Glad I Quit Collecting the 904s
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I hope it's not a trend for all of their shapes.Subtle differences are what changes ato
I have two of the newer versions and couldn't be happier. Well balanced pipes and they smoke great.
Why would you think that ?
Have you had a look at the pipes put out by Danish artisans since the 1960s and artisans worldwide today ?
Stanwells often have wonderful grain - for a factory pipe.
There are lots and lots of great Britwood factory pipes
And Italians (even though I don't have many)
True, much of my focus is pre-1920's pipes, but I also own lots post-1920 pipes.
I do not think for a moment that good pipe making ceased in the 1930s
Please excuse me if I have misunderstood you.
But your rambling stream of consciousness writings do not make for cogent reading.
The Net's first subject-specific word salad generating AI, maybe?
Kevin does like cutting edge stuff.
You must ask yourself when in the last hundred years has the fanciest briar been cheapest.
Thereād have to have been a surplus of the top grades.
The early thirties world wide depression devastated demand for about every luxury.
But the late thirties recovery meant that the very best, and only the best of the best, briar was in demand for luxury pipes.
The above is a late thirties Kaywoodie Flame Grain Dublin #13 that was the most expensive factory pipe in the world in 1937.
A 304 would have had to compete directly with it.
There wasn't much emphasis placed on grain pre-1920's
I have a modest collection of pre-1920s pipes and I'm of the opinion that in the era of factory pipes a well-grained stummel (straight grain or birdseye) was more chance finding rather than a cutter "chasing the grain"
Perhaps those with more experience or extensive collections of pre-1930 pieces may care to comment on when grain did become a saleable "commodity"
Calling on @sablebrush52, @ashdigger, @georged, @virkia
Th
This looks like I bought a hobby block and decided my first pipe would be a 904 copy.
Problem is I do find his reminiscings of life in a rural community very interesting (being a city boy).
And if we were to meet in person I would, more likely than not, find him affable and entirely engaging.
A true parable on wood quality:
My best friend was Johnny, and his father was an extremely colorful character named Freddie, who had one glass eye from sawing wood before the war.
Living in a tar paper shack, Freddie sired six girls, all valedictorians and Johnny was salutatorian, and I was third in the 1976 Humansville class. Freddie was an extremely gifted man, with hillbilly ways.
One day about thirty years ago, Johnny and I decided to offer to cut Freddie a load of firewood, as appreciation for all heād done for us.
In a yard littered with rusting hulks of old cars and trucks, chickens running around, and old washing machines and old tractors, stood Freddie in his bib overalls, all 130 pounds ramrod straight.
He was always glad to see me.
Johnny announced our intentions, and Freddie was delighted.
He led us around to the back yard, where he showed us exactly where he wanted his firewood, and how he wanted it stacked, with a wash tub on to shed the elements.
Then he told Johnny, go down over yonder past the pond and then go up to the high pasture and turn left and go in the woods ways and on the right hand side youāll see a great big ash tree I felled last fall that ought to well seasoned.
Cut that ash tree in 18 inch sections then I want every piece split, four ways.
I donāt want any limbs or branches either, and when you get close to the top split a few kindling pieces and put those inside the trailer in the kindling box.
As Johnny and I drove off to do as Freddie instructed, Johnny looked at me and said propane must be really cheap this year.
When propane gets high, Daddy will burn piss elm and like it.
My best friend was Johnny, and his father was an extremely colorful character named Freddie, who had one glass eye from sawing wood before the war.
Living in a tar paper shack, Freddie sired six girls, all valedictorians and Johnny was salutatorian, and I was third in the 1976 Humansville class. Freddie was an extremely gifted man, with hillbilly ways.
One day about thirty years ago, Johnny and I decided to offer to cut Freddie a load of firewood, as appreciation for all heād done for us.
In a yard littered with rusting hulks of old cars and trucks, chickens running around, and old washing machines and old tractors, stood Freddie in his bib overalls, all 130 pounds ramrod straight.
He was always glad to see me.
Johnny announced our intentions, and Freddie was delighted.
He led us around to the back yard, where he showed us exactly where he wanted his firewood, and how he wanted it stacked, with a wash tub on to shed the elements.
Then he told Johnny, go down over yonder past the pond and then go up to the high pasture and turn left and go in the woods ways and on the right hand side youāll see a great big ash tree I felled last fall that ought to well seasoned.
Cut that ash tree in 18 inch sections then I want every piece split, four ways.
I donāt want any limbs or branches either, and when you get close to the top split a few kindling pieces and put those inside the trailer in the kindling box.
