Memories of Charatan Pipes by Ivy Ryan

[milk]

Many of you may have read this Wikipedia article before (by someone named Ivy Ryan) but it’s full of wonderful observations by someone who claims to have visited the Charatan factory and to have spent time drinking and chatting with long-time carvers and employees of the company. There’s also a disclaimer on the top about inaccuracies as to claims about dating. I’m curious what people might know of Ivy Ryan and I’m interested in reactions to some of the claims found in this piece. It’s a doozy of a read and quite fascinating.
Memories of Charatan Pipes and Notes on their Dating - Pipedia - https://pipedia.org/wiki/Memories_of_Charatan_Pipes_and_Notes_on_their_Dating

 

[BingBong]

How the heck did she burn two pipes out in no time? Dunhill at that.

 

[milk]

How the heck did she burn two pipes out in no time? Dunhill at that.

That’s one thing that makes little sense - even if she was bad at smoking to begin with? There are some other questionable claims there but it’s still a fascinating read. She makes it seem like my sandblasted Charatans are just junk. But they’re beautiful! I wonder if it’s true that they were the only company in England then where one craftsperson made a pipe from start to finish.

 

[sablebrush52]

The general consensus regarding Ivy Ryan’s writing on Charatan is that it’s bullshit.
If you’re looking for legit information, work your way through the Ken Barnes material. Ken trained at Charatan and his father was the general manager.

 

[milk]

The general consensus regarding Ivy Ryan’s writing on Charatan is that it’s bullshit.
If you’re looking for legit information, work your way through the Ken Barnes material. Ken trained at Charatan and his father was the general manager.

Thanks. I’ve been reading through it. It’s in pieces and it’s a lot of commentary on Lane pipes but it may be that I need to keep rereading it. Her writing makes for a “sexy” read which I can understand is another reason to question it. It’s a fun read. The Barnes threads sound factual and accurate. I need to reread them. One thing I can’t find anywhere is what my Reuben era sandblasts were in the scheme of things. They’re beauties - to me, and unique. Anyway, one thing I’ll give her is that she spins a good yarn.

 

[milk]

The general consensus regarding Ivy Ryan’s writing on Charatan is that it’s bullshit.
If you’re looking for legit information, work your way through the Ken Barnes material. Ken trained at Charatan and his father was the general manager.

Yes. I can see from Barnes that Charatan blasted all kinds of lines of pipes and that Reuben himself was involved in what kinds of stains would go with what kinds of pipes. Ryan makes it sound like all sandblasts were one thing (junk).

 

[sablebrush52]

While sandblasts weren't a huge part of Charatan's output, they did a nice job with the sandblasts that they made.

My original idea with the Barnes' quotes was to transfer them to the platform like a large post and integrate them is such a way that clicking on an entry would take you to the original thread.

It proved to be too difficult for the PTB, so we used my original Word docs instead. As it so happened, because of the way I selected the excerpts, on many of them, clicking on the excerpt will automatically open the original thread, so that worked out.

I also had to do a bit of restoration of missing images from the various threads. Couldn't restore all of them, but did manage to restore a lot of them.

Ken was an amazing resource in an area that has been strangely under served.

 

[kcghost]

Ivy is just writing to be writing. It's mainly crap.

 

[Non-Mentholated Black Man]

Many grocery stores used to stock/sell romance novels, all of which seemed to have been written by Danielle Steel and/or feature that guy Fabio on the cover.
Memories of Charatan Pipes and Notes on their Dating has made me feel, like I imagine reading one of those books would have:


I am not a fan.

 

[georged]

How the heck did she burn two pipes out in no time? Dunhill at that.

1) Absolute incompetence AND some sort of oxyacetylene cutting torch lighter (but only theoretically, because she said it happened while riding a train)

2) Complete bullshit because she thought "admitting" such a thing would give her smoking credentials in some distorted way

3) Complete bullshit because Dunhill was the posh brand that competitors loved to hate, and she thought trashing them would be doing a favor for her imaginary friends at Charatan


In short, it never happened.

 

[Sig]

Oddly enough im smoking a sandblasted Charatans Make right now!!
Its one of my favorite pipes.....because its BIG!

 

[milk]

While sandblasts weren't a huge part of Charatan's output, they did a nice job with the sandblasts that they made.

My original idea with the Barnes' quotes was to transfer them to the platform like a large post and integrate them is such a way that clicking on an entry would take you to the original thread.

It proved to be too difficult for the PTB, so we used my original Word docs instead. As it so happened, because of the way I selected the excerpts, on many of them, clicking on the excerpt will automatically open the original thread, so that worked out.

I also had to do a bit of restoration of missing images from the various threads. Couldn't restore all of them, but did manage to restore a lot of them.

Ken was an amazing resource in an area that has been strangely under served.

Thanks for doing that. Actually, it’s much appreciated. It’s a resource. As time goes on, it may be more difficult to access accurate information so this is something we can value. I’ve bought a second Charatan and I might go for a third. I really want to know about this history.

 

[milk]

Ivy is just writing to be writing. It's mainly crap.

I’m wondering if she’s a real person. Has anyone met her…at a pipe show? Is she alive? Anyone can write anything they like. Of course, some things have the ring of truth and I do tend to trust the people in this forum who’ve been around a while. She’s a good writer though, and I admit she had me going at first but her stories are too fantastic. Maybe she met someone at Charatan along the way. People can take a grain of truth and blow it up. Actually, that’s an interesting topic all its own.