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"?)

Old Hirschl & Bendheim Irvin S. Cobb corncob pipe

Along with posting here yesterday about the old estate box corncob pipe, I also went to a forum that has cob fans for help identifying the marked-up sticker on my pipe (PipeSmokersForum).  It didn't take long to get the proper spelling of the first name and what the second name is, which then made Googling up info a WHOLE LOT easier!  The manufacturer's name was Hirschl & Bendheim, and they went out of business during the 1980s, although the Irvin S. Cobb line of corncob pipes is apparently still made by Missouri Meerschaum now, and can even be bought to this day at Rite-Aids and CVS stores in some places.

As I loaded up another bowl of Russ O's Angler's Dream, a codger-style tribute burley blend with just enough cinnamon in it to totally WOW me, I decided to snap a few more pics of this old H&B Cobb.

H&B cob with bag of tobacco

the marked-up H&B Irvin S. Cobb sticker

Excellent smoke: Angler's Dream tobacco in the old H&B cob

I am really loving this Angler's Dream burley blend!  I suspect that bag that was sent as an "extra" in a tobacco trade will not last long.  The dash of cinnamon isn't enough to overwhelm the burley, just enough to accent and give it a nice room note.  This smokes just as easy as any codger blend I currently have in briar as well as corncob ... but the cob just brings out an extra little shine to it.  I'm on my fourth bowl of it in about 24 hours, and I even took time out to sleep!