Why Some Pipes Deliver More Nicotine

[Chasing Embers]

I interrupt the yuks to seek some clarification from my pal, Briar Lee.

From various of your posts in various threads I've inferred the following, sometimes mutually exclusive, um, facts, about Bob Marx and his pipes;

He was a marketing genius who took cheap briar that nobody else wanted, charged more for the pipes made therefrom than his competitors charged for pipes made from more expensive briar, and thus built a highly profitable business.

The cheap briar turned out to smoke better than "good" briar; blind, dumb luck and sort of beside the point from a business model standpoint.

His entire goal was to make the best smoking pipes available.

He was a briar genius who knew cheap briar would smoke better than good briar.

He was a briar genius who knew how to select the specific examples of cheap briar--not just any old cheap Algerian briar--that would smoke best

His most expensive pipes smoked best; you got what you paid for.

His cheapest pipes smoked best; oh sweet irony.

So, BL, what's the deal? I'm confused.

You should see his "facts" regarding pipes by Lee.

 

[Cloozoe]

You should see his "facts" regarding pipes by Lee.

By the way, lest I be misunderstood, (especially by my personal moderator) I enjoy the heck out of brother BL

 

[Cloozoe]

I don’t even like...pipes with the weird gouges and furrows that encircle the bowl

I don't either, and thanks for the help with the descriptors; I didn't know what to call the random hacking. "Weird gouges and furrows" should become standard established terminology for that kind of pipe construction

 

[telescopes]

By the way, lest I be misunderstood, (especially by my personal moderator) I enjoy the heck out of brother BL

Van is the real deal - a hillbilly codger with a storytelling pedigree and a genuine law degree to boot. Instead of one old beat up pipe that he smokes to it rots, he has hundreds of beat up old pipes. My only regret when it comes to Van is that I don’t live close enough to him to have an occasional smoke with him. I do enjoy his stories. I am positive that if we want fishing he could tell me about the best Zebco.

 

[telescopes]

I don't either, and thanks for the help with the descriptors; I didn't know what to call the random hacking. "Weird gouges and furrows" should become standard established terminology for that kind of pipe construction

I believe they are referred to as Worm Tracks.

 

[Cloozoe]

Van is the real deal - a hillbilly codger...

Hey! Easy on the "codger" stuff; I'm six years older than he is!

 

[sham]

Watching Briar Lee wax poetic about certain pipes or history adds alot of character to the forum and enjoyment to my personal reading.

And if he is being paid royalties from all these american pipe resellers, his law practice is probably just a side gig.

 

[telescopes]

A No-Thrills, No Fills Marxman with typical worm trails.

 

[Briar Lee]

I interrupt the yuks to seek some clarification from my pal, Briar Lee.

From various of your posts in various threads I've inferred the following, sometimes mutually exclusive, um, facts, about Bob Marx and his pipes;

He was a marketing genius who took cheap briar that nobody else wanted, charged more for the pipes made therefrom than his competitors charged for pipes made from more expensive briar, and thus built a highly profitable business.

The cheap briar turned out to smoke better than "good" briar; blind, dumb luck and sort of beside the point from a business model standpoint.

His entire goal was to make the best smoking pipes available.

He was a briar genius who knew cheap briar would smoke better than good briar.

He was a briar genius who knew how to select the specific examples of cheap briar--not just any old cheap Algerian briar--that would smoke best

His most expensive pipes smoked best; you got what you paid for.

His cheapest pipes smoked best; oh sweet irony.

So, BL, what's the deal? I'm confused.

At the age of only 29, Bob Marx convinced enough old men in New York City to help him launch a brand new pipe company in the middle of the worst world wide Depression in all recorded human history. Some lent him money, and his collateral could have only been Bob Marx. Some went to work for him. And the most important bunch of old men who helped Bob Marx were a lot of independent pipe dealers who placed orders.

He had to have a most excellent gift of telling old men bullshit that was true.

He never advertised he used Algerian briar.

Yet all the old men (including me) addicted to Marxman pipes are certain that he did use Algerian.

The key to understanding the operation is the kid had been an executive with WDC. He knew old men who worked there, and he knew what machines they would need, knew about advertising and most important he knew where to buy briar and sell pipes to dealers.

There must have been some huge cache of ancient briar he bought to start.

