Breaking in an MM Cob.

[chopper]

Title edited: unimportant words lower cased.

I've got nine MM cobs stuck in Chicago while USPS has shut down mail to Oz.

As much as I like MM cobs - good smokers - I'm really not looking forward to breaking them in on their eventual arrival.
The vegetal taste from the first few bowls, although not disgusting per se, it really does spoil the taste of the tobacco.

Then there's the hard wood taste at the end of the bowl. [I accelerate the burning of the stem that protrudes into the bowl by adding some dry baccy at the end of a smoke and really firing it up]

Thinking about this, I'm wondering if blasting the chamber of a new cob with a small butane torch [to scorch the chamber wall and burn the protruding bit of stem] would help accelerate breaking it in?
Has anyone tried this?

 

[warren]

I never had such problems but, my palate isn't as discerning as yours and others. Were I you, I'm not of course, I'd jut break it in as necessary with a blend that isn't a favorite or, suck it up and live with the annoying tastes for a few bowls. I can't think of anything good happening by taking a torch to a rather, compared to briar, easily burned piece of silage.

 

[lawdawg]

Interesting. I hate breaking in new briars because of the taste, but I cannot taste any additional unwanted flavor at all in a cob. Granted, all is smoke in cobs is burley blends plus the occasional aromatic, and cobs and burley go together like peas and carrots.

 

[Briar Lee]

It’s been almost fifty years now, but listening to old men talk about making corn cob pipes, I went to our corn crib and selected a nice big, dried cob and made my own pipe using a section of cheap bamboo fishing pole for a stem.

I also did what the old men told me, and broke it in using a dab of honey on the inside of the bowl. It works on MM factory pipes, just as well.

I’ve never been able to get a cob pipe to start a cake. Years ago I smoked an MM enough to burn them out.

If ever in Washington Missouri you should visit the Missouri Meerschaum factory. My homemade cob burned out the bottom in a few months time.

The cobs used in Missouri Meerschaum pipes are a special hybrid developed by the University of Missouri, and dried before they are made into pipes. The corn is a byproduct of the cobs and the contracted farmers get to keep the corn.

Years ago their best pipes had imported bamboo shanks with a vulcanite stem. I have one, a Yangtze, that I’m very careful with.

I see cheap knock offs of Missouri Meerschaum pipes and wonder just how cheap a product has to be, that it’s not copied overseas, just a little cheaper.

 

[chopper]

Interesting. I hate breaking in new briars because of the taste, but I cannot taste any additional unwanted flavor at all in a cob. Granted, all is smoke in cobs is burley blends plus the occasional aromatic, and cobs and burley go together like peas and carrots.

Yes it is interesting - others have said the same.

Breaking in a briar - first bowl I pack half full then at least 3/4 full from then on - I don't mind the taste.

Burley and cobs. Doesn't get much better. [Just discovered a 1/4 full pouch of Carter Hall and am enjoying a bowl in my Country Gentleman as I type]
When the import door was still open, I neglected to stock up on Burley blends. [I'd be content with a few pounds of Carter Hall or Prince Albert]

As much as I like both Virginia and Burley, I reckon that Va blends benefit from a bit of added Burley and vice versa.

 

[chopper]

It’s been almost fifty years now, but listening to old men talk about making corn cob pipes, I went to our corn crib and selected a nice big, dried cob and made my own pipe using a section of cheap bamboo fishing pole for a stem.

I also did what the old men told me, and broke it in using a dab of honey on the inside of the bowl. It works on MM factory pipes, just as well.

I’ve never been able to get a cob pipe to start a cake. Years ago I smoked an MM enough to burn them out.

If ever in Washington Missouri you should visit the Missouri Meerschaum factory. My homemade cob burned out the bottom in a few months time.

The cobs used in Missouri Meerschaum pipes are a special hybrid developed by the University of Missouri, and dried before they are made into pipes. The corn is a byproduct of the cobs and the contracted farmers get to keep the corn.

Years ago their best pipes had imported bamboo shanks with a vulcanite stem. I have one, a Yangtze, that I’m very careful with.

I see cheap knock offs of Missouri Meerschaum pipes and wonder just how cheap a product has to be, that it’s not copied overseas, just a little cheaper.

Since making a cob enquiry on ebay, I've been flooded with ebay emails for cheap Chinese cobs.

MM have been making cob pipes for a very long time.
As you say, they use a specific strain of corn that's best suited for the purpose and they dry the cobs for 2-3 years IIRC.

Besides the fact that MM cobs are most reasonably priced, I would not smoke a Chinese cob [or any Chinese made pipe for that matter] if it was free.

The nine MM cobs I ordered all have a hardwood insert at the base of the chamber.
I've been smoking an MM Legend, that does not have an insert, at least once most days for over two years and it's still going strong.
The trick is to allow pipe mud to build up on the bottom of the chamber to protect against burning out.

I've not ever used honey and don't think it's necessary. I smoke most genres in my cobs and they do build cake slowly. Apart from the very hard layer of cake against the chamber wall, I don't build cake.

I'd love to visit the U.S. and yes, a tour of the MM factory would be on my list, but unless I win lotto I don't see that happening.

 

[Ahi Ka]

Next time send them via NZ and I’ll break them in for ya brother.

