The Efficacy of the Kaywoodie Drinkless System

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Briar Lee

Lifer
Sep 4, 2021
4,765
13,790
Humansville Missouri
A big selling point for Kaywoodie during the thirties and forties was the Drinkless system.

Before the war, Kaywoodie used a large 4 hole ball stinger, like the one on this pre war Flame Grain #13.

079714D0-E958-4BE8-8CC4-5259AD8D6BED.jpeg99AD7451-1DE1-42DC-9E78-F3B3040A621E.jpegSince all my Lee pipes have a similar system but with a removable stinger, I’m convinced the Kaywoodie system actually worked as intended, to cool the smoke stream, trap water, and catch some of the tars. When I remove a Lee stinger, I can taste the difference.
3B8C7474-8587-46F0-9164-438A9E2BFC82.jpeg
What I’m wondering is what tests Kaywoodie ran to determine just how well the system works.

They convinced Babe Ruth, and that’s saying something, right there, you know?

096865EA-74B1-4E53-AC15-88CD77F595C3.jpeg
 

warren

Lifer
Sep 13, 2013
11,700
16,210
Foothills of the Chugach Range, AK
The babe wasn't necessarily a smoker of Kaywoodie. Back in those days, names and images were for sale freely. So, I wouldn't think that he was personally endorsing a product. I would buy into the belief that he was being handsomely paid to allow for his image to be used.

I do love the thought that he was addressing "every man" and the idea that Kaywoodie was priced to be in reach of "every man" as opposed to the only the "upper class." Ad agencies, even today, still strive to sell that point of view, a rich man's diversion, now in reach of the lower class. God love him and his agent.
 

warren

Lifer
Sep 13, 2013
11,700
16,210
Foothills of the Chugach Range, AK
Testing? I'd suppose they made a couple of stingers, put 'em in pipes and had a couple of employees smoke 'em. They pronounced them good to go and marketing paid "The Babe" for his image. I doubt much effort was made to test, they were marketing "different" and cheap (Within reach of "every man".) as opposed to functionality I'm suggesting.

A different time indeed with less government regulation regarding "sales pitch."
 

Briar Lee

Lifer
Sep 4, 2021
4,765
13,790
Humansville Missouri
I've found all the pipes I've had with the removable "Drinkless" stinger with push tenon stem to be terrific smokes. Never clogs, doesn't restrain air flow, and doesn't really get all that dirty after a bowl.
Gold stars inlaid on a Lee pipe in 1946 meant these things:

The Lee system had a removable stinger.

The front part of a Lee fitment was recessed, invisible, and was screwed into the shank, not merely glued.

The stem part of the fitment was also screwed into the stem, but it wasn’t glued. Therefore an owner could easily realign the stem.

The Lee system allowed for elegantly slender shanks and stems, because it used a small diameter stinger.

B0F13526-839C-45C7-B44C-DE69C1B2F2DA.jpegHowever, until about 1950 the Kaywoodie still featured a ball on the end of the stinger with four holes drilled through, which looks like it would work better than the dinky little Lee stinger.

A522D49C-C86D-494A-8838-7BEB223E7927.jpegEarly Lees had fairly plain, smooth stingers with a flattened front.

4B95D31E-6F05-40E0-BB89-7D3B15236C9B.jpegAs time went on the Lee stingers were turned out in an incredible variety of ribs, fins, ridges, scoops, and maybe even a ball end, although I’ve never seen one, and likely won’t.

Lee had found a way around the Kaywoodie patents on the Drinkless stinger and Synchrostem, even actually improved the removable screw in stem.

But the number stamped on pre war Kaywoodie Drinkless stingers is a trademark registration, not a patent number.

216E6EA1-E74F-46BB-93E4-0A65CC1ECA4C.jpeg

A patent expires, but a trademark and trade dress can last forever.
 

mso489

Lifer
Feb 21, 2013
41,210
60,434
I bought one of the latter day Drinkless Ruff-Tone models with the screw-in-stem stinger. I had misgivings, but was on a U.S. made factory pipe quest. As I've mentioned before, once I got the bit evened up by softening the glue with a hair dryer (per sablebrush's advice) it smoked well and has for years. Now the Drinkless series is all push bits, but this one is quick to clean and easy to smoke.
 

Briar Lee

Lifer
Sep 4, 2021
4,765
13,790
Humansville Missouri
I like the Kaywoodie system. Works well for me. Mine are all four hole singers.
Which brings up a related issue, of did the later three hole stingers gain or lose efficacy?

The day sometime about 1930 when a large corporation decided to offer a Drinkless ball stinger, there had to have been loads of testing, expense, and the tooling to manufacture millions of stingers had to be bought, installed, and all the bugs worked out. After the first stingers were made, the cost for each one afterwards was hardly anything, the same price as common brass screws, plus the extra expense of aluminum.

