Edward’s Algerian Saddle Stem Square Shank 1/8 Bent Large Pot

[Briar Lee]

Here is an uncommonly good pipe for only $26 delivered tax and shipping paid.

When I buy these I first look at the stem.

Oxidation can easily be removed, in minutes.

But a chewed up stem needs replaced, and it shows lots of use and abuse to get it chewed up.



Every cigar in the world has some sort of reference to Cuba. They are as good as a Cuban cigar, compare with a Cuban cigar, or are a genuine Cuban cigar.

Edward’s somehow got a stash of the last Pre Algerian War of Indepence Algerian briar. This one is not as good or comparable with Algerian briar, it is made of the real coin Pre 54 ancient, oil cured, aged, unstained, unvarnished and unpainted real deal Algerian briar and so stamped.



It is branded. This is a first, with a shape number.



It was carved to cover flaws.



It has birdseye pattern grain on the bottom of the bowl proving it a straight grain.



It is six inches long, a large size modern pipe.



And this is a saddle stem, square shank. 1/8 bent stem Pot shape that of all my buckets full of pipes I don’t have one.

Yet—— it should be here this week.

 

[OzPiper]

You're on a roll with your recent pipe purchases
Enjoy

 

[Briar Lee]

Sometimes you get an outrageous bargain and one of those sometimes is today.




My wife apologized for being too tired to go to St Louis today and brought me our lunch out on the deck.

And then she saw my new Edward’s and she said are we restoring a precious heirloom the children can sell after we are gone?

I said they might get forty dollars now that I’ve finished, thirty dollars sure.

She said oh my oh my God that tobacco smells like a fresh baked peach pie!

And I said you bake better peach pies than anybody I’ve ever met.

Maybe we’ll have to find you some peaches when we go on our next mission.

And she said they have lots of peaches at Trader Joe’s and I said that’s not far from Jon’s Pipe Shop in Clayton.

She said I’ve got leave or else I’ll wind up smoking that pipe.

Although George Jones did the definitive version the best men’s rendition of She Thinks I Still Care I think might be by Con Hunley although it’s a bit Elvisey.

She Thinks I Still Care

Con Hunley live

 

[Pypkė]

But a chewed up stem needs replaced, and it shows lots of use and abuse to get it chewed up.

Good find. That chewing looks light. I'd try to pop the dents out by passing a lighter over them. It's worked for me except for the deepest of chews.

 

[Briar Lee]

Good find. That chewing looks light. I'd try to pop the dents out by passing a lighter over them. It's worked for me except for the deepest of chews.

Thanks. I’ll have to try that trick.

I cleaned up my latest treasure while my wife made me fried potatoes in the air fryer and grilled me a burger.

Look at how the oil from my hands has improved the stem.



Understand my wife in one hundred million years would never smoke another man’s pipe.

But once I adopt one she used to all the time, before she got sick and had to quit smoking.

Now, part of being a good band leader, is pretending you need help singing certain stone cold standards every little girl learns the words to when she’s growing up.

My pipe is more like a prop, sort of like George Burns’ Muriel Queen cigar or Bob Will’s Cheroot.

And when I’d entertain at my huge home on the hill with a swimming pool, or at the Cahow Family Reunion, or any other place I was lead I’d fire up a gorgeous pipe like this Edward’s and fill it with cotton candy at the fair flavored cherry or peach or apple tobacco and let that aroma drift out.

Then I’d say I need some help singing She Thinks I Still Care!!!

Somebody who can sing it like Ann Murray!

My mother and one of my identical twin secretaries mother would always push one of the twins towards the stage.

My first wife was always too busy bragging how much money her father had and how many banks he owned to notice, you know?

Here’s to you, Dana

He Thinks I Still Care

Ann Murray version

My wife did the Patty Loveless version too, years ago, at all the Cahow Family Reunions.

If you want to sing with me, you’d best not begrudge me my pipe, you know?

Don’t this one sit nice there on the table?



I hope Jon’s Pipe Shop in Clayton has a large selection of aromatics in those fancy little $15 cans. As rich as that place is they should.

 

[Briar Lee]

The brand—-

—-

Edward’s pipes were originally produced in Saint-Claude, France when Francais actually was a world-class pipe maker with longstanding business & political connections to Colonial Algeria that allowed them to obtain the finest briar.

During the tumultuous 1960's, Edward’s created a business model to offer the finest briar available in both Classic and Freehand shapes - all at a fair price. They bought the company & equipment and cornered the market on the finest, choice Algerian Briar just before the supply vanished in political turmoil of Algeria's independence. Edward’s packed up both machinery and briar-treasure to America, safely caching the essentials to create a new pipe-making dynasty. This was a coup, for the 70’s and 80’s were grim years for pipe smokers as quality briar all but disappeared.

