Indeed! No way to confirm other than the color and smoking quality but I assume the Custombilt is. Not too sure on the Sterncrest but a great smoker for sure. The Sterncrest hasn't had as many reps in the rotation so it might be getting short changed on the coloring opportunity.
A story of two extra large briar pipes.
It’s all guess work and deduction, but assume that Homer T. Holmes was a successful owner of a hardware store who liked to smoke a pipe at home in front of his loving wife and daughter in his den with a fireplace.
In 1939 his wife bought him an imitation Custombilt with a screw stem for $5 from the local pipe shop along with a pound of candy flavored aromatic tobacco to smoke.
Homer didn’t know what a Custombilt was, but he smoked the gift in front of the fireplace until his daughter got a really good job during the war and she bought him a $15 size Marxman at Macy’s and it was so much better Homer tried to ream out his fake Custombilt amd finally gave up and only smoked the Marxman until the Lord called him home.
The daughter kept Homer’s big fireplace pipes and tossed his little ones.
When the daughter died, an heir posted both of Homer’s big Algerians on eBay and I bought both for just under $50.
Here’s my chance to see if all Algerian briar was graded the same.
Both of those super jumbo size pipes likely heard Harry S Truman announce we’d used the atomic bomb on a naval base at Hiroshima over Homer’s radio. Both were artistically carved from pre war Algerian briar, with no gouges or zig zag lines or shortcuts to hide fills.
They’ve been aging now for about 80 years.
I’m betting on the Marxman.
Look how much more Homer liked it.