Later on, KB&B were so proud of the original, large four hole stinger they somehow installed machines that imprinted the words DRINKLESS and a Trade Mark registration number. Again, after that change was made the extra cost of each stamped stinger was negligible.

After the war began, they needed to cut the aluminum used to the absolute minimum. This meant a change in tooling. But cutting the surface area of the stinger, also meant losing some of the efficacy of the system.

But around 1948 or so, instead of two holes drilled diagonally to make a four hole stinger, the system was changed to one hole drilled horizontally all the at through and one more on top drilled down vertically, for a three hole stinger.

They still had to drill two holes. They didn’t save any aluminum. It cost them money to change tooling.

And the surface area subjecting the smoke to the stinger holes decreased by 25%.

The only rational expiation is the old tooling was wearing out, and there was less waste in the new three hole ball to manufacture them. They didn’t raise prices and keep up quality.

Meanwhile, over at Lee, instead of cheapening the pipes he doubled the price of the Two Star to ten dollars, and the Lee stingers become more expensive to make, with fins, scoops, and other complications. Plus the stars now were actual five pointed stars, not seven pointed asterisks.

But I wonder, if Kaywoodie didn’t advertise the new 3 hole stinger as an improvement?

Or did they hope the customers wouldn’t notice?
 
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crashthegrey

Lifer
Dec 18, 2015
3,812
3,591
41
Cobleskill, NY
www.greywoodie.com
I bought one of the latter day Drinkless Ruff-Tone models with the screw-in-stem stinger. I had misgivings, but was on a U.S. made factory pipe quest. As I've mentioned before, once I got the bit evened up by softening the glue with a hair dryer (per sablebrush's advice) it smoked well and has for years. Now the Drinkless series is all push bits, but this one is quick to clean and easy to smoke.
Bill dropped the name Drinkless a few years ago since it stopped making sense. It is now called Birkshire.
As to how well a stinger works, it traps moisture and slows you down. It's a great way to learn to smoke, and for the slow smoker can continue to be a pleasurable experience. For the wet smoker it can be beneficial. I have slowly become a much bigger fan of the new Kaywoodie pipes with push bits, but I still smoke my old stinger pipes, too. The smaller ball doesn't really make much of a difference. The best ones were pre 1930s when the ball was so large it friction fit the airway, because the air was forced through the holes in the ball. Each had to be perfectly fit so this was quickly dropped, and the stem did not screw on.
 

Briar Lee

Lifer
Sep 4, 2021
4,765
13,790
Humansville Missouri
When Lord (soon to be Baron) Inverchapel, the British ambassador to the United States, made a visit to the western states in 1946 with his gorgeous young Brazilian socialite second wife who was young enough to be his daughter, if not grand daughter, he made the tobacco trade papers by buying two $15 English pipes he said he’d been seeking for years.

This might be one of that pair.

E5D25B6B-E7FB-48ED-A3E9-8A1D0E5DD5F0.jpegA gentleman of means can still buy duplicates of Lord Inverchapel’s pipe, his tailored wool suit, his silk tie, and white cotton shirt.

But if those articles are hand made in London England today the same way they were in 1946, they’ll be priced several times higher in constant dollars than English goods in 1946.

The price of English labor has risen many fold since the Second World War.

A $15 Dunhill in 1946 ought to only be $225 today. It’s two or three times that.

Gorgeous young socialite arm candy women have increased in price even more.

Kaywoodie cheapened their product by infinitesimally small degrees, until they wound up a Kaywoodie Magnum.

925602E1-0559-4EF3-A126-015173BEA8F6.jpeg
 

anotherbob

Lifer
Mar 30, 2019
15,678
29,402
45
In the semi-rural NorthEastern USA
A different time indeed with less government regulation regarding "sales pitch."
And in some ways now ads are even shadier. They've learned the art of implying instead of stating. You can imply it is magic as long as you don't state that it is. Which is how we get ads that imply eating potato chips is a good way to attract the affection of the ladies.
Also my understanding was Babe Ruth probably would have put his image and name on almost anything.
 
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alaskanpiper

Enabler in Chief
May 23, 2019
9,348
42,248
Alaska
A big selling point for Kaywoodie during the thirties and forties was the Drinkless system.

Before the war, Kaywoodie used a large 4 hole ball stinger, like the one on this pre war Flame Grain #13.

View attachment 154842View attachment 154843Since all my Lee pipes have a similar system but with a removable stinger, I’m convinced the Kaywoodie system actually worked as intended, to cool the smoke stream, trap water, and catch some of the tars. When I remove a Lee stinger, I can taste the difference.
View attachment 154848
What I’m wondering is what tests Kaywoodie ran to determine just how well the system works.

They convinced Babe Ruth, and that’s saying something, right there, you know?

View attachment 154846
I don’t know jack s**t about the price of eggs, but the grain on that lee is particularly pretty for a lee pipe.
 
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