Guess What? You Actually Don't Like the Tobaccos You THINK You Do.

[pipesticks]

Thanks, Cosmic, but the big pink eraser did an excellent job on the surface grime. I have seen people use the self cleaning oven trick on crusty nasty greasy old cast iron and the gunk just brushes off like dust, so I believe that could also work to loosen internal gunk in a clay. Why not? Same principle...

 

[philobeddoe]

Traditionally, clay pipes were cleaned by putting them directly into a fire, they come out pristine.

 

[perdurabo]

Hmmm, I find they just taste better in clay and meerschaum. Same with cobs after the break in. Briar hides a lot of flavor in my opinion.

 

[snagstangl]

I'm going to send boxes of broken clay pipes to George to refurb. I want them like new.

 

[dunstanhillwell62]

...and nothing artificial like varnish or paint to worry about in your mouth.

It might, in theory, be a problem if you smoke nothing but clays all day long, year in and year out.

With the occasional smoke now and then, it's hardly a problem.
::

 

[briarbuda48]

Great thread George and I agree. I have a mishmash of everything, briar, clay, meerschaum, cobs and 6mm/9mm briars. Tobacco can taste completely different from one material to the next. For my own blending, I use the clays as a baseline before moving to a briar. In addition, if I load a briar with tobacco that I have not had before and it tastes poorly, I will smoke it in a clay next. This will help me decide to choose another briar, let the tobacco age or trade the tobacco.

 

[mso489]

George, your post title is an interesting conundrum. Since there's no baseline pipe per se, what you like in a briar (or clay pipe, cob, Meerschaum, etc.) is what you like in a pipe made of that material. I certainly like some blends in certain pipes more than others. An Americana blend like Russ O.'s Log Cabin is significantly enhanced in a corncob pipe, a good one like an MM or Old Dominion. A straight burley, for me, likes a deep narrow bowl, room to burn, but slower than in a broad chamber, and a blend with four or more tobaccos often unfolds best in a broad bowl briar. So you draw your own baseline, depending on what pipe and blend or single-leaf you smoke. Which reminds me of the Marx Brothers line -- who do you believe, me or your lying eyes? And someone would contradict each of my preferences for their own purposes, and rightly so.