Thoughts on a Pipe Rotation
Today I was reading Sparks’ thoughts on rotating pipes on The My Pipes Community website. This got me to thinking about how I’ve done it in the past, and what I’m going to do now for the future. I never smoke a pipe two times in a row and probably never twice in one week. At one time, I was an any tobacco in any pipe type of person. Then I went 180 degrees and only smoked one tobacco in one pipe. Somewhere along the way, I’ve gone to smoking categories of tobacco in a single pipe. So I have English/Balkan/Scottish/Oriental pipes. I have Burley Flake pipes and Virginia/Perique pipes. But I’m not sure that’s where I need or want to be.
Just this week I took down all my pipes to shoot pictures for the collection page recently published. Today, I face the daunting task of putting everything back in its place. This provides me the opportunity to reorganize them in any way that suits me, so Sparks’ post was timely for me.
Here’s how I plan to assign my pipes. I have several tobaccos that are my staples. Those are Solani Aged Burley Flakes, Dunhill Early Morning Pipe, Pipe Collector’s Club of America Orient 996, World Tobac #341 and Samuel Gawith Squadron Leader. I am going to dedicate at between seven and fourteen pipes to each one of these tobaccos. Those are my regular, almost always have a tin of one of them open, tobaccos. This pattern is well suited for one pipe, one tobacco. But I also smoke a variety of other tobaccos on a once in a year type rotation. For instance, I really like JJ Fox’s Banker’s Mixture and have quite a few tins of it. But I only open a tin about once a year. I smoke the occasional Virginia Perique blend but infrequently. Again this is not suited for a one pipe, one tobacco assignment but begs for a genre or category designation. So to answer that demand, I’m going to establish 7-14 pipes as an English/Balkan/Scottish/Oriental category, a few pipes as a Virginia Perique category and a few as a heavy latakia category.
How to do this organization without confusion presents some challenges. Some are easy to accomplish. I have an 8 pipe rack from The United States Military Academy that I will use for my Solani Aged Burley Flake dedicated pipes. I have a seven-day set that will become my World Tobac 341 pipes. I have another seven-day set box (no pipes came with this chest) that I will fill with pipes dedicated to Dunhill Early Morning Pipe When we lived in suburban Atlanta, GA, I acquired a display case for the majority of my pipes. I plan to dedicate a shelf in that case for PCCA Orient 996 and another shelf for Samuel Gawith Squadron Leader. Other shelves will be pipes for my English/Balkan/Scottish/Oriental category blends and finally, I have a few older SC version tan pipes that I will use for my occasional venture into the Virginia Perique flake category.
Some might be uncomfortable with this level of organization but I find it quite comfortable. My background as an attack helicopter aviator leads me to checklist solutions of problems. Will this organization make my smoking experience more enjoyable or not? I don’t know for sure but it can’t hurt. Happy Smoking.
