They get Better With Use

[Briar Lee]

When my wife and I rode horses our saddles were made of Herman Oak leather and the more we used them, the better they got, to a point.

It was possible to have to have certain pieces of the saddle replaced but it took a whole lot of use before a rebuild was needed.

Tonight I’m convinced a pipe gets better the more it’s smoked, again to a certain point where it’s not good to smoke and needs salt and alcohol or alcohol and cotton balls, to try to get the goodie back.

This extensively smoked but well kept Tom Howard is as good as pipes can get.




Any thoughts on a pipe getting better the more it’s smoked?

 

[didimauw]

I hate breaking in new pipes. Usually around 15 20 bowls I consider it fully broken in. Id say after 100 to 150 bowls, not much changes anymore.

 

[Briar Lee]

That Marxman “Big Boy” has not seen more than a couple of dozen smokes and it just gets darker and darker and better and better each time I stuff a third of an ounce of tobacco in it and smoke it all the way down.


I agree that somewhere in the low hundreds it will plateau, and any improvements after that will get smaller and smaller until some dark day, it will go the other direction.

It never hurts to baby a pipe, but I’m convinced that the unseen goodie mojos inside the briar will someday quit delivering the goodie, no matter how careful I am to preserve them.

But likely not in my time.

 

[Briar Lee]

I hate breaking in new pipes. Usually around 15 20 bowls I consider it fully broken in. Id say after 100 to 150 bowls, not much changes anymore.

I do love how regular use and rotation makes a good, high quality pipe look better as well as smoke better.



Any quality briar pipe that came polished and waxed new, will eventually season and assume a glow, instead of a glossy shine.

Once a beginner has a couple or so dozen pipes, if he’ll rotate them he’ll never live long enough to smoke any one pipe to death.

 

[didimauw]

I do love how regular use and rotation makes a good, high quality pipe look better as well as smoke better.

View attachment 268168

Any quality briar pipe that came polished and waxed new, will eventually season and assume a glow, instead of a glossy shine.

Once a beginner has a couple or so dozen pipes, if he’ll rotate them he’ll never live long enough to smoke any one pipe to death.

I love the look of the well worn beat up pipes. It's what I strive for in life.

 

[Briar Lee]

I love the look of the well worn beat up pipes. It's what I strive for in life.

This is an extremely early B size Jumbo. See the crown, or is it an outline of Algeria?



There were no junky, bad Marxman pipes, but like Kaywoodie the pre war pipes are just a little better, I think. Better carving, better grain, fewer fills.


There was inflation over the 19 year run those were made, but a $7.50 pipe in 1935 would be $170 today and in 1953 $85 today.

That Benchmade B cost me about $15 delivered.

It’s still in it’s prime and as many of these as I have I’ll not do anything but make it better during all my time I’ll own it.

This is why to buy old, high quality pipes.

 

[bullet08]

Of course they get better. It's like those soup stock rocks. More you use them, better they taste.

 

[telescopes]

I love the look of the well worn beat up pipes. It's what I strive for in life.

One of these days, you must get yourself a Benchmade Marxman. Have Briarville. refurbish it to brand new specs. I promise you it will be like having it brand new. Just let Rich know that you want it "brand new" and he'll do it. Then you too will have a well worn beat up pipe. Just don't leave it in a bucket. Jeez, I feel like bringing a class action lawsuit to liberate some of those pipes...Especially the one signed by Robert Marx himself. What is that one doing in there?

 

[Briar Lee]

One of these days, you must get yourself a Benchmade Marxman. Have Briarville. refurbish it to brand new specs. I promise you it will be like having it brand new. Just let Rich know that you want it "brand new" and he'll do it. Then you too will have a well worn beat up pipe. Just don't leave it in a bucket. Jeez, I feel like bringing a class action lawsuit to liberate some of those pipes...Especially the one signed by Robert Marx himself. What is that one doing in there?

Two, stamped by the master’s dead hand.




Loved and babied and pampered they’ll be better when I leave them to others than today.

If you use a clean bucket with all the stems down you’ll rotate them and clean them and not forget about them.

 

[El Capitán]

The more wear I do to my pipes, the prouder I am. Shows I take my hobby seriously.

 

[Briar Lee]

One of these days, you must get yourself a Benchmade Marxman. Have Briarville. refurbish it to brand new specs. I promise you it will be like having it brand new. Just let Rich know that you want it "brand new" and he'll do it. Then you too will have a well worn beat up pipe. Just don't leave it in a bucket. Jeez, I feel like bringing a class action lawsuit to liberate some of those pipes...Especially the one signed by Robert Marx himself. What is that one doing in there?

Notes on grapeseed oil and steel wool.

I will never use anything but wax (and not much of that) on a new condition Marxman.

But old dirty pipes with lava on the rims need help.

Using 4/0 steel wool and grapeseed oil makes an old dirty pipe better.

This old Jumbo B is a beautiful pipe after I made it that way. It was caked and dirty and nearly unsmokable when I unpacked it. I’ve had to heat the tenon and mash it to tighten the joint. It smokes divinely and always will, so long as I own it.

 

[telescopes]

Yes, I agree. Reconditioning with these two items is kosher. Removing a finish just to remove the finish is a choice one may either agree with or no agree with. But mostly, we are just having fun with your habit of stripping a pipe of its glossy finish, LOL. Please, at least put some of those classy Marxmans on display.

 

[gkunkel]

When my wife and I rode horses our saddles were made of Herman Oak leather and the more we used them, the better they got, to a point.

It was possible to have to have certain pieces of the saddle replaced but it took a whole lot of use before a rebuild was needed.

Tonight I’m convinced a pipe gets better the more it’s smoked, again to a certain point where it’s not good to smoke and needs salt and alcohol or alcohol and cotton balls, to try to get the goodie back.

This extensively smoked but well kept Tom Howard is as good as pipes can get.

View attachment 268120


Any thoughts on a pipe getting better the more it’s smoked?

Agreed!

 

[Briar Lee]

Here are two enormous used Algerian briar pipes I think are both pre WW2, the biggest Marxman $15 Big Boy I own and a big generic Custombilt copy.

Yes, I agree. Reconditioning with these two items is kosher. Removing a finish just to remove the finish is a choice one may either agree with or no agree with. But mostly, we are just having fun with your habit of stripping a pipe of its glossy finish, LOL. Please, at least put some of those classy Marxmans on display.

I shouldn’t say this, but I just unpacked and restored the best quality, best made, best grained, huge (95 gram) Marxman I own.

This is as big as a 400, it balances perfectly, no fills, gouches or strachings or zig zags, artistic carving, polished to the nines, oh Lordy Lordy what a pipe!



Even Lord (later Baron) Inverchapel would have been proud to have this $15 pipe given to him by his scandalously young and shockingly beautiful Chilean aristocratic wife for Christmas 1935.

$46 for this and the fake Custombilt.

Which is rather a disaster, the stain washed off leaving lots of putty.

You always get what you pay for in this old sin cussed world.

But dye should fix it.

 

[Kobold]

I remember aluminum baseball bats being like that. At first they had no pop. Then you hit a bunch of balls and it gets more rebound and the ball travels more then they lose the rebound and the ball would travel less and eventually they would break.