 

[karam]

Interesting. I hate breaking in new briars because of the taste, but I cannot taste any additional unwanted flavor at all in a cob. Granted, all is smoke in cobs is burley blends plus the occasional aromatic, and cobs and burley go together like peas and carrots.

Interesting, many share your sentiment. I have carved a few pipes myself and the first few bowls on raw wood (or after reaming and water cleaning) are caviar.

 

[PipeIT]

Then there's the hard wood taste at the end of the bowl. [I accelerate the burning of the stem that protrudes into the bowl by adding some dry baccy at the end of a smoke and really firing it up]

I contacted MM in regards to the stem inside the bottom of the bowl, they told me not to burn it out, but to leave it there, that the cobs are designed to smoke with them.

Here’s a post I put up in regards to this last year.

Missouri Meerschaum Explains Shank In Bowl Bottom :: Pipe Smoking Basics & Beginner Questions

Hello Pipers! Just like myself, and for those that wondered about the shank at the bottom of the bowl you might see in a Missouri Meerschaum, they explained it to me, because I know some people like to burn it out over time. ——————————— We assemble our pipes so the spoon on the shank goes all...

pipesmagazine.com

 

[Chasing Embers]

I accelerate the burning of the stem that protrudes into the bowl by adding some dry baccy at the end of a smoke and really firing it up]

This reverse calabash was six years old when this shot was taken. The shank insert is still in place after years of heavy smoking.

 

[mso489]

I have a number of MM cobs, and one or two Dominion cobs, which are now sold by MM, and I have never experienced any off flavors even when they're brand new. The are the most uncomplicated pipes that I know. I've just been gifted with one of MM's hardwood pipes, which is an elegant item in its simplicity and visual design, and I will see how that goes. I'm sorry some folks get corn cob flavors with their blends. I guess, like warren, my taste buds are not that cultivated. In a cob, it just tastes like good old tobacco leaf to me, whether premium blends or aw shucks burley codger pouch goodies.

 

[didimauw]

This reverse calabash was six years old when this shot was taken. The shank insert is still in place after years of heavy smoking.

View attachment 97508

I've never burned any away either. They all cake up nicely.

 

[lawdawg]

Interesting, many share your sentiment. I have carved a few pipes myself and the first few bowls on raw wood (or after reaming and water cleaning) are caviar.

It’s definitely personal taste. I can see how someone would enjoy the imparted flavor from raw briar... just not me.

 

[Briar Lee]

What honey does in both cobs and briars is provide a sweet tasting, pure sugar base to begin the process of a carbon layer to begin to form. You need only do it for the first few bowls.

Yello Bole advertised using honey lined bowls.

Somehow, in some way, a Lee made pipe also came from the factory treated with something that avoided the overt taste of briar during break in.

Cobs and briar both impart a taste to the smoke for the life of the pipe, if only a very thin cake is maintained.

That’s why we smoke cobs and briars, and admire meerschaum more than we smoke them.

 

[jpmcwjr]

Frankly better than a coat of honey is to wet the chamber, fill with white sugar, pour out, let dry. Fill carefully to not displace the coating, and voilà! —instant cake. At least it works with briar- I am not a fan of cobs.

 

[hoosierpipeguy]

It's part of the process, just load them up and grey it done. Common sense dictates that you wouldn't use a torch to chase the bowl interior. Seriously? I haven't found that much cob flavor in most that I've broken in and none that was seriously unpleasant.

 

[kschatey]

I've never actually gone through any specific process to break in a new or estate pipe (cob or briar) other than to just load them up and smoke them. I don't get much initial flavor from any new pipe, even cobs.

However, if I were to have a break in process, I would smoke several bowls worth of Carter Hall in the pipe to break it in because it's super easy to smoke to the point that it can practically smoke itself! The lingering flavor in the pipe is subtle and a good base for any genre. Plus, it tastes pretty good in a corn cob pipe in general!

 

[kcghost]

Never had any problem with any of the pipes I smoke. Of course, I have the taste buds of a Neanderthal.

 

[makhorkasmoker]

It takes me a long time to break in a cob. When i start with a new cob, the problem seems less a corn or hardwood taste than an absence of flavor--as if the cob or raw wood was absorbing flavor. Though if it's a varnished cob (or whatever it is MM coats some of their pipes with) I taste that a bit too. I wonder at times also if I taste the glues and whatever that paste is they use in the bottoms of some of their pipes.

for me a cob gets better with every smoke but it takes me many, many dozens of smokes before the pipe really comes into its own. So for me a well broken in cob involves an investment of time. I smoke it feeling: well, it will be better in a few weeks, better still in a few months.

Because of all of this, I'm going to start paying closer attention to the descriptions of the cobs I buy. I want to make sure they have hardwood inserts, mostly. The ones with whatever the paste is they use (covered up with a sticker) sometimes have holes in the bottoms, or near holes ( I can see light through the paste when I peel the sticker off). I can fix this to some degree with pipe mud, but when it takes so many smokes to get the pipe really "right" I want to make sure it will hold up for a while.

 

[krizzose]

In my experience, whatever raw cob flavor there was has always been mild to begin with and completely gone within 2 or 3 bowls. The burnt wood taste from the stem insert charring did last a bit longer, but not much. I don’t see the value in an experimental torching that will likely produce its own off-flavors.