Barling PAD
- Thread starter fishnbanjo
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NICE! You got a pretty good deal on that one. They usually go for $200-400 more than your final price.
I was following that auction and was considering bidding, but as I already have a couple of these, I decided that I really don't need another one. Enjoy it in the best of health!
I was following that auction and was considering bidding, but as I already have a couple of these, I decided that I really don't need another one. Enjoy it in the best of health!
I was in the hunt at least 6 different one's in the past year and 2 went last week in the $1700 range, one with a broken hinge. I think 3 in one week is the amount of buyers seeking such an item is not all that large, one of these has been on my short list for a long time. I now have 4 English pipes from the teens and 20's and love the idea of smoking something that old one can only wonder how old the briar that went into them was.
I don't know that much about those Barlings but I can only wonder in amazement on the age of that Briar. From what I know of the English pipe makers around the beginning of the 20th Century, the briar used could have been 250 years old at minimum. Beautiful acquisition that is, congrats.
It's a popular romanticism that Barling used centuries old wood. It's not actually true. Not everything improves with age, and that includes Briar. After 50-60 years the capillaries shrink and its suitability for heat dispersion is severely impeded. Rainer Barbi wrote about this in another forum that discussed the idea of ancient briar being better than the stuff currently being harvested.
What Barling went after was a specific grade of Algerian briar with an age range between 80 and 120 years, according to their published literature. They believed that this specific variety was at its best within that age range. Then they air cured it for years, believing that any other method used to speed the seasoning process was inherently inferior.
The only other company with a similar approach to their briar, of which I am aware, was Kaywoodie. Their literature from the 1920's states that Kaywoodie pipes were made from century old air cured briar.
And of course there were no regulated truth-in-advertising statutes like today, so all advertising should be taken with a grain of salt!
True that! And even with the truth in advertising laws, there are plenty of opportunities to add a little spin without actually out and out lying.
Makes me wonder what the median age is on briar that is selected for today's ultra high grades? Going on only what I've read, there's a shortage of available labor to harvest the burls that rest in some precarious cliff faces. Hacker said more than likely most of today's briar is 20-30 years old. Great thread btw.
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