Am I A Shmuck For Preferring Corn Cobs?
- Thread starter Nhassey48
- Start date
I DO very much agree with you about the easier/bigger draw of the typical cob compared to a briar. That bigger draw does make them nice (IMO) especially as a first pipe upon awakening for the day. ?
Or you can open your briar pipes up if you like a more open draw. It’s really not that difficult with a bit of practice. I’d also add Neerup to that list, his pipes are wide open! They have a great draw!
In this pic, the pipe is a Growley bamboo poker... love it. I can’t remember the last avatar. My first was me lighting a Nording in the dark.
I do have a few corncobs,and I have my reasons for not liking them. But, I don’t really disparage anyone for enjoying them... just jokingly.
A few years ago, we had a handful of “militant” corncob smokers who would always Jump on threads disparaging anyone who enjoyed the nicer more expensive pipes. And, even though they’d curb stomp me for standing up for briarmen, I took it for the team. It was just friendly fire, but won me to rep as a cob hater, which wasn’t the case. If you ever drive up on me on the tractor, you just might... might... catch me smoking Carter Hall in a cob. But, I’d probably beat you into never telling anyone, ha ha!
I have a couple cobs and I love them, one of them, without knowing at first, has pretty well only had Half & Half smoked in it, and a little W.Ø Larson, so it seems now I get a lot of good flavour out of H&H when using that one. Their just great pipes, smoke great, are cheap and very low maintenence. Mine get as much use as my briars probably.
The rule of thumb regarding cost and quality is "a day's wage for a pipe".
I once paid $80 CAD for a cob.
I prefer them.. I still smoke briars, but corn is damn sure a good material for a pipe.
I have a small rotation of pipes, around 60. I am not ashamed to tell you that 25 are cobs. I love my cobs and treat them as I do my briars. I reach for my cobs more often and for me I enjoy Virginia forward blends in them. If you enjoy them, smoke them. I will add that I perfer English in a briar.
I've said it before.. and I'll say it again. Something feels wrong about an english blend in a cob.. I don't have a reason, but theres a little voice in our heads we should be listening to.
They're artificially flavored aromatics, perfect for cobs!
Really, they taste no different to me in whatever I smoke them in.
I have to agree, my MM freehand loves Englsh blends and MM offers English that pairs well with cobs.
30 years x 365 @ 1 hour per day = 10,950 hours of smoking. That’s at only one pipe per day!
The only thing that would make you a Schmuck would be you smoking something because of what other people think instead of what you prefer.