I'm thoroughly enjoying my adventure with Burley blends and am looking to see if there may be better ways to smoke them.
So, do any of you all have preferences in bowl size for your favorite Burleys?
And as an interesting side note, do you dedicate a pipe to Burleys?
I'm in the process of dedicating
certain pipes to certain tobaccos, mostly because of the ghosting factor. I love wood, and in my experience at least, there are distinct burning characteristics to different woods. Cherrywood and Meerschaum pipes ghost and smoking say, a strong Navy blend in a cherrywood pipe that has been "programmed" for a cherry flavoured tobacco may lead to an off taste in that pipe. You might get away with it once or twice, but you'll need to reprogramme that pipe (good cleaning and reaming and two or three bowls of the preferred fodder).
I have eight cherrywood pipes I smoke on a regular basis, and stick with the same type in each of those pipes.
In my experience, the best pipes for universal smoking of all tobaccos are briar and ashwood, common in churchwardens. However, be careful, really careful, in breaking in ash because it burns very hot and you can ruin the pipe by less than a meticulous breaking in with a very cool burning tobacco. Once it's got the cake, it settles down and there isn't much difference between the smoking qualities of ash and briar.
I have 5 ash pipes, and have ruined 2 of them by breaking them in carelessly. The other three smoke great with a variety of tobaccos. All 5 are churchwardens. The 3 I use are now "go-to's, like my favourite briars. Ash, in my experience, cannot be "reprogrammed." Once done, it's toast and becomes a throwout or wallhanger. and that's a pity because it's such a beautiful wood.
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