Newbie introduction

[rramstad]

Hi guys. I figured I should take a moment and introduce myself, as I am new to this section of CigarPass and started out here with a post on a random topic (Seattle B&M) which isn't relevant to 99% of the folks here...

I'm Bob Ramstad, I've been smoking cigars for 14 years, but am a complete newbie when it comes to pipes.

I've known Craig (CPT/VSG) for years and when he mentioned recently that he was smoking pipes more these days, it struck a chord... I've been thinking of trying one for a while, and now is the time!

Many of you will probably recognize my handle, I've been around on the JRBB, CigarWeekly and a few others, but primarily hang out at CigarFamily.

I have been organizing group buys of blank cigar bands for many years now, and also ran a few very successful box passes called Birds of a Feather where the box of cigars traveled from city to city and herfs were held with puts and takes done at the herf. It was pretty cool, but with all the zero tolerance smoking laws going into effect, it got too hard to schedule herfs, at least that was my feeling after the last one ran a while back.

I live in Seattle with my wife and three young children. I lived in and around Boston for 9 years, that was where I started smoking cigars and also where I bought my first humidor. I also lived in the Bay Area for a couple of years.

I'm a Seahawks season ticket holder and have been for 10 seasons now...

Hmmm... I think that's plenty of intro material. It's nice to meet everyone and read the wealth of information here. I'm looking forward to smoking my first pipe... it's in the mail to me, actually, from Boswell... wish me luck!

 

[Cooke]

Nice intro. I am really new to pipes as well. Enjoy the Pipe Room and the rest of the CP Boards

 

[LilBastage]

Welcome to the Pipe Room.

Feel free to jump in when you feel comfortable and ask whatever question you need answered. I'm sure someone will know or at least be able to find an answer for you.

Enjoy your Boswell. They are fine pipes!

 

[CPT/VSG]

Welcome to my good friend, Bob!

 

[bigwhiteash]

Welcome from another pipe noob in South Carolina

 

[Dios de Fuego]

welcome im new to the board myself

 

[August_West]

Hey Bob!!
I am a bit of a newbie with the pipe too. I think the past month or so I am finally "getting it". But as they say, its a life long learning process with everything. Have you received your Boswell yet? That was my first brier pipe (after my corn cob- still puff on it!). Let us know how it comes along!
Happy puffing,
Eric D.

 

[rramstad]

Have you received your Boswell yet? That was my first brier pipe (after my corn cob- still puff on it!). Let us know how it comes along!

Eric, thanks for the kind words. I'm all the way out here in Seattle and so my Boswell probably won't arrive until Wednesday or so considering it's got to come nearly 3000 miles and probably via UPS Ground so that's a one week ship.

I absolutely will keep folks posted as things develop, it'll be interesting to see what I think of pipe smoking as a total pipe newbie with 14+ years of cigar smoking under my belt.

BTW, nice screen name, I was a huge Deadhead for many years...

Thanks again for the welcome, everybody!

 

[rramstad]

My new Boswell showed up a couple of days ago, but I wasn't feeling well and so was unable to smoke it until today. I just had my first (and second) smoke of my very first pipe... pretty cool. The tobacco was Boswell Sweet Tea which was pretty much as you might imagine. Fairly light flavor, a bit sweet, not much bite, not very strong. To be honest, even with the special Boswell bowl treatment which should minimize break in, I think the first bowl I was mostly tasting the pipe. The second bowl, a few hours later, had a lot more flavor. I did have some gurgle with the first bowl, but after reading the ASP FAQ cleared it up with a pipe cleaner through the stem, no worries. Smoked the second bowl more slowly and tamped it a bit more firmly and didn't have that recur.

The good folks at Boswell's also sent along an ounce of Boswell's Best. I think for now I'll keep smoking the Sweet Tea as the pipe breaks in, unless I have a particularly heavy meal or something, and then I might try the Boswell's Best.

My only concern at this point is that the ASP FAQ suggests after smoking, and the pipe has cooled, that a pipe cleaner should be passed from the stem to where it is visible in the bowl. I can't do that. I can get a pipe cleaner down the inside to a point where it gets dirty when I pull it back out, and I can also work an inch or so of pipe cleaner from the bowl up towards the stem, but I can't get one to pass through. I suspect there might be something in the geometry that prevents this, possibly on purpose (i.e. keeping moisture out of the stem?) but I have no idea. Thoughts?

Anyhow, here are a couple pics of the pipe:

Thought the update might be interesting to folks... fun stuff, this pipe smoking thing!

 

[NullSmurf]

Hey Bob, glad to see you posting here and on CP in general. I'm a Boswell smoker too, thanks to generous brothers here.

 

[georgec]

Somethimes the holes don't line up perfect where the pipe and stem go together could be why you are having trouble getting your pipe cleaner through. It is also harder to get a pipe clearer through a curved pipe than a stright one, sometimes if you work the pipe cleaner back and forth and turn it a little it will go. You do know the pipe apart in the middle? Dut don't just pull it apart unscrew and pull at the same time even though it has no threads.