Corn Cobs, good the bad and the beautiful?

[johanstrydom22]

Hi, I have been smoking pipe for about a year now and I'm interested in buying my first Corn Cob pipe, I like the look of it ever since the days I watched my first "Popeye" cartoon.
But is there more to the pipe than just the looks?

How long will a bowl last or does it deteriorate?

Special maintenance???

Which brand?
If there's anybody that has knowledge about it, please help me out.

 

[dervis]

Brand go with Missouri Meerschaum.
Bowl will last years if not decades, normally dropped, lost, stepped on before burned out.
Maintenace is to just smoke till your hearts content.
A must have I think for any collection.

 

[matchstickman]

Missouri Meerschaum is the only maker of corn cob pipes that I will buy. Corn cobs offer a fine smoke at a great price and can make for a great first pipe. As long as you care for them and don't smoke them too hot, they can last years and years. You don't really have to give them any special treatment, at least in my experience. When I am done smoking one, I take the stem off, run a couple of pipe cleaners through the stem, run one through the shank, then double the cleaner I used on the shank and swab off the chunks of tobacco sitting on the inside of the bowl. There has been some talk of Missouri Meerschaum Seconds pipes on here lately. I just got ten of their corn cob pipes for a mere $30, so its something to look in to if you're starting off and need a few good pipes in your rotation. Hope this helps!

 

[schmitzbitz]

Welcome to the forums johanstrydom22. The almost legendary tiltjp (aka John Patton) has created a couple of documents based on decades of experience that will shed some light on all your corn-cob related questions (and many of your briar related, for that matter!).
The Complete Corncob Primer
The Missouri Meerschaum Corncob Buyers Guide (Note: no other mass-produced corn-cob currently on the market that doesn't hail from Missouri Meerschaum isn't worth the cob it's made from).

 

[johanstrydom22]

Thanks, the light you guys shed on the topic really convinced me to start collecting some corn cobs.

And the links schmitzbitz attached is really worth the read, I would recommend it to anybody who's unclear about the topic or just want to know a bit more about it.

 

[ivorhughjarse]

i got my 1st cob pipe this morning and couldn't wait to try it, I was very happy with it but for the size of the pipe....it looked tiny and gave me a bit of warm nose,

 

[tiltjlp]

schmitzbitz, does legendary mean old and grouchy? Either way, thanks for posting the links, as I had missed this thread till now.

 

[owen]

I just got a H and B corncob very nice to.

 

[curl]

My MM Diplomat pipes smoke very well. The stems fit just right and are interchangeable.
I bought 3 Legend pipes to test some tobaccos that you all here said would ghost a pipe. Unfortunately, 2 of them are too big for the stems. I've read here about some remedies to fix this and will try them to get the stems to fit properly. The one Legend without the stem problem smokes very well.
A couple days ago, I ordered another MM pipe, the Great Dane. I finally read the fine print and saw that it was a larger pipe. Perhaps it will go with the Forever Stem I bought a while ago...it's bigger than I thought when I ordered it.
Corn cob pipes work as well as any of my briars. I am happy with their aesthetics and proudly smoke them in public, but that part of the cob pipe ain't something I can help you with.