NOS Buescher's Corn Cob Pipe

[Briar Lee]

Buesher’s World Famous Pipes was one of over a dozen major Washington Missouri competitors of the Original Missouri Meerschaum that survived until fairly modern times only to merge or be bought out by Missouri Meerschaum.

They were all making essentially the same article, and it seems Buesher’s used walnut stained hickory shanks and ivory colored stems to set them apart from the others. Note the absence of a protective dowel extending into the bowl.

$10





The shank is printed Boonsboro Ky.

Boonesborough, Kentucky - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

There was a time trinket and souvenir shops could get their store name or a town name if they made a certain size order of pipes.

That might still be true today.

 

[Briar Lee]

This has to be the fanciest older cob pipe I’ve ever seen.

It has an ivory colored acrylic stem. This takes the standard 6mm filter





The shank and ferrule are super deluxe. The shank has been stained cherry and the ferrule appears stainless steel. The inverted cob was double plaster filled on the inside and out and given a two tone stain on the outside.


Usually a cob has a very open draw. This one has a standard size bore hole with the bottom of the shank extension flat across the bottom of the bowl.

 

[didimauw]

You haven't smoked it yet?!?!?!?

 

[Briar Lee]

You haven't smoked it yet?!?!?!?

I’m smoking it now!

This has to be forty or more years old, unsmoked.

Collecting cobs is fun. The two monsters of production were Phoenix American (who had the largest factory) and Missouri Meerschaum (the original).

Two other huge producers were Buescher’s and H&B.

At peak production during the Great Depression the cob pipe industry employed hundreds of workers and there were over a dozen important, large makers.

If you can ever visit Washington Missouri allow a half a day to visit the MM museum.

They won the cob pipe wars.

 

[solideogloria86]

I was recently gifted this one in NOS condition by a church member. After her mother died, this was found in the house.
This one has the shank extending down into to bottom of the bowl in similar style to Missouri Meerschaum. It also came with the original Buescher branded paper filter still inside.
Pretty cool. I haven't gotten around to smoking it yet, and don't know that I will.

 

[Briar Lee]

There might be an old MM that used the Buescher’s stemming system but I’ve not seen one.

The original MM patent covered a dowel rod (when all competitive pipes used bamboo reeds) that was glued into the bottom of the cob with a slanted extension of the dowel in the bottom protecting the soft inner core of the cob. There is no seperate draft hole. The hole in the dowel serves as an airway.

It’s a subtle difference, but Buescher’s (founded 1939) used only a slice of the bottom of the dowel through the cob to protect the bottom. Unlike an MM pipe, there is a conventional size draft hole above that slice of dowel.



A Missouri Meerschaum pipe has a very open draw.

The Buescher’s has the same draw as a conventional briar pipe.

Also, on that Buesher’s, the plaster filled grains of the cob are very large compared to a Missouri Meerschaum made after the forties with hybrid corn. Missouri Meerscaum had exclusive use of the hybrid seed developed by the University of Missouri to have large cobs with small kernels of corn.

The death of a cob pipe comes when those checkerboard grain structures get saturated by smoking, and the smaller the kernels and more of the checkerboards, theoretically is better,

The real life, practical difference is negligible between the two brands.

 

[solideogloria86]

The original MM patent covered a dowel rod (when all competitive pipes used bamboo reeds) that was glued into the bottom of the cob with a slanted extension of the dowel in the bottom protecting the soft inner core of the cob. There is no seperate draft hole. The hole in the dowel serves as an

It’s a subtle difference, but Buescher’s (founded 1939) used only a slice of the bottom of the dowel through the cob to protect the bottom. Unlike an MM pipe, there is a conventional size draft hole above that slice of dowel.

Are you saying that the "slice of dowel" is a separate piece from the shank itself? On this one, it's not. The shank goes all the way through the cob bowl with the draught hole drilled in the center, and the top half of the shank is cut off with the bottom half covering the bottom of the bowl, granted it's not cut at a slant like a Missouri Meerschaum. It's still all one piece.

 

[Briar Lee]

Are you saying that the "slice of dowel" is a separate piece from the shank itself? On this one, it's not. The shank goes all the way through the cob bowl with the draught hole drilled in the center, and the top half of the shank is cut off with the bottom half covering the bottom of the bowl, granted it's not cut at a slant like a Missouri Meerschaum. It's still all one piece.

The entire dowel goes through the Missouri Meerschaum. There’s a big hole in the dowel.

On your Buescher’s take the filter out and look up inside the shank. There’s a small hole.

Only the very bottom of the dowel goes through a Buescher’s.

The end of the dowel is glued in the cob, but all that’s on the inside is a small hole, well above the flat dowel bottom sticking through.

There were no Missouri Meerschaum patents to prevent Buescher’s from flat out copying the slanted and through the cob dowel in 1939.

And I’d think the Buescher’s way would be more subject to waste. If they messed up the hole the cob is stove fodder.

‘‘Twas intentional anyhow.

 

[solideogloria86]

Only the very bottom of the dowel goes through a Buescher’s.

The whole dowel goes through. I can see the perfect circle of end grain on the inside of the bowl.
The top half of the "dowel" is flush with the inside of the chamber wall and the bottom half extends to the bottom of the bowl. But the whole dowel is through the cob.

 

[Briar Lee]

The whole dowel goes through. I can see the perfect circle of end grain on the inside of the bowl.
The top half of the "dowel" is flush with the inside of the chamber wall and the bottom half extends to the bottom of the bowl. But the whole dowel is through the cob.
View attachment 286500

You are right!

Looking at that, did they push the round, drillled shank all the way through then bore the chamber?

How Dey Do Dat?.

 

[solideogloria86]

You are right!

Looking at that, did they push the round, drillled shank all the way through then bore the chamber?

How Dey Do Dat?.

That's a good question. If I had to guess, maybe a modified spade bit of sorts, like what pipe makers today use to bore chambers. The end grain is splintered pretty badly and it definitely wasn't a clean cut.