Yes you guessed it...Another new guy onboard

david64 · Yes you guessed it...Another new guy onboard

Hello Everyone Very Happy

ted

Welcome david64. Glad you joined us. Roll up your pants legs and wade right in. I do like the avatar.

Sir Duke · Welcome

Hey Dave,

Welcome to the forum. Kudos also on the Avatar.

Post Early, Post often,

TM63

drbridges

Welcome to the forum, david64. Hope you find something interesting here. And share.

drb53

ozark southpaw

Welcome David64,if you dont mind me asking ,what part of the country do you hail from?

LokoMac8

Glad to have you aboard! Always great to learn of another Dr. Grabow fan! Hope you enjoy the Forum and I look forward to your contributions! --RJ--

dougallen48 · One more newbie

Good evening to all. I'm new to this forum but hardly new to Dr. Grabow. Like Ted, I was with the company in Sparta but only for about 6 years.

drbridges

Welcome Doug. Hope you feel you are among friends here. Grab a chair and a drink and make yourself comfortable. Do you smoke a pipe?

dougallen48 · Yes, I do

I have the honor of smoking a few beautiful pies. One of my favorites was given to me by Marisa Gigi (Gasparini) on one of my visits to her place. Another is a Mastro de Paja given to me by Thomas Cristiano after a speech I gave in ST. Louis many years ago. The ones that seem to be next to the tobacco bowl most often have a Spade symbol on the stem. Must have something to do with my tenure in Sparta.

drbridges

That was a great speech, Doug. I've read it several times.

Those DG pipes have a way of getting used, don't they? I sure have enjoyed mine.

Sir Duke · Re: Yes, I do

LokoMac8 · Re: One more newbie

AmericanHussar

Anywhere we can read that speech?

Welcome, David 64!

drbridges

Sir Duke

drbridges · Here it is

A NEW TAKE ON DR. GRABOW

Doug Allen, OPC member and President of Sparta Industries, delivered the following speech at the 1995 PCI show in St. Louis. Hearing about it, I prevailed upon Doug to let it appear in print first in the OPC newsletter, and he graciously agreed. Reader comments and replies are encouraged.

The Honorable Dr. Grabow

Doug Allen

This evening, gathered with this large group of pipe lovers, I'd like
to honor the greatest of pipes--Dr. Grabow. Surely, you're saying, I must
have taken leave of my senses to call Dr. Grabow the greatest of pipes.
Well, I've made a claim, so let me try to justify my outrageous statement.

In our country, one measure of greatness has always been size: the
bigger, the better; the more, the merrier. Dr. Grabow sells nearly one
million pipes a year. But, you argue, certainly in this case more is not
necessarily merrier. Simply because the masses smoke a Dr. Grabow doesn't
mean it should be classed as a great pipe. Certainly, you insist, a Dr.
Grabow cannot be judged as comparable to the Mastro de Paja that my good
friend Thomas Cristiano is showing this weekend. Nor would anyone compare
the collectability of a Dr. Grabow to Steve Anderson's handmades. Why then
am I standing here talking about Dr. Grabow? Can it be the construction?

Yes, in many ways the methods of making a Dr. Grabow are exactly the
same as those the fine Italian artisans employ. Of course there are
differences. We don't spend as much time sanding a Dr. Grabow as the
Lorenzetti Brothers might, for example. Our bits, though we use some
lucite, may not be as fancy as Cesare Barontini produces for our
Mastercraft Aldo Velani line. The most similar feature between a Dr.
Grabow and the exquisite pipes many of you are smoking tonight is the wood.
Every Dr. Grabow pre-smoked pipe starts with exactly the same block of
briar as does your favorite. Yet this lowly block of wood is why I speak
about the greatness of Dr. Grabow.

