Very nice Grabows. I particularly like the wire-carved Viscount. Nobody wire-carved better than Grabow in Sparta...and that was done by hand across a very heavy steel brush-wheel. One slip and your hand is wire-carved. They stopped wire-carving maybe 25 or so years ago.
I won't rant for too long...but Grabow gets a bad name...more because of their PRICE than anything else. I don't see many true pipe snobs here, but there are plenty of forums (and smoke shops) where Grabow is disregarded as a cheap drugstore / production pipe. Grabow briar blocks go across a frazing machine in a production environment (just as standard shapes made by our well-known high-end pipes get their initial shaping done with similar machines), and then are taken through just as many steps...most being BY HAND...as other much more expensive pipes. All the carving you see on Grabows (including your Crown Duke above) is done using a very simple cutting tool which the craftsman himself makes...and then runs the pipe bowl against it by hand to get the carving he wants...thus, every single Grabow carved pipe is unique. Stem fitment is all done by humans, using the same kinds of sanding methods that expensive pipe makers use. I've been in the factory a dozen times, and have shared much of the tour via video on Youtube. I will tell you something that I was told by a high-up member of Grabow management...if Grabow didn't receive the revenue they get from filters and other accessories...they would go UNDER...because they barely make a nickel on a pipe...selling new ones to us for 30-35 bucks. If they had never set the price point which they have over the years, they'd make more margin, have a better reputation with some, but...a lot of blue collars would be stuck with fewer choices...and Grabow has always been a 'working mans' pipe.
That wasn't meant for the majority of you...just for those who needed to hear it...LOL.
