Telford's Pipe and Cigar store, Mill Valley, CA

I have been a pipe smoker for 55 years. I always pack a pipe so it draws with the same resistance as a cigar. I make sure that my tobacco has a fresh feel but not so moist that is will be hard to keep a pipe lit. It is best to pack your pipe with your thumb or forefinger and use a pipe tamper to do the final packing. This prevents your pipe from being packed too tightly.

I always light my pipe with a stick match. A lighter can burn the briar and shorten the life of the pipe. The initial lighting is to create an even ash on the surface of the tobacco. Let the pipe go out and then pack it evenly with your tamper and light it again. This will serve to light the tobacco evenly and ensure a long and successful smoke. As your tobacco burns down, take your tamper and tap the ash down so the surface remains even. You will be able to keep your pipe lit much longer.

If your pipe (or tobacco) tends to be a wet smoker, it is a good idea to periodically run a pipe cleaner thru the barrel to absorb the moisture. Remember not to remove the stem while the pipe is warm, as it can cause the shank to break off. Your smoke will stay dry and, again, you will find that you will be able to keep your pipe lit longer.

One chooses a tobacco for a particular taste and/or aroma experience. As you smoke your pipe, the tobacco at the bottom of the pipe chamber accumulates a wetness which significantly alters the characteristics of that portion of the tobacco. I don’t recommend smoking your pipe down to the bottom of the chamber. In fact, when I begin to lose the flavor that drew me to that blend, I let the pipe go out and clean my pipe. If you want to enjoy years of smoking with your favorite pipes, make sure you ream the barrel of the warm pipe with a pipe cleaner. Then bend the used cleaner and put it into the spent pipe chamber and turn it to clean the chamber. As a cake builds up, it may be necessary to have the pipe professionally reamed to even and thin out the cake.

Here is where one combines science with art. Most pipes come from briar. When a briar pipe is smoked, it forms a char (cake) on the surface of the chamber as the tobacco burns down. A new pipe has none unless the manufacturer pre-chars the pipe so there is no break-in required of the pipe. As the pipe is smoked repeatedly, the charred surface builds a barrier between the tobacco and the briar. That allows the bowl to stay cooler and the smoke “sweeter” as you enjoy the inherent flavor of the tobacco un-influenced by the wood.

The older the wood used for the briar, the drier it will be and the better the pipe. The best pipes made by Dunhill or Charatan , for example, come from briar root that is 300-400 years old. The pipes carved from this “root briar” are very light in weight, making them very comfortable in the mouth and they smoke magnificently for generations. Needless to say, this wood is very rare and the pipes carved from it are reflected in the price of the pipe.

Most pipes come from younger wood which contains more moisture. They are heavier, more commonly available and are more reasonably priced. One can build a very good collection of great smoking pipes without challenging your budget.

They are sought after because it allows a pipe smoker to buy a great briar at a fraction of the original cost. I have many in my collection. They are among my best smoking pipes because of the briar source and age.

The segue from pipe smoking to pipe collecting is a natural. Since one should not smoke the same pipe too frequently, it is natural for a smoker to accumulate a number of pipes. In doing so, experience leads you to try better pipes. Beyond the smoking enjoyment, one starts to discern the art of the pipe. What is a pipe anyway? It is a hand-carved wood sculpture created by very talented artisans. The best of them will scour through tons of briar to find the pieces that have the most potential for them to carve a pipe with a beautiful grain and an appealing shape. Don’t cabinet makers do the same thing? So here one unites the enjoyment of pipe smoking with the pipe as art.

What are the most valuable stamps and coins to the collector? The oldest ones in unused or un-circulated condition. The same is true of pipes. Because the rarity of old wood and beautifully straight-grained pipes, an un-smoked pipe or set of pipes from the 1920s thru 1990s have a value far in excess of their original cost. In the heyday of pipe smoking, the great names like Dunhill employed the best carvers to make gorgeous pipes which, even then, were bought for the art rather than for the smoke. If you come across an intact un-smoked 6 or 7-day set of pipes with matched grains, you have found the Rolls Royce of pipes. Collectors cherish them because of their beauty and rarity.

One of the best pipe names, Savinelli, was recently asked about a 7-day set of pipes. They said they haven’t made one in 30 years because the wood quality is no longer available. If one wanted them to pick out 7 pipes with good grains and make a set, they said it would cost between $12-18,000 in today’s market.

If you are a serious pipe smoker, you should try to find a few collectibles to add to your collection. If in original un-smoked condition, you will find them to be an investment that will not lose value with time and one you will look at over and over again.

Continuing our quest of examining the myths and legends around famous pipe smokers, we turn this month to the broad question of women pipe smokers. And who better to personify this than Gertrude Stein?

Gertrude Stein (1874-1946) was born in Allegheny, Pennsylvania. She was an American writer who spent most of her life lving in Paris. She was central to the Avent Garde movement which created what we consider today to be modern art and literature. It began when she and her brother, Leo Stein, began collecting and exhibiting paintings of budding, young artists at their famous appartment at 27 rue de Fleurus, Paris, called the “Salon”. At the height of their collecting in 1906, their studio was filled with paintings by Henri Manguin, Pierre Bonnard, Pablo Picasso, Paul Cézanne, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Honoré Daumier, Henri Matisse, and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. Stein is most noted for her abstract writing style. Her relationship with Alice B. Tolkas is famous as one of the first openly acknowledged and celebrated gay couples lasting 39 years. In fact, Stein is considered to have coined the term “gay” as refering to same-sex relationships in writing about her relationship with Alice.

In popular pipe literature, she is often placed on lists of famous pipe smokers and because there are so few famous pipe-smoking women, she is often referenced. However, beyond some photos of her holding a pipe, not much more seems to have been documented. She did have a good friendship with another famous pipe smoker, Ernest Hemingway. In fact, the two had much in common beyond being both famous writers. For example, they both drove ambulances during World War I. So perhaps they smoked pipes together while discussing their opposing views on Franco and the Spanish War. Stein was a conservative and an open supporter of Franco.

Turning to the broader question of women pipe smokers in history, recall that smoking came to Europe with the “discovery” of the “Indian Weed” in the New World. At the time, all tobacco was smoked in a pipe (long, delicate clay ones). One of the first nobility in Europe to try this new “invention” was none other than Queen Elizabeth I (1533-1603), probably introduced to her by the explorer Sir Francis Drake. As tobacco was very expensive, smoking was a past time of the wealthy. By the mid-1800’s, there was a shift to pipe smoking being seen as a pursuit for the working class and not a thing that a respectable lady would do. An example of this is First Lady Rachel Jackson, who refused to move to Washington when her husband, Andrew Jackson, was elected U.S. President in 1828, in part out of fear of being ridiculed for her pipe smoking.

We usually enjoy a quote from the famous person we discuss each month, particularly a pipe related one if possible. This statement by Gertrude Stein sums up the boldness and courage that a modern day woman must have to be seen as a pipe smoker, “Ladies there is no neutral position for us to assume.”