Cleaning an Estate Pipe--Help?!?
 

What would be the preferred way to clean an estate pipe to make it ready for use? I'm referring to both the bowl and the stem? Is it anything more than what you'd normally do to clean a pipe?

Re: Cleaning an Estate Pipe--Help?!?
 

a local B&M should have the solution to put into the bowl and some pipe wipes or cleaners.

Re: Cleaning an Estate Pipe--Help?!?
 

Read this while you're smoking your cobs. :)

Re: Cleaning an Estate Pipe--Help?!?
 

A good thought, thanks... I'll check with my somewhat local B&M and see what they can do.

Thanks for the link to the read... Already I've picked up on the advantage to the cob pipe, especially for noobs... are all cobs created equal? I've seen some for like $3 and others for double or better that price.

Re: Cleaning an Estate Pipe--Help?!?
 

There are bigger ones and smaller ones in the sub-$5 area - that's about it. I think bigger is better, cobwise. I favor the Missouri Meerschaum Great Dane, for example.

For $15-up there are larger-bowled premium cobs from people like Jake Hackert - fine smoking pipes for the dough with all the benefits of a cob. I have two Hacket customs, either of which smoke VA and burley as well as my finest briar at 1/10th the cost.

Cobs handle moisture well which clay meerschaums and (new) briar tend not to. They can be smoked repeatedly with minimal dryout time and people say they tend not to ghost flavors from prior smokes;for a newguy its way easier to have a few barely-ghosted cobs for trying different tobaks than a seriously ghosted briar. Cobs don't care if you goof up and gnaw a hole in a stem and should you manage to burn one out you can get a new one for $4 and feel old and wiser but not broker. :)

Re: Cleaning an Estate Pipe--Help?!?
 

:tpd: Seriously. If budget is a factor, cobs are great. And Hackert cobs are exceptional.

If there is an issue with cobs, it would be this, a briar, once broken in, has a life expectancy that far outlives a cob (although I am not sure how long a Hackert cob will last as I've only smoked mine a few times).

Re: Cleaning an Estate Pipe--Help?!?
 

I love a cob pipe. I think my cobs are the best smoking pipes I have.

Re: Cleaning an Estate Pipe--Help?!?
 

So for the most part, a drug store cob and a B&M cob are essentially the same pipe (assuming the price ranges are close to equal)?