Who Else is Addicted to Algerian Briar?

[Briar Lee]

Yesterday my wife asked me why I only smoke those gnarled old pipes at home when I have all those beautiful Lee pipes at the office with the pretty gold stars.

I replied at the office I only smoke the cotton candy sweet tobaccos that smell so good. The kind of pipe I smoke those in makes little difference.

But at home I smoke strong, rich tobaccos where the Algerian briar in my Marxman pipes makes a big difference in how well they smoke.

She said, you mean to tell me you can put the exact same tobacco in one kind of wooden pipe and it tastes different than another?

Yep.

She said where can I buy you some of those Marxman pipes, and I said those are all made before 1954. There was a war in Algeria and that more or less ended Algerian briar pipes forever.

So you have to buy them used, she asked?

Yep.

She said yuck, I can’t see how you smoke used pipes somebody else slobbered on.

I said that’s why they make Everclear, my dear.

And she went on doing her nails.

I’m not the only Algerian briar addict in this world.

It was different.

It adds a kick to tobaccos other pipes cannot.

If the French had won the war all the sandblasted Shell Dunhills would still be made of Algerian briar today.


It was the best for devoted, hard core pipe smokers.

Who else loves old Algerian briar besides me?

 

[Ryan]

I hope I do, because all of your talk about Marxman pipes has caused me to pursue a couple of them. I need to know what all the fuss is about!

 

[telescopes]

I hope I do, because all of your talk about Marxman pipes has caused me to pursue a couple of them. I need to know what all the fuss is about!

Those old Marxman pipes need to be cleaned really well. I believe our good friend can smoke them a bit rank and still en joy them but I find I need to have mine professionally cleaned and ozone’s to remove every bit of ghost. The algerian briar is very much like a sponge in that sense. It will soak up lots of ghosts - which is why to really see th difference the pipe needs to be throughly cleaned. Just my two sense. Also, you need not get the ugly ones. Lots of decent looking Marxmans. Just make sure they were made before 54.

 

[Ryan]

Those old Marxman pipes need to be cleaned really well. I believe our good friend can smoke them a bit rank and still en joy them but I find I need to have mine professionally cleaned and ozone’s to remove every bit of ghost. The algerian briar is very much like a sponge in that sense. It will soak up lots of ghosts - which is why to really see th difference the pipe needs to be throughly cleaned. Just my two sense. Also, you need not get the ugly ones. Lots of decent looking Marxmans. Just make sure they were made before 54.

I think I have some pre-54 on the way, but how can you be sure of what year they are? I didn’t find definitive answers on the net to this point. If they are USA made, is that pre-54?

 

[telescopes]

I think I have some pre-54 on the way, but how can you be sure of what year they are? I didn’t find definitive answers on the net to this point. If they are USA made, is that pre-54?

Yes. The words Marxman should have an arrow through them and their should be no mention of another country. Also, the model name should be present as well.

 

[OzPiper]

Lots of makers other than Marx used Algerian briar back in the days

Here are a couple:
A 1952 Dunhill


A couple of French-made but London hallmarked FLCs


As @sablebrush52 pointed out recently a lot of the vaunted old Britwoods eg Barlings, Comoys, GBDs, BBBs, etc would have been made from Algerian briar

And yes, some of those would have been oil-cured.
If that is what floats your boat

 

[Briar Lee]

I think I have some pre-54 on the way, but how can you be sure of what year they are? I didn’t find definitive answers on the net to this point. If they are USA made, is that pre-54?

Yes.

Robert Marx made pipes at 27 W 24th NY NY from 1934 to 1953. They do NOT say made in USA, that was assumed. And except for some very rare ones I have I think were made by Mastercraft in NYC they do not read Algerian Briar but all are , even the imported from France and Italy ones.

It would not hurt one to have an ozone treatment, but mine clean up well using 190 proof Everclear.

Marx in New York City used a grade of Algerian as porous as a sponge, as soft as butter, and flame proof as asbestos. They do not need break in and will start to cake in just one smoke. It was the best briar ever to exist, and was graded that way.

Take a dental pick and try to count the growth rings which are about as thin as razor blades. All of it was well over a century old and some several centuries when dug.

