All of us at Missouri Meerschaum are humbled at the excitement over our new Cobbit pipes. We were overwhelmed with orders after we introduced them. We felt it was important to ship the orders as quickly as we could. In our haste to get the orders out the door, our quality control may have slipped a bit (no pun intended). As always, we will gladly replace a defective pipe. All you have to do is call us at 800-888-2109, or, even better, email us with a picture.