Opinions on this inexpensive cob for a newbie testing the waters

[jrfoxx]

I think Zippo's are a bit of nostalgia. They have butane inserts to replace the fluid one for older lighters. I have a Zikar that looks
very much like yours. Works great.

You may need to get a straight blade knife or something to scrape the sides of the pipe down after a bit. The sides will slowly build up and need to be scraped down.
After I do that i put a tip in some rum and wipe the inside down after cleaning it. Gives your pipe a nice flavor for a bowl or 2.

Start with an aromatic tobacco I think. Hell I started with Captain Black from the drug store many years ago.

One thing I can suggest is when you get tobacco check how wet it is. If it's wet it can be difficult to keep lit. Also it will give you a bit of tongue burn as you smoke it.
I leave mine on a paper towel for up to a day to dry out a bit. Buy pipe cleaners in bulk on ebay or amazon. You'll go through them fairly fast depending how much
you smoke. Over time I've become a sipper of the pipe and not drawing heavily on it. Gets hot and not very enjoyable in my book

As for the straight blade knife for scraping, do you think that's what the slightly serrated straight tool in my lighter is for?

Seems to make sense as I can't think what else it would be used for.

Here's a closeup of it:

I friggin love cigars

[dj1340]

That will work. It will be a bit before you need it. Takes some time to build up a cake in a pipe. I have several diffent blends of different kinds of tobacco so if you'd like some samples
send me a PM and I can send you some. A lot of it is aged 10 to 15 yrs.