This guide is for those who are thinking about saving money on cigarettes by switching to a pipe. While there are advantages to doing so, there are major disadvantages too. The best thing to do would be to stop smoking completely.
As my main man, Mark Twain said; “It’s easy to quit smoking. I’ve done it hundreds of times.” I wish I could quit but as a anxiety ridden manic depressive, that isn’t happening in the near future. The ridiculous current costs of cigarettes started me thinking about a pipe. This is what I have learned in the last year since I quit smoking cigarettes.
The advantages are :
• You will save money smoking a pipe compared to cigarettes. You can cut your tobacco budget by 50 to 75 percent. A pouch of good pipe tobacco costs me about five dollars and lasts five days or so. You’ll find that buying the cheap bulk tobacco isn’t a savings because it makes for a bad smoke and you throw half of it away.
• You’ll probably smoke less because smoking a pipe isn’t as easy as smoking a cigarette so you should find yourself putting it off until later.
• It smells better. Pipe tobacco doesn’t seem to stink up your house and car as badly as cigarettes do.
The disadvantages are :
• The pipe is much more labor intensive than the cigarette. You have to clean your pipe a lot.
• You have to carry a lot of stuff with you. You need the pipe, the tobacco and some pipe cleaners.
• While you might be able to sneak a quick cigarette, it’s hard to grab a quick pipe.
If you would like to give pipe smoking a try, start with a corncob pipe. These are cheap and easy to find. For the tobacco try the old medium priced standby, Captain Black. It comes in several varieties. The white pack is the most popular.
You’ll need a pipe cleaning tool and a pack of pipe cleaners. I usually just use an old steak knife to scrape out the bowl of my pipe. Then I run the pipe cleaner through the stem. I double up the pipe cleaner to finish wiping out the bowl of the pipe.
Corncob pipes don’t last too long. They’re harder to clean and eventually burn through or get so dirty that you throw them away. The next step up is to a briar pipe. Now we’re getting into some money. You will be looking at $25 to $75 for a new briar pipe. But compared to a carton of cigarettes, it’s not too bad.
I like to buy estate pipes on eBay. I get them for less than $20. An estate pipe is a used pipe. I clean them up real good with alcohol. Vodka or bourbon works well. If you know of a pipe shop in your area, they may have already cleaned and refurbished estate pipes for sale.
That’s how to get started in pipe smoking. I wish you the best of luck and hope you and I can quit smoking eventually.
