Ruminations on a Forty Dollar Pipe

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towhee89

Can't Leave
Sep 28, 2021
336
1,328
Morganton, North Carolina
I’m excited to share!

A beginner is better to pick a brand new Dr Grabow

But I’ve got the forty dollars to lose, if need be.

The seller should have cleaned that Bertram, but since he’s peddled over 4,000 articles he’s on eBay for profit instead of passion.:)
In my experience with estate resellers even if they list as fully restored that doesn't mean that the shank has been cleaned. I don't think people do it because it just takes so many pipe cleaners.
 

Briar Lee

Lifer
Sep 4, 2021
5,645
15,924
Humansville Missouri
Oh poor, poor pitiful me!

I must have paid too much for my 40 Bertram!

It has no visible dents or flaws of any kind whatever!

But when I used Everclear and a paper towel and pipe cleaners it turned a crappy looking tan all over!

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But as Abraham Lincoln said, when you make a bad bargain clutch it all the tighter.

So let me put some Half and Half in my 40 grade Bertram and smoke it.
 
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Briar Lee

Lifer
Sep 4, 2021
5,645
15,924
Humansville Missouri
There must be something wrong with my forty dollar Bertram!

Ten minutes into my first smoke and it’s sweating and discoloring an oxblood color and what are all those vertical lines about 109 to the inch?

The seller won’t take returns so I’m stuck with it.

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towhee89

Can't Leave
Sep 28, 2021
336
1,328
Morganton, North Carolina
There must be something wrong with my forty dollar Bertram!

Ten minutes into my first smoke and it’s sweating abd discoloring an of blood color and what are all those vertical lines about 109 to the inch?

The seller won’t take returns so I’m stuck with it.

View attachment 377324
View attachment 377325
Must have been the light source he used. Congrats. Now how does it smoke ?
 
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Briar Lee

Lifer
Sep 4, 2021
5,645
15,924
Humansville Missouri
Must have been the light source he used. Congrats. Now how does it smoke ?
I’m only a half hour into my first smoke!

Give the ancient old relic a chance, will you?

So far it’s incredibly delicious and smooth and tasty.

My wife wants me to light the grill, so I’ll listen to Dave Dudley sing Then I’ll Come Home Again and finish my smoke.

 
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Briar Lee

Lifer
Sep 4, 2021
5,645
15,924
Humansville Missouri
We know that in 1950 Bertram made pipes only from the best unstained, unpainted, and unvarnished Algerian briar at prices from $1.50 to $10 for machine shaped and hand finshed pipes and the really gooderns that they called Straight Grains at $10, $12.50, $15, $20 and $25.

But, you had to give them two three digit shape numbers and hurry up and wait, until they got done making a high dollar grade pipe to your preferred shape or your second choice.

Quite the classy 1950 Washington DC pipe shop, while at the same time our brave boys were over in Korea where the Congress and President sent them, fighting and some dying that others might live free.

And Pipepedia (always a good starting point) tells us Bertram was there clear up to and a little beyond 1968.


Two smokes and my 40 stamped Bertram looks like a million bucks!
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The World Almanac would tell the world what the inflation rate was in Washington DC but today we have the inflation calculators on our phones.

There was substantial inflation from 1950 to 1965.

And if my Bertram 40 was a $4 pipe in 1965 that would have been a helluva bargain!

But if a Bertram 40 was a $40 pipe in 1965:

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I wonder which it was, $4 or $40?

Sing one Pretty Miss Norma Jean while I ponder this problem of current pricing.

 
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