicinal herb and thought that the smoke was good for the lungs when smoked.

Jean Nicot, the French ambassador to Portugal, used tobacco in a powdered form for health reasons like migraines, minor aches, and pains. During this period, men of the lower classes began to use tobacco in clay pipes for pleasure; however, it was Sir Walter Raleigh who introduced pipe smoking to the court of Queen Elizabeth I of England in 1590. Raleigh had learned about the pleasurable use of pipe smoking from Ralph Lane, the first Governor of Virginia. Raleigh helped spread the use of pipe smoking among the fashionable British aristocracy. England began the production of pipes.

By 1602, pipe smoking had spread all over Europe, India, China and Japan.

A peace pipe is also called a calumet or medicine. It is a ceremonial smoking pipe used by many Native American peoples. According to tradition, the pipe is a token of peace. The bowl of the pipe is usually made from red pipestone. It has been commonly found in South Dakota. Warring tribes made this their neutral ground. Many holy religious ceremonies are done in this neutral area. A special blend of herbs or tobacco is usually used. Each regional area uses plants that have special qualities or have been cleared for special use by the various tribes.

The European term peace pipe refers to only one type of pipe and one way it was used. Ceremonial pipes were used by the Lakota Sioux in the New World as a means of sending prayers or wishes. The construction of the pipe and the smoking mixture is symbolic. It forms a bridge believed quite important for contacting the spirit world that assists with fate or the end of problem. The pipe stem symbolizes the male in the world as well as nature. This is why a piece of fur was often wrapped around the bowl of the pipe. The female in the world and plant kingdom is represented by the bowl. The entire pipe (bowl and stem) is the genesis of the World.

The burning tobacco in the pipe allows prayers to come to the attention of the forces of the Higher Power. Traditionally, pipes have been adorned with feathers, fur, animal hair, bird wings, plants, beadwork, quills, carvings and other items of personal significance to the owner.

Peace pipes come in many sizes: palm sized, short, round, and horn shaped. They have carefully carved into animal or human configurations. There are short and long pipes. The two foot long pipes are actually feathered reeds ending in an upright rather than a round bowl. There are many individual uses of the pipe; therefore, there is no one way that cultures conduct their rituals.

Lakota tradition explains that White Buffalo Calf Woman is the aboriginal source of the pipe. It instructs the Lakota people to keep the stem upward during rites and rituals. Thus is constructed the holy bond between this and Wakan Tanka, the creators world.

There are personal family pipes. The Sacred Pipes are not just ordinary pipes. Rather, a real Sacred Pipe is a variety of objects. They are used in coordination with ceremonial songs, dances, prayers, and even silence. These pipes change all the time.

A milder form of tobacco used in commercial tobacco was widely used by the North American native tribes. It was (and is) considered by these tribes to be a sacred plant. Often it was cultivated separately from other plants. There were a great number of ceremonies using specific rituals for sowing and harvesting. Many times it has been burnt over a fire, thrown on water, or left on the ground. It was also smoked in a pipe that was passed around a circle of people. Individual people also smoked it in individual pipes.

In South and Central America, where other forms of tobacco was cultivated, pipes of many sizes and shapes were used.

The anti-smoking offensive by King James of England began in 1603. This campaign led ultimately to the execution of Sir Walter Raleigh in 1618. It is said that Sir Walter Raleighs last act was to smoke a full pipe of tobacco. King James later relented in his anti-smoking tactics. He signed a charter incorporating all British pipe makers, but with complicated laws and rules. Instead of hindering the pipe makers, this action allowed the profession to flourish. Other countries had begun to ban pipes, smoking, and tobacco but later changed their minds as well.

The fine art of smoking a pipe was soon accepted all over the world. In 1794, Pope Benedict issued an edict exonerating the users of tobacco from any sin. Snuff became the rage in Europe while pipes and pipe smoking grew in the New World.

During the Victorian era, pipe smoking became associated with relaxing contemplation beside a fireplace. Cigars came to be considered a great social pastime. Pipes became a more personal and individualistic endeavor.

Today, pipe smoking is gaining in credibility while cigar smoking diminishes.

While the late 1970s and 1980s are referred to as the Golden Age of Pipes, Smokers are turning more and more to finding their relaxation and pleasure from pipes once again. Variety of size, shapes and materials are being used and appeal to the modern day tobacco smokers taste.

Article Source: http://pipe.ezinemark.com/the-history-of-smoking-pipe-318cd1ab977.html