keep it real - the pipe thing - again!

Some of you may not know but if you enjoy the fine art of pipe smoking, one must acquire several pipes to enable them to 'rest' in between smoking them, you also need to dedicate particular pipes to particular types of tobacco. Pipes start at about €50 for anything half decent and can easily go to €200 for really good ones and even into the thousands for collectible 'works of art' in hand-crafting or aesthetic terms.

I smoke 3-5 bowls a day, so now I have 12 really smokable pipes, four of those almost new so still breaking in (pipes don't taste so good for the first 10 bowls, until you've built up a layer of carbon on the inside). I try to smoke a particular pipe once only in a day, sometimes twice. My point here is pipes, of reasonable quality, are expensive. I have spent about the €800 mark ($1150) on pipes alone since beginning this hobby. All my pipes I have hunted down for a 'real' price here in Rip-off Amsterdam. With many pipes I have negotiated up to a 50% reduction in price. Sometimes I have bought a pipe not because I like it so much but because I know it's an o.k. pipe at a good price.

If I am to let ALL my pipes rest minimum 5 days as some connoisseurs recommend, I would, 1. have to change my profession to bank robbing or 2. never actually get to smoke any of the expensive tobaccos I have bought, or at least finish the tin before it is totally dried out, so while waiting for the five days for all my pipes to rest, I would spent half my time re-hydrating my tobacco. I think you get my point, keep it real, let it rest 24hr, if you can or longer, if you can.

What the did your great-great granddad do? He smoked crap tobacco in an old crap pipe or two, all day long, and he enjoyed his smoke more than any of us ever will. Keep the perspective gents.

take a look at some pipes and prices