Ruminations on the Three Differences in Brands of Briar Pipes

[Briar Lee]

This morning as the clock crows to welcome a new dawn, I’m enjoying a Marxman pipe so much I’m not wanting to smoke another brand, even a Lee.

Which leads me to ruminate over what differences can there be, in brands of briar pipes.

The first and perhaps most obvious is cosmetic. A pipe with prettier grain, better sandblast, intricate carving, beautiful gold inlaid stars or white dots, or finer craftsmanship or more ornamentation is worth more money.

Then a second difference between briar pipes would be gadgets. Some might prefer a four hole stinger, or a filter, or a carburetor, or maybe a meerschaum lining. Lee had the best gadget to join a pipe I think ever invented.

My Benchmade Marxman Bulldog has decent grain, it’s pretty enough, but is a simple push stem with no gadgets at all, except a stinger I removed.

The third way a maker can distinguish his brand of briar pipe is to only use the absolute finest briar for smoking qualities. Marxman was famous for that.

Of the three differences in brands of of briar pipes the market seems to value cosmetics the most and smoking quality the least.

This perfect Benchmade was $23 delivered.




I suppose it’s best folks don’t all know how much better well cured, ancient, aged Algerian briar smokes, or else a plain Marxman would fetch more money.

 

[hoosierpipeguy]

Apparently fit and finish and workmanship don't qualify. I find those attributes to be the biggest differences among brands,

 

[bullet08]

Crapshoot. It seems it all depends on the person smoking the pipe. Something somewhere within the pipe just hits the smoker on the exact spot. Same pipe to other person might not. More you smoke, more you are in tune with your way of packing and your way of smoking it and some pipe will just fit that mode. Some won't, but you can also adjust. But that pipe that doesn't need that adjustment is the "perfect" pipe.

 

[Briar Lee]

Apparently fit and finish and workmanship don't qualify. I find those attributes to be the biggest differences among brands,

Fit, finish and workmanship I consider a part of cosmetics. If you can see or feel the difference it’s superficial.

That’s always been the main difference between a $25 basket pipe and one that costs twenty or thirty times as much.

 

[hoosierpipeguy]

You think drills are cosmetic? Or how the mouthpiece is made? If so, that's a different definition of cosmetic than I'm familiar with.

 

[Briar Lee]

You think drills are cosmetic? Or how the mouthpiece is made? If so, that's a different definition of cosmetic than I'm familiar with.

The boring and drilling, and shaping of the mouthpiece of a pipe does affect the smoking pleasure of the pipe.

Most of my hoard of pipes are American factory smokers, and the very few of those that didn’t pass a pipe cleaner and had an air hole I can clean with a doubled pipe cleaner I fixed easily with a drill. Factories nearly always get the fundamentals of construction right, because it’s done mostly by machines and to standards.

Careful hand made fit, finish and construction is soul pleasing, the reason for an artisan made pipe. But a Dr. Grabow is constructed right or it doesn’t pass quality control,

Most gadgets also affect smoking, or the gadgets didn’t last long. I think 9mm filters work a little better than 6mm filters and those are a little better than stingers, to smooth out rough edges and cool the smoke stream. The E A Carey system and Peterson System both work as advertised. But I like my smoke straight, and unfiltered.

This old pipe is marked MADE BY K.F.S. under Baron, OLD FRENCH BRIAR, and on the bottom is GFS inside a circle. It has that high dollar handmade aura about it that only fine luxury goods have. Some old man with the initials GFS probably had his son KFS as an apprentice. It didn’t work out because Pipedia gives no clue to the maker.


But Algeria was as French as Hawaii is American when this magnificent smoking little hunk of Algerian briar was carved in some little forgotten shop.

It’s unstained and not oiled. All I used to clean this one was Everclear and a paper towel. One of the cleanest pipes I’ve ever bought, inside and out, and also about the heaviest caked. Like other old Algerian briar pipes I own, all the cake just peeled out leaving bare, tan colored briar in the chamber.

I think briar matters the most, how they smoke.

$18 delivered.