Before I finish that thought about Dr. Grabow, let me talk for a few
minutes about the wood. The White Heather (Erica Arborea) grows in the
sandy soil of the mountains ringing the Mediterranean Sea. After about
five hot summers and mild winters, a small fibrous growth starts forming
just above the roots. After many years (even centuries) of growth, the
burl is ready to be harvested. This harvest is a time-consuming,
back-breaking job. During one trip to Greece, I clambered over the hills
to observe the workers (paid by the weight of their finds) dig these burls
using only a pick and lots of elbow grease. Thansis, a typical worker,
uses his family burro to move his wood about 15 kilometers to his meeting
spot with George Siderakis, the mill owner. The burls are washed and then
kept wet, to avoid splitting, until the cutter is ready to change the burl
into briar blocks. Imagine sitting in a loft all day with your feet
dangling down and an 18-inch saw blade whirling at a couple thousand RPMs
near your crotch. If that isn't enough, the wood they're cutting is wet
and still a little muddy. Do you remember the last time you tried to cut a
slightly damp 2x4? It's tough, dirty work and the workers get paid only
for the usable block they cut during the long day. As the blocks are cut,
the cutter grades the wood based on visible grain and imperfections
showing. During all this, the wood must be kept wet.

When a fairly large amount of cut wood has been accumulated, it is
boiled in a large copper vat for 24 hours. The boiling removes most of the
natural oils from the wood. This is the beginning of the break-in process
for your new pipe. Only after boiling can the wood-drying process begin.
At the saw mill, the cut blocks are allowed to dry for approximately 90
days. After drying, the blocks are sorted by size and bagged for shipping
to a pipemaker.

Once we receive a shipment of briar, we continue the drying in special
rooms for another 90 days minimum. For the highest grade pipes, we dry the
wood for at least a year before turning and then another six months after
turning but before any sanding or other work. This insures you the
easiest, most enjoyable break-in period and the most pleasurable smoking
experience overall.

I know you think I've gotten off track by talking about how the wood
is harvested when I started talking about the greatness of Dr. Grabow
pre-smoked pipes. The wood is the greatness of Dr. Grabow. No, we don't
use all straight-grain, perfect blocks for Dr. Grabow. Many of the more
perfect blocks are used in our production of the Alpha USA series and the
Blue Ridge Collection. Because we buy almost all the world's production of
non-straight-grain and less-than-perfect briar blocks, the price of your
favorite Dunhill is only in the thousand-dollar neighborhood, or you only
have to pay several hundred dollars or more for that exquisite Mastro de
Paja.

We buy slightly over half the world's total briar wood production. If
it weren't for the Dr. Grabow drug-store pipe, the briar wood industry
along the Mediterranean sea would all but disappear. This in turn would
drive up the price of wood far beyond what the market would allow, thus
ending the pipe business as we know it today. We know this is true
because, eight years ago [1987], Sparta Industries found itself vastly overstocked
with briar and quit buying for three years. During that time, six of 21
small briar-processing factories--29% of the total--closed their doors, and
five of them did not re-open when we began buying briar again after three
years.

So, as with many things in our world, our small, humble entry into the
market paves the way for the rest. Richard Nixon coined a phrase that
perfectly describes Dr. Grabow--the silent majority.

Don't misunderstand me. Even though Dr. Grabow is a great pipe, I
still save my pennies in hopes of one day affording one of Tom's beautiful
Mastro de Paja pipes. But I hope that, while you puff on your favorite,
you'll more fully appreciate the role Dr. Grabow plays in the world of
smoking pipes.

AmericanHussar

Excellent, thanks!

drbridges

You're welcome. Perhaps that speech should be re-posted under an appropriate topic header so we can find it again. lol

Sir Duke

Seriously, you name it and I'll do it.

T

PS I found my hat!

Colt

Welcome David, I am new here also, as of last week. Everyone here has been helpfull, friendly, and obviously dedicated to thier Grabows! Doug Allen, what a coincidence, just read your speech earlier this evening. Do I understand correctly that the quality of the briar in the Grabows is equal to that of many of the more expensive pipes, or did I misinterprete it? In all honesty I was going over it pretty quickly, and should probably re-read it.
I also have a question, which may seem laughable to you more knowledgeable gents. Does, or did, Dr. Grabow make any non-filter pipes, or use those little metal moisture traps?

Sir Duke

I dont know the whys or what nots but i believe they did albiet not in the order or magnitude of the filter pipes. I have a couple and don't know if they are anomolies or raieties or both. One I know was not made for market, the oters I belive to have been made as Alpha series pipes which were supposed to be more upscale...

Yes you guessed it...Another new guy onboard

Welcome

One more newbie

Yes, I do

Re: Yes, I do

Re: One more newbie

Here it is