I recently got a wonderful billiard that smoked great, but after two weeks it didn't seem to smoke so well. Then, by chance, I saw light showing through the chamber: the pipe didn't just crack, but it burned through into a large hole. The vendor exchanged the pipe, somewhat reluctantly, but I'm wondering how often this kind of burn through happens: freak occurance of a bad selection of briar? Will this happen to the exchaged pipe? I hope not, because it is truly a unique billiard, a H&H Signature pipe, quite huge.