How to Get More Fun Out of Smoking

[Briar Lee]

In researching Algerian briar I came upon this 1941 copyright book by Sidney P. Ram.

It’s on the internet, so it must be true.





One gem stands out to me.

Right before the war, Algerian briar ranged in price from $16 to $100 a bag.

The people who paid $100 knew the difference.

Assuming the $16 briar was small (85 dozen a bag) the briar cost was less than two cents per block.

And if the $100 briar was large (60 dozen a bag) less than 15 cents a block.

It would matter a lot making a twenty five or fifty cent pipe, not so much making five dollar pipes.

 

[alaskanpiper]

Yeah, there were a few lines that stood out to me, but the most notable one has already been thoroughly discussed

 

[Briar Lee]

Yeah, there were a few lines that stood out to me, but the most notable one has already been thoroughly discussed

Sidney P Ram was a pipe maker.

He convinced a publisher to take a chance on his book in 1941. There wasn’t any mention of the war raging in Italy and Algeria so he wrote it before the war.

Sydney P. Ram - Pipedia

pipedia.org

After 1941 he was still making $10-$100 Virgin briar straight grains.



They turned a beautiful shade of red.




Other high dollar pipes of the era did too.

 

[alaskanpiper]

Sidney P Ram was a pipe maker.

He convinced a publisher to take a chance on his book in 1941. There wasn’t any mention of the war raging in Italy and Algeria so he wrote it before the war.

Sydney P. Ram - Pipedia

pipedia.org

After 1941 he was still making $10-$100 Virgin briar straight grains.

View attachment 277906

They turned a beautiful shade of red.

View attachment 277908View attachment 277909
View attachment 277911

Other high dollar pipes of the era did too.

Yes, there have been a few of his estates available recently on smokingpipes

 

[LeafErikson]

Oh shit Briar Lee has been vindicated! The big homie Sydney P. Ram mentioned not only the porosity of different briar blocks, but the fact that many of the older briar harvesting spots did indeed hold Heather trees hundreds of years old. Thanks for the post my man.

 

[alaskanpiper]

Oh shit Briar Lee has been vindicated! The big homie Sydney P. Ram mentioned not only the porosity of different briar blocks, but the fact that many of the older briar harvesting spots did indeed hold Heather trees hundreds of years old. Thanks for the post my man.

Hahaha nevermind his comments on the boiling of briar to remove “you know what” being of particular importance.

 

[LeafErikson]

Hahaha nevermind his comments on the boiling of briar to remove “you know what” being of particular importance.

To be fair, he did preface with the fact that he didn’t know what to call it. He also put the word that shall not be uttered in quotations because he knew himself it wasn’t completely accurate. Also there’s still an unsmoked pipe from the big homie Sydney on SPC.

 

[alaskanpiper]

To be fair, he did preface with the fact that he didn’t know what to call it. He also put the word that shall not be uttered in quotations because he knew himself it wasn’t completely accurate. Also there’s still an unsmoked pipe from the big homie Sydney on SPC.

Fair enough, as our benevolent mods mentioned there’s little need to drill down any further regardless.

As far the variance in briar porosity, I don’t think that was ever in doubt. Pretty well common knowledge as I understand.

And @sablebrush52 may correct me if I’m wrong, but I think the age of briar he was referring to regarding marketing was it’s age after it had been cut and harvested, as in how long it has cured, rather than the age of the live plant itself. At least that’s the way I understood it. But I’ve been wrong before, and I will be again!

 

[Briar Lee]

Let’s say I was a briar buyer for one of the dozens of New York City pipe makers in 1939.

The customers can pick from a dozen shapes in the Sears catalog for 40 cents, satisfaction guaranteed.

The tobacco shop wholesalers are our customers. We sell them a dozen pipes for a dollar that retail at 25 cents each.

The cheapest Algerian briar is about a penny a half a block and we waste a lot of that. We can’t have more than a nickel in the pipe:

That leaves a whole lot of room at the top, where Marx takes a 15 cent piece of briar and spends 15 cents on labor and sells a dollar pipe to the wholesalers that retails for $3.50 and up.

It also explains why high end briar still looks like this 80 years later,

Like Mrs Olson said, it’s Mountain Grown, the reeeechest kind.

 

[telescopes]

Oh shit Briar Lee has been vindicated! T

That is s a bit of an overstatement. That Algerian briar was soft and porous has never been disputed. I have a generously sized collection of Marxman pipes. I have four that I keep in rotation because they are exemplars of the genre. The others are put away for later use, most are NOS still with price tags and boxes.

The four that I smoke are indeed quality smoking pipes. They don’t color up like @Briar Lee ’s pipes because I don’t wax them with bees wax or other such stuff. Two of them will are 400’s. In fact I am smoking one as I type this.
Are Marxman pipes as great as he purports? From my experience, no. They are a good smoke to be sure. There have an open draw - but each of my 400s did not pass a tapered pipe cleaner through the stem until I had them drilled open.

I do find Algerian briar easy to touch up when it is damaged. I find it easy to clean and I reach for it more times than one might expect. But my Castello, Radice Rind, and Gepetto call to me just as frequently. And they are so much better made. I can not detect any “sap” effect In a Marxman.

