Elitist!I will stick with my briars... you heathens!!!
Allergic to corn?I will stick with my briars... you heathens!!!
Well, Cobs have a perfect draw and smoke-ability that is hard to compare in a Briar. It's really apples and oranges in comparison. It's just their construction lends to a perfect smoke, where a Briar can be hit or miss, even if you spend hundreds of $ on one. Cobs are almost guaranteed to be a cool dry pleasurable smoke.
I agree wholeheartedly with this. I also think of cobs as the ultimate reality check pipe. Life moving to fast, getting caught up in the PAD and TAD till you can't think straight or even contemplate reading your credit card statement, throw some burley (or whatever tobacco brings simplicity and consistency to mind) in a cob, brew up some coffee and everything just sort of falls into perspective.
Ahh, but you miss the point. The cob does in no way, try to compete with a finely carved Briar. It's simplicity in point, is it's own virtue. It boils down to the fact that even the cheapest cob, will be a wonderful smoke. Where a Briar can and will disappoint. I by no means mean to take away from Briar. One of my current favorite smokers is a Nording, but that pipe, in all honesty is my 4th Briar, and it took that many pipes to find a decent smoker. It smokes so sweet and dry, I get a funny feeling every time I light her up. But every last one of my cobs have been, and continue to be a perfect smoke from day one. There is no fuss and def no muss when it comes to a cob. They are elegance in simplicity.
You offer up a false alternative: cheap cob versus "finely carved briar" -- and a poor smoking briar at that. The briar can be almost as cheap as the cob and still smoke well. Perhaps "finely drilled" would be the main feature of a good smoking briar, admittedly a hit or miss situation (nudge nudge). The construction of a cob, with the stem sticking in above the bottom, cannot suffer the common defect of a poor drill, one that can destroy even an expensive briar. Yours is a difficult position to attack, but still an argument that would work as well with a frozen entree versus a home cooked meal, maybe good, maybe bad, depending on the cook and the ingredients. The cob is like a frozen dinner done in the microwave -- no slaving over the stove -- it's always going to be "okay" if it's a decent brand.
No need to defend the briar. I absolutely love the handful I've managed to collect in the short time I've been smoking. For a relaxing moment, when I actually have time to sit and reflect, I always reach for a briar. What I like about the cob is that it is a pipe I can beat up without worrying, because they are just SO darn cheap and I still get a great experience with them.
