All briar pipe.

ozark southpaw · All briar pipe.

Just bought an all briar pipe on Ebay which got me to wondering if Grabow/Linkman had ever made a pipe with a briar stem? I've seen a few all briar Kaywoodies on Ebay but never a Grabow or Linkman. Pipe I bought is a LSH/Purex.

drbridges

D&P Pipeworks of Sparta made all wood pipes of domestic wood. These were pre-Sparta DG.

Don't recall an all briar DG.

ozark southpaw

Do you know what brand-lines D&P would have made? What type of wood?

drbridges

I have 2 examples. 1 is stamped Spartan. The other appears to be unstamped. I assume they are made from the mountain laurel that reportedly attracted Lavietes to the Sparta area. But I've heard claims he also used rhododendron, and I can't distinguish between the two.

Lavietes used a patented stem joint of his design that allows you to remove the stem from the bowl.

ted

OS...There is also a version with a bit of shank in an "L" shape. These were all made in the 50's. D & P pipe works were David (father) and Paul (son) and Henry (another son) Lavietes. It's quite a story.

Luther Marlow, who started at the factory in 1949 says these were made for RJ Reynolds. Grabow had to have made some for their own sales...surely.

Thanks Dr.B...rhododendron and laurel are basically interchangeable woods for pipe making. Mountain folks use the terms interchangably. Most old "laurel" pipes were actually rhodendron. The plant actually grows BIGGER, and laurel is much smaller....in plant and "burl". Anybody ever driven the Blue Ridge Parkway? Both Rhododendron and Laurel are all along the way. A quick look will tell which is most suited for pipes.

ozark southpaw

Dr. B.,are the D&P pipes stamped as such? Ted would the RJR pipes be stamped RJR?

ted

OS....I had one ....unsmoked and sent it to Mac as a gift. It was stamped" D & P pipe works" and had a (I believe) maple stem. RJR pipes were NOT stamped RJR. I do not know what they might have been stamped......

Dr.B....Is SPARTAN a possible stamping for the RJR pipes? Or was that the "D & P brand"?

Mike Leverette

Due to WWII, 1941-1945/47, briar could not be had so many pipe makers used domestic woods such as Manzanita, Mountain Laurel and Rhododendron. Feuerbach wrote that Kaywoodie was again receiving briar in 1943* since the war in Africa was over, however, I would disagree with this on the premiss that all ships were still needed for war materials to and from the different battle zones. Though the fighting in Africa did cease in 1943, there were still plenty of U-Boats and German aircraft covering the Med Sea and adjacent areas adding to our dwindling supply of ships.

Also, rubber was listed as essential war goods here in the States and it was impossible to get anything made of rubber; Vulcanite is rubber! It was during this era when rubber inner tubes came in red to distinguish the synthetic rubber from real rubber. By the way, the red rubber made a lot better slingshot than the regular black rubber inner tubes.

Anyway, I wrote all of that just to say, there were a lot of all wood pipes, bowls and stems, back then.

* Just a little history on the side - My uncle Anthony Nutto, a New Jersey man, was a tail gunner on a B-24 flying out of Africa to bomb Nazi held areas in Greece, Italy, etc when he was shot down over water in 1943. His skeleton along with two others, were found still floating in the Med in 1946. He was flown home and buried at the Andersonville Cemetery; somewhere, I, 4-years old at the time, still have a cartridge case from the firing squad’s salute at the burial.

ted

GREAT POST MIKE.....great post......Grabow is in Sparta NC because of the war and no raw material. Thanks

steverino

Ted, I have a SPARTAN pipe, could this be one that you are talking about or a separate manufacturer altogether? I don't know any history on it.

ted

STEVE...does yours look like Dr.B's picture above? I vaguely remember Mastercraft selling a "Spartan", but it wasn't anything like the old D & P Spartan... D & P 's was only a "laurel" block with a maple (or ash) stem.......

ted

Now you've got me curious about the Spartan you have.....Construction? filter? aluminum?
Again, I vaguely remember something from Mastercraft (and now) Grabow called a Spartan....Why not?...it was Sparta....

