Absolutely agree. Marxman pipes do lend themselves to a sense of …. Comedy, LOL.
When to Throw a Pipe Out
- Thread starter Amarkey
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Do the bowl coating as others have said and enjoy smoking it. If done properly your problem will be solved. Don't throw it out though ... you could always use it to grind off some briar dust when you need to fill a pit on another pipe so not a total waste. Enjoy the Marx brothers too !
Over reaming a pipe to counter a potential burn out?!? Folly.
In any event, build up cake, and smoke with care. Good luck!
In any event, build up cake, and smoke with care. Good luck!
I got an estate which was over-reamed with a thin bottom
Coated the chamber with JB Weld, then a couple of coats of pipe mud.
Smoked carefully to build up a thin layer of cake
One of my favourite pipes now
Coated the chamber with JB Weld, then a couple of coats of pipe mud.
Smoked carefully to build up a thin layer of cake
One of my favourite pipes now
Use it for a camping or yardwork pipe. If it gets trashed,no big loss.
Human nature is unchanging and immutable.
Our grandparents sat around eating leftovers on Thanksgiving 1939 the way we do.
There were about thirty million new briar pipes sold a year in the late thirties. The average smoker bought three a year.
In the early seventies the makers of the phenolic The Pipe commissioned a survey and found almost all of their most expensive pipes were bought by women for their men.
Marx advertised in glossy national magazines, pipes for the rugged outdoor man of action.
Who paid $5 for a Benchmade or Jumbo or Super Briar when a good pipe was fifty cents was not rugged outdoor men of action. It was their mothers, sisters, sweethearts and wives buying him a birthday or Christmas present.
If he actually was a pipe smoker he got the best smoking pipe in his rack of pipes, and the gnarliest.
If he smoked cigarettes he might have smoked it around her a few times and then those are the ones we find for sale today.
Imagine a man paying $25 for this blob?
Here’s why not to smoke bad pipes with bad briar.
Above is an advertisement from a national magazine such as Look or The Saturday Evening Post that shows $5, $7.50, $10, and $25 Marxman pipes actual size in natural colors. The best pipe in the Sears catalog was $3.30 and you got your choice of standard shapes for forty cents. A Marxman was a high dollar, expensive luxury item.
Smoke one hard for a year or two, and a Marxman looks like this:
Look how close the growth rings are on best of the best Algerian grade briar:
Marx wasn’t the only maker of top grade pipes.
But they came with a lifetime warranty against burn out he likely never had a claim.
Tobacco smoked in a bad pipe might as well be burned in a stove.
Above is an advertisement from a national magazine such as Look or The Saturday Evening Post that shows $5, $7.50, $10, and $25 Marxman pipes actual size in natural colors. The best pipe in the Sears catalog was $3.30 and you got your choice of standard shapes for forty cents. A Marxman was a high dollar, expensive luxury item.
Smoke one hard for a year or two, and a Marxman looks like this:
Look how close the growth rings are on best of the best Algerian grade briar:
Marx wasn’t the only maker of top grade pipes.
But they came with a lifetime warranty against burn out he likely never had a claim.
Tobacco smoked in a bad pipe might as well be burned in a stove.
After a long stint with meerschaum, I'm starting to re appreciate a beautiful classic shaped briar.
Carl Weber writing in the early sixties pronounced a briar the king of pipes. He said a very high grade, old meerschaum might come close. The trouble with meerschaum is it’s fragile and must be hand carved, and the smoker is at the mercy of the grader of the meerschaum, because it’s all white when new.
Weber wrote that a perfect straight grain briar was the rarest of briars, then costing at least $100 (a thousand in our present money).
Weber made really top grade pipes in New York City longer than Kaywoodie, Lee, and Marxman.
Here’s one I just bought for $27 delivered.
Early on the Deep Grain was the top of the advertised line.
The demand for briar pipes fell precipitously in the early fifties and recovered a little after the 1964 Surgeon Generals report and then in the seventies the Danish freehands had their day, and the truly high grade American factory pipe was gone.
But they are still for sale used.
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The answer is when you want to. It's your pipe do whatever you want. Awesome can of worms though lol . Happy Holidays!
If you don't like pipe than give it too some else but until it burns out the pipe should be smoked.
I am at the age where I trash or give away anything I don't care for, like or use.
Don't need to store crap/useless stuff.
Don't need to store crap/useless stuff.
I'm glad you mentioned that. I bought a couple estate Punto Oros of ebay, the seller didn't disclose one of them had been coated with jb weld in the bowl and, of course, no returns accepted. It's a beautiful pipe on the exterior, but I was hesitant to smoke a pipe that had jb weld in the bowl. I'll have to mix up some pipe mud and coat it, then see how it smokes. Thanks!
Funny how every thread seems to be about Marxmans lately. What's that about?
A good cake helps pipes burn cooler. I recently bought an estate Stanwell that came with some gloopy bowl coating. After reaming it, it burned hot. A few smokes later and it's calming down as the natural cake starts to form. Whether or not carbon is a conductor or insulator, it at least provides a thermal buffer between the ember and the briar. I say if you like the pipe, smoke it and don't ream it for a while. See if it calms down for you.
A good cake helps pipes burn cooler. I recently bought an estate Stanwell that came with some gloopy bowl coating. After reaming it, it burned hot. A few smokes later and it's calming down as the natural cake starts to form. Whether or not carbon is a conductor or insulator, it at least provides a thermal buffer between the ember and the briar. I say if you like the pipe, smoke it and don't ream it for a while. See if it calms down for you.
Briar Lee's flavor of the week.
You can blame @telescopes for that
It’s interesting for me as these are American factory brands I had not heard of previously
Yeh, I think I did peek Van's interest in Marxmans a while back. But he took it to a whole new level. I'll say this, once he is in, he's all in.You can blame @telescopes for that
It’s interesting for me as these are American factory brands I had not heard of previously
Now, I am wondering what other older brand is out there that we can tempt him to start smoking?
Pipe Maker?
I have been collecting pipes since the late 60's, my main collection are Peterson's, so would I throw out a Peterson ? I do quite regularly, a few weeks ago I picked up 6 Petersons that were crap, cracks in bowls, bashed to pieces, why did I buy them ? they were cheap and in the worst condition that I have seen in the last couple of years, I didn't buy them for the bowls but for the stems, the bowls went straight in the bin, the stems, I spent day's working on them. Last week I purchased a Peterson bowl for £4.99 UK, it was virtually unsmoked, next day another, I have been at this for many years and I have hundreds of Peterson Stems and watch out for bowls and marry them up, so I do chuck out many bowls, and some stems, what a great hobby.
$175 for a beautiful 400, which is a rather rare item.
But I don’t have a Cutty, and here is one I just paid $36 plus shipping.
A Weber Golden Walnut is the second from the top Deep Grain grade.
A Weber is a beautifully grained pipe.
Marxman pipes smoke like heaven and look like dog turds.