If it was soft it wasn’t suitable for automatic machine fraising.

He knew those old men could make pipes from piss elm if they had to.

The first products in 1934 were generic 50 cent and $1 and $1.50 pipes, according to the press release.

Only later did Marx match Kaywoodie pricing with a far cheaper pipe for the dealer to buy, and it had three “hooks”

Rugged style (for the outdoor man of action)

The owner didn’t need to break it in, and they smoke very well

The things turn red wine dark brown in a month

Those dealers peddled all of the pipes we find today in high condition to the women who loved a cigarette smoker.

What man in that era would pay that much for an ugly pipe.

 

[telescopes]

What man in that era would pay that much for an ugly pipe.

You forget that Bob marketed other pipes and many of his other styles were owned by celebrities, politicians, and movie stars of those times. His other pipes included traditional shapes and finishes as well as his "art carved" line of people, animals, and other curiosities. He had 80 sculpted pipes made by some of the finest artist of his day. What survives, oddly, are many of the monstrosities that most likely made through time because they were so ugly no one really smoked them. But to state that his pipes were ugly is to misconstrue the majority of his pipe line. Just look at his catalog if you are in doubt.

It just so happens you prefer his ugly pipes - I think you said once that you just didn't find an ugly pipe, you bought the whole forest, LOL.

 

[Briar Lee]

You forget that Bob marketed other pipes and many of his other styles were owned by celebrities, politicians, and movie stars of those times. His other pipes included traditional shapes and finishes as well as his "art carved" line of people, animals, and other curiosities. He had 80 sculpted pipes made by some of the finest artist of his day. What survives, oddly, are many of the monstrosities that most likely made through time because they were so ugly no one really smoked them. But to state that his pipes were ugly is to misconstrue the majority of his pipe line. Just look at his catalog if you are in doubt.

It just so happens you prefer his ugly pipes - I think you said once that you just didn't find an ugly pipe, you bought the whole forest, LOL.View attachment 258119

A new expensive old pipe smoked half of one bowl or maybe a couple and missing a price tag, it stands to reason was a gift.

A new unsmoked old stock pipe in a box with a price tag and all papers represents a failure of a merchant to move merchandise.

The most important mission of any consumer product is to make the cash register ring.

Fashion and style change with each season but basic human nature has not changed since Adam took a break from getting to know his new companion and came back and she’d been talking to a snake and had done the one thing she could do to get them both killed.

And what did he do?

Aw, hell, let’s see how that tastes, honey sugar pie.

As it turned out they only lost their home place, and he got to keep the girl.

The Marxman pipes I buy, were bought for a rugged outdoor man of action, not by him.

 

[telescopes]

The Marxman pipes I buy, were bought for a rugged outdoor man of action, not by him.

So... are you saying you're a woman? Eve?

I hope they're not putting anything in the water around Humansville - You're in the Ozarks... not Palm Springs. Wait...did you see the movie Deliverance,

 

[telescopes]

Okay, I'll admit, that may have taken humor a bit too far.

 

[FLDRD]

Wow!
Love the yarn.
Hate the worm-trails.
Cheers.

 

[Briar Lee]

So... are you saying you're a woman? Eve?

I hope they're not putting anything in the water around Humansville - You're in the Ozarks... not Palm Springs. Wait...did you see the movie Deliverance,

When that Deliverance movie came out a lot of us Mountain Williams were enraged at the stereotype of mountaineers engaging in crimes against nature perpetrated against outsiders.

The banjo picking was excellent, though.

The only rational expiation for a man wanting another man to squeal like a pig was that movie must have been referencing extremely depraved, lazy hillbillies who couldn’t catch their sisters.

 

[Briar Lee]

It is not wishful or fanciful thinking how the creations of Bob Marx color so quickly.

This massive Big Boy, that scales 75 grams, is perfectly balanced and clenches effortlessly. It looked like the original owner smoked a half a bowl on Christmas 1946 and it’s slept in a drawer since.

This is after a few more than a dozen bowls of careful smoking, no oil added. It smokes as well as any pipe at any price.

Lord (soon to be Baron) Inverchapel’s ravishingly beautiful and shockingly young Chilean socialite wife might have given the tweedy Scotsman this pipe and he didn’t appreciate it because it was made in the colonies.

His loss, and my gain.

 

[sablebrush52]

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