Country Gentleman

[puffndave]

I have 3 Country Gentlemen, they are my favorite MMs. On the damned varnish, I only became concerned when it came to taller MM's, since I've found bowl-depth to be an overheating factor which is hard to control, especially with all that furniture glaze on it.
I once removed a huge amount of varnish from a MM by smoking it really fast, but I don't recommend that.

 

[gmjabsky]

Mine came in a bag of seconds, with a plugged bottom. It smokes great and I've never detected a hint of difference from my othe cobs.

 

[ben88]

I decided to remove the wood inside the bowl (stem inside the bowl). I used a jewelry drill and succeeded

I used a bit different approach - disabled the pipe, removed extra wood from stem, raised bottom with pipe mud and glued the stem back. My suggestion is to use epoxy instead of carpenter glue, the latter may give in if pipe smoked hot.

 

[bobpnm]

Bought two of them 4 years ago. Smoked the heck out of them just the way they came. Expect to smoke the heck out of them for years. Great pipes!

 

[aldecaker]

Other than to switch from the stock skinny stems to a Forever Stem or a Danish bit, I have completely given up on tinkering and futzing with MMs. Sure, a few stray shank splinters may have to be picked out of the bowl before the first smoke, but I had to finally admit there is nothing I can do to make a MM better; the factory pretty much has it dialed in.