Jay, they may very well be aluminum as you say. The keys for me to try to put them to a time period are the rondelle, the stamped oval GBD, the inline "London England", and for the poker, the perspex stem. Both are likely 1960s or earlier. When I bought them, I really did not care but then I read that the post merger pipes did not smoke as well so I am happy to find mine are pre-merger. They were a bargain. The man who sold them to me was all gentleman.