Only an extremely occasional pipe smoker, but over decades. That tobacco the dealer selected for Frisket is actually my favorite. More "sophisticated" smokers seem to prefer the CB in the blue packet, I forget what the flavor is, maybe rum. Their stuff in the gold packet has a bit of that vanilla smell...all the CB stuff is pretty good IMO, but I'm not a sophisticated user...

It is a relaxing ritual. IMO that's what it's about, like the tea ceremony. It's messy, expensive, frustrating (pipes don't stay lit for long = good for outdoor bush safety but otherwise annoying), you have to carry a few small tools, you almost always have to do it outside these days (not everybody likes the smell).

As others said, you don't really get a lot of "smoke" out of it per se, the other people in the room get far more lol. The pipe tobacco doesn't have the thousands of chemicals that cigarette tobacco does. You probably end up actually throwing away most of the pipe tobacco you "smoke".

I have never seen a woman smoke a pipe, though I bet it "commonly" happens somewhere. That could be a pro or a con to some. I picked up smoking the cigars from a European woman in the 70s...