To not get on to large of a soap box here I would like to inform you that premium cigars do not have any additives unless clearly stated. They are simply made of aged, rolled, dried tobacco. Yes there is a form of 'tar' produced when smoking them, however there are no chemicals or nasty bits that are expelled into the air like with Cigarettes. This is just simple fact. This does of course have the caveat that some lower end cigar manufactures (machine rolled usually) that add things in for flavor, and these are widely looked down on by the cigar smoking community. There are also infused cigars with have a sort of additive for flavor, usually completely natural or concentrated natural, but there again you are not talking about nasty chemicals.
Pipe tobacco is a little more complicated as the blending process is much more in depth. However, when you are talking English Blends (non flavored with additives) loose tobacco that is not cheap bulk crap you are in the clear yet again as far as chemicals released in the air. Most premium flavored tobacco is processed with food grade flavoring or natural flavoring (this tobacco is called Aromatic). The aromatic tobacco for pipes are usually not treated with any of the chemicals that are nasty and the like. When you are buying bulk, or generic pipe tobacco you are usually getting rough cut cigarette tobacco, this is usually used for roll your own cigarettes, and if FULL of nastiness, just like Cigs.
I would like to point out that this is in no way encouraging anyone to begin using any of these products, that is an adult decision for adults to make. I am a faceless person on the internet who grew up in a cigarette smoking home, and can not stand them. I personally have made the choice to enjoy cigars and pipes, and have found a great passion for this hobby. If anyone would like to talk more about this subject please PM me with your love or hate mail. If anyone has more insight or experience please feel free to correct me.
Off my small soap box and onto your question! I would HIGHLY recommend you buy a pipe for a prop. Don't go E-Pipe, they look like crap and you are still inhaling nicotine with that water vapor (unless you buy an expensive one and keep the cartridge out). For $20 you can go to a local Cigar/Pipe store and purchase a beautiful briar pipe that will look great. If you plan on actually smoking it, well than you will see it is not the greatest quality. But for $20 you can get some GREAT aesthetics. Better yet, go and look at a few antique shops, they have old pipes with great character, and because you are not looking to smoke them you don't really care about Briar quality. If you buy an antique store pipe just pull the stem off and dip it in some bleach than rinse rinse rinse - buff it a little and call it good! Use a little 'spirits' to clean out the bowl with rag and you are all set. (The bowls in antique store pipes are usually a little dusty and poor looking, that is why I recommend cleaning it with spirits. Briar is a very absorbent wood so I would not recommend using ANY sort of 'cleaner' on the wood because it will stink it up for a good long while.)
I hope this information has helped you, and I would love to see a pick PM'd to me if you decide to get one! (Oh and check out this website if you want AWESOME looking in-genre pipes,
www.Lunapipes.com)
