I helped a friend get hired as a DP on a project and he gifted me with a box of them. Man was that heaven!
Ruminations on Error of Smoking Quality Theory
- Thread starter Briar Lee
- Start date
Yeah 1/4 inch, to me, is absurd. And yes, if there is a ghost I would ream it back to briar for sure.
When I got out of law school in 1983, there was a lawyer about 20 years older than I was who had a noticeably younger, sharp as a tack, long legged lawyer partner who was his second wife.
She’d weaned Ralph off cigarettes for big Danish freehand pipes.
Ralph only smoked the pipe she gave him, until it was caked and cracked down the sides and burned on top, and she’d buy him a new one.
I’d go to their office and he’d have out the old ones for decorators, about one a year or so. Too much cake or use, or a combination of both, will crack a pipe.
They settled a huge case about ten years ago and retired when she turned 65, and are living happily ever after. He developed the heath problems of old age and quit smoking, and I understand they trashed all his pipes.
A pipe can be worn completely out in a year or so of hard use.
Or they can be fresh as a daisy like my Bruck Bros with a quarter inch of cake.
It depends a lot on how they get taken care of, I suppose.
I'd argue that HE trashed his pipes
I used to just love to watch them.
For many years, we could smoke a pipe in the courtroom, not cigarettes, which you had to go in the lobbies.
Ralph would smoke one pipe after another, continuously, no waiting to cool off. His wife supplied the tobacco, she’d buy at a pipe shop in Columbia, various aromatics, she thought smelled good.
You will never see two teenagers more struck on each other, than they were.
If I remember correctly, she’d buy him a new pipe every year for their anniversary, always an enormous Danish pick axe style. Ralph would complain the new one wasn’t as good for a while until it was properly broken in.
Ralph cleaned them with an air hose in his shop,
A pair of work boots was treated a lot better.
I could have been right for thirty years, too.
It’s hard to imagine a much fancier grained piece of briar on my Bruck Bros pipe. This is the plain side.
A whole lot of extra money has been spent over a whole lot of years under the working premise that top grade briar smokes better than bottom grade briar.
There are no certain answers, only questions.
Yes, but consider the number of bold, unequivocal statements that have flowed from your keyboard!
I've ignored this thread.
Just like "Frank" , I've refrained from saying what comes to mind.
Just like "Frank" , I've refrained from saying what comes to mind.
And I've been waiting on tenterhooks to hear who the hell are the Bruck brothers?
And I've been waiting on tenterhooks to hear who the hell are the Bruck brothers?
No info in Pipedia about them.
But the reverse reads in a circle
Made in England
So from that I deduce:
Bruck Bros is a tobacco shop, like Lane Limited or Wally Frank, not as famous
Best Briar was the line of pipes
Superior was the grade (as like a Supreme)
And GIANT was the size, same as C if it was a Marxman, the largest Bruck Bros Best Briar Superior they sold. It was a contract pipe Bruck Bros imported. It weighs 45 grams and the .870” bore matches a C size $10 Marxman it came with from the eBay seller who wasn’t a usual pipe dealer. If he knew what a barely smoked Marxman Jumbo C was he’d not priced three large pipes for $25.
The only thing a bit unusual is it doesn’t say Made in London, merely Made in England. I have other English contract pipes and they’ll read Made in London or London England. London was the heart of the British pipe industry, and they were proud of stamping London on exports, if they were able to.
A British pipe lover might recognize this stinger.
It compares with the best pre war Kaywoodie Super Grain grade I own.
Twasn’t a bottom shelf pipe.
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A new to me Marxman arrived today and wow, was it caked up.
It had some kind of varnish on it, and was dirty and grimy.
The cake just crumbled at the least touch of a sharp pocketknife and left behind a perfectly brown, fresh looking bore.
A paper towel and Everclear cleaned the varnish off and a little steel wool and Everclear made the rim lava go away.
The inside was clean as a whistle. The stem blacked easy using Obsidian Oil.
This Jumbo A has an .880 bore, 1.6” high.
They do clean up nicely, and easily.
I have been convinced old Algerian briar was somehow different. Inside there were good mojos that flavored the smoke.
Now I’m not so sure of my theory.
If you take three pipes with .880” bores have very densely grained ancient briar they smoke about the same decree of mouth watering goodness.
