E A Carey Pipes for New Pipe Smokers

[Briar Lee]

When I began pipe smoking a half century ago the only gadget pipe that worked as advertised was E A Carey.

They are still available new from the Carey website.

Carey Magic Inch Briar Tobacco Smoking Pipes

www.eacarey.com

A Carey Magic Inch pipe uses a paper sleeve on a ventilated tube in the stem. When smoking a tiny bit of air is metered into the smoke stream.

This air doesn’t materially change the flavor but it significantly cuts back on mouth burn and tongue bite and somehow prevents prevent gurgling and soggy pipes, how I’ve not ever been able to quite figure out. But the system works.

After you become an old leather tongued pipe addict and want the full blast of the smoke stream, use a piece of plastic drinking straw to replace the paper tube.

Carey pipes have been made all over the world through the years, and I have them from the USA, London, Italy, Greece, and Israel.

You owe it to yourself to try one.

They actually have some kind of magic going on in that inch.

(Why does air behind the combustion cause the pipe to smoke dry?)

 

[bullet08]

Paper absorb moisture. The devil in the pipe. The bane of newbie's miseries.

 

[Briar Lee]

Paper absorb moisture. The devil in the pipe. The bane of newbie's miseries.

It makes sense the little bit of air helps make the smoke milder and cooler. The evil cigarette companies used to ventilate light cigarettes that way, and still may.

But how that air leaking in the smoke stream keeps the pipe smoking dry in front of the magic inch is mysterious to me.

The tubes aren’t really filters. They do get wet and soaked with tars, though.

I’m smoking a Savenelli now with no gadget and it stays dry and doesn’t gurgle, but I’ve learned that trick over the years.

All I can guess is the Magic Inch helps a beginner (or anybody) regulate their draw to avoid gurgling and wet pipes.

 

[Briar Lee]

For most or maybe all of E A Carey’s history the pipes were sold mail order.

Until the late sixties Carey offered only a large billiard.

But some time in the seventies or eighties Carey offered high grade pipes.

 

[huntertrw]

Somewhere in this house I have an estate Carey Magic Inch billiard pipe (made in Israel) which I had to purchase in order to get a desired estate Falcon billiard with extra bowls. The Carey even came with a box of their Papyrate sleeves but I never smoked it, as I felt that it was a gimmick pipe.

Based upon your report, I'll now have to hunt-up that pipe and give it a go!

 

[burleybreath]

They do work for droolers, at least in my case. Drool was a problem when I first started smoking a pipe. But I could never get past the reverse tenon/shank hookup. The "male" part is only 1/8" long; it's part of the shank instead of being an actual tenon. Then the "female" part of the bit fits over this poor little nub. Seemed inadequate to me. But it worked, consummation if not conception occurred in spite of the design, and I can't recall ever having a bad smoke with one.

 

[JackofNone]

I'm definitely interested. At that price it's worth a try. sexy pipes!

 

[Briar Lee]

Carey started selling his pipes in 1949 but didn’t patent the Magic Inch until 1966.

His earlier advertisements, which caught my $15, claimed you could smoke a Carey bowl after bowl, hot, and never rest it. The scientifically designed Magic Inch removed gurgle and bite and made pipe smoking so easy anyone could enjoy a Carey pipe.

And if you smoked one hard for thirty days, and didn’t agree, break it with a hammer and send it back for a full refund.

I was 16 and earned $1.25 an hour that summer. That was a big $15.

Within a month I ordered another.

The system works on the same principle as the earlier Kaywoodie Carburetor and the Duncan Hill Areosphere (that Carey bought out), allowing a tiny bit of air in the smoke steam.

But I think the Carey really works.

It doesn’t cost much to try one.

 

[JackofNone]

I tried my Falcon for the first time yesterday, and the smoke was noticeably drier and cooler. I know that that system definitely works. I don't drool but 2/3 of my briars require a stem/shank swipe halfway through the bowl. I have not had any moisture problems with the Falcon.

I have adjusted enough carburetors to know that extra air will change the nature of combustion in a chamber. I think the Carey system is probably better. I would think that flavors would stand out more in this system for any smoker regardless of experience.

 

[Briar Lee]

I tried my Falcon for the first time yesterday, and the smoke was noticeably drier and cooler. I know that that system definitely works. I don't drool but 2/3 of my briars require a stem/shank swipe halfway through the bowl. I have not had any moisture problems with the Falcon.

I have adjusted enough carburetors to know that extra air will change the nature of combustion in a chamber. I think the Carey system is probably better. I would think that flavors would stand out more in this system for any smoker regardless of experience.

I’ve been smoking my Viking and Falcon, and both leak just a little air around the threads.

By the way, if you don’t have an aluminum radiator pipe and want one, buy the Falcon. Overall it’s a classier little toy, and the Viking was a patent beater copy.

I have a new theory why a Carey works so well, to do what it’s advertised to do.

When an old leather tongued pipe addict packs and smokes a pipe he’s grown so used to it, he’s forgotten how to do it wrong. It’s second nature. He knows by constant repetition what to do and doesn’t draw too hard, he’s mastered his cadence, give him a gold star for skill of pipe smoking.

When I try and light a Carey a lot of times I’ll close off the stem vents with my fingers to increase the suction. The paper tube is necessary to smoke a Carey, or else there’s just too much air coming through big holes in the reversed tenon.

Yes, a little air might cool the smoke and reduce the strength a little bit.

