This is the first pipe I bought, back in 1970: The Academy Award London Pipe. I clean and polish the exterior regularly--about every eight or nine or ten years. But the interior is always kept ready to go and well-reamed.
I'm currently smoking a mixture of fines from several nearly exhausted, somewhat similar batches of Pearl of Shibam and Spanish Moss. The fines tend to be a bit heavy on the Latakia, since that always crumbles more easily than the other components. But if I fill the bowl only by gravity, without tamping, it makes a nice smoke.
Bob
