Briar pipes

[theginguy]

So I'm going to be buying my first briar soon. I've decided to just go ahead and get new ones. I haven't had much luck finding estate ones, even on Frenchies that I'm interested in.

But I can get some decent Savinelli's for around $50.00 I think so I'm leaning towards them.

But I have a few questions.

1. I am tending to smoke around three times a day. Morning, Afternoon and evening. I really don't want to have to end up with 6 - 8 briar pipes. I'm not interested in collecting pipes at all.... I just want a tool to smoke pipe tobacco in. That's it. I really like my Cobs, but the only problem with them are the cheap plastic stems. I've broken two in two weeks already. So anyway, I just want to keep my pipe charges down to absolutely minimum.

So how much do I really need to rotate briars and how much can I smoke one in one day.... could I, let's say, smoke the same briar in one day, two or three times in one day and then let it rest for a day or two? Thus only having to own 2 or three briars?

Or would everyone recommend only smoking a briar once a day and letting it rest for a day or two?

2. I've heard that bigger thicker pipes are better?

3. I am interested in full bent pipes. I like smelling the smoke coming out of the top of the bowl, plus I think they would be more comfortable to hold just with my teeth... my only concern with them is, keeping them cool during a smoke and also spit and gurgle issues??

So any helpful tips or advice would be most appreciated. Thanks.

 

[Fia]

I think you can smoke a briar more than once a day but you need to rest it for at least a day before smoking again. I would also recommend you stay diligent in the cleaning of your pipes. You might also want to consider meer pipes. You can smoke those with more frequency and not worry about them getting sour. Although I dont personally own any pipes by IMP or Tekin, I have heard good things about them. They are a little more moderately priced compared some of the more fancy carved signed pieces.

 

[LilBastage]

You can certainly smoke a briar more than once a day. You must be sure to let it cool after each smoke before the next and you must be sure to keep it clean. I wouldn't smoke a briar several times a day for many days in a row. I'd at least alternate days to give the pipe a chance to dry out. Optimally, you'd have a pipe per day, but I think you could get by with 2 briars. I'd rather have at the very least 3, but I'm not buying them.

 

[jabba]

If you want to smoke multiple time per day and not worry about rotation I'd recommend you consider a Meerschaum pipe.

Two brands which I smoke, and which are excellent are F.Baki and IMP.

I wouldn't smoke a briar more than once a day, if you are going to smoke regularly... it will start tasting sour... I've had no problems smoking a briar 2 or 3 times in a day on rare occasions but you don't want to do it every day.

Ideally with Briars, I've found that smoking them and then giving them 3-4 days rest works the best.

 

[rramstad]

Let me toss something else out there.

Have you thought about having acrylic or vulcanite stems made for your cobs?

If you like your cobs, and they are working for you except for the stems, I have to believe you could get a good stem made for 20-25 bucks or so... maybe less per stem if you had three or four stems made all at once. I am sure someone like Dave at Walker Briar Works who does stem replacements all the time would either hand cut one for you or adapt a premade stem... George at Precision does this kind of work too.

I probably am just incredibly ignorant LOL but I pretty routinely smoke a briar for half a day -- maybe two or three bowls through it -- without worrying too much about it cooling or not or whatever between bowls. I do run pipe cleaners through it, and I do dry ream with paper towel, sometimes between bowls, always after smoking. I tend to put my pipes away for long periods as I've got a pretty big rotation... it's rare that I smoke the same pipe twice in a four week period, actually.

Six to eight briars would be a relatively small number of pipes, FWIW, if you plan on smoking one or two bowls every day.


Oh, and another random thought...

What about a Kirsten, or a Falcon?

These pipes will really take a lot of abuse, lots of smoking.

I have a Kirsten with a meerschaum bowl, and it can be smoked day in and day out permanently and it'll be fine...

 

[theginguy]

Well I did a lot of "pipe" reading yesterday on the net. First of all, I would like to thank everyone on their helpful inputs. This is a great place to start when you need to learn something. So I appreciate everyone's experience and advice.

I called Missouri Meerschaum yesterday and found a couple of things out.

1. The black stems that they had been using were inferior to what they normally use. They apparently have a plastic manufacturer make all of their stems and the manufacturer didn't go by the right specs and so all of the black stems were brittle and broke very easily. I just happened to pick a bad time to start smoking their black stemmed cobs I guess, anyways I was assured that by this time next week the "new and improved" stems should be back out and that they would send me some replacement stems. I do however have a cob with a yellow stem that hasn't given me any problems. So I just switch the bowls around and use the same stem, no prob.

2. The "General" and their more expensive "Hand Made" cobs are a little bigger then the two Diplomats that I have. I wasn't sure about their size, but I was told that they will provide a more lengthy smoke time. So I have decided to try them out as well.

-------------------------------------

So as for right now, It still seems to me that the best thing to do is to keep certain pipes per certain blends... i.e., a pipe just for Balkans and English blends with higher Latakia ratio's, a pipe for Virginia's, a pipe for VaPer's and so on....

It seems to me that It is also a good idea to let your briars rest at least a day or two before picking them back up.

Because I plan on smoking different styles of tobacco throughout the day and because of the resting requirement, it seems that I would still have to own several briars and have a rotation.

Unfortunately my budget right now won't allow for me to just up and spend several hundred dollars on a set of briars.

So the alternatives are either Meerschaum or Cob.

Everything I've read about pure block carved Meerschaum looks great. It seems to me that they truly don't require a rest period. Just a short 30 minute or an hour "cool down" time between bowls. Which, is perfectly fine by me. So it seems that you could get away with owning only one Meerschaum.

I would like to be a "one pipe" kind of guy. But.... the only thing that concerns me about only using one pipe, and that pipe being a Meerschaum is the durability. Meerschaums seem pretty brittle and If I dropped it.... it probably wouldn't be good.

So.... here is what I've decided.

Everything I've read leads me to believe that "resting" cobs are a good idea also. So, I'm going to stick with cobs for now and try to get some good stems from another retailer. That solves the cheap stem problem. Plus I can get various styles of stems to make my cobs more interesting, i.e., full bents and churchwardens.

I can get a pretty good collection of cobs, certainly enough for a decent rotation for less then $100.00, that's if I only buy one, Hand Made cob. Those are like $30.00 a piece. But they look awesome.

The only drawback that I can see with the cobs is that I'm limited to shapes and sizes. So I will most certainly be purchasing briars and Meerschaum's in the future, for their wider range of shapes and sizes. But at least this way, I will already be set as far as my everyday pipes go and I can just put the briars and Meerschaum's into my rotation when I get enough money to purchase them.

I also learned that if I keep my cobs clean and dry, they should last me a couple of years. The major thing about them is that they tend to "swell" and when they get to big, they'll crack and they won't smokes as good. So they do need to be replaced periodically.

Anyway, thanks again for all the helpful inputs and I hope this thread helps those out who might be experiencing the same thing.

 

[Fia]

What about a Kirsten, or a Falcon?

These pipes will really take a lot of abuse, lots of smoking.

I have a Kirsten with a meerschaum bowl, and it can be smoked day in and day out permanently and it'll be fine...

Thats a really good idea. Kirstens can be found a reasonable price too. :thumbs: