Function Over Form
-
Kevin Godbee - Apr 28, 2014
- 5 min read
Russ Ouellette
Last month, when writing about some random thoughts, I mentioned that I had been smoking corn cob pipes frequently as of late, because of a project I was working on. Since that article appeared, we broke the news, here on PipesMagazine.com, that the project was the development of four tobaccos that will be sold under the Missouri Meerschaum name. I was honored to have the opportunity to help create new products bearing such an iconic brand name, and I gave myself the added challenge of trying to make blends that would taste their best when smoked in a corn cob pipe. Once I had completed my work on the project, it got me thinking about cobs, and I thought that I’d share my memories and thoughts with you.
When I began smoking a pipe, I stayed exclusively with briars. As I think back, I can’t recall, for sure, why. The most likely reason is that my father only smoked briars in the house. The only time I saw him with a cob was when he was fishing, so I guess that I must have assumed that the reason he did that was because they were inexpensive, and he was concerned about dropping his pipe in the water. Of course, I didn’t think about how light the pipes were, and that with a slightly softer stem, they were much easier to clench than most briars, but I was a novice, and didn’t really give it much thought. My real exposure to corn cobs didn’t begin until a while later.
After a few years working in a tobacconist’s, in the late seventies, I took a job as a wholesale representative for a number of tobacco-related product lines, including a brand of cobs. At that time, I believe, there were still three US companies making corn cob pipes, and I’m fairly sure that they were all in Missouri. The company I represented was Buescher. Since I had never really smoked cobs, I took some samples to smoke, and wondered why I had never tried one before. The smoke was dry, cool, and there was a hint of buttery sweetness that I had never noticed in a pipe before. These inexpensive pipes quickly became a regular part of my rotation. Buescher has long since gone the way of the dinosaur, but my enjoyment of a corn cob didn’t skip a beat, because of the continued existence of the biggest brand, and the only one still operating—the Missouri Meerschaum Company.
As I smoked them more regularly over the years, I learned a few things that helped me enjoy them even more. I found that not allowing a cake to build up made for a more enjoyable experience … for me. Many people prefer to build some cake in their cobs, but I enjoy them better without it.
If I’m outside with a corn cob pipe, it will almost always be with a windcap in place. The only cob that ever burned out for me was one that I smoked on the golf course regularly, and the course I usually played was wide open, so it was windier than courses with a lot of trees. The only thing I could attribute the burnout to was the steady breeze.
Very few blends seem to suffer greatly when smoked in a cob, and I found that intriguing, so I tried to determine what the reason was. Most people describe a cob’s influence on a blend as neutral, but as I noted earlier, I detect a warm and slightly sweet addition to most tobaccos I’ve smoked in one. It makes perfect sense to me, as corn has sugar in it, so it stands to reason that the cob retains some as well. Therefore, when I worked on the blends, I attempted to keep them from being too sweet. They’ll smoke fine in a briar or a meer, but that added flavor from the pipe really makes them better in a corn cob.
Before I became involved with this project, even though I had sold corn cob pipes to distributors decades before, there was a lot that I didn’t know about what goes into making them. By now, most pipe smokers know that the strain of corn grown by the Missouri Meerschaum Company was developed specifically for their purposes. The cobs on the ears from that strain have a thicker, woodier core, and grow somewhat larger than most types. One thing I wasn’t aware of, until recent communication with Phil Morgan, the General Manager of Missouri Meerschaum, is that they actually grow the corn themselves.
Partly due to their affordability, people have experimented with corn cob pipes to customize them in various ways: using pipe mud (a mixture of cigar ash and water) to fill in the bottom of the chamber, opening the bottom of the bowl to fit it with a hardwood plug to extend the life, or by buying aftermarket stems made of vulcanite or acrylic which are more durable than the originals. But most of us just load ’em and light ’em. The appearance of the humble corn cob befits the way they’re used. They’re rustic, and seem to be at their best when treated with less than kid gloves.
I still love my briars. The grain can be stunning, and sandblasted and rusticated finishes are often as beautiful, in their own ways, as a tight straight grain. I still marvel, after all these years, at the often intricate craftsmanship of a finely detailed meerschaum carving. But after spending a good portion of the last year with a corn cob pipe within an arm’s reach, I’ve gained a whole new appreciation for this simple, but amazingly functional, development in pipe smoking, and there will always be a bunch of them in my collection, but now, they’re treated with a lot more respect.
If you haven’t smoked one lately, or ever, it’s time to give one a try. It may seem like a quaint anachronism, but a cob is much more than that. It’s a fully serviceable smoking instrument that can deliver years of enjoyment.
I’ve been playing around with an idea that I’m going to talk to Phil about. When, and if, it’s ready, I’ll let you in on the concept.
|
Russ Ouellette is the blender/creator of the Hearth & Home series of tobaccos for Habana Premium Cigar Shoppe and www.pipesandcigars.com in Bethlehem, PA. He has been a pipe smoker and blender for over 30 years, and enjoys feedback from the pipe smoking public. You can reach Russ at russo@pipesandcigars.com or by calling 1-800-494-9144 on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday from 9 am to 5 pm and Friday from 1 pm to 5 pm. |
Written by Kevin Godbee
21 Responses
Smokingpipes.com Updates
36 Fresh AKB Meerschaum Pipes |
12 Fresh Vauen Pipes |
12 Fresh Nørding Pipes |
24 Fresh Rossi Pipes |
7 Fresh Moonshine Pipes |
Recent Posts
Welcome to The Pipes Magazine Radio Show Episode 634! Our featured interview on tonight’s show is with Warren Ertle. Warren is an extremely accomplished musician with a PhD in music. He started early as a percussionist in sixth grade. Later his grandmother got him a cheap Casio keyboard which he taught himself to play. He started playing in blues bands in high school, and has been a pianist with jazz big bands for years. Even though he was already a professional musician, he took his first real piano lesson when he enrolled in college with his studies in classical music. He is of course a pipe smoker. At the top of the show we will have an Ask the Tobacco Blender segment with Jeremy Reeves. Jeremy is the Head Blender at Cornell & Diehl, which is one of the most popular boutique pipe tobacco companies in the USA.
Soon now, supposedly, our neighborhoods will shift from grinning pumpkins, skeletons in various assortments, and zombies dashing about to pretty reindeer, angels, and flashing lights illuminating homes with sparkling stars and laughing, scurrying Santas. But, lest we forget, there is the turkey season, fancy pie aromas wafting from kitchens, and a national pardon of a big Tom Turkey. Remember, now, that only one of these holiday personalities is a pipe smoker. And that is the hefty, bearded fellow in a bright red suit sitting in a sleigh with a herd of deer hitched up and ready to streak across the globe, bringing tidings of joy and many presents. Ok, the scene is set for the next couple of months, right? So, before we get too far off the beaten path, let’s just take a deep breath of fresh autumn air, shall we? Ahh. That’s better, isn’t it? What’s got the Pundit in a snit is not all the Halloween spooks who came a-jostling for candy. Or the wild turkeys gobbling in the backwoods or all the fuss and feathers over the big one—Christmas. No, it is that we might need to take note of all the little things that mean so much to us. Like a good sunrise (seriously, Pundit has not gone all Pollyanna.) Mayhaps we need to appreciate more of what we have than what we have not. Or something like that. Like, a good pipe in the morning with coffee as the dawn brings us coolish weather now that we have flipped the calendar to autumn. But it also brings beautiful leaves that have become a spectacle of technicolor in the wind. It is the little things. The rereading of an enjoyable book and finding something you did not see or learn in the first go-round. Or a stunning phrase you commit to memory with the re-read, while smoking that favorite pipe. And you notice a superior puff that just seems to be different. It’s in the air and the seasons of meaningful little things. It’s aromatic! Or perhaps it is that sense of satisfaction knowing and appreciating you made it to another day. With the world in a kind of rinse-and-repeat history, reminiscent of a Shakespearean play, it is perhaps a good moment to remember some of Pipedom’s philosophers whose cogent thoughts brought light to clear a path in the mists of confusion and confounding opinions. Ok. No gloom and doom. Just some down-home thoughts. Think of times in the past when history was running off the rails. It took our pipe-smoking thinkers (the mind workers of the world) to speak of better pathways to more light. Think for a moment, with a pipe in hand, these wizards of the world and word: Albert Einstein, J. R.R. Tolkien, Mark Twain, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Edwin Hubble, Bertrand Russell, C. S. Lewis, and Jean-Paul Sartre. All learned and enlightened. They offered wisdom instead of storms of meaningless roads to nowhere. All while smoking their pipes! Maybe especially with the help of their pipes in the art of thinking and philosophy. Recall the words of Mr. E=MC2 when he said, “I believe that pipe smoking contributes to a somewhat calm and objective judgment in all human affairs.” Amen and amen! Dealing with world-rattling events takes a calm and objective view of things, to the Pundit’s way of summing it up. You just don’t go messing around with quantum physics without a calm and objective approach, methinks. Or as the extraordinary physicist Robert Oppenheimer said after he and a team in the Manhattan Project at Los Alamos Labs developed a way to split atoms into bombs during World War II. “I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds,” said Oppenheimer referring to the development of the first nuclear bombs dropped on Japan. It must be pointed out that Oppenheimer was more of a cigarette smoker than a pipe smoker. Nonetheless, pipes were part of his personality. Now, if you have read some of the great authors of the past and present, their pipes were always nearby. Reading Sir Arthur Conan Doyle can be a three-pipe problem at times. S. Lewis and Jean-Paul Sartre require time with your pipes to reflect on the existential problems and solutions these authors provide in learned novels and other narratives. Or take Edwin Hubble and Bertrand Russell, philosophers of another world. Pipes are required for reading. The quantum lode of ideas Pundit is attempting to sort out is that our pipes are relaxing and stimulate our thoughts and creativity. Especially in these last months of the year. Many times Pundit has had that light bulb flick on while smoking my beloved pipes. And friends in Pipedom, it ain’t easy to turn on the lights in Pundit’s rock pit head. Now it’s time for a quote from a Pipe Smoker of the Past. Shelby Foote was born Nov. 17, 1916, in Greenville, Miss., and died June 27, 2005, in Memphis, Tenn. A fact is not a truth until you love it—Shelby Foote. A parting thought: It is said that famed Southern author William Faulkner carried a packed pipe in a coat pocket wherever he went. That’s one effective way to deal with workday conflicts and confusion. A calm and objective judgment in our everyday human affairs, as the quantum man said.
Welcome to The Pipes Magazine Radio Show Episode 633. Our featured guest tonight is Jon David Cole. JD is the Owner/Tobacconist at The Country Squire in Jackson, MS, and the accompanying online store. We’ll have JD and Brian talking about what’s new at the store and in the business in general. At the top of the show, Brian will discuss tobacco growing, what happens to the leaf, and provide updated information on where tobacco is being gown today. Tobacco production originated in the United States and we were once the #1 producer. It’s quite different now.
Well there’s nothing like a touch of the plague to usher in the changing season. Leaving the airport just when the first advertisements for all things pumpkin spice began to appear—lattes, muffins, shampoos, trash bags, and myriad other concoctions—so, too, my ability to breathe freely disappeared. The unfortunate side effect of losing one’s sense of taste and smell for weeks is the utter inability to enjoy tobacco. Not that I consider myself an expert on anything but my own tastes, but be forewarned that this review was made with mildly impugned sensory equipment. Just when a comforting pipe was most needed, its comfort was denied. Be that as it may, the road to recovery found me limping along on one lung this past month, trying to wrest the particulars of two blends on offer from Sutliff: the latest 175th Anniversary blend, Silver Quarter, as well as their spooky seasonal Maple Shadows II. Silver Quarter is a new style on offer from Sutliff, their first coin-cut blend. Naturally a Virginia-Perique, it is enhanced with a traditional core of black Cavendish. In the tin it holds much promise, with a lightly bready and very woody, if ever-so-slightly sour, aroma. After some time acclimating to air, the bouquet softens further and offers hints of the burley with some chocolaty notes wafting through the more dominant dry grassy aspect. The tin art is of a coin-style bas-relief bust, presumably of a founding Sutliff brother, à la The Old Boss On the reverse of the tin we find the blend’s description: Reflecting on Sutliffs 175 years of tobacco excellence, we came across a brand that embodies true value, SILVER QUARTER. This name pays homage to Sutliffs roots, the legacy of two brothers who popularized pipe smoking in the burgeoning mining society of San