I have a Craig Ashton blasted brandy that smokes well, as did two Taylor Ashtons that I once owned. If the drilling is good, and sometimes even when it is not, as is the case with a cob that I have that has a draft hole left of center, that also draws well and burns well; and if the pipe doesn't gurgle, I don't, frankly, understand what the constant references to a "good smoker" (I've read this so much, and without any explanation of this judgment that it makes me want to hurl), a "great smoker," etc., etc. mean. As almost all pipes are drilled reasonably, and have a space to stuff the tobacco, as well as a hole in the bit to allow a draw, the minimum requirements constituting a vessel that can be smoked, what is the basis for making these claims?
Similarly, claims that this pipe was "made for latakia," that pots are natural "flake pipes," to me seem entirely subjective. Now I also do feel that difference or cause will naturally have a correspondingly different effect, and that the briar and its curing, shaping, drilling, stem-making, especially the comfort of the stem, have the potential to be different in many small ways; and that thus when a smoker smokes a pipe, even two that are exactly the same model, and also machine made, and thus for the sake of argument very closely the same, subtle differences prevail in these two pipes and in their smokes. But to say that such difference amounts to a pipe "made for latakia," which in fact may be true for any one smoker, are anything but subjective seems to me invalid. Such a claimant has no ability to measure his estimation; and as the claim is not measurable, it is also not replicable, or not reliable.
For those of you who have studied why research properly conducted has power, reliability is one of its cornerstones. Unless others can get the same results as you, doing the procedure/study/experiment that you did, there's not much to talk about.
Not long ago I had a discussion with the venerable Pipestud about drilling. I maintained that differences in drilling must impact the smoke; he replied by saying that the smoke travels so fast that even if there was some millimeter of difference in the channel, it didn't much matter, and that a draft off-center was usually not meaningful but a high draft was. Thus even my most cherished notions about drilling couldn't predict how a pipe will smoke.
If you think one of your pipes smokes latakia like a champ, you sir are absolutely right, but only for you; your claim remains simply your claim, and to me you are simply trundling through the swamp of your subjectivity. As for me, trundling in my subjectivity, I'm off to read more pipe posts, trying to avoid the incessant claims that someone's new pipe is a "good smoker" when he doesn't know what he means by the statement nor why in this case he should say it.
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