Greetings everyone,
In the interest of efficiency and not making a new post for every individual response, I will proceed in order by date/time points. My apologies for the above, the intent was not to spam, pad post counts or engage in any manner of thread boosting. Just me being excessively ADHD in that terrible nadir between the wear off meds and the firing up of my Daily Tobacco Ration.
If you believe I actually ration it, I've got a great bridge to sell you. Fantastic price, everything must go. I'll throw in that troublesome river for free.
To everyone: Thank you for the responses. That was a most impressive, international welcome!
@Fralphog: by no means should you choose a pipe predicated on the opinion of an utter ignoramous with a fancy vocabulary who owns all of a dozen meer pipes, half of them basic in design and even more so in price. That hardly constitutes an appropriate sample size vs. totality, nor does it encompass a sufficient breadth of different artisans and styles.
Since I wrote that, I have come to better understand the qualitative differences between meers, both individually and by brand / artisan. Perhaps I should have said that in my present and limited experience, I see a higher degree of variability in engineering quality.
I'm going to purchase an Altinok meerschaum this week and I strongly suspect I will need to further qualify the previously written words that seem to gain additional jackassery the more research I do. If you want to buy a meerschaum, you should do it. Just reference the brands and carvers in this thread and I'm sure you'll find something you like. Cheers!
I've never tasted Sobranie and I doubt I ever will. I'm 34, so I don't think I've been around long enough unless I get lucky and find the Holy Grail buried in a pile of old kitchen gear for $9 / pound at a yard sale. Might as well play the lottery (I did it once when I turned 18 just for the experience but no one whose friends call them a walking calculator is ever going to really enjoy doing lottery stuff).
That said, I love English / Balkan / Scottish / American English blends. Shockingly, Ive been a fan of Laphroaig, Lagavulin and Ardbeg since before I could legally buy them so imagine the smile on my face the first time I fired up a heavy english. I am very fond of Blackhouse (esp the 10th anniv, the orientals in that blend are just absolutely amazing), Gaslight, Ten Russians, LJ Peretti Midnight and Pride of Loch Lamond, Plum Pudding Special Reserve, C&D Da Vinci, Mountain Camp, HH Rustica, HH Acadian Perique (Arcadian is not the correct spelling btw), etc. Ive tried a lot more than that but none of us have all day and I already talk too.much.
@mso489: That's awesome - I went to Umass Amherst myself back in the days of whale oil and telegraphs. Ah, so much has changed in the last dozen years. I know those places well!
As to Churchwardens, I didn't realize I'd inadvertantly gone *spelunking* into the dark depths of a old, rusted can of worms. Well, uh, no comment. 'Insert' joke about Vulcanite here.
@jerry: I'm interested that you mentioned a particular artisan. That's something I'll need to look into further, thank you.
@cigrmaster: I used to think Taxachusetts until I saw the California version which dispenses with semi-clever portmonteaus and just straight up says "F you* right to your face. It'll be a cold day in Hell before I set foot in LA again.
I like trees.....and I'm rather fond of oxygen, I must say.
Cheers everyone!