Two Project Pipes

[Briar Lee]

One is a Marxman 400 attempt, the other a nice big pipe that will make a good beater.

Only $20 for both, delivered.

Advice solicited.

Christmas in June this year!

 

[ssjones]

Looks like fire kindling to me

 

[Briarcutter]

One is a Marxman 400 attempt, the other a nice big pipe that will make a good beater.

Only $20 for both, delivered.

Advice solicited.

Christmas in June this year!

View attachment 395360View attachment 395361View attachment 395362View attachment 395363View attachment 395364View attachment 395365View attachment 395366View attachment 395367View attachment 395368View attachment 395369View attachment 395370View attachment 395371

You crack me up with some of your purchases

 

[Briar Lee]

Looks like fire kindling to me

I own two perfect Marxman 400 pipes and maybe a half dozen extra jumbo $15 size Marxman Big Boys.

Whatever is bad about the 400 attempt pipe, it’s smokable.

Surely worth $20 to have a beater 400,

 

[telescopes]

I own two perfect Marxman 400 pipes and maybe a half dozen extra jumbo $15 size Marxman Big Boys.

Whatever is bad about the 400 attempt pipe, it’s smokable.

Surely worth $20 to have a beater 400,

For the record and truth in advertising - that is NOT an Marxman 400. No name in the Blue Book for that one. Just sayin.

 

[Briar Lee]

For the record and truth in advertising - that is NOT an Marxman 400. No name in the Blue Book for that one. Just sayin.

Marxman stamped it a Benchmade.



Was it because of this crack it wasn’t finshed as a 400?



Most (but not all) Big Boys have this saddle stem.




To grade a 400 and a solid gold 14K band was a rare pipe. If it got close, it was a $15 Big Boy. This attempt only rated a $5-$10 Benchmade:

But all these enormous Marxman pipes ought to smoke the same.

 

[xrundog]

The band is a repair for a cracked shank. Nobody ever sold a pipe new with an existing crack.

 

[Briar Lee]

The band is a repair for a cracked shank. Nobody ever sold a pipe new with an existing crack.

I agree, except a geniune first grade Marxman 400 had a solid 14k gold band and that one’s likely only gold plated, being a mere attempt.

Both my geniune 400s have fills, expertly hidden in the carving. Something caused that one to be rejected, but it wasn’t destroyed. It was sold as a Benchmade, let’s see what grade.

Both pipes were stored somehow, they both cracked.

I have a shooting bag, and those two are prime candidates to tuck inside.

 

[OzPiper]

Were you aware of the cracks in those pipes when you bid on them ?
Me thinks you delight in perverse pleasures
Or you are the eternal optimist

 

[Briar Lee]

Were you aware of the cracks in those pipes when you bid on them ?
Me thinks you delight in perverse pleasures
Or you are the eternal optimist

Actually the seller propositioned me.

And yes, anyone can see the cracks.

But as I’m always preaching—buy the stems!





If the stem is good, then the stummel can be made good, you know?

Sing one Roy Dusky!

Here’s five of my ten dollar pipes.



I need some big uns to go with em, you know?

 

[yohanan]

Nice wide open draw with the cracked stem.

 

[Briar Lee]

Nice wide open draw with the cracked stem.

My thought is, get out super glue and apply with a razor blade, then clamp down with little hose clamps and dry.






Super glue really sticks to briar.



The 400 attempt was intended to be the highest priced regular production cataloged pipe on the planet earth—-so it’s good briar—the best of the best.

The other one is a nice big old Lovat, looks Webberish.

I’ll know more when it gets here.

And lookie here!

Willie Nelson’s luthier might use this on Trigger, only $15!

 

[yohanan]

I must apologize, I misread and thought you were trying to sell these, good luck on the restoration process, but you still have a wide open draw with the cracked stem.

 

[telescopes]

Marxman stamped it a Benchmade.

View attachment 395406

Was it because of this crack it wasn’t finshed as a 400?

View attachment 395407

Most (but not all) Big Boys have this saddle stem.

View attachment 395408


To grade a 400 and a solid gold 14K band was a rare pipe. If it got close, it was a $15 Big Boy. This attempt only rated a $5-$10 Benchmade:

But all these enormous Marxman pipes ought to smoke the same.

I’ve seen and handled more Marxman pipes than most. That isn’t even close to the 20 or so I’ve seen up close.

 

[Briar Lee]

I’ve seen and handled more Marxman pipes than most. That isn’t even close to the 20 or so I’ve seen up close.

I agree the shaping and carving is very amateurish. Even the Benchmade stamp wasn’t centered. Was it a training exercise? Did more than one carver work on a 400, one starts it, sees it’s not going to grade out, and then it’s finshed by an apprentice?

But it’s obviously intended to be a 400, but something didn’t work out.

A whole lot of production just must have been condemned—-stove kindling—but they were good capitalists—not any that might be salvaged.

The $15 size is in the later forties catalogs and is for a Jumbo, not a Benchmade.

