Benchmade Means a Marxman

[Briar Lee]

I just bought this Marxman Benchmade grade A size for $20 delivered, likely because the seller didn’t realize a Benchmade was a pre 54 Marxman.



It looks to be that one is barely smoked, and should clean up to new in less than ten minutes.

One of the best ways to judge condition on a Marxman (or any old pipe) is condition of the stem and shank joint and bit. This one didn’t get much use at all.

 

[huntertrw]

Good find, Sir! I have one Marxman Benchmade which I purchased upon your recommendation, and I love it.

May this pipe provide you with nothing but memorable and relaxing smokes.

 

[huntertrw]

Briar Lee:

Looking at the seventh of the images posted above, it looks like the rim is cracked at approximately nine o'clock and two o'clock. Is it? I hope not!

 

[didimauw]

Briar Lee:

Looking at the seventh of the images posted above, it looks like the rim is cracked at approximately nine o'clock and two o'clock. Is it? I hope not!

That's what I'm seeing too!

 

[craig61a]

A $20.00 cracked pipe…

 

[Old Smokey]

A $20.00 cracked pipe…

For a cracked man.

 

[tobakenist]

You just keep finding them.

 

[Briar Lee]

Briar Lee:

Looking at the seventh of the images posted above, it looks like the rim is cracked at approximately nine o'clock and two o'clock. Is it? I hope not!

I saw that too.

It’s not deep, if it’s a crack, and it’s been banged upside down on an astray most likely

Lookie at the brown bowl in the bottom.



That briar is about as soft as butter. A file will dress that right up, if if needs a file. A sharp pocketknife might work.

Underneath the briar will be nearly white. It will color again in no time.

Marx bored big chambers. That one is likely .780”

 

[Piping Abe]

I saw that too.

It’s not deep, if it’s a crack, and it’s been banged upside down on an astray most likely

Lookie at the brown bowl in the bottom.

View attachment 299866

That briar is about as soft as butter. A file will dress that right up, if if needs a file.

That’ll cake up just fine with some Cherry Cavendish or Bouy Gold

 

[didimauw]

Regardless of said crack, I like the shape of that pipe. And, if you drop it, no worries! Great pipe to enjoy while putting in that 10 mile long fence!

 

[Briar Lee]

The cheaper Marxman pipes were the Morocco, Select Grain, and Dunsboro at $2.50.

A Mel-o was $3.50.

Any of those, plus a $5-10 Super Grain, could be ordered in choice of shapes. They were machine fraised.

At $5 you got a Benchmade. Each one was individually made on a bench, and the carver chose the shape, and carvings.

It’s difficult for me to tell a Jumbo from a Benchmade, and to add to the confusion I own a few Marxman pipes that read Benchmade Jumbo.

I think Jumbo pipes were shaped a certain way, and they were all Benchmade grade.

What’s kind of uncommon on that one is an A size stamp:

That meant $5 size.

You see a B on the $7.50 size and a C on the $10 size, but seldom an A on the $5 size.

For the era the $5 size was a pretty good size pipe.

 

[dingdong]

algerian briar, i have a few el morjane. tough and great taste

 

[Briar Lee]

My $20 Marxman Benchmade “A” came today and I’m both disappointed and overjoyed.

I’m overjoyed because it’s a small pear of about the same size as Harry Hosterman used to smoke outside my father’s Grade A milk barn sixty years ago.

And it’s in nearly new condition, one of the newest 70 plus year old pipes I own.

I’m disappointed because it has two tiny cracks, that aren’t going away. They don’t hurt function, but when the first owner filled it up all the way to the top, it must have cracked on the first smoke. Three quarters or more on down the pipe is new.

The inside bore diameter is .775” on the smallest Benchmade “A” I’ve ever seen.

Too much, given the taper of the bowl towards the rim at the top. The tiny cracks stop only a little way down where there’s sufficient briar to handle the heat.

Marx would have replaced it, had he bothered. Instead it’s slept in a drawer all those years.

I took a tiny dab of honey and filed it up a third with Velvet and let’s try breaking this little jewel in again, the right way.

