Originally Posted by BigFrank

I would just break down a buy a few cobs. In the beginning I had a few store bought cob pipes, a pipe a brother gifted me and I used some nails I had laying around for a tamping tool.
Then get on with the Newbie Pipe Tobacco thread. Brothers there will hook you up just fine. http://www.cigarasylum.com/vb/showthread.php?t=9168
Get a good variety of tobacco samples to try, and work from there. In time things will work out. Only advice I can give is to take things slow. Pipe smoking is something that should be taken slowly IMMO. Think of it like when you first got into cigars. If you were like me you wanted to try everything and buy everything. Then you end up with a large stash of cigars you find out you really do not care for. Then spend endless time, smoking them or giving them away ahaha ...I know how you feel. There are so many blends of tobaccos, so many pipes, so little time. Try all different types of tobaccos. I prefer stronger cigars and cubans but when it comes to pipes I enjoy Virginia blends which tend to be sweet tobaccos. There are some pipe tobacco blends that have cigar clippings in them. I have only tried a few of these and was not all that impressed. Hence the corncob suggestion. Having these "throw away" pipes allow you to destroy them while learning how to smoke and trying different tobaccos. In time, you will get better pipes both in cost and smoking quality ( although some guys still prefer cobs ) but in time you will assign certain pipes to certain types of tobaccos. or even specific blends themselves.