I started back on the pipe in March of 2010 after a 35 year lay off. I've smoked cigars for twenty years but after encountering too many plugged cigars over the last 2 years and due to the increasing costs of cigars and just plain being burned out on cigars, I decided to try a pipe.
My first pipe was a MM Legend cob and 5 briars (2 Savinellis, a GBD, Weber and a no-name Italian) and 2 meers soon followed--as did another 9 cobs.
I've tried 30-40 blends of pipe tobacco and have pretty much settled on P.S. Luxury Navy Flake, Luxury Twist Flake and Balkan Supreme as my favorites. I also like Escudo and Orlik Golden Slice and, for a change of pace, Walnut, Bald Headed Teacher, McClelland 5110 and Lane BCA.
In my pipe quest, I was looking for a briar that smoked as good as my old GBD of forty years ago. While I enjoyed the briars and meers, after 100's of bowls in them as well as my cobs, I decided I was going to be a cob smoker from now on. While the briars and meers gave a pretty good smoke much of the time, any of my cobs smoked better 100% of the time with my favorite tobaccos. I also found that I prefer the cobs with a natural finish as opposed to the finished MM cobs for quality of smoke.
The advantages of meers and briars over cobs? Better looking and "classier". The disadvantages: cost, hit or miss as to quality of smoke, wet heels, oxidizing stems, gurgle and break-in.
Advantages to cobs: low cost, cool smoke, 25 cent interchangeable replacement stems, no wet heel or gurgle, 5-8 smokes for break-in (so the exposed stem burns away), no anxiety if pipe is destroyed, very light weight (especially important if you're a "clincher") and the cobs give me the best smoke with the my favorite tobaccos.
Some things I've discovered:
I don't like the paper filters so I use a one inch folded section of pipe cleaner stuck in the stem. I use the middle part of used cleaners so the cost is minimal. This makes the draw perfect for me and does collect some tars and moisture. I replace it every smoke.
I like the MM "Danish" bits offered by MM. I put a section of heat shrink tubing on the mouthpiece which increases comfort and is thinner than "softy" rubber bit protectors. Heat shrink also lasts longer and is cheaper than softy bits.
The "nose warmer" Forever Stem from Walker Briar Works is a very comfortable bit and turns any cob, especially the Missouri Pride, into a great clincher. I think the Pride is the best bang for the buck cob pipe and I can get a 60 plus minute smoke with LNF out of them (as I do with my Diplomats).
The natural Freehand is an outstanding smoker (as long as you're sitting in a chair, reading a book. It's certainly too heavy for a clincher.) I regularly get 100-130 minutes smokes out of the Freehand.
There's not too much of a problem with ghosting unless you're a Tambo smoker. That tobacco did ghost one of my cobs for a bit. I can't handle Tambo anymore so that's not a problem. I do have cobs dedicated to VA/Vapers and to English/Balkans, though, just for the heck of it.
Well, that's all I can think of for now.
Here's a picture of my Freehand:
WyoBob (Secure in his "Cobness)
