Pre-Lane Charatan Stem Question

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bluegrassbrian

Your Mom's Favorite Pipe Smoker
Aug 27, 2016
6,120
54,273
41
Louisville
rotf My bad, shank of course.
Sorry all , stupid me.
I don't know why it took me so long to get that.
Ken Barnes often spoke of how (via Barry Jones I assume) Reuben Charatan would send pipes out for sandblasting to a neighborhood glass/window shop with a note to go "heavy on the bowls, light on the shanks".
Later, Ken would attribute the same quotation to Reuben as his directions toward the in-house sandblaster (Tony or Tom or Joe).
Could have been a lapse in memory or just a mantra at Charatan - Heavy on the bowls, light on the shanks!
 
Dec 10, 2013
2,411
3,049
Nijmegen, the Netherlands
I don't know why it took me so long to get that.
Ken Barnes often spoke of how (via Barry Jones I assume) Reuben Charatan would send pipes out for sandblasting to a neighborhood glass/window shop with a note to go "heavy on the bowls, light on the shanks".
Later, Ken would attribute the same quotation to Reuben as his directions toward the in-house sandblaster (Tony or Tom or Joe).
Could have been a lapse in memory or just a mantra at Charatan - Heavy on the bowls, light on the shanks!
Thank you, not a clue why it took me so long either.
Well, apperently I'm not a fox .
 
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Dec 10, 2013
2,411
3,049
Nijmegen, the Netherlands
I may not be the fox that never gets caught twice etc. but I am Dutch and stubborn and that is where my sometimes confusion
derives from. Overhere we still refer to the shank as being the stem and to the stem as the mouthpiece.
Like in the old days. Savvy ?
 
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Dec 10, 2013
2,411
3,049
Nijmegen, the Netherlands
I don't know why it took me so long to get that.
Ken Barnes often spoke of how (via Barry Jones I assume) Reuben Charatan would send pipes out for sandblasting to a neighborhood glass/window shop with a note to go "heavy on the bowls, light on the shanks".
Later, Ken would attribute the same quotation to Reuben as his directions toward the in-house sandblaster (Tony or Tom or Joe).
Could have been a lapse in memory or just a mantra at Charatan - Heavy on the bowls, light on the shanks!
Hello Brian,
Where does your info derive from ?
Cheers,
Roland
 

Uguccione

Starting to Get Obsessed
Jan 22, 2024
110
257
Italy
I have a sandblasted Charatan with a rusticated shank. I read online that the reason was Dunhill's patent on sandblasting.
So maybe they couldn't sandblast a pipe entirely.

The rustication on the shank is so light that I never realized it wasn't sandblasted.
 
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jguss

Lifer
Jul 7, 2013
2,482
6,471
I have a sandblasted Charatan with a rusticated shank. I read online that the reason was Dunhill's patent on sandblasting.
So maybe they couldn't sandblast a pipe entirely.

Whatever the answer is it’s not this. The patent was on a multi step process not on the sandblasting of briar pipes per se (read it; the claims are quite clear). There were numerous manufacturers sandblasting pipes from the early twenties on, and not one case of the famously litigious Alfred suing a competitor over violation of his patent.
 
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jguss

Lifer
Jul 7, 2013
2,482
6,471
Over here we still refer to the shank as being the stem and to the stem as the mouthpiece.
Like in the old days. Savvy ?

This is quite true, and in America at least relatively unknown. I’ve read a great deal of 1920s testimony by UK industry leaders that used stem to refer to what we now generally call shank.
 
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Uguccione

Starting to Get Obsessed
Jan 22, 2024
110
257
Italy
This is mine (I tried to photograph it as best as possible).
The guy who sold it to me had a blog where he talked about pipes. He talked about this too and from his research she understood that it dated back to the pre-Lane era.
There I also read about the rusticated shank otherwise I would never have noticed it (I don't look at my pipes in such detail). But in fact you can see that the head is clearly sandblasted, while the shank is slightly rusticated.
The reason for the Dunhill patent (which I have read in several places) has never convinced me either, but I cannot say that it is certainly false or true.
 

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