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Missouri Meerschaum Corncob Buying Guide: Difference between revisions
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Missouri Meerschaum Corncob Buying Guide (view source)
Revision as of 11:15, 27 January 2013
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Missouri Meerschaum Buyers Guide | Missouri Meerschaum Buyers Guide | ||
© 2008, 2009, 2011, 2012 | © 2008, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2013 | ||
by John L Patton/tiltjlp | by John L Patton/tiltjlp | ||
Thanks to my dad’s mentoring, I’ve been a corncob smoker for over 50 years, and have written The Complete Corncob Primer. In this Buying Guide, I offer my opinions on the Missouri Meerschaum brand of corncob pipes, which I and most other experienced cobbers feel are the only decent corncobs still being made. While I have my favorites, and prefer Natural to Plastered bowls, every MM cob smokes cool and dry. Here are my reviews, starting with the largest bowl sizes to the smallest. Only cobs I have smoked are included here. | Thanks to my dad’s mentoring, I’ve been a corncob smoker for over 50 years, and have written The Complete Corncob Primer. In this Buying Guide, I offer my opinions on the Missouri Meerschaum brand of corncob pipes, which I and most other experienced cobbers feel are the only decent corncobs still being made. While I have my favorites, and prefer Natural to Plastered bowls, every MM cob smokes cool and dry. Here are my reviews, starting with the largest bowl sizes to the smallest. Only cobs I have smoked are included here. | ||
MM will soon begin offering Maple hardwood pipes in their three most popular corncob shapes, the apple-Diplomat, the Spool, and the Country Gentleman. I was able to purchase one of each to smoke and evaluate, and will offer my honest opinion, pro and con, in order to help you decide if these new basket pipes might deserve a place in your rack. They will sell at $14.59 each, and the trio will ship for $51.27 at least in the US, which seems like a fairly good price. | |||
[IMG]http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h86/tiltjlp/zPinball/MapleCobs.jpg[/img] | |||
All three have the same construction, and the same improved Danish Bit that their cobs have, and come with the same filter most of us remove and discard. So if you like the open draw that make cobs cool smoking, you’ll like the draw of these Maple pipes too. It seems to me that any blend smoked in these cob-shaped hardwood pipes tastes truer, or maybe fresher, than the tobacco will taste in cobs, briar, or metal pipes. It won’t be obvious with every tobacco, but several blends I enjoy regularly really did taste better in one of these Maple Cobs, as I now call then | |||
One thing I will caution about is that these Maple pipes do seem to smoke hotter than corncobs. Luckily I smoke very slowly, and was able to control the amount of heat coming through the bowl. But as Strong Irish, who has smoked one of these Maple Cobs mentioned, unless you smoke as slowly as I do, you’ll probably need to allow cake to build in them, before you’ll find them acceptable. I like them so much that I have ordered a second set of three, although I don’t need any more pipes. While these Maple hardwood pipes won’t replace my cobs, or my few briars, I will add them to my rotation and look forward to enjoying them. | |||
MM has begun offering what they call a Grab Bag Of Smokable Pipes, which are seconds, with cosmetic flaws. I ordered a grab bag, requesting, if possible mostly bent pipes, since that’s pretty much all I smoke. I received 7 bents and only 3 straights, and after careful inspection, other than for a few minor dings, and a botched staining job on a Country Gentleman, I honestly couldn’t figure out why 9 of those 10 pipes didn’t pass Quality Control. But then, Phil Morgan had vowed to improve QC. While I had hoped I might get a couple Ozark Mountain Hardwood pipes, I got 2 straight Legends, 1 straight Pride, 5 bent Washingtons, a slightly undersized Country Gentleman, and an old-style Diplomat. I can’t say enough good things about what I would call a MM Bargain Grab Bag. $37.49, which includes shipping, for 10 near perfect corncob pipes is a wonderful way to build up your pipe collection. | MM has begun offering what they call a Grab Bag Of Smokable Pipes, which are seconds, with cosmetic flaws. I ordered a grab bag, requesting, if possible mostly bent pipes, since that’s pretty much all I smoke. I received 7 bents and only 3 straights, and after careful inspection, other than for a few minor dings, and a botched staining job on a Country Gentleman, I honestly couldn’t figure out why 9 of those 10 pipes didn’t pass Quality Control. But then, Phil Morgan had vowed to improve QC. While I had hoped I might get a couple Ozark Mountain Hardwood pipes, I got 2 straight Legends, 1 straight Pride, 5 bent Washingtons, a slightly undersized Country Gentleman, and an old-style Diplomat. I can’t say enough good things about what I would call a MM Bargain Grab Bag. $37.49, which includes shipping, for 10 near perfect corncob pipes is a wonderful way to build up your pipe collection. | ||
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John Patton/tiltjlp | John Patton/tiltjlp | ||
Updated | Updated 1/27/2013 | ||
http://www.corncobpipe.com/ | http://www.corncobpipe.com/ | ||