Just a few words from PipeCat about the great value of Missouri Meerschaum corn cob pipes & miniature hardwood pipes along with some tips on improving the smoke you get from them and helping them last longer - using homemade pipe mud.
You're correct, they do need a little pipe mud. I've seen this way done a lot, but there is an easier way. Leave the shank in there. Double up a pipe cleaner and stick it through the shank and into the bowl. Fill the bowl up just past the shank with pipe mud. When it dries, pull the pipe cleaner out, then drill or poke a draft hole in the center of the bottom of the bowl. This way you get nothing come through the stem and into your mouth. You can burn every flake of baccy to white ash. Great video.
I believe that 3/16 " your on about acts as a moisture trap as the baccy sits on top of the shank for the most part and that contributes to there cool dry smoke
Pipe mud, or no pipe mud. They smoke fine either way. I own 6 MM pipes, all of them are good smokers as they are. If you don't use pipe mud, you are just breaking them in the old fashioned way. Whatever you do, they'll be good smokers. You don't have to put pipe mud in your MM pipes to make them good.
Love seeing them make these pipe and reintroducing a very old one soon. Also coming...my husband makes duck calls from the cobs and Meerschaum Pipe Co in Washington, MO will soon be offering them. He’s already sold quite a few when he picked up the idea visiting them.
FYI, Tom: Aristocob.com offers a pipe mud now, based on an actual cement formulation. I might order some just to have it, but really, using ash and water seems to be fine. Have you decided which tobacco "family" you like most, i.e., aromatics like Capt Black Royal and Cult Conspiracy, English/Balkan blends like Mississippi River and John Cotton's Number 1, or "VA-Pers" (Virginia/Periques) like Dunhill De Luxe Navy Rolls or Elizabethan Mixture? (There's a list you can start with!)
AWESOME. All "Frogs" are great but On The Town is one of my ALL-TIME FAVES. For most new pipers it comes down to whether they prefer the "room note" experience, hence aromatics, or the taste experience, for which Frog Morton is a great start. I will recommend that you try not to smoke both types (aromatics and flavor blends) in the same pipe as aromatics tend to leave a ghost flavor behind in briar pipes - but with cob pipes it won't matter. Enjoy! And welcome to the YTPC!
PipeCat Thanks! I ordered a Cobbit Shire and Elf pipe when I bought the tobacco and also have a clay pipe I can use so ghosting shouldn't be a problem. It was great talking with you and hope to see more videos in the future.
I think it's the fact that the pipes are so cheap , we can't resist modifying them . I ran a drill same size as the pipe bowl straight through and made a hardwood plug for the bottom , tapped in the plug up to the level of the draw hole. This may seem like a disadvantage as it puts the drawhole on the side , but it actually works fine burns all the baccy . My other cob I just leave alone . Thanks for the advice on the mud.
Just found your channel. Have fun with it. As to cobs, I don't have mini pipes so I mud mine with fireplace ash and don't bother to remove the stem portion. I just form the chamber bottom over the stem. Then form the draft hole with a pipe cleaner close to bottom center. All the best.
Nice! I thought of doing it that way and didn't think I'd get the mud under the shank enough. Leave it to me to make more work for myself... =) There are a million ways to mod cobs, I suppose, that's the beauty of them! As long as you are enjoying your smoke! Thanks for the word! =^-.-^=
I just smoked it all the way down until it burns out the tip of the shank problem solved no shank bud no chiseling but for a new one I have never thought of that good idea
I do see your point in this video , to be honest my country gentleman probably needed pipe mud , but what I do is I have a pipe cleaner to pick the pieces of leaves out with , and if there’s one that’s really hard to get to , what I’ll do ( don’t do this unless your really careful tho ) is I have a paper clip I put in there and very carefully lightly remove the tobacco without scratching or gouging the inside of the pipe bowel .
I have a over smoked neked Washington I've owned for almost two years anyhow i smoke my pipes down to the very bottom and doing so I burn away each layer of the inside shank it cracked so I slightly mudded mine then but in the end its a cob enjoy!
I’ve tried the mud but being the lazy cuss that I am, and considering the prices these can be had for, I just dedicate a blend to a cob. I’m embarrassed to admit how many Country Gentlemen I have in rotation with custom stems so I can tell them apart. Maybe I should seek professional counseling. LOL
I just bought a MM cob pipe, and the dealer at my brick and mortar pipe/tobacco/cigar store sold me a package of five or six screens that can be fitted into the bottom of pipe bowls to keep ash and dottle out of the draw line. I put one in a couple of days ago, and it seems to keep the crud out completely. I may have to replace them as they get filled up, but they're cheap and easy to install. Your thoughts? I look forward to hearing from you. Thanks, Carl
Pipe mud does a couple of things. It forms a flat floor for the bowl (keeps leaf out from under the bore hole) and it protects the wood at the base of the shank from excess heat. It also makes it easier to clean out the bowl, if you bother doing that. Many people say you don't need pipe mud, but I prefer to apply it. My cob pipes last forever. The ones in this picture are still in use today.
@@PipeCat1965 I really appreciate you sharing your knowledge. I think I’m about to dive in to the hobby, and anything I can glean is extremely valuable. Picking out a couple cob pipes as we speak!
Hey, I'm looking to get my first pipe and I'm torn between the MM county gentleman and their apple diplomat, both with a straight stem. Since this would be my only pipe, how do they compare in felt size, smoking time, and general versatility/performance with different tobaccos?
