Chinese cob failure

Wildcrow · Wed Apr 25, 2018 12:14 pm

Reed stem? I'd have a hard time justifying a purchase like a Chinese cob for the sake of getting the bowl further down the road.

Wed Apr 25, 2018 4:32 pm

Wildcrow wrote: ↑Wed Apr 25, 2018 12:14 pm Reed stem? I'd have a hard time justifying a purchase like a Chinese cob for the sake of getting the bowl further down the road.

I have 6 of them (at least). I know I have the one at home and then five more at the office. Some were freebies with purchases. Some were sent to me by someone at PSF 1.0. I am not thinking about buying one just for the stem..

Wildcrow · Wed Apr 25, 2018 5:11 pm

Ok... you're a fart smeller (I mean smart feller)

. Hope your cob changes my mind

blackmouth210 · Wed Apr 25, 2018 9:55 pm

I too am surprised at where the failure occurred.
The cob itself is still looking good.
How many smokes would you guess you've put through that Chinese cob now?

cowboysurfer201 · Wed Apr 25, 2018 10:27 pm

I had quite a few of these as they came with pipesandcigars monthly tobacco club they had a few years back. I always just threw them away though. Looks like I should've modified em instead.

Sir Saartan · Thu Apr 26, 2018 1:30 am

cowboysurfer201 wrote: ↑Wed Apr 25, 2018 10:27 pm I had quite a few of these as they came with pipesandcigars monthly tobacco club they had a few years back. I always just threw them away though. Looks like I should've modified em instead.

I have some experience with people working for german engineering companies in china. That's why this doesn't surprise me at all.

The problem with these chinese companies is: the main planning is done by people who know what they're doing. That being either
well educated chinese people or foreign experts. That's why the main things used (in this case the type of corn plant) should be
the right ones.

The actual manufacturing process is usually done by people who can hardly write their own names, let alone understand how things
will be done/ what needs to be checked in quality control. It's not so hard to actually drill a hole or 2 into a corn cob, so that part would
be done quite ok in most instances.

now the tenon is in my opinion a weak part, because it's thin and has a lot of force working on it over longer periods of time. With
quality control lacking, I would assume poor quality stems will be shipped as well as good ones. Just because there's noone there
who can actually identify which ones have flaws.

Thu Apr 26, 2018 3:19 am

blackmouth210 wrote: ↑Wed Apr 25, 2018 9:55 pm I too am surprised at where the failure occurred.
The cob itself is still looking good.
How many smokes would you guess you've put through that Chinese cob now?

I am going to claim about 60. The cob itself is looking about like a natural MM. The lack of hardwood plug made me nervous because the core was very soft, but the pipe mud took care of that issue. I bored it out to approximately 13/16, and thought maybe I had pushed the envelope too far and the walls might be too thin. It acquired one dark spot you can see on the wall, but there does not seem to be any burnout at that point. The shank developed a crack that did not seem to leak, and I superglued it.

Thu Apr 26, 2018 6:06 am

China cobs ... my goodness

blackmouth210 · Thu Apr 26, 2018 11:09 am

Fr_Tom wrote: ↑Thu Apr 26, 2018 3:19 am
blackmouth210 wrote: ↑Wed Apr 25, 2018 9:55 pm I too am surprised at where the failure occurred.
The cob itself is still looking good.
How many smokes would you guess you've put through that Chinese cob now?
I am going to claim about 60. The cob itself is looking about like a natural MM. The lack of hardwood plug made me nervous because the core was very soft, but the pipe mud took care of that issue. I bored it out to approximately 13/16, and thought maybe I had pushed the envelope too far and the walls might be too thin. It acquired one dark spot you can see on the wall, but there does not seem to be any burnout at that point. The shank developed a crack that did not seem to leak, and I superglued it.

60 is amazing. Way more than I would have expected. The pipe mud has probably done a lot to help the cause.
However the thinner walls are doing great too.

Thu Apr 26, 2018 1:34 pm

blackmouth210 wrote: ↑Thu Apr 26, 2018 11:09 am
60 is amazing. Way more than I would have expected. The pipe mud has probably done a lot to help the cause.
However the thinner walls are doing great too.

The core of the cob under the bowl was really soft. I could have easily pushed a pen through it I am pretty sure. The mud gave it a rock hard layer, and since the the base of the bowl was like a quarter inch from the draft, it filled in that space too. Given the texture of the unfinished cob exterior of the bowl, you don't have much sense for it getting a little overly warm, but I did try to smoke the first few bowls slowly and not smoke in the wind or anything.