Francisco. We celebrate this heritage with a coin cut composed of the finest African Virginias, complemented by a core of Perique and Black Cavendish. The tin notes are, forgive the pun, on the nose for a good VaPer blend: mild tart sweetness peeking out from behind dried hay and slight chocolate undertones, with a lightly tannic finish of weathered oak. It is always a joy to prepare a coin cut, my preference being to put a few in my palm and vigorously warm my hands together to fully break them apart. These well-formed discs pack and light easily, and smoke with little prodding to the end of the bowl. For technical points it scores well—it smokes light, and it’s easy to tend the ember. While it gets sharp after a few quick bowls, pacing should be heeded to easily smoke down to the heel without inviting bite. Of the flavor, though, I am left a bit wanting. There are tart and high notes aplenty, but very little of the lemony citrus I would anticipate, as well as scant midtones; they tend more toward the red wine-vinegary and sour. The flavors are muted, also, lacking the sweetness and piquancy of other marques—the small measure of Perique tickles the nose now and again with peppery hints, and there is a smidge of a deeper sweetness to be found in the Cavendish from puff to puff, but overall it lacks some dynamism. The Virginias, to my palate, come off a bit on the dry side, and here they dominate the blend. The aftertaste and mouthfeel are neutral, again evincing more of the dry, woody, tartly tannic end of the spectrum. The blend has plenty of polish, but not enough depth or richness (*yet) to make it a standout. Here, comparisons are inevitable: Luxury Bullseye Flake has more sweetness, both from its Virginia as well as its Cavendish, and a better finish; Davidoff is similar but with a pronounced umami that is absent here; as for Escudo, I haven’t had any fresh tins lately so it would be unfair to compare. While it rates as a solid, fairly mild smoke, particularly to lovers of the genre, it does not surprise with any exceptional flavors. To be fair, all the boxes have been checked for the blend to benefit from some real aging, and it would be worth checking in on this after a couple of years sealed away. I’ve set half my tin aside to sample again in a month or two, in case I’m merely suffering from the lingering effects of parosmia, and will amend this review in that case. Maple Shadows II, on the other hand, made up for the weeks of sniffling and sneezing I’d endured. Offered in a full 8 ounce tin with delightfully spooky Halloween art, it’s (hopefully) enough to last through the season. Somehow I had missed this last year, so it’s a real pleasure to get some in my candy bucket this year. As the chilling winds of autumn draw eerie prattle from contorted, deciduous limbs, we find ourselves possessed by the spirit of the season. Bewitched by a dissonant charm, we’ve created Maple Shadows. In a season that is defined by the unlikely harmony of treats and frights, we’ve joined the enchanting sweetness of maple with the earthy spice of Dark Fired Kentucky for a smoking experience that captures the senses with an otherworldly fusion of flavor. This may be the best aromatic blend Sutliff’s ever made—and they make a ton of them. First off, it’s not overbearing in the least—quite the opposite, it is also one of the more restrained aromatics they’ve ever made, with a clear but very light topping that melds oh-so-well with their choice Kentucky added to the mix. Opening the tin, the sweet maple is up front and center, but so too is the must of fallen leaves, bready pie crusts, and a crackling fire in the hearth—a perfect invocation of Herbstdüfte in a can. Packing best in an open and capacious bowl, the flavoring is subtle, and recedes to the background while puffing. With a sweet coffee or tea to accompany, the aftertaste of the maple is reinvigorated on the palate […]
Welcome to The Pipes Magazine Radio Show Episode 632. Our featured guest on tonight’s show is the host of the Pipe & Tamper Podcast, Mike Murphy. Brian and Mike will have an extended chat revolving around the days before, during and after the Las Vegas International Pipe Show. We will hear about their travels to the show and the anxiety of Hurricane Milton bearing down on Florida at the same time while running a show and not knowing if your house is going to be there when you get home. In the end, the show went great and our homes survived, although many others in Florida were not so lucky. We’ll have clips from the show, and shoutouts to other podcasts and vlogs that were broadcasting from the pipe show.
