I always wanted (but haven't found yet) a corn cob bowl for my Falcons, which by the way I also like very much and I have many of them, but not so many as corn cobs, or briars... (the inner voice shouts "you must stop" but I suspect it's lying......).
I know that's how you feel but I certainly can tell differences between different pipes. I wouldn't say any of them are critical. But you can't convince me there isn't a difference if that's my experience. However I will say to I've never seen a difference that lines up with magical thinking that I've heard about pipes in the thousand(s) dollar range. And finally even if there is zero functional physical difference, the psychological differences are going to have some effect on the gestalt of it.
I realize this is your opinion, which you are entitled to. My opinion is, your opinion is wrong in several ways.
They can indeed, though it does tend to make them more brittle.
Wait a few decades. All you're smoking is a straw and once fully broken in there's not much difference between one or another. Opinions are never wrong as they are subjective so kindly lay off the condescension and I will return the favor.
That is very interesting to see there are after market Meerschaum bowls for Falcons etc. the tall bowls…. am I presuming correctly they likewise hold a larger volume of tobacco than the standard sized bowls?
They have after market COB bowls for falcons??? I am surprised…. it would seem difficult to carve or lathe(?) a piece of cob to fit the relatively precise tolerances needed for a Falcon. Do you have any photos of a cob aftermarket bowl for a Falcon? It would be interesting to see the base and how it was designed.
I can't tell you you're wrong, nor would I try to. If you're getting better smokes out of cobs then I would keep doing what you're doing. I exclusively smoked cobs for about a year and also thought briars weren't as good. I got my first Savinelli (also my first 'nicer' briar) and it changed my mind on briars.Tell me why I'm wrong you old codgers.
All I was getting at is I believe quality materials makes a difference in the quality of the smoke. Meerchaum,clay,briar or cobs. I could make you a pipe with the highest quality briar and one with the lowest grade and there would be a smoking difference. Or high quality briar and a piece of 2x4, there would be a difference in smoking qualities, now or in twenty years. i dont smoke many cobs but I really enjoyed the MM I smoked and thought the smoking quality excellent and I don't think MM uses just any cob, they are selective.
I’m getting an itch to try and join one of my legend bowls to the base of one of my spare falcon bowls.
To arrive at a truly objective, scientifically based conclusion it strikes me one would need to have identical-shaped and sized Falcon bowls for clay, cob, Meer, briar, morta, porcelain, Brylon etc., all filled with tobacco from the same jar, the subject(s) blindfolded, the same method used to light each one and rigorous attention paid to weather -humidity, light levels, temperature, barometric pressure etc - these can all affect one's mood as well as the thermodynamics of smoking - and each trial carried out in a controlled environment, in the same chair, etc, etc. And each time the subject should be experiencing an identical degree of desire for a smoke. Then, to obviate any lingering degree of subjectivity, the test subjects should number in their thousands and cover a comprehensive range of ages and ethnicities, from the same elevation above sea level. Frankly I think it's a bit late in the day for such a research proposal to have a snowball in Hell's chance of grant funding but I humbly offer these suggestions to anyone who wants to Get The Right Answer About The Best Of All Possible Pipes.
And that's only if the pipe is new. Once broken in and a carbon layer has formed, you're no longer smoking in the pipe's construction material but from a chamber of carbon.
I've had it all and other than the aesthetics of the design of the pipe, no difference in performance of the pipe or flavor of the tobacco. I chased that notion for over thirty years and finally had to throw in the towel. The combustion temperature of the tobacco doesn't change from pipe to pipe and the smokability of a pipe is affected more by the user than the pipe. For example, I once collected Savinelli's shape 904 and its three variants. I had them from the lowly Unfinished line all the way to the Giubileo d'Oros and out of over 50 pipes in that group there was zero discernable difference between the smoking properties between each pipe. Sure some were prettier than others but smoking them was identical. I once made pipes as well and found no difference from smoking the widely available blocks online and those from Mimmo. It's a bit like eating mashed potatoes from a plate and a bowl and trying to find a difference.
