Briar or Boring

[Briar Lee]

No, it can be cross cut.

It’s offline now but there was a fantastic wealth of information about Kaywoodie pipes.

KB&B by the late thirties was making approaching ten million pipes a year, some fantastic number hard to believe today.

So Kaywoodie had a corner on the best briar in the world. The best of the best were $3.50 Drinkless pipes. The best of that best became $5 Super Grains. They tried a Straight Grain and it failed. Then about 1937 they made a $10 Flame Grain.

One out of how many thousands of briars looked like this?

Before the war they were not stamped IMPORTED BRIAR plus they had a large aluminum ball.

This one heard the reports of Hitler invading Poland.

There were Flame Grain #13 Dublins made for another 30 years, but not from briar like that.

 

[Chasing Embers]

One out of how many thousands of briars looked like this?

Probably more than a few.

 

[Briar Lee]

Probably more than a few.

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Those are not just gorgeous grained pipes, they were artisan made.

A current dollar is twenty times less value than a 1937 dollar according to the inflation calculator.

KB&B in 1937 is making maybe twenty thousand pipes per day, a hundred thousand a week, and not just Kaywwodies.

They have 50 cent pipes ($10) to $10 ($200) retail pipes, by the train car loads.

Every briar was hand selected for every pipe. It didn’t take long to make it, though.

Then, a customer looked at a display that had three identical sized and shaped pipes at $3.50 ($70) or $5 ($100) or $10 ($200).

That top of the line briar, had to be extra special to catch a customer.

 

[Honkytonk Man]

I go for material and bore. If dissatisfied with either, in the trash it goes.

I'd like to add finish too, if you don't mind, Embers.

 

[Chasing Embers]

I'd like to add finish too, if you don't mind, Embers.

The stain or the finish (smooth/rusticated/sandblasted)?

 

[bassbug]

Maybe we should clarify further...Stain (colour), finish (varnish, for example) and texture (smooth, sandblast, rusticated)

 

[Honkytonk Man]

The stain or the finish (smooth/rusticated/sandblasted)?

All of the above.

 

[hugodrax]

All joking aside, I believe it's magic. I have an old Masta Patent sandblast that is more putty than briar, off center boring, thick and uncomfortable bit that smokes better than anything I own and I've had very expensive clunkers. The pretty girl always gets the dance but sometimes she breaks your foot.