So Here Comes This One Again

I can't explain it but for some reason, I just started picking up some of my second string pipes. Everytime I do this it drives me nuts as I smoke some great pipes. For the life of me I can't figure out why they don't get more smoking time. The Flame Grain Meerschaum I smoked today is a great example. It's a briar with a meerschaum lined bowl. A large apple shape with beautiful grain, it is a fantastic smoker, with a great draw, that never seems to heat up and makes everything taste fantastic. Why this isn't on the A team is a complete mystery to me but hey, I've been here before. You smoke them for a couple weeks and promise to smoke them more often then you go back to the first team and totally forget about the great smokes you had. Maybe it's time to re-evaluate my A team and give this one a spot so I actually follow through with smoking it more. My other Flame Grain is also a great smoker but it's a bent bulldog so that kind of explains why it doesn't get more play time (I'm not big on bent pipes). But my meershaum friend is an Apple! It really should be on the A team, engage, make it so.

My other enigma is the Mandarin (a KW Lovat with a bamboo shank) as you may have heard on this very site, I worked on finding one for over a year before I finally won this one. I don't have a single good excuse for not smoking it more often, it's another great smoker that just doesn't seem to get its propers. May need to re-evaluate, it "lives" on my four digit rack but somehow manages about 1/4 as much smoking time and it really is a great smoke. Perhaps the real answer is dividing the fleet in half and smoke 1 group of 15 from April to October and the other from October to April. That way everyone gets about equal smoking time. As far as that goes, I don't really have a bad smoking pipe in my fleet so it would probably all come out about the same. I think the long rest period would be good for the old fellas. Do you guys have these sorts of dilemas or am I just over thinking stuff? Ridiculously when I smoke one of these second stringers and realize what great smokers they are there's a piece of me that feels guilty in a way for slighting them. Yeah, I know that's dumb as hell but I do feel a bit guilty about it.