Who Else is Addicted to Algerian Briar?

[Briar Lee]

Tree rings are nuttin'.

My Vauen Auenland is carved from ancient Entwood the Hobbits smuggled back to the Shire from the battle of Isengard.



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I wonder how they got the bend in that stem?

Drills are straight.

If I made that I’d drill a bowl first, then a long hole to intersect it, then turn it on a lathe until I had a bowl with a long straight stem.

Then it would need steamed and bent.

It could be any wood that would take a bend.

Whoever bought that would not care much how well it smoked, as much as how it looked.

It looks like a tough business.

 

[sablebrush52]

The wild heather is an invasive shrub where it grows in abundance around the Mediterranean good only for ornamental plantings. The only part of the shrub good for pipes is a tumor, or burl, on the roots.

Those burls start out the size of a pea, and grow slowly.

Each year would leave a tiny mark, on the burl, as it got bigger.

Whatever mysterious mojo makes those burls the one and only wood good enough for quality briar pipes, seems to take more seasons to produce.

If ancient Algerian wasn’t the best Dunhill would have used another grade, one easier to work with.

Dunhill used Sardinian Briar and Calabrian. Algerian for sandblasts, counselor.
Kaywoodies used, and stamped, “Grecian Briar” on their pipes.
Most of my collection is Algerian briar, but not because it’s Algerian, but because the people who fashioned it into pipes knew how to pick it, process it, and fashion a good pipe from it. That’s where the artistic mystery resides.
Bring on the snakes and tambourines!

 

[sablebrush52]

I wonder how they got the bend in that stem?

Drills are straight.

The French developed a method for curved drilling which they kept as a trade secret, which allowed them to produce shapes that the Brits couldn’t match.

 

[Hillcrest]

The French developed a method for curved drilling which they kept as a trade secret, which allowed them to produce shapes that the Brits couldn’t match.

And apparently they have:

 

[Briar Lee]

Dunhill used Sardinian Briar and Calabrian. Algerian for sandblasts, counselor.
Kaywoodies used, and stamped, “Grecian Briar” on their pipes.
Most of my collection is Algerian briar, but not because it’s Algerian, but because the people who fashioned it into pipes knew how to pick it, process it, and fashion a good pipe from it. That’s where the artistic mystery resides.
Bring on the snakes and tambourines!

Kaywoodie did make a few Algerian pipes, but they made an outrageous variety of pipes, most with shape numbers.

Set the Dunsboros, Morocco’s, Selected Grains, Super Briars, and conventional shaped Benchmades over in their own bucket. Marx had automatic shaping machines. A medium Dublin or Bulldog from Marx looks like one from KB&B or Lee, usually not as fancy grained or pretty, but a top grade factory pipe.

Where Marx gave us all pipes to collect and smoke are the carved and craggy ones, the 400 being the largest and craggiest of all.

I can count a dozen puttied fills in the groves of 400 D 334 I got in today. There is a hint of straight grain on one side but overall there’s not much grain structure to brag about. It’s a huge blob of plain looking briar.

As it colors the fills will really show.

It was the most expensive factory pipe in the word in 1940, at $25.

Marx could have used Grecian or Italian or any other briar grade he wanted.

That dense, ancient, spongy Algerian was hard to work. Dunhill blasted his.

But oh my, how well it smokes, oh my.

 

[sasquatch]

In this picture, the lines in the wood running left to right are the xylem, the lines runing more or less up and down are the growth rings, which occur perpendicular to the xylem in a burl.





All the horse crap about 200 year old wood and virgins picking it... it's all garbage. At one point Sasieni claimed to use burls "50 years old" and it's true in that briar has to be about 30 years old before it's big enough to be worth harvesting. But 200 year old plants and dead root and all this nonsense.. it's all sizzle for the steak, if you will. No one AGED briar for 50 years. They harvested the plant when it was old enough. Kind of a big difference.

Anyway, Algerian briar sucks, it's soft and full of pits, always was, always will be. Tastes like cinnamon. Way rather have Calabrian wood for all purposes. And Dunhill did too. He despaired of the Algerian he'd bought and literally had to invent a process to make it good enough for his pipes.

 

[Briar Lee]

Anyway, Algerian briar sucks, it's soft and full of pits, always was, always will be. Tastes like cinnamon. Way rather have Calabrian wood for all purposes. And Dunhill did too. He despaired of the Algerian he'd bought and literally had to invent a process to make it good enough for his pipes

Xxxxxx

Thank you.

