Why I don't smoke a cob

[jimbo]

Pipe smokers can be a very subjective lot. I know I am. I love my cobs, briars, clays... even my "metal pipes" which cause some pipers to throw their hands up in horror. 8O
I prefer traditional shapes and shy away from crazy freehands that remind me of Salvador Dali's melted clocks hanging over tree limbs. They don't even look like pipes. I wouldn't want it known I have one, much less be seen smoking one. :crazy:

 

[cyndi]

Portascat - that's some redneck ingenuity right there!

 

[portascat]

in honor of this thread and debate, I am now firing up some LAME EYE -QUE (what some call Lane 1 Q)in a Grabow Special 11, a pipe which represents the absolute pinnacle of quality and craftsmanship in the $25 pipe market.

I am lighting it with a yellow Bic that I confiscated from my 16 year old son. I am wearing steel toed boots, because that is what I usually wear, and I have been wearing them all dam day. I have tattoos and a bald pate. I may drink a cheap, non-European, beer later on, out of a can. And I might kick the dog or yell at the OLD LADY tonight. Or vice versa.
I have a great life.
Baskervilles, if you don't ride a Harley, might I suggest it now.

 

[antipodesman]

Baskerville said

I don't rekon we would get along!

You might be surprised.

 

[portascat]

sorry, man. Can't back out now. You got at least 48 hours more of abuse.

 

[antipodesman]

Portascat said

sorry, man. Can't back out now. You got at least 48 hours more of abuse.

Hey I've got a thick skin . . . I'm lovin' it. Glad to have started so much discussion.

 

[portascat]

Believe me son, this is going to hurt me worse than it does you.

 

[mlaug]

What I find most interesting among all this silly butthurt over someone's throw away criticism of a style of pipe is the way so many of us deeply tie our own sense of identity to a brand/style/material of pipe.
This just confirms a feeling I've had for years:

There is nothing more personal than one's choice of pipe.
I now return you to PipeMagazine.com's very first...
Tag Team Cage Deathmatch 2011
::

 

[portascat]

Well....if any pipe smoked better than this Grabow, I don't want to know. Because if things get much better than this, I will quit working and hang around the pool hall all damn day.

 

[cortezattic]

Let's beat-up on Fred for a while. ::

 

[kevinp]

After a quarter-century of smoking a pipe but not trying a cob, I finally tried one.
I'm sorry to all their fans, but they're not for me either. Same reason: it was the old-worldly elegance of briar that attracted me to the pipe in the beginning, and I still need that. I'm not saying I only buy high grades or anything, but I don't want a cheap smoke either. It's the craftmanship that goes into a nice briar (meerschaum, etc.) that appeals to me at least as much as its smokability. I can't get past the fact that it's a hollowed-out vegetable with a straw stuck in it. Moreoever, after trying my cob a couple times, I'm still unconvinced by any claims of superior smoking qualities.
No offense meant to those who sing its praises. If I saw someone walking down the street with one, I'd think I'd found a kindred spirit. It just isn't my type any more than certain tobaccos I may like are not for everyone.

 

[julesholling]

I own a few different pipes, none too fancy but as nice as my briars smoke i keep coming back to my cob. It's a hassle free way of smoking, just load up the pipe, smoke a bowl and chuck it back in the cupboard. No need to clean the stem after the smoke, worry about the charring on the rim or the cake in the pipe being even. No hassle's and no ghosting. :puffpipe:
If you ain't tried a cob just because your worried about what you'll look like then your missing out on a major part of pipe smoking history and tradition. Hey if they were rubbish then they wouldn't have been around for so long and enjoyed by so many. Go on give one a go in the comfort of your own home, you might be surprised :wink:

 

[punkpiper]

I refer you all to Dr. Seuss. "Try them, try them, you shall see".

With that said, there is no right or wrong. Except brylon and plastic pipes.

 

[rhogg]

What I find surprising more than some folks like or dislike for a certain style of pipe is their disparaging view of other types of people. If there is one thing I have learned in life it is that I have something to learn from everyone, and that I can find a friend in the most unlikely of circumstances. I actually learned this after putting someone down.... only to figure out underneath the things I was paying attention to there was a great person that is not often found anywhere regardless of social position. Furthermore, some of the wisest people I know did become who they are because of education; rather they became who they are through pain, work, sorrow, and love.
Be careful when judging others because you may miss out on a lifetime of great advice, or better yet friendship.

 

[pstlpkr]

I suppose I'll wade in.

I purchased my first Cob 20-odd years ago.

I smoked it a few times and found that it flavored my tobacco.

Well I picked it back up a couple of years ago.

It no longer flavors my tobacco.

And, in fact it is a really decent smoker.

I even own a MM Churchwarden now.

Granted I acquired it through trade for some baccy, but it's a decent pipe.

And, I smoke it on a very regular basis.

 

[lonestar]

So there you have it folks, Lawrence says they're great.

Case Closed.

 

[hauntedmyst]

True rhogg. I think it's important when discussing preferences for us all to remember that stating ones preferenceit isn't putting someone else down, just stating what one person likes versus another. I'm amazed at how thin skinned we all can be. Some guys won't smoke a corn cob because it makes them feel too back woods, other won't smoke a Dunhill because for them its a foolish waste of money. Who cares if someone doesn't like what we like? We all have to man up, act like we have a pair and not give a rat's ass what others think of our pipes or we have to start passing out tampons. :nana:
mlaug said it best

There is nothing more personal than one's choice of pipe

 

[rhogg]

OP said,

When it comes to cobs, I can't get past the image of Mammy Yochum and banjo players from incest friendly backwoods.

How about the incest friendly royal bloodlines of Europe? I wonder what kind of pipes they smoked? The more I think about this the more I realize that ignorance plagues us all from time to time.
If your reason for not doing something is based on lines of thinking like the quote above all I can do is hope your horizons broaden a bit so that you can experience the richness of life. I bet much of the American tobaccos you smoke were handled and processed by these backwoods folk you don't seem fond of

 

[romeowood]

I'm still waiting for a picture of Tommy's cousin and that moon rock pipe... :roll:

 

[hauntedmyst]

If your reason for not doing something is based on lines of thinking like the quote above all I can do is hope your horizons broaden a bit so that you can experience the richness of life.

Yeah OP, you need to get out there and enjoy the moonshine drunken weddings of some country folk, learn to revel in the ear splitting thunder of monster truck rallies, delight in the crap hoarding skills of simple folk like those on American Pickers, find joy in the missing toothed dentistry of alligator hunters in the bayou, spend time in the pleasurable company of folks whose mobile homes fly with the tornados....you know, cob smokers :D :rofl: :nana: :rofl:
Or you could just stay secure in the fact that you are comfortable with who you are and cobs aren't a part of that make up and thats ok. That's what I'll do but no doubt be considered bigoted for it. Stereotypes become stereotypes because they are frequent enough to form the boarders of a stereotype. People are always shocked to discover some part of their lives fits within a stereotype. Imagine my shock when I discovered I was a bearded fat guy pipe smoker. Seriously, at the Chicago pipe show there were so many of us, they had to keep us regulated in our disbursement on the show floor or we risked flipping over the building. But I was shocked I was in that group.