Hey, thanks for watching. The Country Gentleman is a little larger, holds a bit more. But my favorite is the Diplomat, as it isn't as tall and weighs a tad less. With cob pipes, it really doesn't matter what type of tobacco you use, as they tend not to retain any flavor from the last smoke. Of course any pipe will retain a bit of "ghosting" if you smoke something loaded with fruit flavor, vanilla, etc, as the condensation collects at the bottom of the bowl. Cob pipe bowls are not as absorbent as briar (wood) pipes are. There is no type of tobacco that I would not recommend a cob pipe for. They smoke great and they last a long while, maybe forever if you don't burn them out. I have never thrown out a cob pipe - I still have all of these and have added a few more. The stems are easy to clench and cheap to replace if you gnaw on them like I do. I smoke for flavor, not aroma, so I like smoky, sweet English (Latakia-forward, nicotine-light) blends the most. Some enjoy the yeasty, hay-like sweetness of the high-nicotine Virginia & Perique leaf blends. Others like mild, crowd-pleasing aromatic blends, but I tend not to enjoy the blandness of their flavor. Buy small bags at first and try everything. Write down the ones you like. The variety of tobaccos out there is almost infinite. Enjoy!
@@PipeCat1965 thanks! I have a list going, Some lane 1-Q and BCA is on the way and I'm really liking the idea of the john cotton double pressed virginia, might pick some of that up too. I'm a big clench guy on other things like pens and stuff so I doubt my pipe will be treated any different.
@@griffin5226 Nice. Lane 1-Q smells incredible and it doesn't taste bad, as aromatics go. Never tried BCA, as not a cavendish fan. I am a Latakia and Oriental (Turkish) guy. I LOVE the John Cotton blends - #3 is my favorite. Go slow with the double-pressed VA. It's tasty but is also a sneaky nicotine bomb and if you rush through it you might get "green" (nic-sick), which is not pleasant, trust me. Pack it light and smoke it slow. I'd like to hear your impressions of the blends you bought. Drop me a line!
@@PipeCat1965 cool, thanks for the info. I'll let you know when I get it. Cigars international is super back ordered with everything right now so it may be a while, but that's what mooching off friends is for
Sure. It will make a nice flat bottom and will protect the bowl. Just don't block the draught hole (stuff a pipe cleaner into it first, then remove it before it sets up). You can do anything you want, because you really can't hurt them.
So you do not smoke and burn up the tapered part of the shank that's at the bottom of the bowl? You rather mud up around it? seems like the pipe would be sturdier leaving that tapered bit intact. thanks
Thanks for the feedback. It's true, if you burn it off naturally you do get a bit more strength at the shank entry point. I'm just lazy and don't wait that long! Plus I don't find the loss of structural integrity to be noticeable. I don't mud up around the wood anyway, I remove that wood. I prefer that the bottom of the bowl be all mud. I have been using a cement for this lately, rather than ash. It's really just a matter of preference.
I am unfamiliar with those blends. The little cobs are thin-walled and don't have a core of wood on the bottom like the big ones do. They can start to burn if you smoke them too fast. I'd spend the $12 and get a Diplomat or another one about that size. They have thick walls and never taste like burnt anything.
Just got some corn cobs, 1st time. Should I be concerned that there is a noticeable glob of glue right inside the bowl where the stem is inserted, also the lacker is inside the bowl on a the few I've got. Should I try to remove the glue/sand the lacker that's made it's way inside the bowls?
I don't think the lacquer thing is a concern, but sand it out if you don't trust it. If you can get the glue glob out without damaging the pipe then I would do that, maybe with a little chisel or a knife tip. Burned glue can't be good. None of mine have those symptoms, so I'm surprised.
@@PipeCat1965 Thanks for the reply, yeah weird it has the look and consistency of a clear hot glue when it's cooled not sure if it's from when the plugged the bottom or hammered in the stem been trying to carefully pick it out but no luck might just email and return it, thanks again.
@@bostonteabagparty7769 Yeah, the pipes are not expensive and the company is pretty good about stuff like that. Sorry you got a flawed one. Maybe they will upgrade you at no charge. Or... Go to aristocob.com, as they visually QC all their cob pipes before shipping them.
@@PipeCat1965 yeah not a perfect world just curious if that's somewhat normal, I purchased 4 so I think I will try to modify that one and maybe get the glue out thanks for your input
Everyone talks about adding pipe Mud into their Corn Cob but never talk about the pros & cons AFTER they have done it. For me, it made my pipe stink and made my tobacco taste like ash. Just awful!
why waste time trying to improve a cheapo cob pipe? i like MM but they are cheapo beaters ...nothing more.... they are vastly overpraised by many pipers for some reason.as far as tasting a flake of tobacco from the last bowl...you sure have a delicate palate.
Because i live half a world away in asia from missouri and it takes forever for them and thru multiple hands to get here. I would prefer my corn to last awhile until the new one arrives :(
I bought a Missouri Meerchaum corn pipe last year I put a brass screen ,first time using it. What do you think of a brass screen at the bottom of the bowl I've ordered stainless steel screens, haven't tride them yet. I'm enjoying the cob pipe, and I also ordered 2 more cob pipes from the company 2 days ago I'm looking forward to trying them But, please give me an insight into using the pipes with screen Or should I try the modification like you suggest I enjoyed the video