Vegas Baby The show started out strong on the 14th floor hospitality suites hosted by the Vegas Pipe Show and Smoking Pipes as well as room hopping to carvers, estate sellers, and vendors to pre-game for the festivities. If you’re interested in what that looks like I’ll refer you to last years pipe show round up. I circled with Brian Levine to get the totals in comparison to last year: This year’s show numbers: 108 Exhibitor tables, 445 attendees, 3,250 Raffle Tickets, 100ish dinners, 172 Rooms in the Hotel. Last year, by comparison, 107 exhibitor tables, 425 attendees, 2,200 raffle tickets, 104 dinners, and 175 rooms on Friday and Saturday nights. We were at capacity, basically, when it came to vendor tables and the dinner, so there is no physical room for growth at this point except for attendees. That said, we filled that smoking lounge to the brim. New Carvers Spotlight Garret Woo (Pipes by Woo) How long have you been carving? Garret: I’ve been carving since 2021, and I’m guessing your next question is probably how’d you get started carving? James: Yes. Garret: In 2021 I took a break from my full time job – that included machining and assembly work and I thought maybe it was time I made something that I would like and I started looking at youtube and Instagram and putting together my shop. I did struggle on the stems to start and there was a lot of failure at the beginning. James: How many pipes have you made so far? Garret: I number my pipes, so I just finished up 186. James: What is your favorite shape you’ve been making? Garret: I really dig Canadians and pipes with longer shanks and lovat Canadian blends. I like to play with different shapes of stems on the longer shanked pipes. The billiard would be my go-to shape but I want to learn more techniques on freehanded shapes. I like to put brass and copper adornments on my pipes with my machining background it helps. James: What is the craziest thing you’ve seen at this show? Garret: The first thing that comes to mind is the table over there with C-Pipes with the shapes and the size and petiteness and the intricate details they did. You can check out what Garret is working on by going to his Instagram. Stefan Cashwell James: how long have you been carving? Stefan: about 3 years. James: What’s the craziest thing you’ve seen at the show? Stefan: The Adam Davidson pipe with the clear shape and the bamboo—I don’t know if it’s 3D printed or what, but it’s amazing. James: What’s your favorite shape to do? Stefan: That’s a tough question. I think they’re all the same shape, but what’s fascinating is that Dublin, volcano, and blowfish are all the same depending on how you turn them. Playing with that, with all its variations, is a lot of fun. My favorite accent to use is also horn; it’s finicky, but it’s a great accent on pipes. You can check out Stefan’s work on his Instagram. Science: Meet Pipes I chatted with Chris from the San Diego Pipe Club; he started off doing stem replacements for estate pipes but also improved the airflow. James: How are you doing 3d printing? What is the thought process? Chris: It’s a 3D-printed pipe with a briar insert. The design is a calabash meets a Peterson system meets a metal Falcon/Kirsten radiator style. It is a bottom draft smoking bowl like a radiator like those metal pipes. The inside chamber is a calabash. The stummel and accent rings in the stems are all 3d printed. The insert is briar, olive wood, or I have the potential to use meerschaum as well. This idea came about through the San Diego Pipe Club, wanting to see if we could 3D print a pipe and being curious about the technology; I have a printer and design ability, so here we are. James: What’s the type of plastic you’re using? Chris: It’s all PLA plastic, a renewable potato starch plastic that is food-safe. The stummels are printed with a plastic that has wood in it 40% wood fiber, bamboo, rosewood, ebony, redwood, and walnut are the woods I’m printing. For the accent rings I just got a new material that I’m printing that has 40% copper, so its real metal that you can sand, and polish the same as wood filament. The stems are 3d printed as well. The concept is renewable and cheap from a production standpoint, with the ability to make a very high quality smoking pipe based on the experience. By combining the calabash system pipe and bottom draft hole and using 3d simulations to see airflow, I can see where I’m having eddies and ripples in my current, and see where my moisture and all the particles are dropping back out from a vapor to a liquid. Most people who have tried these say the stems are clean, and they don’t even have to run a pipe cleaner afterward because everything collects at the bottom. Chris has also been experimenting with color-changing plastics so you can see the hotspots. Chris said he was able to use this to slow down his cadence, which, of course, could mean you could get a slow-smoke training pipe to teach yourself to perform better. If you’re interested in learning more or want to check one out, you can contact him on Instagram: Copper Beard Pipe Works The Negative Space The show was buzzing about one specific pipe, which had everyone guessing how it was made. I chatted with Adam Davidson briefly about it. James: How did this idea come to fruition? Adam Davidson: Smokingpipes.com had an expo back in August open to all of the makers they carry. The theme was to make a pipe utilizing bamboo. Given that the last time we had the expo I made a smooth Almond with three bamboo shanks, […]
People, which include this people, many times state their wish that cobs were bigger. Lately I’ve been developing the attitude that I’ll smoke any size even if small, enjoy that smoke and move on to another right away if my smoking yen has not been met. I’ve got 13 cobs and 3 group 3 briars, and I appreciate all of them.
