Rough MM Corn Cob

[Franco Pipenbeans]

I prefer the natural cobs and see the plaster as adding nothing but unnecessary weight.

Fair point; I’d not considered that.

 

[Fralphog]

You can if you want make your own filler coating which is the same substance I used to fill the bottom of my cobs, basically a type of pipe mud, but it’s black or charcoal grey, I got this recipe off you tube and seems to be work quite well, 2 parts plaster of Paris to 1 part activated charcoal and 1 part table salt. Mix it up with a little water into a paste if you want to use it as a mortar for the bottom of the bowl or a little more water if you want to paint it on or use it as a bowl liner for other pipes. The salt helps the substance harden and also gives a nice crystalline glint in the right light. I made it very thin and painted it on the outside of a Morgan natural. Came out quite nicely. I don’t have a pic of it but it hardens very nicely and does not rub off easily

I have to echo your comments. I came across the same video and have used it on several of my cobs.
I like to mix it up like a loose putty and use it to fill the voids in the bottom of the bowl next to the draft hole/ wood stem. Creates a nice flat bottom and helps prevent wasting a lot baccy that gets in there and never smoked.
I have also mixed up thin so you can paint it on and fill in spiderweb cracks on the inside of an estate pipes I have restored.
Using it on the outside of the bowl on a cob pipe would definitely fill in all of the small voids and create quite a unique look with the dark charcoal color. Not so sure I would go to all that work on the outside of the pipe. But, very useful material for what I mentioned above.

 

[makhorkasmoker]

I have been smoking my Eaton and pony express more than ever lately. I can’t say that I notice much difference between the varnished (plastered?) pony express and the natural Eaton. I can say the bowl diameter—roughly .6 inch—is perfect for me and the tobacco I smoke. The bowl Depth is also ideal. Looking at the mm site, I see there are a number of other pipes with this bowl size, most of them varnished . I’m going to try more of them

 

[Briar Lee]

I have been smoking my Eaton and pony express more than ever lately. I can’t say that I notice much difference between the varnished (plastered?) pony express and the natural Eaton. I can say the bowl diameter—roughly .6 inch—is perfect for me and the tobacco I smoke. The bowl Depth is also ideal. Looking at the mm site, I see there are a number of other pipes with this bowl size, most of them varnished . I’m going to try more of them

The founder of Missouri Meerschaum did not invent the corn cob pipe, but did patent a process to plaster pipes to toughen them.

Missouri Meerschaum 5 cent pipes started an entire Missouri pipe industry with over 20 pipe factories in just Washington Missouri by the turn of the 20th century. After the patent expired all corn cob pipes were plastered.

If ever in Washington Missouri visit the factory.

On the west end there’s a chute where cobs that have been seasoned two years in the upper floors come down and on the East there are older women packaging the final product, and in between are a series of machines over a century old where workers perform work on the cob of each pipe at stations, then pass the cob on East, until an older woman puts the metal ring and plastic stem in the pipe and bubble wraps it, after final inspection.

Natural pipes are those that bypass the plastering and varnishing stations.

The ones you really want are the Freehands. One worker takes the largest cobs and hand makes pipes at one station on the west by the chute and then takes them in a box to the packaging stations on the East.

When I was there before Covid almost all the workers were multigenerational descendants of people who worked the exact same machines in same factory all of their lives.

They make the best cob pipes on this earth.

They’ve forgotten how to make bad ones over 150 years ago.