Remind me to tell you about the VUE pipe from France that M/C sold....

steverino

Ted, I'll get a picture of it up tomorrow - it is labeled SPARTAN and under that, IMPORTED BRIAR in much smaller letters. Those are the only markings. It has some fairly striking grain, but it looks a little different than briar to me. It is a long-shanked billiard with a short saddle bit. From the feel, I'd say the bit is plastic but can't be sure, although it has some really odd looking wear marks in it. Teethmarks, to be sure, but something else as well, like it's been scraped and "dotted" with something like an awl. The stem has a fixed "stinger", similar to a Kaywoodie. I think I got it in a lot from an ebay auction and just cast it aside and haven't messed with it since.

steverino

Ted, here it is, sorry it took me so long to post it - had to switch picture hosting services, AOL dropped theirs. You can't really tell it from my sorry photography but the grain is quite pronounced.

ted

STEVE....The shape is a Grabow #69Y (maybe 36Y). That can't be hidden......Guess this'll give me more to think about.......Looks like it has a trademark on the stem. What is it? Thanks a bunch.....ted

steverino

Ted, the very faint mark that looks like it could be a trademark is actually just a couple of scratches. Unfortunately, there are no markings on the stem other than scratches. Here is a closeup showing the "stinger", don't know if that will help or not.

Mike Leverette

To me, the grain on Steve's Spartan looks more like Laurel than briar. Even without a wood stem, could this be the case?

ted

The cleaner looks exactly like an older style Grabow....Mac...TM....Dr.B....HELP........ted

ozark southpaw

It is also a twin for the stinger in my LSH Purex!

ted

STEVE...Sorry, I'm on the road....Look at ebay....130266164764......That's the D & P that I had......It's a Spartan.....My mystery deepens....ted

drbridges

I'll agree with Mike that the grain looks more like laurel. But if it is stamped Imported Briar, it probably isn't.

The collar around the threads makes it look ajustomatic. Will those threads screw into an ajustomatic female? I believe it is a Lavietes pipe. The 2-turn threads are notable. Most ajustos are nearer to 3-turn. But the earlier ones aren't so standardized.

Henry Leonard & Thomas had a $0.89 Spartan listed in the 1949 RTDA almanac. This is certainly one of those. This was before HL&T was making DG pipes.

I am always suspicious of removeable cleaner/stingers on vintage pipes, because I am often changing mine, and I assume other pipe smokers change theirs. The airway on this one is cut, not drilled through like I would expect to see on a pipe's cleaner from this period. So I suspect the cleaner/stinger on this pipe may not be original to the pipe.

steverino

Thanks for the insight, Dr. B. If it's a replacement stem, maybe that's why there is no trademark.

drbridges

No, I'll wager that is the original stem. The little metal cleaner/stinger might not be original.

Is it ajustomatic?

steverino

Well, it doesn't say so on the shank and I am not able to turn it. Sometimes I've been able to turn a stuck one after it is heated up, but I haven't smoked it yet.

drbridges

Yeah, I have several tricks for turning stuck ajustos, and some of them actually work, and some of them break the stem/shank.

For restoring the overturn feature in an Ajustomatic stem: A padded vise, a drop of Kroil, and a large measure of patient empathy is the best recipe.

ozark southpaw

I have good luck heating the stem (very carefully) over a candle and sticking it back in the pipe and a gentle constant pressure will generally break them loose. May require heating a couple of times. Once it breaks loose I dribble a little alcohol into the joint and stick it back in the pipe and turn. Brings out all kinda junk. If you try this keep the heat away from the spade!! It has a lower melting point!! I generally turn the stem 270 deg. back and forth heating just the end of the stem.

steverino

Good advice all. Okay Dr B, I'll bite - what is Kroil?

drbridges

Kroil - "the oil that creeps". It is a very light weight penetrating oil.

Oz's candle system might work quite well, especially if the heat is applied to the metal threads. The things are installed when the stem is quite hot and malleable, and it closes over them.

I keep intending to get a little alcohol burner for just such a purpose. Shouldn't soot as badly as candles.

Mike Leverette