There will be a new MM cob coming out soon that will be a little larger than most cobs. Of course, the limitation on size has to do with the size of the ears, and really large ones aren’t all than common. But I agree with you that I don’t mind lining a couple of cobs up when I want a longer smoke.
Russ
I’m actually gaining more of an appreciation for the smaller cob pipes – just got in from a lunch break, and the Pony Express was just the right size for an after-lunch walk/smoke break. The pipe was down to ash just as I got back to the ashtray outside my building.
Great article, and timely for me…. I just finished smoking corn cobs for two straight weeks while I put in a drip irrigation system for my wife’s (too big) vegetable garden. Prior to the project, I searched my collection for a yard pipe when I found a MM Pride and Country Gentlemen that I last smoked ten years ago and put away. Cleaned them up just a little bit, then went to work in the garden. They are marvelous smokers- light in the teeth, cool and dry, and can you can smoke 2-4 bowls in a row without them becoming sour. I should never have taken them out of rotation!
I too can taste that slightly sweet corn flavor when new. I think this is why I like them so much with burley tobacco- a little welcome sweetness to improve the nutty astringent burley flavor. You mentioned that you prefer yours without a cake. May I ask, do you ream out the cake as it builds or just buy a new cob?
I can’t wait until your new line of MM tobaccos come out. I have been smoking in my cobs that famous old-time burley-forward tobacco that wants to “get out of the can”. Not bad, but I can sometimes taste an off-putting chemical note and I find this tobacco a little bitter and sour at the bottom of the bowl. I saw a sneak peak of your new corn cob blends here on pipesmagazine, and I can’t wait to try them. Please let us know as soon as they are available to order.
I was telling some of the guys at Morley’s Pipe Club that I have been dancing with my cobs more lately. This was initiated by the fact that we actually had nice weather a few weeks ago and I managed to have about 4-5 bowls. With that I had 4-5 pipes to clean. I wanted a bowl but didn’t want to clean another pipe……insert cob. I got to have a bowl, clean my pipes, and when I was done I didn’t have another to clean.
I am also finding that when I don’t have at least 45 min but I want to get a bowl in I will reach for a cob. I did this yesterday and it was great.
Thanks Russ, this is an important essay on pipes and pipe smoking that should resonate well from the very new to the old grizzled vet. When I first got into pipes the common recommendation for taste testing blends was clay. I can’t deal with clay pipes as they are just too fragile for my taste and the cob is bombproof. I also love the sweetness that comes through in even my oldest, hard smoked little MM’s and I don’t fuss with pipe mud or changing stems, (save for one), they are fine just the way they come off the cardboard display. It took some sand to have someone in the “business” to praise the virtues of the once lowly corn cob pipe and I’m not surprised that it was you. Thanks for a great read.
I enjoyed reading this article. Your enthusiasm for the cob is infectious, and I can hardly wait to taste what you have created to celebrate the quintessentially American throwback to simpler times.
.
This might be a good place to express a desire for MM to develop a larger diameter cob. That, and the chintzy stems are my only true criticisms. I know, better stems are available as aftermarket upgrades, but MM should offer the option themselves.
this is a great read, and i have had the same experience. Having a large chamber would be great for me, i love something i can pack and not have to work about. i tend to only smoke at work and find that the cob i used to smoke was nice and sweet once i got on my second bowl. the smell even enhances the flavor in my opinion. Im not use the type of tobacco it is seeing as it was the stores labeled version but it was a nice smoke on the first bowl and when i filled that second one the cob was slightly warm, went and started smoking and i was blown away by how much better that little added sweetness from the cob made the taste and smell of the smoke.
Sadly it was my first and ended up burning it out after a month of 1-2 bowls a night at work.
