Choosing Your First Pipe

Choosing your first pipe is a decision that largely determines how smooth the learning curve will be for someone new to the hobby. The choice essentially comes down to a handful of core criteria: bowl material, body shape and bowl size, whether to use a filter, and whether the pipe will be new or secondhand (estate). This entry looks at each criterion from a beginner's point of view.

Bowl Material

A newcomer usually runs into three materials: briar, corn cob, and meerschaum. All the options are compared in the pipe bowl materials entry.

Material	Standout trait	A beginner's take
Briar	Extremely heat-resistant; its porous structure gives a dry, cool smoke	The most common pipe material; a well-made example serves for years
Corn cob	No break-in process needed; its wide draw forgives packing mistakes	Most commonly recommended for someone still asking "will I even like this?"; shorter-lived than briar
Meerschaum	Doesn't burn, needs no cake, can be smoked back-to-back without resting	Usually recommended as a second pipe, given its fragility and the care its wax coating needs

The settled view in the community is that a well-made corn cob pipe is a better choice than a poorly made briar. Cob pipes, unlike briar, are considered not to over-moisten even when smoked several times in a day.

Shape, Bowl Size, and Filters

Body shape falls into two main families; classic pipe shapes are grouped under these two families as well. In straight pipes, a pipe cleaner reaches directly from the mouthpiece (stem) to the bowl, making maintenance easy; bent pipes, meanwhile, put less leverage on the teeth. Either is a valid choice for a beginner.

Bowl size determines smoking time: a small bowl offers roughly 30-45 minutes of smoking, depending on the tobacco's cut and how tightly it's packed, and makes short trial smokes easier. Since size numbering differs from brand to brand, it's better to look at the bowl's actual dimensions than at the numbers.

For filtered pipes, the most common standard is Germany's 9 mm activated-carbon filter. A filter reduces moisture and tar; it's accepted, though, that it can also cost some flavor. Claims that a filter makes pipe smoking safe, however, have no basis. As a practical detail, a pipe with a filter chamber can also be smoked without the filter, while a pipe designed without one cannot take a filter. See the pipe filters and systems entry for details.

New or Secondhand?

A secondhand pipe, if properly cleaned, can arrive with the break-in process already done, opening the door to a level of craftsmanship that would otherwise be out of reach. That said, assessing the condition of an estate pipe takes experience; for this reason, this route is recommended for a beginner only with the guidance of someone who knows what to look for.

When evaluating a new pipe, three mechanical points are checked:

• The draft hole should be drilled dead-center and at the very bottom of the bowl.

• The shank and mouthpiece should line up cleanly.

• The mouthpiece should seat without forcing.

Once a pipe is chosen, the next step is packing and lighting it; these steps are covered in the Getting Started With a Pipe entry. It's worth remembering that the pipe alone doesn't determine the experience: a tamper, pipe cleaners, and tobacco choice matter just as much.