Edward's Design Philosophy is hard to pin down, think of their style as the "American Charatan" with unique & clever twists all their own. Today, they fashion pipes in several locations across the USA. All of Edward's pipes are Algerian Briar - a fact very few pipe companies can claim, and all are oil-cured utilizing natural finishes - no strange concoctions are used to interfere in your tastebud’s dance with the briar. Algerian, Calabrian, Sardinian, Corsican - take your pick, but Algerian Briar is generally considered the finest smoking briar ever used. When combined with oil-curing, Algerian takes on a magical quality that even Alfred Dunhill recognized as far back as 1918 as the choice for both his Bruyere and Shell.

——-

The French artisan in Saint-Claude carefully selected the ancient, oil cured, aged, unvarnished, unstained, unpainted , and well seasoned plateaux of briar from the French province of Algeria and made a cut where the fan of the straight grain radiating upwards can still be seen a lifetime later.



Since this Edward’s has shape number 772 perhaps he fraised the cut of briar into a machine or maybe he turned it by hand. He was an ocean way from Florida, or Bug Tussle, when and where he labored.

But what I thought was a pot shape is actually an acorn. Thick walls of Algerian briar extend in a tumblehome below the draft hole which is perfectly centered, with the birds-eye of the straight grain displayed on the very tip of the bottom of the tapered chamber, which is slightly extended.



The diamond square shank is tapered to the saddle bit stem and finished perfectly to match then the stem given a slight bent.



Could he have partially closed the airway when he gave it the bend?

It’s perfect now, thanks to Mr DeWalt.

——

My Daddy would come in from milking to a home cooked supper with his wife still dressed from teaching school in make up and high heels, and his only son chattering about what he’d learned that day in the school where he was the President of the school board, or at home from his Mama and her 1963 set of World Book Encyclopedias.

Mama kept her guitar Daddy bought her in my bedroom closet and as Mama did the dishes and cleaned up her kitchen I’d fetch it and wait with Daddy for her to come and sit on her make up bench I’d fetch from their bedroom.

She’d tune it by ear. She looked like she was 20 and auditioning again for Red Foley at KWTO Daddy always said.

Often she’d lead off with —

We Live in Two Different Worlds

Sandy Mason 1967 version

If I’m not a good man it’s impossible to blame my construction and upbringing, you know?

 

[montypiper]

I have restored a few Edwards..

 

[burleybreath]

I have restored a few Edwards..

Wow. Then you might know what this means on an Edward's pipe. I don't...I'm just curious. It's on a large billiard I have.

 

[montypiper]

Wow. Then you might know what this means on an Edward's pipe. I don't...I'm just curious. It's on a large billiard I have.

I tried to research it, couldn't find any info. I have a couple with the heart stamp as well as a few with a mushroom stamp, and one pipe has a horse head. could possibly be the mark of an individual artisan.. the mushroom stamped pipes are very uniquely carved, funky shapes..

 

[Briar Lee]

I dug out another Edward’s (wonder how many I have) and sure enough, the maker always stamped their mark from a standard stamp die set someplace on there.








The stone cold must know canonical classic twanger “We Live in Two Different Worlds” was first released by Tex Ritter as the B side of his cover of Jenny Lou Carlson’s classic pretty girl singer standard Jealous Heart in 1944.

Tex Ritter’s version is in a deep baritone that any man can sing but when I was six years old and began headlining as Saydee’s Little Young’un from Bug Tussle with the four pretty daughters of Sy Thomas from North Kansas City advertised in Ma Agee’s weekly column in The Index at Hermitage Yvette, the little blond haired blue eyed neighbor girl next door they had paired with me to sing didn’t know all the songs like the Cahow family did, and she’d get stage fright, and my cousin Pammy or Deana would step up with me to sing our version of We Live in Two Different Worlds.

Jerry Lee Lewis and his pretty cousin Linda Gail Lewis version

The best thing about twanging is once you learn maybe a thousand classic standard songs, there ain’t too many more you need to know. Our top thousand never changes, you know?

It’s also done as a bluegrass song sung by entirely all hairy legged boys, if there’s no pretty girl around talented and confident enough to sing a duet with you.

Nothin’ Fancy bluegrass version live

My sideman David and I sang Two Different Worlds in the nursing home to our parents.

Wonder if the wind chime in his cemetery ever plays it, when nobody is there to hear it but the angels?

It chimed yesterday when I was there, or I’d never noticed it hanging there, you know.