Dagner smokes great, but bit too $$$
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My favorite cobs (that I've tried) from MM are the Freehands. They are a size I enjoy, are somewhat tapered, and most importantly (to me) have sturdy vulcanized stems. I prefer the vulcanized stems so much that I buy them (at $10 a pop) to put on my Mark Twains and Country Gentlemen, which ends up bringing their final cost within the range of the Dagner pokers.
So, in my opinion, the cost of a Danger cob with an acrylic stem seems reasonable.
So, in my opinion, the cost of a Danger cob with an acrylic stem seems reasonable.
When I bought the Forever Stems for my various MM cobs, it brought the prices to about what Dagner is charging for their cob with acrylic stem, and I'm greatly pleased every time I smoke them. It's still an inexpensive pipe and the upgrade is well worth it. If I didn't have such a nice array of MM and Old Dominion cobs, I'd add a Dagner to the stable. Don't miss the joy of owning a reed stem cob from Old Dominion. MM used to make pipes with reed stems; they're a proud piece of history. They're great for re-enacters and anyone with a sense of history, and they're just good smoking pipes.
I could never get my MM Dagner poker to burn worth a crap. It felt very restricted. Today, I was fed up with it and examined it closely. While the bit is a better quality material, it’s poorly engineered. The smoke channel is too narrow. Much narrower than the channel in the shank. It looks like it was drilled with a small enough bit to safely pass through the flat of the salddle bit. Instead, the channel should more closely match that of the channel through the round section of the bit, then widen through the flat, I opened mine with a tapered bit as far as was safe, then widened the reminder with a special file I bought from Vermont Freehand. It’s night and day better now. Smokes perfectly. I guess that sort of thing is too expensive to produce at a $25 price point.
Craig, I wonder if you got the one made after bad burrito Monday..... I haven't had one Dagner drilled incorrectly.
Btw, I think the ENGINEERING is spot on!!
Btw, I think the ENGINEERING is spot on!!
Ashdigger, among the guys I smoke with regularly, only one has a MM Dagner poker. He's not a complainer, but I've heard him rag on his Dagner cob pipe a number of times, despite his general liking of Missouri Meerschaum pipes. I'm going to lend him my modified bit and see what he says. I couldn't get enough air through mine too keep it lit for more than a couple minutes at a time. It's a two-match pipe now.
To me it's definitely worth the price point. The stem work is absolutely a step above your average cob stem. I've never had a problem with the draw on it unless I packed the bowl too tight and that's operator error not a design flaw.
Since my previous posts, I've bought first the Dagner/MM poker nosewarmer, and then months later, the C&D/MM Charles Town Cobbler bent cob pipes, both with acrylic stems. The bowls on both my versions are more than ample, larger Group 4's with plenty of depth, and the draw on them is not restricted. Maybe I just got lucky, but the smoking characteristics are just fine. My other MM cobs, retrofitted with Forever acrylic stems, have proven to be such pleasant and long-lasting pipes, that the jump from an $8 or $11 pipe retrofitted with a $25 stem makes the Dagner and C&D collaboration cob pipes a bargain. I feel badly for those who have found the Dagner pipe a disappointment. I hope most of them are as good as mine.
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