I own about a half dozen monster size Marxmans, and all except one smooth one has that big, fat, 400 style saddle stem. The carving on them is top shelf, the polishing first rate.

I’m guessing they had four drawers of briar plateaux. The A drawer made either machine made Mellos, or the five dollar figurals, or Super Briar (if fancy) or Benchmades, or Jumbos.

Then there was a B drawer with bigger burls.

A C drawer held even bigger ones.

Then there was the drawer with the 400 size burls, but they didn’t all grade a 400.

 

[telescopes]

But it’s obviously intended to be a 400,

I disagree for many reasons.

 

[Briar Lee]

I disagree for many reasons.

It looks like a crudely made 400 whatever was the intent. They intended to sell it.

And it’s stamped a Benchmade.

It will be interesting to see the gold colored band. You have at least one non 400 with a gold band and I have a couple, both rolled gold plate.

The earlier Benchmades and Jumbos are hand cut, hand polished, and high quality, and while they might have used some machinery, those were five dollar luxury items in a world swimming in dollar pipes.

On the same note, where are the Marxman Briarlees?

Did Marx make no name or contract pipes for a dollar, or did those find the stove?

I own two American Automobile Association subscription premium pipes that are simply god awful, a Dublin and a Morocco.

And I have a couple of very nicely made unstamped little square panel hand carved Benchmade looking pipes that if they aren’t Marxmans are excellent counterfeits.

Marx shipped some oddities.

I just paid $22 for this odd nose warmer.

I have a couple of small Lees and Pipe Makers like this—not novelties but real pipes with decent size bowls in a small size. There was a demand back then for these.

 

[telescopes]

It looks like a crudely made 400 whatever was the intent. They intended to sell it.

And it’s stamped a Benchmade.

It will be interesting to see the gold colored band. You have at least one non 400 with a gold band and I have a couple, both rolled gold plate.

The earlier Benchmades and Jumbos are hand cut, hand polished, and high quality, and while they might have used some machinery, those were five dollar luxury items in a world swimming in dollar pipes.

On the same note, where are the Marxman Briarlees?

Did Marx make no name or contract pipes for a dollar, or did those find the stove?

I own two American Automobile Association subscription premium pipes that are simply god awful, a Dublin and a Morocco.

And I have a couple of very nicely made unstamped little square panel hand carved Benchmade looking pipes that if they aren’t Marxmans are excellent counterfeits.

Marx shipped some oddities.

I just paid $22 for this odd nose warmer.

I have a couple of small Lees and Pipe Makers like this—not novelties but real pipes with decent size bowls in a small size. There was a demand back then for these.

View attachment 395499View attachment 395500View attachment 395501View attachment 395502View attachment 395503

I sold the Royal with the gold band as well as my smaller 400. I kept my classic 400 which is identical in every way to the 400 used in a magazine advertisement. It is in perfect condition. I am keeping only 3 Marxman pipes. All three are exceptional specimens of the genre. I have 6 that have never been smoked, still in the box with advertising and price tags. They are for a decade from now. My focus now is rounding out my Danish Freestyle pipes made in the early 70s. The ones made with Grecian briar will out smoke any Marxman I have ever owned. This pipe was actually made by Michael Tabik and has his signiture and initials on it. It is a pre Sven Lar E grade. It is a magic smoker.

 

[Briar Lee]

I sold the Royal with the gold band as well as my smaller 400. I kept my classic 400 which is identical in every way to the 400 used in a magazine advertisement. It is in perfect condition. I am keeping only 3 Marxman pipes. All three are exceptional specimens of the genre. I have 6 that have never been smoked, still in the box with advertising and price tags. They are for a decade from now. My focus now is rounding out my Danish Freestyle pipes made in the early 70s. The ones made with Grecian briar will out smoke any Marxman I have ever owned. View attachment 395506This pipe was actually made by Michael Tabik and has his signiture and initials on it. It is a pre Sven Lar E grade. It is a magic smoker.

We read about Kaywoodie introducing the 1937 Flame Grain using Grecian briar, and of all makers E. A. Carey advertised it heavily in the seventies.

The heath shrub is sort of like Eastern Red Cedars in the Ozarks. You can pasture cattle or plant crops or have cedar trees. Heathers are a pest, a trash tree, good for nothing except the burls.

Greece was civilized thousands of years ago. Farmers and ranchers in Greece have been clearing out heather stands before Christ was born.

Imagine how rugged and worthless land was in Greece to alllow a burl to grow large enough for that magnificent pipe.

I have several confirmed Grecian briar pipes and all are magnificently smooth and flavorful smokers.

I want a cinnamon kick in the mouth from Algerian.

When they sold one hundred times more pipes than today I believe the makers knew their trade better.

Marx sold pipes for almost twenty years and got slick away with it.

Bravo.

Here’s to dodging all the fatal arrows.

 

[paulfg]

Looks like fire kindling to me

expensive fire kindling,you can buy a reasonably large size bag of kindling for 20$ where I live