I’m waiting for this one to arrive in the mail. It was listed as “French made.” But I figure it’s actually “Bench Made.”
MARXMAN Pipes, anyone?
- Thread starter shermnatman
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I hadn't really paid attention to that. I suspect you're right.
It was unsmoked when I bought it, so someone paid a lot of money to have it sit in it's velvet case waiting for me. Which was kind of them!
I just spotted this:
I wonder if Marxman was where the whole business of starting naming conventions (coffee & what have you) with 'regular' in place of 'small' began...? -& I like how the last option is 'massive'!
Marxman the company had brilliant advertising. I wonder who their ad firm was?
Marxman the company had brilliant advertising. I wonder who their ad firm was?
Another Marxman mystery.
KB&B sold a ton of dollar pipes as Yello Bole, and other sub brands, that didn’t make the Kaywoodie grade.
Lee’s top grade were Star Grades, but he sold Briarlee and Gold Coast, and if Lee didn’t make Pipe Makers somebody counterfeited Lees.
Where are the Marxman seconds and rejects?
KB&B sold a ton of dollar pipes as Yello Bole, and other sub brands, that didn’t make the Kaywoodie grade.
Lee’s top grade were Star Grades, but he sold Briarlee and Gold Coast, and if Lee didn’t make Pipe Makers somebody counterfeited Lees.
Where are the Marxman seconds and rejects?
I think we are smoking them, which explains the many crazy variations of Marxman.
I just counted 17 puttied fills, plus four carved panels made to hide sand pits, on Old Speedy, my latest Marxman Benchmade B.
Benchmade was either the top or near top production grade. My other Benchmades have zero or maybe one or two tiny unnoticeable fills.
And the shiny saddle stem on Old Speedy was touched by the master’s hand. No other Marxman I own has a stem even approaching that quality.
As huge as Old Speedy is and the overall shape and super high grade of the briar leads me to believe Old Speedy is a 400 reject, finished as a Benchmade.
When I get in my nuclear strength Happy Brown Bogie rope tobacco me and Old Speedy are headed to the farm.
If I could, I think I’d have seven Old Speedy grade Marxman pipes and I’d not smoke any other pipes.
But my odds of finding even one more, like Old Speedy, aren’t very good, you know?
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I'm not convinced that the big block 400 was necessarily the best briar. Marxman carvers did a lot of pawning at the wood. The 400 was no exception.
Whatever Old Speedy was carved of was wonderful smoking stuff.
And another thing about the pipe. It has a sort of hand made by elves sprinkling it with pixie dust aura about it, my other Marxman pipes simply don’t have. This was entirely hand made at a bench by a gray haired old expert. Except for those sand pits, it’s beyond perfect.
The briar is so light, highly grained, and porous it’s going to turn black as midnight.
Four smokes. No grapeseed oil, no 4/0 steel wool, just natural coloring.
No wonder Dunhill sandblasted the top grade of Algerian briar.
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“Benchmade” was a mid price point product line. Had nothing to do with it being entirely hand made…
I saw that pipe for sale. You can find it in some of the old advertisements for Marxman pipes.
You are right. But, I have seen Marxman adverts that said the sculptured pipes were indeed all hand carved.
Yeah, sometimes I fall for kitschy looking old stuff…
Had some stinky old Amaretto type tobacco left in it. Scrubbed, stained, and waxed.
Back in the day, whoever would have been smoking that would probably been the target of ridicule.
Present day - I’m that guy.
Yeah, no CNC controlled carving robots back then. A piece of Americana…
I went back to see if that pipe was still available and it was gone. Now I know why. Let us know how it smokes for you. That is a piece of Americana for sure. Congratulations on an interesting part of pipe lore. @didimauw - the pipes in the swamp are calling your name.Yeah, sometimes I fall for kitschy looking old stuff…
Had some stinky old Amaretto type tobacco left in it. Scrubbed, stained, and waxed.
Back in the day, whoever would have been smoking that would probably been the target of ridicule.
Present day - I’m that guy.
Yes, Benchmade was a grade, but this one was hand made on a bench.
It has 17 puttied fills and four places where the master tried to hide flaws. Except for the super high grade briar a factory Benchmade would have wound up firewood.
The stem is so well made the pipe won’t sit up except one way.
And it’s so light, only balsa wood could be lighter. The grain structure is the tightest I’ve ever held and looked at.
It colors like a marshmallow.
It’s by far and away the highest quality pipe I own, to smoke.
As to how much hand work the regular run of Marxman had, they were hand cut, hand polished, and maybe there was a machine to shape bowls.
But the value of them is in that briar he used.
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And....Which ones would those be?
This one?
Maybe this one?
Or...This one?
It's hard fighting the urge to pick one of these bad boys up!