Bertram 70 Grade Canadian

[Briar Lee]

A little char on the rim front, but overall this looks like a very nice example of a rustic finish 70 grade Bertram.

Only $41 at auction with $8 shipping and taxes.

Bertram pipes were not factory stained.

That brownish red oxblood color came from smoking it.

I’ve found a thicker cake slows down the coloring, and to speed up coloring use beeswax.




Any double number grade Bertram is a nice pipe, even a mere 30 grade. A 70 Grade is up there , you know?

 

[tbradsim1]

That’s a fine looking pipe, they smoke good too! I Garronte !

 

[TheIronMonkey]

Bertram pipes were not factory stained.

That brownish red oxblood color came from smoking it.

Van,

Where did you get this information to make these claims? Would you be able to provide some sources that provide evidence you can share with us? I’ve seen a fair amount of blocks of briar in photos and in-person, and the pipes you’ve posted look like they’ve had stain applied to them. I could be wrong, but you also may not be right. Where did you get this information?

I often find your posts entertaining and enjoy them, but I dislike seeing some of your more fanciful quotes getting bandied about like they’re factual when they’re more likely just spreading incorrect information online. Just because you want to believe something is true, doesn’t make it so.

Jeff

 

[Briar Lee]

Van,

Where did you get this information to make these claims? Would you be able to provide some sources that provide evidence you can share with us? I’ve seen a fair amount of blocks of briar in photos and in-person, and the pipes you’ve posted look like they’ve had stain applied to them. I could be wrong, but you also may not be right. Where did you get this information?

I often find your posts entertaining and enjoy them, but I dislike seeing some of your more fanciful quotes getting bandied about like they’re factual when they’re more likely just spreading incorrect information online. Just because you want to believe something is true, doesn’t make it so.

Jeff

All the ad inserts from Bertram




The folks who sell cigars tell us there wasn’t anything magical about Cuban cigars.

Which is bullshit.

When Americans could buy Cubans they had factories set up in Florida that made “clear Havanas”, which meant rolled in Florida of all Havana tobacco.

Algerian briar- the best export grade- was as superior as Havana cigars were.


Algeria was part of France, like the State of Hawaii, for well over a hundred years.

When you saw “French Briar” on a pipe that meant Algerian briar.

The murder, mayhem, and atrocities the French immigrants perpetuated on the naive Algerian Berbers would cause God to weep. It is unimaginable such cruelty lasted until 1962, but the natives finally overthrew their oppressors after an 8 year war.

After that pipe makers tell is other briar can smoke as well, which is bullshit.

This old Scoops pipe says it was made in Italy and it surely was,,,,out of Algerian briar.



Like Cuban cigars, they aren’t for everybody.

There is a cinnamon taste to Algerian briar, and your pretty brown pipe turns almost black in a hurry.

Bertram 95



Early Pre Letter Size $5 Marxman Jumbo




It is addicting.

Why was it harvested by Berber leprechauns and sprinkled with fairy dust?

It had to have been the soil, and the weather, and most importantly the skill of the Frenchmen who graded it.

The Berbers actually starved to death by the hundreds of thousands.

The French offered silver money, and life, but only for a certain grade of briar.

 

[TheIronMonkey]

All the ad inserts from Bertram

View attachment 398037


The folks who sell cigars tell us there wasn’t anything magical about Cuban cigars.

Which is bullshit.

When Americans could buy Cubans they had factories set up in Florida that made “clear Havanas”, which meant rolled in Florida of all Havana tobacco.

Algerian briar- the best export grade- was as superior as Havana cigars were.


Algeria was part of France, like the State of Hawaii, for well over a hundred years.

When you saw “French Briar” on a pipe that meant Algerian briar.

The murder, mayhem, and atrocities the French immigrants perpetuated on the naive Algerian Berbers would cause God to weep. It is unimaginable such cruelty lasted until 1962, but the natives finally overthrew their oppressors after an 8 year war.

After that pipe makers tell is other briar can smoke as well, which is bullshit.

This old Scoops pipe says it was made in Italy and it surely was,,,,out of Algerian briar.

View attachment 398038View attachment 398039

Like Cuban cigars, they aren’t for everybody.

There is a cinnamon taste to Algerian briar, and your pretty brown pipe turns almost black in a hurry.

Bertram 95

View attachment 398041

Early Pre Letter Size $5 Marxman Jumbo

View attachment 398042


It is addicting.

Why was it harvested by Berber leprechauns and sprinkled with fairy dust?

It had to have been the soil, and the weather, and most importantly the skill of the Frenchmen who graded it.

The Berbers actually starved to death by the hundreds of thousands.

The French offered silver money, and life, but only for a certain grade of briar.

