Coconut Oil for Pipe Maintenance

[Briar Lee]

I'd opt for food grade mineral oil vs coconut oil.
Food grade mineral oil has good properties and a long shelf life. It's for safe storage of wooden cutting boards (which restaurants don't use)
My local Ace has it for $8

Bayes Mineral Oil 8 oz Liquid Mfr# 160 - Ace Hardware

Wood and bamboo are a natural and attractive choice for cutting boards and many other kitchen utensils and items. Without treatment ordinary washing can dry out and crack your possessions. Bayes Wood and Bamboo Conditioner/Protectant uses the highest quality food grade mineral oil to nourish and...

www.acehardware.com

You can also find it at drug stores, it is used as a laxative.

Among the upland prairie farmers and forest dwellers (we really were not technically hillbillies) olive oil was an exotic ingredient the women kept in their kitchens and I thought it was only used occasionally for baking. If there was a salad, then only Ott’s Famous Dressing was used. To this day I judge a cafe by if they have geniune Ott’s, and not French dressing.

Part of the reason I used olive oil was Harry would station me as lookout to see if the women wouldn’t catch him stealing the olive oil.

As for honey, that was on the tables.

Men were allowed to make toast and fry bologna or hot dogs or coffee or tea, but not to otherwise mess up a kitchen.

Harry kept gallons of mineral oil in his work shed.

I’ll try mineral oil too.

 

[Sobrbiker]

You are making quick work of that one! THIS is how I like em!

I should’ve left it like that and hooked you up, I know how you enjoy smoking funky estates….
But it was a gift, with the intent to be impervious to fly spray while I smoke and tend to Bob.

 

[Briar Lee]

I don’t want the other boys to get ahead of me.



My wife and son use olive oil for frying and salads and for the cutting board.

This is for my pipes.

 

[Briarcutter]

You can get mineral oil pretty cheep at the drugstore.

 

[Briarcutter]

Grabow, or somebody, came up with machine gouge and grooving just for the style of it.

Have you seen one of these machines? Only one I've seen had five fingers

 

[Pypkė]

I use a Butcher Block Oil that is a mix of food-grade mineral oil and beeswax. Found it at an Ace Hardware store. I'm not opposed to using olive oil, avocado oil, grapeseed oil, or whatever kitchen oils you may have. It's just the Butcher Block Oil I use has beeswax in it.

 

[Briar Lee]

Have you seen one of these machines? Only one I've seen had five fingers

I could be wrong and they are hand done.

The Marxmans were hand done, it’s obvious.

But I think that since there wasn’t any extra charge, they used the same machines for worm and grove pocket knife handles.

The machine cut ones are always completely perfect.

Grabow gets no respect, but they killed off all the competing brands except Kaywoodie, which is sort of an artisan maker today.

Look at the post 1970 clever spring tenon they use that never sticks or gives trouble. And Royalton grade gets a beautiful lucite stem.



One of the reasons the pre Korean War Marxmans died, is the labor cost.

Two $15 grade Big Boy square panels and a C grade $10 Jumbo.

That’s a lot of hand work.

 

[JoburgB2]

To get rid of pits and surface imperfections. They are in business to make lots of pipes and companies that make lots of pipes can't/won't take an hour to properly rusticate each pipe. If it didn't have lots of imperfections it would be a smooth. If it had only several small ones it would be a smooth with fills.

Thanks and I understand. Funny. Do you, or does anyone else, think it ironic that if the intention is to obscure or hide pits and imperfections, they gouge it, rather severely instead? Like, that’s preferable? Rhetorical question. No reply necessary. Thanks again.

 

[JoburgB2]

Sandblast, rustication, and gouge and groove carving allowed use of imperfect briar.

Then people grew to like it.

Grabow, or somebody, came up with machine gouge and grooving just for the style of it.

This was done by a zillion dollar carving machine. Under that dead varnish is likely to be very nice briar.

View attachment 383323

Maybe some early, early Golden Dukes were hand gouge and grooved, but this modern Royalton was done by a machine, then maybe hand chased.

View attachment 383324

Grabow and Kaywoodie went head to toe in the sixties and Grabow won.

Grabow varnish when new, looked like a million dollars. Plus the Grabows all had a 6mm filter.

Some old bachelors would smoke a Medico or Yello-Bole Brylon, but happily married family men got showered with high grade ($5 and up) Grabows.

Thanks. I appreciate that others may like them or at least aren’t bothered by the appearance. I just don’t happen to care for the look of them myself. Good thing there are plenty of options for everyone!

 

[Briarcutter]

Thanks and I understand. Funny. Do you, or does anyone else, think it ironic that if the intention is to obscure or hide pits and imperfections, they gouge it, rather severely instead? Like, that’s preferable? Rhetorical question. No reply necessary. Thanks again.

Good question! You're right but I think blasting or a type of rustication is easier to accept than natural imperfections. Everyone knows why it's rusticated or blasted, no one blasts or carves a perfectly good straight grain.

 

[Briar Lee]

Good question! You're right but I think blasting or a type of rustication is easier to accept than natural imperfections. Everyone knows why it's rusticated or blasted, no one blasts or carves a perfectly good straight grain.

Grabow may not groove their best pieces either, but there’s a dealer demand for X number of groved pipes.

Grabow is the last big briar pipe maker who ships a thousand pipes every working day.

And looking at my grooved ones, I think if there are any flaws the grooving machine would expose and not hide them. It’s strictly for style.

 

[sablebrush52]

This episode of Briar Lee's Ruminations on the Genteel Life in Bug Tussle was brought to you by Ivory Flakes Laundry Soap. Quick! Gentle! Safe!

 

[telescopes]

This episode of Briar Lee's Ruminations on the Genteel Life in Bug Tussle was brought to you by Ivory Flakes Laundry Soap. Quick! Gentle! Safe!

Whether you are a subscriber or not.

 

[Briar Lee]

I just got in this beautiful Bertram 30 professionally restored by Tom Schoen



And with grapeseed oil and steel wool and Everclear I restored the worst, vilest Algerian briar basket pipe I’ve ever seen.



Harry Hosterman was right.

But maybe there’s room for improvement.

 

[Briar Lee]

My coconut oil came in today. It smells great, applied easily and to my surprise dried much quicker than grapeseed oil.



Good stuff!