What I truly wish would occur is that instead of all the hyperbole about how great Marxman pipes are or how great Algerian briar is (I suspect this is a Trojan Horse argument meant to defend Marxman pipes by deflecting the discussion away from their poor workmanship) the discussion focused primarily on the historical nature of these pipes and Robert Marx himself. But that’s just me. YMMV.

 

[Ahi Ka]

this thread has some interesting ruminating about ol’ Sid

A Mysterious Bulldog :: Pipe Talk

I spotted this pipe on eBay a while back and was immediately intrigued by it, I find the shape very appealing. But it’s a little strange in the sense that there is nearly zero indication who made it. There are some clues in what little stamping it has, but not many. It’s what I would describe...

pipesmagazine.com

 

[Briar Lee]

In the late thirties the Frenchman in charge of bean counting said Algeria shipped 43 million pounds a year of briar ranging from $16-$100 a bag.

A pound of briar makes more than one pipe, but there was waste. Let’s say 43 million pipes a year—from Algerian briar alone.

There was Spain, Continental France, Italy, Greece, and Albania in the market too.

Tom Howard took two or three hours to make one pipe.

If he bought one $100 bag of the best Algerian it would last him a while, and the block cost would have only been fifteen cents.

That’s why luxury pipes, the very top end, colored like old red wine.

Here’s a Tracy Mincer Custombilt, also out of top tier Algerian.



We don’t have to worry about more of it.

All the Frenchmen who could grade and export $100 a bag briar instead of $16 a bag briar lost the war.

And the common practice was and is yet to use carnauba wax on slick, polished pipes.

Try that with top grade Algerian and they’ll color like that Ram.

Not everyone likes or can taste the slightly spicier taste of top Algerian.

But I can. And I like it.

It’s even in middle grade pipes like this Edward’s.

 

[Winnipeger]

So?

Are you going to tell us how to get more fun out of smoking?

 

[LeafErikson]

That is s a bit of an overstatement. That Algerian briar was soft and porous has never been disputed. I have a generously sized collection of Marxman pipes. I have four that I keep in rotation because they are exemplars of the genre. The others are put away for later use, most are NOS still with price tags and boxes.

The four that I smoke are indeed quality smoking pipes. They don’t color up like @Briar Lee ’s pipes because I don’t wax them with bees wax or other such stuff. Two of them will are 400’s. In fact I am smoking one as I type this. View attachment 278103
Are Marxman pipes as great as he purports? From my experience, no. They are a good smoke to be sure. There have an open draw - but each of my 400s did not pass a tapered pipe cleaner through the stem until I had them drilled open.

I do find Algerian briar easy to touch up when it is damaged. I find it easy to clean and I reach for it more times than one might expect. But my Castello, Radice Rind, and Gepetto call to me just as frequently. And they are so much better made. I can not detect any “sap” effect In a Marxman.

What I truly wish would occur is that instead of all the hyperbole about how great Marxman pipes are or how great Algerian briar is (I suspect this is a Trojan Horse argument meant to defend Marxman pipes by deflecting the discussion away from their poor workmanship) the discussion focused primarily on the historical nature of these pipes and Robert Marx himself. But that’s just me. YMMV.

Thank you for the insight telescopes. You and @Briar Lee know much more about marxman pipes (and pipes in general) than I do so it’s been entertaining for me to read through these posts. I have a couple of cheaper Algerian briar pipes and the craftsmanship isn’t great but one of them is a pretty good smoker. The one that I don’t use as much is a Wally Frank and has a varnish.

Also, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that your outfit/entire vibe in that pic is dope, as usual.

 

[telescopes]

Well, thank you for the kind words. I do enjoy my Algerian pipes, that’s for sure, but, as my dad taught me, all things in moderation; except for beautiful women. Who knows what Mr. Lee might write if he discovers the virtues of beautiful Algerian women? I think it’s safe to say it give a whole new meaning to everything.

 

[TheIronMonkey]

Who knows what Mr. Lee might write if he discovers the virtues of beautiful Algerian women? I think it’s safe to say it give a whole new meaning to everything.

That’s where the fun begins. Sap for everyone!

As described in the book, this pipe must’ve come from a young burl since the whole burl was required to make a pipe. It was in the collection of pipemaker, Thomas Cristiano for sixty years, then a relative of his for an unknown number of years before it became one of my 2023 60th Birthday pipes.




This is probably the only way you’ll ever see 360 grain in this orientation:

 

[alaskanpiper]

That’s where the fun begins. Sap for everyone!

As described in the book, this pipe must’ve come from a young burl since the whole burl was required to make a pipe. It was in the collection of pipemaker, Thomas Cristiano for sixty years, then a relative of his for an unknown number of years before it became one of my 2023 60th Birthday pipes.

View attachment 278299
View attachment 278300

This is probably the only way you’ll ever see 360 grain in this orientation:

View attachment 278302

That thing is WILD!!!!

 

[sardonicus87]

If written today, book would be one page long and simply read:
"Don't read pipe forums".

 

[Bbailey324]

If written today, book would be one page long and simply read:
"Don't read pipe forums".

Or possibly
"Abandon all hope, ye who enter here."
Maybe Dante had the TAD too.

 

[bullet08]

Two words. Smoke ring.