I am willing it to venture it is a Dunhill second that didn't make the cut as a GBD/Parker pub pipe and was sold as unbranded.

To the Gents of POTD:

Happy Labor Day! Have a great weekend, I will see you Sunday night!

Thanks for the welcome and great advice. There is a local shop not too far away. I'll stop in there and see what I can find.

That's great! Hopefully they'll have some things for you to look at. Once you get a pipe and some tobacco, there's a few things you will need to know about packing tobacco in your bowl, how and when to tamp, and the proper pace of smoking.

If you pack the tobacco too tightly or loosely, it will either be hard to keep lit or burn way too fast and burn hot. In addition to being hard to keep a tightly packed bowl lit, you will puff harder and harder, also making it too hot. Drop some tobacco in and press very lightly. Drop some more in, and press just a little firmer, then as you add more, press just a little firmer still. When finished, the tobacco in the bowl should have a little bounce back when you press on it, and you should be able to draw easily through the pipe. It will take a little trial and error to get it right.

Pipe tobacco will need to be tamped from time to time. As it burns, it expands, and you will need to tamp it down to keep it burning properly. I've heard it said the best time to tamp is right before you think you need to. Use an easy touch here. Sometimes I let the weight of the tamp do the work, letting it drop gently in the bowl all around.

Getting the right pace of smoking will also take a little trial and error. You don't want to puff away very rapidly. Doing so will make the tobacco burn way too hot, and the bowl will get hot to the touch. It will get warm, but if it begins to feel hot, you need to slow down. You will frequently see us write about "sipping" slowly. You have to have enough draw to keep it lit, but try not to let the bowl get real hot, especially with a new pipe.

Most pipes need to be broken in, which is the process of beginning to get a carbon coating inside the bowl, eventually building into a cake. As the cake develops over time, the pipe will smoke cooler and produce a better flavor, as long as you keep the pipe clean.

You can also look on P&C for different article and how to's by Russ Oullette himself. Such as packing the bowl, breaking in a pipe, aging your tobaccos....you name it really. It's a great way to learn, or just pass some time reading the thoughts of a pro, lol.

Having a mid day pipe of Villiger 1888 Early Day in the Roma Zulu. Will post up pics later. For now, I'm on my way to Happy Jacks!
Will tell yall all about it when I get back, and hopefully even have a new acquisition or two too share.

Johnson Creek Domestic. Just arrived yesterday.

I've got some Orlik Golden Slice on order. Trying to decide what else to order. I thought I'd pick a couple of different types from this list, screened for highly recommended with at least 200 reviews. Any suggestions?

I'll be glad to give you a couple of recommendations, but I'd like to know if you have any general preferences, such as straight Virginia, VaPer, latakia, etc.. Once I know what type of blend you like, I can give you a couple of recommendations. Or do you really have a preference for one type or another yet?

Hey Gorgo2, I had to scratch my head on this, then wound up googling it!

I don't have a preference yet, so far I've only smoked some pouched burleys (Velvet and Sir Walter Raleigh) and an aromatic (CAO Black). I'm looking to get a representative sampler to see what I like best.

From this list, what I can recommend from experience for someone starting out, are Dunhill 965, either of the Frog Morton's listed but especially On The Town, and Squadron Leader. All of these have some amount of latakia in them, which will be a very distinctive room note and flavor. On The Town will be the lightest of these, followed by regular Frog Morton, 965, and Squadron Leader. All these are among my favorites of latakia blends.

I smoke mostly Virginia/VaPers, in fact right now I smoking Sam Gawith Full Virginia Flake but I would not recommend any of the Sam Gawith Virginias listed here for a beginner due to some difficulty in preparation. I really like flakes, but the SG flakes here are thick cut and very moist, making them a little harder to prepare. Also, while I have had Haddo's Delight, I would not recommend it to someone new. It is a very full blend, and has a major nicotene hit. Hal O' the Wynd and Old Gowrie have excellent reputations, although I haven't tried them.

