Cigar Smoker Making the Switch to Pipes

[Perique]

Great advice here already. The only word of caution I would throw out there as a former cigar smoker is that there can be considerably more prep work with pipe tobacco than with cigars. Specifically I am referring to the SG flakes (Full Virginia Flake, etc). You may want to experience some of the other recommendations first before dealing with the finickiness of these types of flakes. While the rewards may be there, I would hate for you to experience frustration early on when there are so many other wonderful blends to enjoy and make your introduction to pipe smoking much more pleasant an enjoyable.

 

[andrew]

The mcclellend cigar series in my opinion is just a top notch VA blend, the maduro is one of my favorites for pipes but nothing really like a cigar. Really cigars and pipes are 2 different things and you can't really reproduce a genuine cigar experience with a pipe and vice versa. Billy Buddy is very cigar like, but you'll either probably love or hate the oriental which is a very noticeable part in the blend. I'd suggest buying cigar leaf to ad to blends which they sell in bulk, or even better explore the world of pipe tobacco and see why many of us still smoke both pipes and cigars, but cigars are for occasions, pipes are for daily smoking

 

[judcole]

Welcome aboard.

You've gotten some good advice so far, but let me toss out a bit more.
Don't try to take your cigar rules for types of tobacco and apply them to pipe tobacco - it's an entirely different world.
Buy the best pipes and tobacco you can afford. It will enhance your smoking experience.
And, finally:

other nonsensical names

No worse than "My Uzi Weighs a Ton". :P

 

[burlpettibon]

Touche Jud! Though there is a bit of interesting backstory to that cigar... But this probably isnt the forum to get into that!
Perique, thanks for the tip. The last thing I want is to get frustrated and stop early (it happened once a couple years ago)
Andrew, thank you for the suggestion to make it a bit more cigar like. I did have a great passion for Cigars when I had the money to support the habit and even if I find one blend that is similar, it will be a nice throwback every once in awhile.