 

[huntertrw]

Briar Lee:

If it's any consolation, I have a Dunhill Shell Briar LB billiard that cracked when I used a blow-dryer to warm it after applying a coat of wax. The sound it made when it happened was one that I felt in the pit of my stomach, and it hurt like a punch to that same area. I put that pipe away for a long time because every time I looked at it I felt ashamed.

Finally, I asked Georged if it could be repaired and his response was (in essence) "no," but that (the crack not withstanding) I should just go ahead and smoke and enjoy this pipe. He stated that he had a Dunhill Tanshell (if I remember the model correctly) that was similarly cracked which he had been enjoying for some years.

Please let us know how your inaugural smoke went.

 

[didimauw]

My $20 Marxman Benchmade “A” came today and I’m both disappointed and overjoyed.

I’m overjoyed because it’s a small pear of about the same size as Harry Hosterman used to smoke outside my father’s Grade A milk barn sixty years ago.

And it’s in nearly new condition, one of the newest 70 plus year old pipes I own.

I’m disappointed because it has two tiny cracks, that aren’t going away. They don’t hurt function, but when the first owner filled it up all the way to the top, it must have cracked on the first smoke. Three quarters or more on down the pipe is new.

The inside bore diameter is .775” on the smallest Benchmade “A” I’ve ever seen.

Too much, given the taper of the bowl towards the rim at the top. The tiny cracks stop only a little way down where there’s sufficient briar to handle the heat.

Marx would have replaced it, had he bothered. Instead it’s slept in a drawer all those years.

I took a tiny dab of honey and filed it up a third with Velvet and let’s try breaking this little jewel in again, the right way.

View attachment 301362View attachment 301364
View attachment 301367

Id say that cleaned up very nicely!

 

[Briar Lee]

Id say that cleaned up very nicely!

It’s not at all unusual I get in old pipes only smoked once, or a few times.

But 70 years of being banged around, bad storage conditions, and temperature and humidity changes often makes them “shopworn”.

This one is like it was in a time capsule, after one paper towel soaked in Everclear.

What appeared to be cake was just the one time the buyer smoked his new pipe a few minutes and likely saw the cracks and emptied it, without cleaning.

Marx advised breaking in from the bottom up, but if he’d taken it back they had a lifetime warranty.

Instead he put it away and never touched it again.

 

[Briar Lee]

The fifth bowl has started a resin layer that has sealed up the cracks in the chamber.

Whoever carved and finished this Benchmade had incredible skills. Some Marxman pipes are “aesthetically challenged” but this one has a made by magic elves and sprinkled with pixie dust aura I like.






The grain on this is impossibly dense, covering every atom of the stummel.

But those cracks are there, forever.

 

[telescopes]

My guess is there is more to the story on that pipe. It doesn't say Marxman. Nor does it have the logo. I suspect something with that crack started early on and that pipe for some reason didn't make it to the scrap bin.

Marxman Pipes use the logo.

I don't think that pipe sold as a Marxman and I doubt it had the lifetime Warranty. A warranty that is still honored by a certain Ebay buyer.

 

[Briar Lee]

My guess is there is more to the story on that pipe. It doesn't say Marxman. Nor does it have the logo. I suspect something with that crack started early on and that pipe for some reason didn't make it to the scrap bin.

Marxman Pipes use the logo.

I don't think that pipe sold as a Marxman and I doubt it had the lifetime Warranty. A warranty that is still honored by a certain Ebay buyer.

The bottom of the Marxman arrow stamp is above Imported Briar.

There is no doubt that pipe was made at 27 West 24th Street NYC.

I have so many Marxmans, it’s hard to say it’s the best proportioned and best made one I own but it’s way up there.

It is the smallest one I own that earned a Benchmade stamp.

At the five dollar and up level, Marx was a big handmade shop doing volume production.

The explanation for the cracks might be a customer filled up his new little Benchmade and took off down the road in a brand new Packard convertible with the top down.

If, they could only talk, what tales they’d tell.