As Johnny and I drove off to do as Freddie instructed, Johnny looked at me and said propane must be really cheap this year.
When propane gets high, Daddy will burn piss elm and like it.
I don't know that it's true that grain didn't figure into the world of factory pipes before WW2. The earliest examples of Barling YOW's all exhibit very nice grain compared to their other pipes of that period and they had a line of straight grain pipes in the 1930's. Comoy certainly graded for grain, their Prima being an early example of a highly graded pipe, and their Blue Riband was certainly based on quality of grain. Dunhill graded for grain as well.
In the 1880's there was a brief craze for straight grain pipes. Jguss shared with me newspaper ads from the period related to this.
But as you say, it was more a matter of a particular block yielding superior grain after shaping, than shaping for grain. "Chasing grain" wasn't a thing until after the war, and I believe that it was Sixten Ivarsson who was the major influence in moving away from strict shaping according to the French canon in favor of creating new, more organic shapes that flowed with the grain. This also allowed for more pipes to be made for a block, cutting costs.
There are lots of myths about briar, and among these is the myth that briar was of much better quality before the war. There's no objective evidence to support that, just personal opinions, and we all know what opinions are like. Much of the production of pipes in the long past was the same as it is today, a large percentage of average product, a small percentage of superior product. And most of the average, or less than average, product was used, and abused, and tossed. The market for "vintage" or "estate" pipes was at most a very small one, since pipes were viewed as expendables. Finer goods were treated better, though not always so. The ancient crap has largely disappeared into the trash. Sturgeon's Law is as pertinent to pipes as it is to pretty much everything else.
The scene has certainly changed, with artisan made pipes becoming a much larger presence than they were before WW2. There has been an explosion of creativity in the shaping of pipes and the use of staining techniques to maximize the aesthetics of a given piece of briar. Much of the old factory system has disappeared. Pipes are a much smaller presence overall than they were even 40, 45 years ago.
Anyway, that's my view and I'm sticking with it.
I grew up on a farm. Too many inaccuracies in those tales.
+1 Same. Briar lee Iām sure is an enduring character in real life. He reminds me of the movie āBig Fishā.
I freely confess to being a complete, and total propagandist about life a half mile South of Bug Tussle, and not too far from Spout Spring Hollow in Cedar County I couldnāt squirrel hunt there.
There was poverty, religious intolerance, child abuse, ignorance, prejudice, hatred, and despair even then.
The neighbor next door had 13 boys from his first marriage and two privileged and pampered children from his second.
I donāt tell how hungry those boys were, and how their step mother would whip them with a rubber hose, all in the name of Jesus.
5 Missouri boarding school employees charged with abuse
STOCKTON, Mo. (AP) ā A southwest Missouri prosecutor said Tuesday he has charged five employees of a private Christian boarding school with abusing students ā far fewer than the number of charges recommended by state investigators.
apnews.com
My folks were all against such stuff, you know?
They taught me God keeps a close record of all that evil, and someday will set those wrongs right.
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At first glance I didn't see much of a difference, then it quickly went into "can't unsee it". I'd agree it lost a good part of what made this shape special and elegant to my eyes.
I got two of them, one bought last year directly from Savinelli (the bottom one) and a second from a German estate. Can I see a difference? Maybe, the shank does look thicker to me now but not out of proportion.
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My dad is a hillbilly, but further south and deeper in the Ozarks than @Briar Lee. My dad also has less teeth, not being a lawyer and all. But to your point, yes, boys and gals from the Ozarks tend to be very affable, engaging, and FULL of S...stories. What, you thought I was going to say something else? Well, they are full of that too, I suppose. For them, the truth isn't in the accuracy of the description so much as it is in the metaphors, idioms, and hyperbole of the story. After awhile, you can find their way of describing something is just as relevant, and maybe more accurate, than a description of any particular data set. My dad meets with the men several times a week for breakfast and coffee. I've sat with him at a few of those gatherings and wow, the storytelling is rampant, even about the most minor of events that may have or may not have happened that week. The men are able to intuitively decipher what is being said and while hyperbole is 90% of the story, they know exactly what is being said and what is not being said. The entertaining way of talking makes the truth of the story easier to go down with the biscuits and coffee. True natives of the Ozarks are a very different type of hillbilly than I have found from those who live in the Appalachians. There are some similarities of course, but the culture and poverty of the Ozarks and the Boston Mountains seems to have some real differences. I imagine the men who live in the outback might have some similarities to those who live deep in the Ozarks. One thing is for sure, they seem much more happier and don't wear their sensitivities on their sleeves. I appreciate people who enjoy who they are and are able to laugh about it.