Certainly a noble venture. At the Columbus Pipe Show this year I ran into an old friend who mentioned there are a group of guys out there trying to smoke a Mark Twain to death. If my memory serves right, he mentioned that the pipe had about 3,000 or more smokes out of it. When one guy tires of it he does a deep clean of the pipe and sends it off to the next guy. They apparently keep a log of how many smokes they've put through the pipe. It reminds me a bit of the Tootsie Pop experiment with a darker twist.
When the pipe will no longer smoke, we are going to display it in the Missouri Meerschaum Museum as a testament to how much abuse our pipes can take when you work them hard. I'd be curious to see the results of your experiment, @didmauw, I know I certainly abuse my fair share of cobs here in the office! :lol:
Regards,
Dan
Assistant GM- Missouri Meerschaum