MARXMAN Pipes, Anyone?

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towhee89

Part of the Furniture Now
Sep 28, 2021
512
3,056
Morganton, North Carolina
Just bought this , you guys probably saw it on E-bay .
I have a Wally Frank of the same style Not sure if it is called a "squat bulldog' , but I'm kind of fond of it .View attachment 380733
Yes, it's a Dunsboro. Was their entry level line , then Morroco and Mel-o. I have a bench made bulldog that looks exactly like that. Nice pickup
 

Briar Lee

Lifer
Sep 4, 2021
6,164
20,354
Humansville Missouri
What allowed Bob and Helen Marx to retire millionaires in their late forties in 1953 and live happily ever after was the genius of Lewis Cowan during the price freeze of the Korean War to make $5 machine shaped pipes using 4-F labor that a lonely Kentucky maiden could send to her sweetheart across the foam, and the miraculous thing would turn from a virgin tan to oxblood in one smoke.

And Bob and Helen made double sure, that Lewis Cowan could retire to sunny California and have his little granddaughter polish the L stamped Marxman pipes for the rest of his life.

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Ahhhhh ha, sing one Tommy Duncan!

Silver Dew!


Bob Wills, like Bob Marx, was a band leader.

Others did the singing and carving for them.

But we know what happened to the penny pinching corporate purchasers of all the processes to make cheap machine made pipes that would color oxblood in one smoke from Algerian briar.

 
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telescopes

Pipe Dreamer and Star Gazer
All Benchmade pipes crafted under Lewis Cowan’s supervision and shipped by Helen Marx and her girls do.

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With use the ugly tan Algerian briar turns a shade of oxblood that cannot be properly described.
There is no actual proof for that statement. I am familiar with the reference you are referring to and to be honest, you are creating a fairytale. Please differentiate playing loose with the facts and actual facts.
 

Briar Lee

Lifer
Sep 4, 2021
6,164
20,354
Humansville Missouri
There is no actual proof for that statement. I am familiar with the reference you are referring to and to be honest, you are creating a fairytale. Please differentiate playing loose with the facts and actual facts.

We should only relate the truth, which is miraculous enough, isn’t it?


jguss has documented the birth of Marxman at 27 W 24 NYC 10 NY in detail and we can surely agree all those catalogs aren’t pious frauds, can’t we?

And I own two Marx 50th Anniversiary Freehands from 1987 that are pure crap.

And we know Robert and Helen sold out to Mastercraft in mid 1953, and we know (Robert?) Lewis (or Louis) Cowan moved to the State of California where his little granddaughter a lifetime later was begging a bargain on Marxman pipes.

Are we agreed?

And just a week ago I got a crappy looking unsmoked Jumbo with fills

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Three smokes later

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We know that’s impossible today.

A Cowan process 1953 Jumbo cost lonely sweethearts only $5, then.

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A lonely maiden wanting to give her lover a nice pipe can still give him the best Royalton grade Grabow.

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But it won’t turn cherry on the first smoke.

Which is a way to know, he’s the first man to ever smoke that pipe, you know?

Now, if Mastercraft gave Bob and Helen $100,000 1953 dollars that would be over a million today.

But it was valuable enough we know Bob and Helen lived happily ever after, him a Mastercraft salesman, in a Packard with her riding shotgun, off into the future.

Sing one Roy and Dale!


Better a a true legend, than the boring historical facts, you know?
 
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Briar Lee

Lifer
Sep 4, 2021
6,164
20,354
Humansville Missouri
How does a man sort a yarn from the truth?

By comparison and common sense.

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Now, we can all plainly see that Ted Laird in his home shop was many times better at freehand shaping a pipe than Robert L. Marx.


We can all also see that the desirable shade of oxblood that characterizes high grade Algerian briar cannot be faked either by Ted Laird or Robert L Marx.

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And if Mastercraft hadn’t bought the process that makes a virgin pipe turn oxblood in one smoke that R.L. Cowan (who could not be the same Bob as the Boss Bob) then Kaywoodie or Weber would have, in 1953.

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If I’d not seen it turn I’d not believe it either.

But it’s true.