I have been smoking cigars off and on for about 10-12 years or so. I however have gotten serious about it about a year ago. I got interested in smoking a pipe. Today I took the drive to the nearest tobacconist a 172 mile drive one way. I was going to order stuff on the internet but I wanted to check the pipes out and speak to a tobacconist that I trust. Actually his wife helped me but she knows her stuff. After several hours of looking over everything I kept going back to this pipe I thought was really cool. I was planning on just getting a corn cob pipe. I wound up buying the one I kept going back to. It is a Peterson Bent Rustic. Because I when there for a corn cob and some tobacco I decided to grab a meerschaum also. I told her I wanted a few different tobaccos to try so she suggested 5 different ones I bought an ounce of all of them. I decided to start breaking in the Peterson on the way home. I was really surprised at how much I liked it. Once I was done smoking that I decided what the hell and I packed the corn cob. Good experience gone wrong!!! It was ok in the beginning. To make a long story short, it started to taste funny to me and burn real hot. Kept having to put it down and let it cool. Then on my last relight I almost puked from this horrible taste. Once it cooled down I pulled the pipe apart and found the filter had caught on fire. I chucked the filter and won’t be using them anymore. I am going to give the corn cob another shot tomorrow hopefully the experience of the corn cob will be better.