Once upon a time a Dr. Grabow was a rather expensive pipe, that was mechanically pre smoked using Edgeworth. This was a time of decent dollar pipes, and Lee Three Stars and Kaywoodie Flame Grains were $10.
Dr. Grabow Pre Smoked Pipes
- Thread starter Briar Lee
- Start date
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Yessir they were. And they even came with a pre-smoked filter to prove it. Old filter shown below vs New.
The piece of paper was kept in the pipe bowl.
The piece of paper was kept in the pipe bowl.
Damn son……. What is that, a 1/4 dia chamber
?
That was about a months worth of hard work right there!Damn son……. What is that, a 1/4 dia chamber
They were pre smoked with Edgeworth during the Chicago era of Linkman/Grabow, according to the former COO it was Prince Albert during his time at Sparta.
In his words,
Prince Albert during my time. 25 pound boxes of floor sweepings and real PA from RJR. 'Spect that's why most employees smoked PA..
Believe RJ or DRB said that Edgeworth was used by Linkman/Grabow in Chicago..
Even after pre-smoking a mixture of lacquer and powdered charcoal was sprayed into each bowl. Just looks better. Think Grabow still does the "spray in liner" today..... td
Think I need to say a bit more about the Prince Albert that Grabow used to pre-smoke pipes.
When I say "floor sweepings" .... that is an old NC/VA/TN/KY tobacco term from the "Tobacco Markets" when buyers would actually sweep the floor of the markets to get the last 100 pounds or so of their purchases off the floor.
In RJR's manufacturing case.. The 3 or 4 "contraptions" that they had made and designed to pack PA (CH & GW) into the bag or cans would spill some tobacco at every step. We/Grabow got the regular PA, plus the PA that fell on the floor... sweepings... Yes, but still PA....maybe a little CH and GW mixed in....
Remember, We/Grabow were at RJR at the Whitaker Park address to deliver, once a week 14-15,000 Willards. I drove the truck in 1968. Don't remember the model, but a Ford "High Body", with an electronic 2 - speed rear axle. My first experience.......... Thank you Tom McClure and Raymond Crouse...Sorry, God rest their souls... both have passed..
PA for our pre-smoker had to be dry.. hense the 25 pound boxes... no inner liner, no humidification... Had to be dry because once in the bowl, no-one tamped it, no-one cared... It was "spilled", into the bowl, lit, and suction smoked for a few moments.
You'd think that I'd mowed..... ted
In his words,
Prince Albert during my time. 25 pound boxes of floor sweepings and real PA from RJR. 'Spect that's why most employees smoked PA..
Believe RJ or DRB said that Edgeworth was used by Linkman/Grabow in Chicago..
Even after pre-smoking a mixture of lacquer and powdered charcoal was sprayed into each bowl. Just looks better. Think Grabow still does the "spray in liner" today..... td
Think I need to say a bit more about the Prince Albert that Grabow used to pre-smoke pipes.
When I say "floor sweepings" .... that is an old NC/VA/TN/KY tobacco term from the "Tobacco Markets" when buyers would actually sweep the floor of the markets to get the last 100 pounds or so of their purchases off the floor.
In RJR's manufacturing case.. The 3 or 4 "contraptions" that they had made and designed to pack PA (CH & GW) into the bag or cans would spill some tobacco at every step. We/Grabow got the regular PA, plus the PA that fell on the floor... sweepings... Yes, but still PA....maybe a little CH and GW mixed in....
Remember, We/Grabow were at RJR at the Whitaker Park address to deliver, once a week 14-15,000 Willards. I drove the truck in 1968. Don't remember the model, but a Ford "High Body", with an electronic 2 - speed rear axle. My first experience.......... Thank you Tom McClure and Raymond Crouse...Sorry, God rest their souls... both have passed..
PA for our pre-smoker had to be dry.. hense the 25 pound boxes... no inner liner, no humidification... Had to be dry because once in the bowl, no-one tamped it, no-one cared... It was "spilled", into the bowl, lit, and suction smoked for a few moments.
You'd think that I'd mowed..... ted
Our family friend Harry Hosterman had maybe a dozen or more small Dr. Grabows, and meticulously used his pocket knife to keep the cake down to the “thickness of a dime”. Harry even kept Everclear to clean them using Dill’s pipe cleaners. Otherwise every pipe I saw somebody smoke when I was a kid was used like a coffee cup, except never cleaned.
A few years ago, an old man who still smokes one Dr. Grabow until it becomes so rank he can’t stand it anymore, and buys another new one at Walmart, kept and gave me one he’d worn out.
It stank so bad I threw it away.
I might own over 200 pipes, and not one gets smoked to death. Most get smoked every month or two, the Lees more than others, but I’m convinced any briar will get rank, soggy, and sour after a year or two’s constant use.
A pipe with a very thick cake is like a dirty old ash tray. That cake gets rank.
A clean pipe has only a thin oily residue that’s always fresh from the last Everclear cleaning.