Be aware it’s fragile. And yet while soft it doesn’t seem to soak up musty smells or rank odors.

The dark wine red brown color they get is only a whisker deep. I use a sharp pocket knife to square up chatter on the rims and it scrapes off to light tan and colors again to match in a few smokes. My Tom Howard Aged Algerian in the mail is a counterfiet Marxman Big Boy, and this is what you want them to color to, and it doesn’t take long.





Pipes made from centuries old Algerian briar aren’t sweet, light, and willowy if you smoke real tobaccos like Happy Bogie or Five Brothers or 1792 or even strong Va Pers. They add a kick. It’s indescribably delicious.

I can get a good case of nicotine hiccups from Sir Walter Raleigh or Granger.

When I do my wife giggles and asks me if I’d like to give up tobacco since it makes me sick.

My father tried that with a five pack of King Edward cigars long ago.

He threw up and I finished his and mine both.

 

[sablebrush52]

Take a dental pick and try to count the growth rings which are about as thin as razor blades. All of it was well over a century old and some several centuries when dug.

Weeelllll now, centuries old briar would be some pretty baaad Briar. Carney barkers eBay sellers love to trumpet the wonders of century old briar, like it actually matters. But like many of us, briar capillary structure breaks down when it gets superannuated in the ground and becomes unfil for making pipes.
Barling was known for its old wood, but read Barling's own 1920's literature on the topic, when they were operating in Algeria, and they write that they focused on burls from 35 to 60 years. They also write about burls of between 80 and 120 years of age in their 1962 catalog, stating that Algerian matures at a slower pace than briar from other regions. Problem is, by 1962 they had been out of Algeria fr 8 years, and were buying wood from anyplace where the quality met their metric.
But, a lot of actual woodworkers like the wood at between 35 and 60 years of age.
The great Rainer Barbi wrote about the topic:

100 Year Old Briar? - Pipedia

pipedia.org

I suppose the case might be made that the real secret of Barling's celebrated old wood was that it had been around long enough to be pissed on by Napoleon's horses and even the Emperor hisself during his North Aftrican campaign, and maybe that's the missing link.

 

[Briar Lee]

Yes. The words Marxman should have an arrow through them and there should be no mention of another country. Also, the model name should be present as well.

Known model names were the $2.50 Morocco, Dunsboro, and Selected Grain.

For $3.50 the customer got an umber stained and usually completely carved Mel-o

Benchmade and Super Briar were $5 and up grades and Jumbo was a $5 and up shape. They came natural tan Algerian briar color and unstained. These are what you want.

I think Royal was a $10 Super Briar grade.

The carved figure pipes of the horse and duck and man’s head and the like were mostly $5 and not stamped with a grade or model name that I’ve seen. I only have a horse head. It weighs 55 grams, an extra large pipe.

Some small pipes were stamped only the arrow and Marxman.

What you really want are the $15 size “Big Boys” as I call them.

Benchmade and Jumbo pipes came in the $10 C size, and will have a C stamp.

But Marx in some advertisements listed a $15 Benchmade. Some are enormous Billiards and the ones I love are the ones with fat shanks and saddle stems. A $15 pipe was entirely hand made.

It will not have any size stamps and usually no grade markings.

Like this one, on top:

The bottom pipe is a counterfeit no name Custombilt made of Algerian top grade briar.






By the way, building a cake seems to slow coloring down to a crawl, or stop it.



When that Big Boy gets in I’ll take a knife and that cake will peel off as easy as peeling an onion, it will fall off, leaving bare brown briar.

Then it will start coloring again.

 

[jpberg]

Where can I get some of that centuries old Algerian briar?

 

[Briar Lee]

Weeelllll now, centuries old briar would be some pretty baaad Briar. Carney barkers eBay sellers love to trumpet the wonders of century old briar, like it actually matters. But like many of us, briar capillary structure breaks down when it gets superannuated in the ground and becomes unfil for making pipes.
Barling was known for its old wood, but read Barling's own 1920's literature on the topic, when they were operating in Algeria, and they write that they focused on burls from 35 to 60 years. They also write about burls of between 80 and 120 years of age in their 1962 catalog, stating that Algerian matures at a slower pace than briar from other regions. Problem is, by 1962 they had been out of Algeria fr 8 years, and were buying wood from anyplace where the quality met their metric.
But, a lot of actual woodworkers like the wood at between 35 and 60 years of age.
The great Rainer Barbi wrote about the topic:

100 Year Old Briar? - Pipedia

pipedia.org

I suppose the case might be made that the real secret of Barling's celebrated old wood was that it had been around long enough to be pissed on by Napoleon's horses and even the Emperor hisself during his North Aftrican campaign, and maybe that's the missing link.

