There's no pretense inside or outside the bowl. There's the cob, the tobacco, and the smoker. It may not be the most efficient or prettiest smoker, but I'm certain that, with my cob, I'll get a true impression of the tobacco from first light.
With my first meer, an old acquaintance recommended that I handle it with a cloth the first two or three times I smoked it. This was to avoid unwanted marks or stains. Now that I have several (having forgotten about the cloth), I'm not sure it matters if one is careful.
Another New Orleanian! Welcome to the forums.
I don't have any special techniques for drying out tobacco, other than using a paper towel to soak up excess moisture before I smoke. We keep our house in the mid-70s and, thankfully, not much moisture makes it inside. I do keep my tobacco in a...
Excellent job on the stem! And with Chapstick, I get the unflavored sort, apply a coat to the entire stem, leave it on for a few minutes and buff it off.