I would suggest not limiting yourself to those listed here. There are many great blends, many that will have only 3 stars on Tobacco Reviews, or not as many reviews. For something a little different from Orlik GS, think about Stokkebye Bullseye coin flake, which is a darker Virginia based flake with a small amount of Perique and an unflavored cavendish center. I recently tried a sample of Drew Estate Gatsby flake, a Virginia/cavendish blend, and enjoyed it. Former Private Flake is listed as an aromatic, and is only a 2 star blend on TR, but it is an excellent flake that is not an aromatic in the sense of Lane's 1Q, Captain Black, etc. Sometimes a blend will only be rated 2 or 3 stars because those reviewing it have a strong preference for a different type of blend and rate it based on their preference, not the merits of the blend. In fact I would highly recommend Former Private Flake and Birds Eye Flake. Both are 2 star rated, but when you read the comments, some of the 2 star reviews are actually quite favorable.

I hope I've helped some. I would also recommend perusing Pipes and Cigars, and see what might sound interesting.

Thanks, I printed out your post so I can reference it when ordering. I selected 200 reviews minimum to keep the list manageable. I appreciate your comments on the SG flakes, I realize I am a beginner and need to develop some skills. I've been smoking cigars, but realized I prefer pipes after smoking a few bowls. The variety in pipe tobaccos seems to be much greater than cigars.

I was in Huntsville, TX and found a few pipes in some antique stores. A Butz-Chocuin 1502 with a heavily oxidized stem and heavy tooth marks for $15. I think the owner chewed it more than smoked it. I also picked up a Yello-Bo and a Medico that were lightly smoked for $5 each. I'll play around with restoring them a bit and hopefully I'll end up with good smokers, it not it will be a fun way to spend Labor day. The Medico had a nasty filter, I think the owner may not have realized it had a filter and quit smoking it when it got nasty. I will leave the stinger in the Yello-Bo until I have a couple of test smokes, then may elect to remove it. The Yello-Bo doesn't look like it was ever smoked to the bottom of the bowl (it's still yellow).

I find myself taking the same path, from cigars to pipes...Yesterday I dried some captain black white in the microwave for 10-15 seconds and it improved the burning quite a lot, not being stressed that it will die out all the time . I look forward to try the samples BamaT sent

I too took the same path, though I know a great deal more about cigars than pipe smoking, even though I've been pipe smoking for a good while (13 years or so). I however haven't been pipe smoking PROPERLY in all that time, lol. And I have only in the past few weeks come to Non-Aro blends; and love them!

I would recommend that you simply let the tobacco air dry before smoking, rather than nuking it. Air drying will work better, without adversely effecting the tobacco. And I'm sure depending on the tobacco, you can find some advice from one of us on adequate dry times. So far I've learned 10-15 minutes for Orlik GS, 10-30 for most of my aro blends and I currently have out some Sam Gawith Navy Flake that I'll let dry for probably 24 hours.

@Bama Samurai , was the SG Navy Flake you sent an aged tin? Just wondering. I opened it finally and have to say it smells great! The Latakia smokiness is very faint; and it smells amazingly sweet. All I can think is a candied plum. I have some drying and can't wait to try it. If it's aged, I'm wondering if aging will similarly improve other SG non aros. The 1792 flake reminds me of Beggin Strips, lol. Though it has mellowed a great deal since putting it in a jar in my rack.

Giving that where I live the air humidity is ~80% more than half a year(including now) , letting it air drying I don't think it will do much good.
Another option is to put it a bit under a desk lamp to dry it. I'll have it try this method next...What I like about pipes is that the nicotine level is lower than a cigar and you can stop it anytime. And cheaper

Tonight (last night actually), I had some Spectre (Latakia blend with cigar leaf), in a vintage Dr Grabow El Dorado. Good tobacco, though hard to describe. It's very rich in my opinion. The Latakia is quite noticeable, though the smokiness of it is made.... thicker? Heavier?.....not sure how to describe it; due to the cigar leaf. There is a tiny bit of spice to it, but no sweetness that I was able to notice. If you like cigars though, I think you'll enjoy Spectre. pic tomorrow

I would think the addition of cigar leaf would make the smoke perhaps creamier.