Marxman pipes have a distinctive flavor of roasted cinnamon.

Try one.

The blacker they are, the better.



If you smoke strong tobaccos in a Marxman, slowly, as that ancient briar heats up the burl releases what I called a “kick” until tonight.

If Marx tried that today the do gooders would shut him down.

Once you get a taste for roasted cinnamon you’re hooked.

You’ll accumulate ugly, soft, gnarled old reddish black pipes to get your fix.

Some of us love cinnamon.

 

[sasquatch]

I've got one. And a Lee. And a handful of golden era MasterCrafts. And about a thousand bucks worth of other weird old crap I've scraped out of other collections over the years. I LOVE these old pipes. And they are, mostly, terrible pipes!

I got an unsmoked Kaywoodie Connoisseur a couple months ago, probably dates to the 60s, and it had kind of a neat taste on break in, almost resin-y, like it was oil cured (which I don't think they were). Clearly a pipe designed to accomodate people who have no idea how to smoke a pipe, is the thought I'm left with. It's impossible to overdraw with that silly stinger in there.

I'd vastly rather smoke a Castello, generally. These old pipes are fun as hell, but they mostly aren't a benchark for quality in any particular way save one: the vulcanite on a lot of these old stems, or para rubber, is just amazing. But the draw, the drilling, the finishing, the stem work... it's all super mediocre. These were, for the most part, workaday pipe for the workaday man, and that's born out by the number of them we see with 1/2" of cake in them. 1 pipe, all day, every day. Shove in face and let rip.

Algerian briar is simply what the manufacturers had (and mostly because it was cheap). The idea that they were hand selecting THIS wood over THAT wood is nonsense, and that's proven by the fact that most of these old dogs are either filled or rusticated.

I do not prefer spicy pipe.

 

[telescopes]

I've got one. And a Lee. And a handful of golden era MasterCrafts. And about a thousand bucks worth of other weird old crap I've scraped out of other collections over the years. I LOVE these old pipes. And they are, mostly, terrible pipes!

I got an unsmoked Kaywoodie Connoisseur a couple months ago, probably dates to the 60s, and it had kind of a neat taste on break in, almost resin-y, like it was oil cured (which I don't think they were). Clearly a pipe designed to accomodate people who have no idea how to smoke a pipe, is the thought I'm left with. It's impossible to overdraw with that silly stinger in there.

I'd vastly rather smoke a Castello, generally. These old pipes are fun as hell, but they mostly aren't a benchark for quality in any particular way save one: the vulcanite on a lot of these old stems, or para rubber, is just amazing. But the draw, the drilling, the finishing, the stem work... it's all super mediocre. These were, for the most part, workaday pipe for the workaday man, and that's born out by the number of them we see with 1/2" of cake in them. 1 pipe, all day, every day. Shove in face and let rip.

Algerian briar is simply what the manufacturers had (and mostly because it was cheap). The idea that they were hand selecting THIS wood over THAT wood is nonsense, and that's proven by the fact that most of these old dogs are either filled or rusticated.

I do not prefer spicy pipe.

I agree with everything you just said. And like you also said , I love those old pipes. I absolutely realize the mediocre fitment and make of the pipes compared to let’s say my much higher end pipes. My oil cured Radice Rind smokes better than anything although I have a few pipes that smoke as well. The Marxman and Lees, hyperbole aka @briar aside, are decent smokers. The Lees provide a consistently above average mediocre smoke, and my old Marxman are about a half step up. The Marxman pipes I own were self selected by me to have a handsome look. Most that I’ve ve seen are just off somehow. To each his own. Now, thanks to you, we will all have to watch our counseler overuse the word cinnamon For the next month.

 

[Briar Lee]

I reserve my judgement on high dollar prestigious pipes until I get more..

I have some kind of ultra high dollar Italian pipe at the farm that’s a massive bulldog, and I own two Upshalls. Plus let’s count my NOT FOR SALE Wellington white spot. If it’s counterfeit it’s a good counterfeit.

There’s an eighties Loewe and two Parkers. Those are above average, very good smokers, but so are all my Dr Grabows, except one Grabow that’s a dynamite smoker.

All those are excellent pipes to smoke. I really don’t own one bad smoker. I got rid of those years ago.

Lee oil cured his briar and a new one has a sweet taste for a long time.

Marxman pipes, if I use strong, straight tobaccos, are spicy.

And they’ll color while I smoke them. It’s just amazing. My other pipes don’t do that trick.