A few years ago, an old man who still smokes one Dr. Grabow until it becomes so rank he can’t stand it anymore, and buys another new one at Walmart, kept and gave me one he’d worn out.
It stank so bad I threw it away.
I might own over 200 pipes, and not one gets smoked to death. Most get smoked every month or two, the Lees more than others, but I’m convinced any briar will get rank, soggy, and sour after a year or two’s constant use.
A pipe with a very thick cake is like a dirty old ash tray. That cake gets rank.
A clean pipe has only a thin oily residue that’s always fresh from the last Everclear cleaning.
Reminds me of the tale I heard where 'important people' who hire people to presmoke their Meers to get them to colour.
What I like is the guy in the lab coat by the smoking machine certainly has quite the buzz on from being around all that smoke (or maybe he had a liquid lunch).
I'm impressed by some Dr. Grabow pipes, like the ones above. Those are not typical of my experience with them. I've been smoking pipes since 1962, and I always regarded them as heavily lacquered, fill-laden junk pipes, available in any drugstore in America. It was a working man's beater, when he was working. Serviceable, but esthetically junk. I'm sure I must have tried one, but it was probably tossed. I'm puzzled by some of the obviously higher quality Grabows posted here. Where and when were they available, and why are they better? Were the workers of the day lashed daily, or what? Youth wants to know. (And anyone familiar with the source of that last sentence is as old as I am.)
Look for lines like eldorado (the Dublin), commodore, emperor, all decades old of course.
There are some nice ones on eBay from time to time.
Did someone say Grabow? 
Wish they still made the Grabow Supreme with the saddle bit.
My earliest memory of tobacco was seeing my grandfathers mason jar of Grabow pipes with a pouch of SWRA rolled up down in his basement.
I’m glad Grabow is still making these blue collar pipes. For the price, I find them hard to beat- especially when cared for properly.
Wish they still made the Grabow Supreme with the saddle bit.
My earliest memory of tobacco was seeing my grandfathers mason jar of Grabow pipes with a pouch of SWRA rolled up down in his basement.
I’m glad Grabow is still making these blue collar pipes. For the price, I find them hard to beat- especially when cared for properly.
Don't want to disrespect anyone here but the pipes coming out of Sparta now are junk. They are NOT worth 40 bucks. I bought a few around ten years ago at Rite Aid and they were great. I bought two three years ago and the quality went to crap, bad. Cracks in the shank, cheap junky plastic stems and that God awful leaf they etch on the bowls now. I have probably 30 to 35 Dr. Grabows from the late 30s up to the mid 1980s and they are just fantastic. The briar, the metal and the craftsmanship that these older ones have are fabulous. I can't believe how much their quality went down hill. I also have other Sparta made pipes too like Willards and a few Brewsters before they were Italian made. It seems like the only American vintage factory made pipe company that still makes quality pipes and stands behind their work is Kaywoodie. I have a very nice collection of vintage Kaywoodies. Some were restored and some I aquired unsmoked and "garage kept". I liked Kaywoodie so much that I bought one "newer" billiard made by Bill F. and my wife bought me another for Father's Day last year. The current Kaywoodies are terrific, I can't say the same for the newer Grabows.Did someone say Grabow?
Wish they still made the Grabow Supreme with the saddle bit.
My earliest memory of tobacco was seeing my grandfathers mason jar of Grabow pipes with a pouch of SWRA rolled up down in his basement.
I’m glad Grabow is still making these blue collar pipes. For the price, I find them hard to beat- especially when cared for properly.
Were you an Air Force or Navy Phantom driver?
I haven’t experienced the bad QC on new factory pipes. The leaves are added to cover cosmetic blemishes in the briar.
What were the old stems made out of?
And…no offense taken. I live down the road and know how important the Grabow company is to the local economy.
Apparently there has always been some anxiety about breaking in pipes, so a pre-smoked pipe had a lot of appeal. Samuel Clemens, Mark Twain by his writing name, joked that he hired a town bum to "pre-smoke" his pipes, since that man had nothing better to do.
I think as pipe smokers become more experienced, they forget the break-in of pipes and simply pack and smoke. Once your reach that phase, you don't notice any difference between the first smoke and the 846th. It doesn't matter if the chamber is coated or not. You don't taste any weird flavors from the briar or the cob or the coating. You taste the blend, and it is not problem. I'm not sure how this happens, but it does.
But Dr. Grabow had a good revenue stream from selling its pre-smoked pipes, and to their credit, they're still going today but with no pre-smoking involved.
I think as pipe smokers become more experienced, they forget the break-in of pipes and simply pack and smoke. Once your reach that phase, you don't notice any difference between the first smoke and the 846th. It doesn't matter if the chamber is coated or not. You don't taste any weird flavors from the briar or the cob or the coating. You taste the blend, and it is not problem. I'm not sure how this happens, but it does.
But Dr. Grabow had a good revenue stream from selling its pre-smoked pipes, and to their credit, they're still going today but with no pre-smoking involved.