Briar vs Cob

This weekend I smoked a bowl of SPC Mississippi River in this really nice Canadian that was restored and sent to me by @NeverBend It looks like a Barling but there's no Barling stamp on it. It just says "DE LUXE" on one side, "309" on the other and "France" on the bit. Regardless, it's a very nice pipe with a bigass bowl (for me anyway) and a very good smoker.
http://i975.photobucket.com/albums/a...g?t=1440008463

On to the tobacco. It was delicious; sort of a cinnamon on baked fruit sort of taste with just a touch of pepper in the background, slightly smoky, nice and sweet.

Today I smoked a bit of the very same bacco in my oldest, filthiest, favoritest cob; a Missouri Pride replete with Forever stem. This pipe usually smokes any tobacco well. In fact it's been my go to - the best smoking pipe I have. However, the tobacco that was so nice in the briar, just didn't cut it in the cob; it was nothing special at all. I've read all sorts of posts claiming differences in taste between briar and cob but I've never experienced it first hand before. However the difference was undeniable and remarkable. I wouldn't even bother with this weed if I only ever smoked it in the cob.

All this can only mean one thing. I'm going to 'need' MOAR briar pipes.
Darn you Pete! :p :p (but I've always wanted an army mount anyway)

Very interesting.

I've finally gotten a few decent briars. It sounds like I may have to start doing taste comparisons between the 2 with the same tobaccy. :pipe:

Or did @NeverBend rub the bowl with cinnamon apples just to screw with you? :rolleyes:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Emperor Zurg

This weekend I smoked a bowl of SPC Mississippi River in this really nice Canadian that was restored and sent to me by @NeverBend It looks like a Barling but there's no Barling stamp on it. It just says "DE LUXE" on one side, "309" on the other and "France" on the bit. Regardless, it's a very nice pipe with a bigass bowl (for me anyway) and a very good smoker.
http://i975.photobucket.com/albums/a...g?t=1440008463

On to the tobacco. It was delicious; sort of a cinnamon on baked fruit sort of taste with just a touch of pepper in the background, slightly smoky, nice and sweet.

Today I smoked a bit of the very same bacco in my oldest, filthiest, favoritest cob; a Missouri Pride replete with Forever stem. This pipe usually smokes any tobacco well. In fact it's been my go to - the best smoking pipe I have. However, the tobacco that was so nice in the briar, just didn't cut it in the cob; it was nothing special at all. I've read all sorts of posts claiming differences in taste between briar and cob but I've never experienced it first hand before. However the difference was undeniable and remarkable. I wouldn't even bother with this weed if I only ever smoked it in the cob.

All this can only mean one thing. I'm going to 'need' MOAR briar pipes.
Darn you Pete! :p :p (but I've always wanted an army mount anyway)

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Hi Bill,

So glad that the French canadian (pipe, not person) is smoking well. The French don't get their due as good pipe makers and they were the cradle of the briar industry. I believe that your pipe is a Butz second line from the 1960s/70s. I don't think, other than shape, that you would have recognized it before I restored it (did I take pictures before / after?)

Briar smokes very differently than a cob, as you've experienced, but most cobs will be more consistent than a bad briar. Briars are somewhat a hit or miss proposition and even some good smokers may have a narrow latitude (better with VA than Latakia for example). I don't agree with the idea that you can smoke a briar into being a good performer, (you just get used to the funky smoke), but it's my opinion that no other material rivals the smoke of a good briar. It takes time to build a rotation of fine briar smokers.

I never, (with the rarest of exceptions), gift a pipe that I've smoked. I actually have (and had) a lot of pipes that I've not smoked. The reason's simple, I don't want to give away an ace smoker and I don't want to give someone a sucker pipe. If I smoke it, and like it, I keep it. If I smoked it and don't like it, I'll sell it with a warning, something that I started in my shop. I smoked many of the estates that I restored, (hundreds), and I'd tell people about how it smoked. Amazing how many smokers think that they're such superior smokers that they can squeeze honey out of a turnip.

I only kept one pipe from all the estates that I had in the store, a 1940s Barling's Make Ye Olde Wood EXEL Fossil (taper) Poker that blew my mind and literally changed my life. Every pipe that I've ever smoked since has been compared to it and I spent the next 15 years working to make briar pipes of this quality.

Thanks for letting me know that you're enjoying the pipe. I love the shape.

Regards,

Pete

Always a good time to reminisce when discussing Cobs.


Yo My Cob

Many pimps and hoes may sing of their Havanas, elevating to the stars
The real or fancied virtues of their fancy boy briars;
But I worship Nicotina at a different sort of shrine,
And she sits butt naked in all her glory in this corn-cob pipe of mine.

It ’s as fragrant as the meadows when the weed is in bloom;
It ’s as dainty as the essence of the daintiest butt fart;
It ’s as sweet as my privates when my junk is hanging ripe,
With the sun’s warm kiss upon them—is this corn-cob pipe.

Thou’ the smoke about it is a bit clinging,no where near that stank ass cigar smoke
Like an oriental beauty with a takeout menu in hand;
with my belly full of dimsum and some chickenfeet to boot
As I clasp it to my junk—in a no homo type of way.

It consoles me in misfortune and it cheers me in distress,
And it proves a handwarmer of my pleasures in sexual battles;
So I hail it as a symbol, friendship’s true and worthy type,
And as I toke up and smoke some KK in my trusted corn-cob pipe
I was like wow today I didn't even have to use my A.K.
I got to say it was a good day

The End.................