It is my heaviest pipe of that size, by quite a margin. But I agree with your statement further, and wouldn't be limiting it to Asia. Ethics don't seem to rule anywhere at present.
Your Best Cheap Pipe; Here's Mine; Let's See Yours!
- Thread starter gord
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Maybe that's why all of the clarinettists and oboeists I know are batshit crazy.
While "best" pipe is subjective and changes with time, at the present I would give that pronouncement on this old Marxman Captain. Marxman pipes were inexpensive and built to fit a niche, beginning back in the 30's but today they are known as very ugly pipes. That is a discussion for another time, but this particular pipe cost me $15 and smokes like an absolute dream....
Hardly an investment, it can't even pass a pipe cleaner. For the longest time it was a toolbox pipe for work now I keep it in my storage building for yard work. Like other Dunhills I've owned, not worth the price of admission. I'd have to look though, it may have gotten culled the last time I was clearing out the less used pipes a few days ago.I’d gladly double your return on that investment!
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I paid just a hair over 21 dollars for this amphora prince. Shipping is what barely pushed it over the 20 dollar mark..it smokes very well. Vintage Amphora X-TRA Prince Shaped Tobacco Pipe | eBay - https://www.ebay.com/itm/176529437479
It is indeed an ugly little sucker, but in a loveable way. Like my 20 year old Shih-Tsu Ricoh. . He's totally blind and deaf, (has been for 3 years) stinks like a compost heap, is disobedient as all get out, but he still loves to eat, sleep, dump, urinate on my feet as I sit down and read, and he disobays 95% of leash commands, whether he falls down the steps or not. Oh yeah, he's ugly, too.
But I wouldn't trade him, sell him, pitch him out or gas him. He's one of a kind. I never wanted him in the first place, but when he was 6, a friend who was getting divorced gave him to me because the place that she moved to with her kids wouldn't take pets. After trying several other people, she told me that if I can't take him, she'll have to put him down. The rest is history.
So I understand the true meaning of ugly! Enjoy that ugly little pipe and don't let anybody tell you to throw it away. I wouldn't either.
Set a Time Machine for 50yrs ago
My dad bought it at Iwan Ries when I was a wee lad.
It’s a Decatur, and I’ve seen similar for sale on eBay and such. I’ve yet to see one that spins with slots for nine plus the cleaner holder, and rarely if ever do they have the correct jar and lid.
Sobrbiker, have you ever visited Iwan Ries in Chicago?? It is on my bucket list of shops to visit some day. I have a pretty cool visual of what it will look like.Set a Time Machine for 50yrs ago
My dad bought it at Iwan Ries when I was a wee lad.
It’s a Decatur, and I’ve seen similar for sale on eBay and such. I’ve yet to see one that spins with slots for nine plus the cleaner holder, and rarely if ever do they have the correct jar and lid.
I have not. I was 2-3 years old when we lived in Glenview and my father worked in Chicago (1968-70). He frequented them often then continued to do so for many years into the seventies after he was transferred to Arizona, every time he had to fly back to the main offices.
I’d like to, but haven’t found myself in Chicago since pre-inheriting his pipes a couple years ago.
Their service is excellent-when I first got the rack, I contacted them to see if they might have a new seal for the jar, and although not in their computer, the associate helping me looked for half an hour through their storage but couldn’t find any old stock.
My best cheap pipe is an old Dr. Grabow Savoy billiard (yellow spade in stem) which I did not want at the time but was included in a bundle with two Falcon billiards that I did want. The Savoy acquitted itself nicely, though, and has proved to be a "magic pipe" that beautifully smokes whatever tobacco I charge its bowl with.
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My first Marxman, pre hellabalou Briar Lee, was this 6 Panel pipe, probably a post 54 Marxman made by MasterCraft who took them over. The vulcanite is very cheap and I broke the top of the stem at the bit when I was opening the draw. Because the pipe smoke so well, I took the time to glue it back with black CS glue and sand the finish to the point that one can not tell it ever broke. For whatever reason, this is a very good smoking pipe. It now has a "racing car" draw and it has the ability to smoke tobacco as well as any of my other pipes.
I almost always smoke either a clay or a Missouri Meerschaum hardwood. Spoilt for choice, they are all wonderful smokers. I paid $6 for one of these:
Cool story. I know that the pipes and tobacco that I have ordered from them is always handled with the greatest of customer service of anyplace I have dealt with. I have always thought that it harkens back to an older time when the "customer was king." Sure miss those days.
Whoa..... I love the six panel design. I'll bet it does smoke great.
Well, I am of a certain age
I grew up on a diet of Beano comics and (the English) Dennis the Menace and his dog, Gnasher
As well as the US version by Hank Ketcham.
Loved Walter Matthau in the role as his grumpy old neighbour in the films
This is my other really cheap pipe. Made by Whitehall, it is called a Pipe Maker. But, for such a cheap, cheap pipe, it remains a good smoker, and while kept in a drawer in the pipe cabinet, it occasionally gets smoked - and always a good smoke.
My old cheap American Drug Store pipes from the 50s will never get sold - I couldn't bear to see them go somewhere unappreciated - but this thread certainly gave me an good excuse to pull them out of mothball and take them out for a spin.