I wanted to post my silly fix for a silly problem. Actually, many people told me something I didn’t want to believe: wooden stems turn soggy in your mouth and lead to deteriorating bits. One smoke made me realize the situation of this new pipe was untenable. By new, I mean newly acquired. I believe it’s very old. It has an orific stem. It’s very tiny and rubber pipe bits are just too large. My fix is rubber screw protectors with the end snipped off.