Just a couple of observations. It is 80 degrees today here in Florida. Secondly Mr. Embers has now effectively proved my often quoted theory that 19th century meerschaum man did not go very big on pipe hygiene nor did he treat his pipe as some weird kind of AR7 Henry Survival Rife and strip the thing down after each smoke thus wearing out the very fine threading in the meerschaum shank. That has really colored up nicely and I for one cannot wait to see the what it looks like at bowl 200.
When I first started smoking a pipe—in the mid twentieth century, not the nineteenth!—I didn't even know about reaming it. I was told to prime the chamber with honey to initiate cake, and did so. The only cleaning was a dry pipe cleaner through the stem—I'm not even sure I pushed it into the shank. The pipes, inexpensive briars, smoked great, with no foulness. Although at that time I was smoking only OTC blends, so maybe I couldn't really tell LOL. Over time, the vulcanite stems molded perfectly to my teeth, which meant I could keep a bowl going for a long time, rarely removing it from my mouth. When I finally got around to reaming the one good pipe that I kept, it produced a good teaspoon of fine carbon but smoked no better or worse than before. Nowadays, I have better pipes and keep them pristine but I think it's probably true that the pendulum has swung a bit too much in the other direction.
Sorry to hijack this great thread
@Chasing Embers. Your owl looks amazing!
