Let's See Your Kirsten Pipes

[brewshooter]

Yeah, I talked to the guy at the Westlake shop in June of last year, up there for the National Homebrew Conference and to visit family, and he said they had a ton of parts for years and apparently never had to reorder for a LONG time. When they realized they were gettting low they found out the cost to produce new parts was going to be through the roof. I was sad, as I really wanted one, but I just happened to purchase this one last week from Marty Pulvers:

I paid extra for a briar and corncob bowl he also had on hand. It's almost brand new. I smoked it yesterday and have no complaints at this point.

 

[yadan]

Brewshooter, is that bowl meerchaum or porcelain? :?:

 

[brewshooter]

It's meerschaum. I do love how the Kirsten website still hasn't been changed to indicate they can't sell you a pipe. They have been out of parts for quite some time.

 

[yadan]

Yes, that's quite irresponsible on their part; they've been giving smokers what could be false hopes about new production. Personally, I really wish they could manufacture pipes again, so I wouldn't have to rely on Ebay...

 

[nsfisher]

@Brewshooter
There is one similiar to your new one on E-bay now. I think it is going for around $120- $130.00

 

[brewshooter]

Whoa!!! Well, I paid less then that for mine. It was $60 and $30 for the two extra bowls. Since I live in California, across the San Francisco Bay from Marty actually, I had to pay sales tax. After tax and shipping it all came to a little over $108.
Mine isn't brand new, but it is about as close as you can get with an estate to brand new. It looks like it was smoked maybe once or twice.

 

[brewshooter]

I do have to confess, I was slightly paranoid smoking this out in front of my garage while my kids were playing. I thought someone might call the cops, as it sort of screams "non-tobacco" pipe. I think enough people have seen me out there with my other pipes to understand I don't suffer from glaucoma, irritable bowel syndrome or cauliflower ear.

 

[nsfisher]

@Brewshooter
My mistake, I just looked it up again, here it is mate. I was a bit over on the price.
http://www.ebay.ca/itm/Kirsten-RB-estate-metal-pipe-/251218372472?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3a7dc82778

 

[brewshooter]

That one looks like it hasn't even been smoked.

 

[zonomo]

Dang nsfisher -I'd jump on that if the radiator was silver. I dont care for the black, which is strange because black is my favorite color. @Brew -thats a sweet pipe you've got there.

 

[cobsandclays]

Bless my girlfriend's heart she wanted to get me a fancy pipe this year for Yule and, of course, found the Kirsten website. Since we're local, and I hadn't seen a Kirsten in person, we decided to take a drive down there and check 'em out. Much to my irritation they had nothing on hand, except the employee's personal pipe and bowls. This is what we were told:

(TL;DR- They don't know when they can start production. Costs are high and the machining of the stems is really complicated.)
As others have said above they simply didn't have to order parts for ages, apparently the guys who made them back in the day cranked them out by the ton. When Kirsten realized they needed more stock they also found out that all those guys who'd been machining them had either died or long since retired. We were told that it takes something like 57 different cuts to make a stem tube, and that it is too complicated to have CNC machines do this. [Side note, I know CNC machinists and I have trouble believing this aspect of the story. But I don't know since I don't know the limitations of the machine or the complexities in programming them to do anything.] They can apparently get the caps, bits and bowl adapters at reasonable prices.
What I -don't- have trouble believing is that production costs, based on quotes they've received, might force them to raise the prices of the straights and quarter bents to over $250 each. The "problem" is that they are trying to keep the production inside Washington State, as opposed to offshoring it to China which would merely double the prices seen on the website. They tracked down one old timer who used to machine them, but he is reportedly not responding. They are hopeful that he will be able to train some younger guys how to make the pipes, but it's all up in the air right now.
They have seed money for a run or two of pipes, and a backorder list that -IF- they were able to start production in January it would take them until August or September to fill. After that they could go back to producing parts to sell pipes off the shelf.

 

[doccaliban]

Hello,
Any ideas as to their current status? I've just moved back to the Seattle area after being gone for about 12 years and see that they have moved from the Ballard area to a place on the south end of Lake Union; I'm hoping that's a good sign as to their future.
I came across Kirsten pipes in 1996 when a girlfriend's father gave me his; one that he had bought in the early 70's. (2nd gen). It's an "L" model with a smallish briar bowl. At that point I'd been smoking briar pipes for around 10 years. I enjoyed the pipe for several reasons, including my being from Seattle; the pipe being almost as old as I am; how I came to own it; and from an actual smoking-related point, I enjoy that I take less of a nicotine hit from it as the 'buzz' is actually my least favorite aspect of smoking in general. (I've never smoked cigs or cigars.) Soon after that I bought a late-60's (2nd gen) Companion via ebay, and then made a trip to the Kirsten store and put together an "L" model from the new series. (3rd gen)
I took a hiatus from smoking for the last 12 years as I lived in a hot location and generally prefer smoking in cooler weather. I did purchase a nice little Stanwell while I was in Denmark in 09 and smoked it while I was there, but that's been about it until this last week or so. I've found right away that the tongue bite and nicotine buzz I get with one of the briar pipes is making me think that I don't want to start smoking again, but then I smoked the little Companion today and found that I like it much better due to the lighter intake of nicotine and cooler smoke. I think I'll keep at it a bit, and will probably settle in with the the 2nd gen L model.
The one odd bit that I have is a corncob bowl that I can't remember which of the two older pipes it came with. It's not really "my thing", so I don't use it, but I wish I could remember it's origin.
- Doc

 

[loneredtree]

I wanted a bowl with more capacity. I got this one from Mike Bissett. I have finally started to break it in with some Blue Mountain. It is big and the chamber is cylindrical. The body is a Regent gold anodized 1/4 bent. I am going to like this one.