But a Marxman is not mellow, it’s not sweet, and it’s not mild.

It’s a kick to smoke.

Roasted cinnamon is the closest I’ve heard yet to describe it.

 

[Hillcrest]

Just gonna leave a random photo of Ron White here.

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Tator salad

 

[Tate]

Tator salad

When this was really big I got called Tator salad all the time lol

 

[Hillcrest]

My personal observation is that the thicker the wood around the chamber the better a pipe smokes. Which is why I prefer larger pipes. 9mm around and on the bottom is an ok start. Peterson house pipes and pub pipes tend to vary between 9-12mm all around if my estimates are correct. Wood grain, birdseye and type of briar are secondary considerations to a good smoking pipe in my opinion. Well drilled thick wood should be a good smoker generally. YMMV

 

[Briar Lee]

My personal observation is that the thicker the wood around the chamber the better a pipe smokes. Which is why I prefer larger pipes. 9mm around and on the bottom is an ok start. Peterson house pipes and pub pipes tend to vary between 9-12mm all around if my estimates are correct. Wood grain, birdseye and type of briar are secondary considerations to a good smoking pipe in my opinion. Well drilled thick wood should be a good smoker generally. YMMV

I like thick pipes, too.

For one advantage the thicker the briar the cooler the pipe is to hold.

And if there are goodie mojo flavor enhancers hidden in briar, the more briar the mo’ betterer.

 

[towhee89]

Here's one of my Algerian Briar stamped Wally Frank pipes. I was curious who made the Straight Grain Algerian Briar stamped pipes?

 

[Briar Lee]

Here's one of my Algerian Briar stamped Wally Frank pipes. I was curious who made the Straight Grain Algerian Briar stamped pipes?
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I’m not a pipe collector or expert, just a pipe accumulator.

That Wally Frank is a consumer product sold through the famous Wally Frank catalog.

Wally didn’t manufacture pipes, he sold pipes. God only knows which American pipe maker made it. If it was imported it would have said which nation it was made.

That pipe was machine fraised and hand finished from an extremely fancy grained piece of briar, and since Wally was reputable it came from Algeria.

But I’ve noticed that like a lost beautiful woman, more pipes read Algerian Briar after there was no chance it would ever come back.

So I’m guessing Post 1954.

 

[towhee89]

I’m not a pipe collector or expert, just a pipe accumulator.

That Wally Frank is a consumer product sold through the famous Wally Frank catalog.

Wally didn’t manufacture pipes, he sold pipes. God only knows which American pipe maker made it. If it was imported it would have said which nation it was made.

That pipe was machine fraised and hand finished from an extremely fancy grained piece of briar, and since Wally was reputable it came from Algeria.

But I’ve noticed that like a lost beautiful woman, more pipes read Algerian Briar after there was no chance it would ever come back.

So I’m guessing Post 1954.

Oh, I actually meant in general if anyone knew who made the pipes stamped Straight Grain. I did know the Wally Frank pipes were made by a number of different manufacturers. Just wasn't sure if the Straight Grain pipes were tied to a better known maker , or not. I like the looks of those, and plan to get one.

 

[Briarcutter]

I've got some Algerian briar. I purchased from a cutter in Algeria, shipped from Algeria, sent payment to Algeria, so i am assuming it's Algerian. This was years ago and lost contact with the cutter. He didn't burn me but I can't say that for others, I just got lucky. In any event, the wood has stunning grain but as mentioned full of pits and have to blast most them and the wood I have is very hard, at least it blasts like very hard wood. It definitely looks much different than any Italian wood I've ever used. The ones I've kept were/are great smokers,not sure if it's any better than my Italian wood though. Is it the wood or my curing? I've heard a famous Italian pipe maker said it's not the wood but what you do to it that makes a great smoking pipe.

 

[Briar Lee]

Oh, I actually meant in general if anyone knew who made the pipes stamped Straight Grain. I did know the Wally Frank pipes were made by a number of different manufacturers. Just wasn't sure if the Straight Grain pipes were tied to a better known maker , or not. I like the looks of those, and plan to get one.

Every maker tended to mark the extremely rare perfect straight grain pipes as Straight Grain. Even Robert Marx culled the straight grain pipes out.





That might be the most valuable pipe I own.

 

[Briarcutter]

Every maker tended to mark the extremely rare perfect straight grain pipes as Straight Grain. Even Robert Marx culled the straight grain pipes out.

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That might be the most valuable pipe I own.

THAT is a awesome pipe.