Missouri Meerschaum owns the corncob pipe franchise, so that is whereof I speak. Here is an offhand list of attributes, as a set up for others to add their own:
1. Weight for bowl size is excellent. The straight pipes don't put much weight on your teeth and jaw, and the bent ones put less.
2. Cost of course, eight or ten bucks for the ones with soft plastic stems, and a mere twenty-six or so if you get the editions with acrylic stems, which are worth every penny to me. Your budget barely notices.
3. Yes, I insist ... the jaunty look. I know they look a little rustic and down-home to some, but they provide a good compliment to jeans and a work shirt, and a zippy contrast to a sport jacket or suit.
4. They're easy to smoke, for new pipe smokers, and dependable and enjoyable for most experienced smokers.
5. Of all my pipes, the MM cobs are most likely to use up the entire bowl of tobacco, with little or no dottle, but more importantly, with no sour end-of-the-bowl taste. Good to the last drop.
6. If you take any kind of care of them, MM cobs will last for a long time, even longer if you have a large stable of pipes. I long ago ceased to think of them as disposable. They go on for years, decades.
But these are not their only salient qualities. Please add a few of your own.
1. Weight for bowl size is excellent. The straight pipes don't put much weight on your teeth and jaw, and the bent ones put less.
2. Cost of course, eight or ten bucks for the ones with soft plastic stems, and a mere twenty-six or so if you get the editions with acrylic stems, which are worth every penny to me. Your budget barely notices.
3. Yes, I insist ... the jaunty look. I know they look a little rustic and down-home to some, but they provide a good compliment to jeans and a work shirt, and a zippy contrast to a sport jacket or suit.
4. They're easy to smoke, for new pipe smokers, and dependable and enjoyable for most experienced smokers.
5. Of all my pipes, the MM cobs are most likely to use up the entire bowl of tobacco, with little or no dottle, but more importantly, with no sour end-of-the-bowl taste. Good to the last drop.
6. If you take any kind of care of them, MM cobs will last for a long time, even longer if you have a large stable of pipes. I long ago ceased to think of them as disposable. They go on for years, decades.
But these are not their only salient qualities. Please add a few of your own.