But that sleeve helps a beginner not draw too hard, and get the pipe hot. And if he’s not sucking too hard it won’t gurgle either.

A carburetor pipe and a Duncan Hill would also reduce suction, but they use one tiny, easily clogged pinhole.

That Carey sleeve is truly some kind of magic. He had two versions, the last is the Paperite II.

No telling how long he worked to get it just right.

 

[huntertrw]

Well, I searched and found that I have two Carey Magic Inch pipes: the aforementioned billiard, and also a rusticated bent. Both have Patent numbers stamped on their shanks, and so I looked them up on the United States Patent and Trade Mark Office's Website. No record came up for one. Here is a link to the other.

I'm looking forward to trying both of these pipes in the days to come. Thanks, again, to briarlee for the nudge!

 

[Briar Lee]

Let’s say somebody doesn’t have a Carey and wants one.

They all had a nylon moulded stem and that Magic Inch. The stems of one fit every one I’ve found.

So the best way to tell condition (aside from obvious burned out pipes) is condition of the nylon (never vulcanite) bit. They aren’t fancy, they scratch up easily, and are hard to bite through. You want a used one like this.



So long as the stem fits the Magic Inch has to be intact. It’s a reversed tenon.

So ignore fossilized tape, used to increase the draw. That will dissolve with Everclear and 4/0 steel wool in no time at all.




The gorgeous big Grecian and Israeli pipes are obviously prizes. They are scarce and cost more.

As for the standard shape pipes, the London Made series is hard to beat. I wonder who made these for Carey? My 1974 pipes were made in London. The Grecian series was later.

This large Billiard is the classic Carey and the only shape he sold until the early 70s.







That pipe was $10 plus $5 shipping.

Most are in the $20 range and some have sleeves included.

You want the real Carey sleeves, but a drinking straw can be cut up and used, although they become regular pipes then, or you can tape the vents.

$15 for three dozen, good for all Carey Magic Inch pipes. I’ve never seen the first series.



I think every pipe smoker should have a few Carey’s for change of pace.

And for starting out, it’s the best gadget pipe on the market, to minimize bite, mouth burn, and gurgling.

 

[condorlover1]

I remember the advertisement in the Sunday Express newspaper circa 1981 - a thirty day free trial and if you didn't like it you could smash it will a club hammer!

 

[Streeper541]

Fair warning, don't go try to pick one up from the shop in Canton, OH... E.A. Carey only does internet sales now.

 

[Briar Lee]

Fair warning, don't go try to pick one up from the shop in Canton, OH... E.A. Carey only does internet sales now.

Until not many years ago the son or grandson of E A Carey had a pipe factory in Oklahoma.

One of his problems is you can buy $15 London Made Carey pipes on eBay like I did yesterday.

A Carey for many, many years was mail order only.

They never were Dr Grabow cheap.

The two I bought in 1974 were $15 with shipping and handling, which is about $93 today.

It’s a great old pipe brand we’re lucky to still have

 

[Epip Oc'Cabot]

I remember the advertisement in the Sunday Express newspaper circa 1981 - a thirty day free trial and if you didn't like it you could smash it will a club hammer!

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It is funny, those Carey ads always struck me as “huckster-ish” seeing them in the back end of magazines along with “Sea Monkeys”, “X-Ray Specs” and all sorts of other doo-dads and K-Tel products in the 1970s and 1980s…. that I never considered getting an E.A. Carey pipe.

From what I have seen and read here they seem to likely be better than I had imagined.

 

[Briar Lee]

It is funny, those Carey ads always struck me as “huckster-ish” seeing them in the back end of magazines along with “Sea Monkeys”, “X-Ray Specs” and all sorts of other doo-dads and K-Tel products in the 1970s and 1980s…. that I never considered getting an E.A. Carey pipe.

From what I have seen and read here they seem to likely be better than I had imagined.

There are dueling schools of thought if it’s the briar or the construction that makes a pipe smoke well.

A Carey covers both.

When Kaywoodie serviced pipes, the cost was always half of the new price for either a new stummel or a new stem, and most were likely new stems.

Carey used nylon for the tenon and stem. The cost was penny or so, all done by machine. The stummels are all machine made.

He could and did use the best grade of briar.

The sleeves were the size of the old fashioned paper drinking straw, only using a porous paper.

It was and is a fabulous invention.

If he ever got you to try one you’d buy more.


I’ll bet you could count the hammer broken returned pipes on the fingers of one hand.

And while the old advertisements were over the top, he made a living and his son and grandson still do selling pipes, and the instructions with the product were even cooler than the ads.

You can wash the sleeves.

Even wash the pipe.

And he recommended leaving your pipe outside often to keep it fresh.

He was a true believer in the Magic Inch pipe.

 

[huntertrw]

I just visited the EA Carey Website, and was surprised to learn that, in addition to pipes, they also sell pipe-tobaccos. Has anyone here tried their Carey Pipe Tobacco Blends and, if so, can you recommend any?

 

[Piping Abe]

@Briar Lee I would like to hear your thoughts on the Kirsten Pipe. If you ever want to start a thread on that.

 

[Briar Lee]

@Briar Lee I would like to hear your thoughts on the Kirsten Pipe. If you ever want to start a thread on that.

I don’t have a Kirsten but I do own a Falcon and a Viking (copy by Dr Grabow).

I need a Kirsten.

Any pointers on which era or style?