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This article describes a pipe used for smoking tobacco. For other uses of the word, see pipe.
A smoking pipe is a device used for smoking tobacco, cannabis, crack cocaine, and other substances; but most commonly tobacco.
The smoking pipe typically consists of a small chamber (the bowl) for the combustion of tobacco or similar substances and a thin stem (shank) that ends in a mouthpiece (also called a bit).
Pipes are made from a variety of materials, the most common being (in order of use): briar, corncob, meerschaum, african block meerschaum, clay, cherry wood, gourd, and various other materials, such as morta. Glass pipes have become an art form, although because they are usually used to smoke cannabis, glassblowers who make them have been harassed by governments.
Tobaccos used for smoking pipes are often carefully treated and blended to achieve flavour nuances not available in other tobacco products. Many of these are blends using staple ingredients of variously cured Burley and Virginia tobaccos which are enhanced by spice tobaccos, among them many Oriental or Balkan varietals, Latakia (a fire-cured spice tobacco of Cypriot or Syrian origin), Perique (uniquely grown in St. James Parish, Louisiana) or blends of Virginia and Burley tobaccos of African, Indian, or South American origins. Traditionally, many U.S. blends are made of American Burley flavoured with aromatic ingredients to produce "sweeter" smokes whereas "English"-style blends are based on natural Virginia tobaccos enhanced only by Oriental varietals. There is a growing tendency towards "natural" tobaccos which derive their aromas from artful blending with selected spice tobaccos only and careful, often historic, curing processes. Pipes can range from the very simple machine-made briar pipe to highly-prized handmade and artful implements by renowned pipemakers which are priced as very expensive collector's items.
The material and shape of a pipe has a profound influence upon the aesthetic of a smoke.
The majority of pipes sold today, whether hand made or machine made, are fashioned from briar. Briar is cut from the root burl of the Tree heath (Erica arborea), which is native to the rocky and sandy soils of the Mediterranean region. While briar is the most widely used -- and perhaps best known -- pipe making material, pipes of other woods and other materials are also available.
Meerschaum (hydrated magnesium silicate), a mineral found in small shallow deposits mainly around the city of Eskesehir in central Turkey, is prized for its plasticity which allows it to be carved into many decorative and figural shapes. It has been used since the 17th century and, with clay pipes, represented the most common medium for pipes before the introduction of briar as the material of choice in the 19th century. The word "meerschaum" means "sea foam" in German, alluding to its natural white color. However, meerschaum is a very porous mineral that absorbs elements of the tobacco during the smoking process, and gradually changes color to a golden brown. Old, well-smoked meerschaum pipes are prized for their distinctive coloring.
Clay in this case is almost always a very fine white clay. Low-quality "clay" pipes are actually made from porcelain slip poured into a mold. These are porous, of very low quality, and impart unwanted flavors to a smoke. Top-notch clays, on the other hand are made in a labor-intensive process that requires beating all air out of the clay, hand-rolling each pipe before molding it, piercing with a fine wire, and careful firing. Traditionally, clay pipes are un-glazed. Clays burn "hot" in comparison to other types of pipes, so they are often difficult for most pipe-smokers to use. Their proponents claim that, unlike other materials, a well-made clay pipe gives a "pure" smoke, with no flavor addition from the pipe bowl.
Calabash gourds (usually with meerschaum or porcelain bowls set inside them) have long made prized pipes, but they are labour-intensive and nowadays quite expensive.
On the other end of the scale, "corncob" pipes are cheap and effective, even if some regard it as inelegant. General Douglas MacArthur was perhaps the most famous smoker of this type of pipe.
Hand-blown glass pipes are one of the most common kinds of hand-blown glass today. They can be quite elaborate, although the most elaborate are designed to function as bongs instead. One reason for their appeal is that since the glass is completely inert, it does not affect the flavor of the smoke. The glass is normally colored by not opaque, and as the pipe is used, the colors darken and become richer. Since most glass pipes are for smoking cannabis, they tend to have a small hole on the side which is covered by a finger to allow a small amount of air to mix with the smoke for cooling.
For smoking illegal drugs, where users can be arrested for possessing drug paraphernalia, users will often improvise pipes from materials ready to hand: light bulbs, aluminum cans, and so on.
While tobacco smoke from pipes contains less of the carcinogenic substances found in cigarette smoke, it is nonetheless a comparable health hazard, leading more often to cancers of the mouth and throat rather than the lungs. Addiction to nicotine is rarely involved unless the smoke is inhaled at a consumption rate comparable to heavy cigarette smoking. A 1964 study once showed that pipe smokers on average lived marginally longer than the general population, but that study failed to control for social factors and did not include an adequate representation of pipe smokers to be considered sound. Pipe smokers are inclined to attribute this to the calming, contemplative mindset promoted by the ritualistic character of pipe-use. However, it should be noted that there are almost no contemporary studies at all judging how dangerous pipe smoking may be: because more people smoke cigarettes and cigars, most studies focus on those. It would not be a good idea to assume that a lack of evidence implies a lack of danger: the smoker should monitor his health regarding smoking as he would any other lifestyle that can be abused, such as consumption of alcohol, cholesterol, or fat, among others.
This should not be treated as an endorsement of smoking; all the same, pipe smoking requires a little practice and technique to work well.
The number one complaint of new pipe smokers seems to be that they do not know how to correctly 'pack' their pipe, resulting in either dottle left over at the end of the smoke, or a hot smoke and the dread tongue bite, or a pipe that is hard to draw on. Here is compiled a step by step outline to the correct way to pack a pipe for maximum enjoyment. Packing and lighting a pipe, much like smoking a pipe, is an artform, and this technique may take some time to master, but once you have it down pat, one of the major stumbling blocks to pipe smoking bliss will have been removed.
Materials Needed:
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