Feeling Cobbish

Corncob pipes ... people either despise them or fall madly in love with them.  First I tried the cob from the estate box (which I had originally set aside for hubby, who never smoked it).  When I realized how much I was enjoying the old H&B Cobb, I decided to grab a small Missouri Meerschaum Pony cob from the B&M down in Florida when I bought hubby his Randy Wiley briar.  Then, I got that proverbial "wild hair" you-know-where and ordered P&C's Corn in the USA sampler pack ... and when it arrived, I was shocked to hear hubby ask which cob was his.  Not only did he want one of the cobs, but he wanted it filled with my Classic Burley Kake to boot.

What has followed over the past few weeks can only be described as "corncob mania" here in the house, with a generous dose of growing devotion to the CBK.  Along with adopting the Pony cob I bought in Florida, hubby ended up with his own Corn in the USA sampler pack ... not only to keep my cobs safe but to prevent him from smoking up all my CBK stash.  Then, we looked in our local B&M up here and discovered MM Generals in stock.

Hubby smoking his MM General cob

As y'all can see for yourselves, "That's all she wrote!"  Which means, more pictures.

7 cobs small to large

MM Legends, not Diplomats - GAH!

The old MM, in between a new Legend and CG

The old H&B, between a new MM Legend and the short General

Missouri Meerschaum company stickers, then and now (how old is "then"?)

Estate meerschaum pipe

I popped into the local B&M today to pick up some humidity discs and browse the corncob and meerschaum pipes.  Surprisingly, hubby let me go without supervision and with a request for another MM General if there was still one to be had.  I discovered a second drawer of Missouri Meerschaum pipes, but this post is dedicated to the Turkish meerschaum I found.

Light as a feather and quite efficient at burning tobacco, this beauty has wonderful and lovely intricate carving, with tiny spirals in between the teardrop latticework and also around the rim.

D. Ural lattice meerschaum pipe

estate meerschaum lattice billiard, full bent

tiny spiral carved around the rim

tiny spirals carved in between the teardrop lattice windows

Someone really enjoyed this pipe before it found me, and I have fully intention of continuing that.  I probably should not admit how little I paid for it!

Brand new Storient Meerschaum billiard

I've been openly coveting a new meerschaum pipe for a while now ... and my first arrived from Turkey the other morning.  It's a plain smooth classic straight billiard from Storient Meerschaum, with a pretty saddle-bit vanilla swirl stem, and it burns tobacco in a most efficient and enjoyable manner!  Enough of this blather and on to the pictures:

brand new Storient meerschaum pipe

The only pic of its white bowl

First bowl smoked in the new meerschaum billiard!

The inaugural bowl was McClelland bulk #5100 Red Cake, and as I type this I have C&D Blockade Runner burning.  Straight Virginia blends taste different in this pipe ... better.

Now the real fun begins - burning enough tobacco in it to color it.

One diamond in the rough

Promised a while back ago, here is one out of two "diamonds in the rough" from the estate box - a BBB Own Make.  I not only had to ream it down to bare briar in the chamber but then I had to get a small pipe knife and carefully remove cake from the rim!  Like the Wally Frank, this one cleaned up to reveal some lovely grain:

BBB Own Make bent pipe

stamped VIRGIN 995 on this side

one of two big scratches in the finish

I don't have a real "before" picture, but I do have an intermediate pic after the initial film of grime was removed:

caked rim and green-grey stem, but cleaner than I received it!

Old estate Kaywoodie straight pot

Mostly a picture post here of a cute little Kaywoodie straight pot.  It's got a couple scratches and scuffs, but for the most part it cleaned up nicely compared to how it looked when we first pulled it out of the estate box!

old Kaywoodie straight pot, just under 6 inches long

Some scratches on the rim of the Kaywoodie

the Kaywoodie stinger is intact and even de-grimed!

scuffs on the bowl, with 42 stamped on the right side of the shank

main stamp on left of shank Kaywoodie "600" Imported briar

chamber reamed and salt-alcohol soaked, centered draft hole

This cute little pipe is just not for me, alas.  I find myself reaching for the bent pipes much more than straights, and when I cradle this little Kaywoodie it just doesn't quite feel right to me.  I'm working on finding it a good loving home.