One of the most recommended tips for beginner pipe smokers is to rotate your pipes. Now, if you already have a dozen or so briars, meers, or cobs in your collection, this isn't that hard to do. But if you're just starting out, building an entire rotation based on your smoking habits can seem quite daunting. But it doesn't have to be. Here are 8 easy steps to get you and your rotation started:

Step 1: Buy A Pipe

How much should you spend? The adage is true, a bad first experience with a pipe will turn off a would-be pipe smoker. And, like it or not, most pipes in the sub-$50 price range are sub par. Fortunately, pretty decent $50 pipes aren't hard to come by, and in fact, sometimes they can be awfully good.

I recommend a briar pipe. I'm a bit of a grain hound in the first place, and as good as a cob can be (and we'll get to that) nothing seasons as well; and there's something almost magical about old briar pipes—which can be attained often on the inexpensive side. In case you didn't know, you can actually filter all the pipes on our site by price using the Pipe Locator.

Step 2: Buy A Corn Cob Pipe

You've got two choices: Old Dominion, the relative newcomer to the game of cob pipes, and then there's the trustworthy Missouri Meerschaum — which can be had for as little as $4.75. They'll last, like a good BiC pen; corn cob pipes get the job done, and they'll give your briar(s) a chance to rest.

Step 3: Smoke Your Pipes

Speaking of resting briar, I now assume that you've followed my advice to buy a briar pipe (step 1) and a cob (step 2), and so step 3 is to smoke the briar pipe and then smoke the cob. When you're ready to smoke again, smoke the briar pipe. Easy stuff.

Step 4: Dedicate Your Pipes

This means you need more than one. And you need to have a fair idea of what will ghost a pipe.

Just a general note: We're mostly talking about briar pipes here. Corn cob pipes too, because, yes, despite contrary assertions, I do believe corn cob pipes will ghost; I've done it. Many, if not most, aromatic blends will ghost any pipe — here aromatic meaning any blend that's both heavily cased and/or heavily top flavored, usually sweet. Blends with 10% or more Latakia will ghost eventually, as well, same as those with a similar amount of Perique (given enough time). At that, if you smoke the same blend in a briar pipe, no matter what the blend, 500 times, that briar pipe will likely forever taste like that blend unless you work exceptionally hard to bust the ghost. Lakeland blends are also known to ghost, but we're mostly taking about a not insignificant portion of Gawith & Hoggarth's portfolio of offerings.

Step 4: Keep Your Pipes Squeaky Clean

There's plenty of documentation out there on all the best practices regarding regular (and irregular) pipe maintenance, so I won't get into detail here. But the dirtier a pipe is the less trustworthy it becomes as a good smoker, and the less useful it is to you as a unit in your pipe rotation. If you're interested, there are a few articles over on our Resources page to get you started.

Step 5: Work On Your Smoking Technique

Here I specifically mean in regards to keeping your pipe in the best condition possible. Kind of like keeping your pipe super clean, but the inverse of it: don't mess it up. Don't mess up the mouthpiece, don't burn out the chamber. Develop your packing & lighting technique so you don't damage your pipe and prohibit its smoking ability, crippling it from regular use. Check out this post on advanced pipe smoking techniques for some tips on improving your method.

Step 6: Round Out Your Selection

Pick up another corn cob (or two or three) or a clay. You could even buy an inexpensive knock-around beater briar on the cheap. Or just some kind of pipe that you're not emotionally attached to that you can afford to treat like hell. See Step 1 and 2.

Step 7: Get A Pipe Rack

Because you're going to need a place to keep your pipes, and if you're trying to work a rotation having them all in the same place is fairly helpful. There are a variety of shapes, styles, and sizes of pipe racks to choose from, but they don't have to be expensive. You can find a number of quality, affordable pipe stands and racks over on our Accessories page.

Step 8: Ignore All The Advice

And just make up your own rules. Smoking a pipe is actually easier than it's very often made out to be. It can just seem tough, especially at first, because it's one of those strange things left in this age where seemingly anything can be learned if one spends enough time on the internet, when in fact it takes practice to master the art of pipe smoking. That there's so much available information on pipes, pipe tobacco, and pipe smoking is by all accounts a very good thing, but the surplus of data and the persistence of many pipe, pipe tobacco, and pipe smoking myths border on the absurd. Anybody that's smoked a pipe long enough will simply tell you to do what works for you.

Have any tips of your own on building up your rotation of pipes? Feel free to comment and share in the field below.