There is a good reason Missouri is called the “Show Me” state.

Except for the Osage Indian Princess brides some of my great great Grandfathers acquired my ancestors were all from Scotland until they moved to the new world and for about 200 years now have found Missouri close to the same as the Scottish Uplands.

We count ten growth rings, and see that they run about a hundred an inch, or more, and smoke the things.

This one is one of the younger ones.



If I handed that pipe to an Algerian briar atheist and he smoked it, he’d come away as convinced as Billy Sunday of the righteousness of true, top grade Algerian briar.

It’s old as hell.

Exactly how old is not essential.

 

[OzPiper]

There is a good reason Missouri is called the “Show Me” state.

We count ten growth rings, and see that they run about a hundred an inch, or more, and smoke the things.

View attachment 266966

Sorry to burst your bubble
What you are showing there as "growth rings" is in fact GRAIN which are fine capillaries which move water from the roots and burl up a plant.
Nothing whatsoever to do with age of the piece of wood

 

[sablebrush52]

Sorry to burst your bubble
What you are showing there as "growth rings" is in fact GRAIN which are fine capillaries which move water from the roots and burl up a plant.
Nothing whatsoever to do with age of the piece of wood

Beat me to it!

 

[jpberg]

Sorry to burst your bubble
What you are showing there as "growth rings" is in fact GRAIN which are fine capillaries which move water from the roots and burl up a plant.
Nothing whatsoever to do with age of the piece of wood

Well there goes the entire narrative.

 

[Briar Lee]

Show me those aren’t growth rings.

Marx didn’t fill and polish them out on lower grade pipes, that usually had no grain structure to speak of.

Kaywoodie found and used four hundred year old Grecian briar to make Flame Grains in 1937.




Fifty years ago and probably today at Lebanon Missouri a man came out when a logger rolled up in his truck to the Independent Stave Company.

If the logger had anything to offer except genuine white oak stave bolt grade logs of the only kind good enough for bourbon barrels, he’d reject the entire load and blackball the logger and his truck from selling stave bolts there ever again. If the truck wasn’t blackballed the logger might send a friend back with another load.

If they were all good the logger paid for his old truck and chainsaws every load, and money left over.

There were Frenchmen in Algeria many times meaner than stave bolt inspectors at Lebanon.


Algeria is a large country and the north is a temperate zone with a Mediterranean climate.

Marx got his briar from the places where the roots took over a hundred years to harvest,,,,or certainly a very, very long time.

It smoked better, is why he used it.

 

[Tate]

I do enjoy my Marxman pipes. Got my 400 in today!! My Super Briars and Jumbo Benchmades are my favorite smoking pipes.

 

[sablebrush52]

Show me those aren’t growth rings.

Marx didn’t fill and polish them out on lower grade pipes, that usually had no grain structure to speak of.

Kaywoodie found and used four hundred year old Grecian briar to make Flame Grains in 1937.

No, they didn't. Show me where the company wrote that they did that.

No growth rings:




But lots of capillaries.

 

[telescopes]

I do enjoy my Marxman pipes. Got my 400 in today!! My Super Briars and Jumbo Benchmades are my favorite smoking pipes.

Let’s see it!

 

[telescopes]

No, they didn't. Show me where the company wrote that they did that.

No growth rings:
View attachment 267000
View attachment 267001
View attachment 267003

But lots of capillaries.

Yeh, just spoil the movie with like, what? Facts. Your from Hollywood. Isn’t it all about the illusion? Dude. Like, spoil it all with facts. No work for you at the Magic Castle.

 

[Tate]

Let’s see it!

Need to give it some love but it is awesome. This thing dwarfs the C I have lol