Thank you!

 

[telescopes]

Thank you!

I had read that insert before. However, that doesn't mean the shit house is cleaned. I have a "natural untouched by stain" pipe and it certainly doesn't look like what new Bertram pipes looked like when new. There are unsmoked pipes by them on eBay every once in a while. Advertising is advertising and bullshit is bullshit. I have unsmoked Marxman pipes that are supposedly unstained. There is a coating. Call it what you will. But a good story, bandied about, supports the old saying, when the myth becomes legend, print the legend. This is the concern I share with you. There is never supporting phrases such as , "in opinion, or according to a brochure...." Just statements presented as axioms skipping the hypothesis phase and going right to scientific law. But what is one to do? It won't stop. There is no squelch that I know of that can turn down the static of the internet.

 

[telescopes]

The French offered silver money, and life, but only for a certain grade of briar.

Van: Rhetoric in a courtroom is allowable. Hell, rhetoric in bars is expected. But in serious reflective conversations, balancing rhetoric and clarifying opinions, hyperbole, and a good yarn from what is actually demonstrably true and real is an expectation.

I don't expect a direct response as to why you never differentiate between what is fact and opinion, and I fully expect you will side step the implied question as to why you don't differentiate between the two - I fully expect a yarn about an acquaintance followed by a song that has something that supports the monologue you are interested in talking putting forward - but certainly you can understand the concern about putting out information that just isn't substantiated and in many cases is simply not factual.

Or.... maybe not. As Monkey said, I enjoy the entertaining stories and your interests in old pipes and pipe makers. They need an advocate.

 

[fireground_piper]

It’s neat to see that oval pattern as it’s the same type on mine, which I have not seen another with it before.

 

[Briar Lee]

I had read that insert before. However, that doesn't mean the shit house is cleaned. I have a "natural untouched by stain" pipe and it certainly doesn't look like what new Bertram pipes looked like when new. There are unsmoked pipes by them on eBay every once in a while. Advertising is advertising and bullshit is bullshit. I have unsmoked Marxman pipes that are supposedly unstained. There is a coating. Call it what you will. But a good story, bandied about, supports the old saying, when the myth becomes legend, print the legend. This is the concern I share with you. There is never supporting phrases such as , "in opinion, or according to a brochure...." Just statements presented as axioms skipping the hypothesis phase and going right to scientific law. But what is one to do? It won't stop. There is no squelch that I know of that can turn down the static of the internet.

Marx and Bertram both oil cured their raw Algerian briar, and for that matter so did Dunhill, Barling’s, Charatan, etc.

They each had their own oil cure recipie.

Technically an oil cure is not a stain, but it must have colored the briar some.

 

[Briarcutter]

Marx and Bertram both oil cured their raw Algerian briar, and for that matter so did Dunhill, Barling’s, Charatan, etc.

They each had their own oil cure recipie.

Technically an oil cure is not a stain, but it must have colored the briar some.

Many consider oil as a finish, add some boric acid and it's a long way from "nothing". But it still isn't paint or varnish but I'd argue the stain part. Maybe not a stain in the common sense of the word but the wood isn't the same after oiled.

 

[Briarcutter]

rhetoric in bars is expected

none of the bars I've ever been to.

 

[telescopes]

Many consider oil as a finish, add some boric acid and it's a long way from "nothing". But it still isn't paint or varnish but I'd argue the stain part. Maybe not a stain in the common sense of the word but the wood isn't the same after oiled.

Treated wood, especially with oil and in the case of Bertram, Boric Acid, and you have almost the definition of an oil stain - maybe without an added tint, but as you said, the wood isn't the same. But really, the point is that they weren't selling untreated briar. Untreated briar pipes do exist and they color, but often as a result of the oils from one's hands. That should be clarified.

 

[telescopes]

Technically an oil cure is not a stain, but it must have colored the briar some.

I can assure you it did in fact color the briar.

I appreciate your support of American Legacy Brands such as Lee, Marxman, Pipe Maker and now Bertram. I am waiting for you to discover the joys of collecting Linkman's.

 

[Briar Lee]

I can assure you it did in fact color the briar.

I appreciate your support of American Legacy Brands such as Lee, Marxman, Pipe Maker and now Bertram. I am waiting for you to discover the joys of collecting Linkman's.

I’m on a mission to buy all the Betrams.

After that, Chicago Linkman’s.

Look at how dark cherry red Louis Cowan was able to get a machine made little Jumbo Bulldog in only a few smokes, just before the curtain fell and they sold to Mastercraft.

This pipe was unsmoked. The carving looks like grade schoolers did it at recess. It has big fills.

It colored most of this on the first smoke.