My First "Burn Out"

Yup.

I also smoke "hot", that is why from now on I cover the entire bowl with pipe mud.

I smoke Legends and I shorten bowls by about 1/3 so I can have a quick 15 min smoke,

so 1 bag of pipe mud is enough for me to coat 2 cobs very well

Just call it your skeleton pipe like the Vauen Diamond Skeleton pipe or the skeleton wristwatch where you can view the movement!

We need pictures!
I saw a really sad looking burn out on google a few weeks back when doing a little pipe smoking refreshment as I was getting back into this old sport.. a bran new nice briar fully borked and burnt out in 3 months!
Pretty scary stuff.. especially when you're chuffing on something nice. Can anyone explain the fine details to why a burn out will occur, please!? Obviously uneven embers, weak spots etc but I need to know more. I'd cry like a toddler with a skinned knee if I jfk'd one of my bowls! lol
The only form of cob murder I've participated inw as this one..

A super cheap chinese pos £1 cob. Smoked pretty good considering, but I was smoking herbal alternatives to baccy (not weed, I'm not a hippy!) and during a heavy machine session after I dumped the bowl of burned out flavoured leaf tea.. the actual walls of the bowl were glowing with ember! lol eventually the stem fell off and the bowl was nearly dead.
For anyone interested in trying one of these.. don't. A real cob costs about £5 and smokes perfectly and are heavier than alot of fruit woods. (My Mr.Brog pear wood pipe is lighter than my MM legend!)

Article on pipe burnout from Mark Tinsky.

I smoke a lot of "Natural" cobs and from what I've heard they have a greater risk of burnout then other cobs. Fortunately I've never had it happen to me. If it does I'll just toss it and buy another. I do prefer "Natural" cobs over the plastered ones.

Sad to hear the potential demise of a cob. I like the idea of fixing it.

That´s quite a hole you´v got yourself NB! I would try to fix it with plaster of Paris. MM uses it on the outside of their cobs and it should be fine on the inside too. The breach looks to large for pipe cement to me. YMMV of course...

Last year I had a General Cob burn out on my second or third bowl with it.

The cost of shipping is equal to the cost of buying a new one so I just tossed it. I have over a dozen Cobs now anyway.
On the subject of Cobs, I am very impressed with the Wizard Cobwarden, they must be choosing premium stock for that pipe because it's got thicker, harder walls than any Cob I've seen before. I just bored two of them out to a 1" bowl (tapered of course) and the wall material is very consistent (and the wall thickness is still 10mm, the same as the General). I think Missouri Meerschaum could be making some nice wide pots with that Cob stock if they can actually grow it consistently.