Because of the extremely dense wood, they resist burning and are excellent thermal insulators. Like smoking little thermos mugs, is my description.
Maybe it’s the experience of a pipe that doesn’t get hot, that makes them smoke so well.
I get greedy and smoke faster, and get hiccups from Carter Hall.
I’d like Algerian briar to be magical, but maybe any briar dense enough to drill .880” holes without fear of burnout would smoke the same.
That means any brand new pipe could smoke as well, if the briar were as dense.
It had some kind of varnish on it, and was dirty and grimy.
The cake just crumbled at the least touch of a sharp pocketknife and left behind a perfectly brown, fresh looking bore.
A paper towel and Everclear cleaned the varnish off and a little steel wool and Everclear made the rim lava go away.
The inside was clean as a whistle. The stem blacked easy using Obsidian Oil.
This Jumbo A has an .880 bore, 1.6” high.
They do clean up nicely, and easily.
I have been convinced old Algerian briar was somehow different. Inside there were good mojos that flavored the smoke.
Now I’m not so sure of my theory.
If you take three pipes with .880” bores have very densely grained ancient briar they smoke about the same decree of mouth watering goodness.
Because of the extremely dense wood, they resist burning and are excellent thermal insulators. Like smoking little thermos mugs, is my description.
Maybe it’s the experience of a pipe that doesn’t get hot, that makes them smoke so well.
I get greedy and smoke faster, and get hiccups from Carter Hall.
I’d like Algerian briar to be magical, but maybe any briar dense enough to drill .880” holes without fear of burnout would smoke the same.
That means any brand new pipe could smoke as well, if the briar were as dense.
I'm a bit confused................ Sometimes you say that good 'ol Algerian briar is soft enough to scratch with a fingernail. Now it's extremely dense............. In my mind, it cant be both.............
If you smoked more Buoy or 4 Aces, you would get it.
It is both soft as butter, and incredibly dense.
I just put a scratch in my newest pipe using my thumbnail.
Kaywoodie launched an ad campaign when they made $15, $20, and $25 pipe to match Lee.
There never again is going to be any factory pipe more beautifully grained than a $10 four hole stinger Flame Grain.
So Kaywoodie wrote up their highest end pipes had denser grain structure. And they assured the customer the denser briar would also breathe.
One thing Marx’s pipes will do, is not “hold” cake against a sharp knife. The cake just crumbled and 100% shook out, leaving a completely fresh, brand new looking bore.
I’m using Carter Hall to get a film of carbon back.
Four Aces or Five Brothers would turn me green in this one.
Some of my Marxman boxes have a burn out guarantee enclosed.
I’ll bet it wasn’t needed much.
During the war, about half the briar pipes were made of “domestic briar” which was Manzanita from California or Mountain Laurel from North Carolina (which is why Grabow moved there in 1943).
Cigarettes and cigars and pipes were not rationed, but were price controlled (so were wages). No attempt was made to control agricultural prices, so the domestic briar industry boomed.
There were cigarrete shortages, but never a shortage of pipe tobacco or pipes so there was a war time boom of pipe smoking.
The war didn’t last long enough to hurt Marx, who like Castello does today probably only used ten year old briar.
But from what I read about domestic briar there were two complaints.
It was prone to burnout
And somehow the taste wasn’t quite as good
They chalked it up to the easy growing conditions in California and North Carolina,,,,it wasn’t as dense, the plants didn’t struggle to live.
Briar should be briar, on top of a mountain in Italy or Algeria.
But it should be dense, to be the best.
Cigarettes and cigars and pipes were not rationed, but were price controlled (so were wages). No attempt was made to control agricultural prices, so the domestic briar industry boomed.
There were cigarrete shortages, but never a shortage of pipe tobacco or pipes so there was a war time boom of pipe smoking.
The war didn’t last long enough to hurt Marx, who like Castello does today probably only used ten year old briar.
But from what I read about domestic briar there were two complaints.
It was prone to burnout
And somehow the taste wasn’t quite as good
They chalked it up to the easy growing conditions in California and North Carolina,,,,it wasn’t as dense, the plants didn’t struggle to live.
Briar should be briar, on top of a mountain in Italy or Algeria.
But it should be dense, to be the best.