I’m very excited about the Missouri Meerschaum blends, and also for White Knight. Great news! Thank you Russ, Phil, and pipesmagazine.com.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts, Russ. There are several blends that I only enjoy in a cob, one being Dunhill EMP. I am sure Dunhill and Co. Never expected to here that! Looking forward to sampling your cob specific blends.
A bunch of tried the new MM blends the other night with Russ. We all had our cobs with us and the blends are a lot of fun. There is something for every smoker to like. As for the cobs themselves, they take a licking and keep on ticking.
Thanks for an informative article, Russ.
Later this year, there will be a new entry in the Missouri Meerschaum lineup that should please those of you who want a more substantial cob. It’s a nicely-sized Dublin, and the chamber diameter at the top is over 3/4″ and a bit more than 1 1/4″ deep. It will be called the Mark Twain, and it should make a lot of people happy.
Russ
I have four cobs that I enjoy from time to time, especially when doing work in the yard or just trying a new blend.
Very excited to learn about the Mark Twain. For Christmas this year I bought a bag of the usable seconds and gave them out to everyone I thought would be interested in experimenting with pipe smoking. None of them have really picked up the hobby but most still puff every few weeks.
With the prices of briar being what they are a cob is an amazing entryway for the hesitant but interested pipe smoker.
In a way, it’s sort of like golf. A lot of people derive an awful amount of pleasure from playing the occasional round with an inexpensive set of clubs. It’s not about the instrument, but what you do with it. Corn cobs are sweet smoking pipes that can deliver years of enjoyment at a bargain price, and I’m proud to be affiliated, in my small way, with such a legendary brand.
Russ
Here’s my question Russ (or anyone else): What about these hardwood maple cobs (or are they really cobs?) that Missouri Meerschaum is offering? A cob or just a very cheap pipe? The price is right on those. Do they miss the qualities of a true cob while having none of the qualities of a briar?
Not to be redundant, put too fine of a point on it, or put words in anyone’s mouth…
Good article. I have one corn pipe in my collection that I use to test a new tobacco or when working outside, like washing the car or mowing the grass.
I too have gained a recent appreciation for the cob. In another forum, many hail the tried and true combo of Carter Hall in a cob. In reminiscing, I sought out Sir Walter Raleigh Aromatic because that is what my Dad smoked, and what I’ve discovered is that for me, these OTC blends sing in a cob, and they are just not as good in my briars. I have added a couple more cobs, and some CH, SWR, or SWRA are always at hand for my cobs as part of my regular rotation.
Russ said “It’s not about the instrument, but what you do with it.”
Dead on. I can carve with expensive rotary tools or the pen knife from when I was a boy. Both make art, just a different kind of art.
Great stories are told both in the fancy, educated language of a doctor with the world’s quintessential detective and also in the common language of a boy on a raft going down-river with a runaway slave.
Not the instrument, not the tool, not the words, not the pipe — but what you do with them.
Interested, too, Russ, in what you said about not liking cake so much. It’s because you want that “buttery” flavor? — I’ve been all in a hurry to get a cake in my cobs, “standardize” them, and protect them (I heard) from burning out.
Now I’m going to give it a shot the other way round, keep the cake trimmed out.
Alright, I went to a local brick-and-mortar smokeshop and bought a Missouri Meerschaum “hardwood” made of maple. Cost: $4.50 plus tax.
Bowl walls had varnish particles inside acting bumping and granular around the rim. Some light sandpaper alleviated this easily. Without a better tool (dremel-type) I was not going to remove all the varnish. Let’s hope MM isn’t into providing us with toxics, but we have been using their cobs for many years, haven’t we?
I’ve wanted to check out the new hardwood models they make. 3 bowls smoked so far through this one, and all have been good. Only time will tell how the pipe ages and just how that contrasts with the original cobs.
I bought an Eaton cob a couple months ago and I’ve smoked much through it. I’ve put a cleaner through it maybe 3 times- the pipe really absorbs tar in an immaculate way and is much more maintenance-free than my briars. I’ve scraped the bowl wall cake once, and if it ever gets gross I won’t hesitate to pitch it on the compost pile.
But I still have a Legend cob I bought about 18 yrs ago that I’ve never smoked religiously from, but used occasionally. It is still good. I’d never give up my briars, but I know the fancy briar snobs just can’t get themselves to admit that on a certain level, a pipe made of woody/vegetal matter is just that; a smoking utensil.