Dwelling in the Land of Pipe Smokers: Part IV

(Fourth and final post in a four-part series on one of my favorite hobbies: pipe smoking.)

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There are many other gadgets and consumables, too, that make the hobby enjoyable for tinkerers like myself. There are lighters. There are tampers. There are pipe cleaners. There are ash trays.

I’ve had lots of lighters, most of them disappointing. Most lighters are cheaply designed and don’t stand up to even light use over time. I’ve yet to find the perfect pipe lighter, but the quest goes on. At the present, the most reliable lighter I’ve ever owned was an inexpensive Imco pipe lighter. I have my sights on an Old Boy, the classic high-end pipe lighter, but haven’t had a disposable Franklin to drop on it yet. There are many knock-offs of the Old Boy. I purchased one, made by Prometheus. It was a purchase filled with regret. After only a month or two, it started leaking butane. The company said they would fix or replace it, but I’d have to pay $50 for the replacement. Lame, considering that it was practically new. I also bought a Zippo Multi-Purpose Lighter, which is a long butane lighter of notable quality that I bought for $10 at Target. That’s probably the best lighter money I’ve spent yet, since it was cheap and is still working.

Tampers are another thing. You have the classic Czech tool, which is perfectly functional but lacks aesthetic charm. My choice is a Brebbia pipe nail, which I’ve owned for a number of years already. I paid about $1 for it. It has a simplistic charm that I find appealing.

Pipe cleaners are not just for kindergarten arts and crafts class. They have a real and practical use, too, thus their name. For my money, there’s no better pipe cleaner than Dill’s. You can find these at some drug stores and an occasional grocery store in the high security cigarette area for $1-2 per package. They are all cotton, very absorbent and just the right size for a normal pipe stem. There is an art to passing a pipe cleaner through a bent pipe, which I’ve mastered for all the bents I own, and the Dill’s cleaner is stiff enough to make the passage without much ado.

My ash tray is a small black skillet that I purchased at Cracker Barrel, about 5” in diameter. I glued a cork knocker in the center and plastic feet on its bottom. It’s great to use because of its size and the handle, making it easy to move here and there when your hand is full of other gadgetry.
One of the things that continues to attract me to pipe smoking is how challenging it is to achieve the perfect smoking experience. Adjusting the variables here and there, packing the bowl just right, knowing when not to oversmoke a bowl, knowing when tobacco is too moist or not moist enough--all of these things contribute to how the tobacco burns and how you should puff. Experiencing the perfect smoke consistently is still just out of reach, but I hit it often enough that I keep trying, trying to pay attention to all the little details that contribute to a more perfect pipe experience. I hope that I never arrive. If I do, the journey will surely be at an end, and as it is, I do love the journey.

(Pictured: Czech tool, Imco pipe lighter, Brebbia pipe nail and the humble cork knocker)