S.M. Frank-era Kaywoodie Red Root straight rusticated apple

This is a pipe that I had previously categorized as for sale, but I have decided to add it to my collection.

This is a Kaywoodie Red Root. The Red Root is not a part of the original Kaywoodie line. It is a style of pipe that was introduced by S.M. Frank after that company purchased Kaywoodie. All the Red Roots I have seen have a similar reddish-brown rusticated finish and the fancy screw-in bit. Fortunately, the previous owner saw no need to mutilate this one and it still has its three-hole stinger intact.

When I decided to collect Kaywoodies, I had at first thought I would focus only on the "originals." But what the hey, I'll keep some representatives of the latter-day pipes in the collection, too.

I took this shot from the top to show what's left of the Frank-era cloverleaf logo. These pipes have only a white outline of the cloverleaf and it wears off very easily, as you can see.

There are some light tooth scuffs on the bit, but otherwise this is still a good old pipe.

Kaywoodie Campus Dublin

click to enlarge

The Campus was a Kaywoodie line of smaller-and-lighter-than-usual pipes, with a purpose. A purpose that, in my opinion, doubles as a gimmick.

The Campus pipes were supposedly intended to be used by college students and professors to get a quick smoke during breaks between classes. Small enough to fit handily in a pocket, and small bowl volume to produce a shorter smoke. This one is equipped with the usual screw stem and a 3-hole stinger.

In reality (in my opinion, of course) pipes made like this are usually too small. They don't have a lot of mass in the stummel, and have thin bowl walls, therefore they smoke hot. But, I should admit that I haven't actually smoked this one yet, so I may yet be proved wrong.

Someone had been smoking this one, but lightly. It had minimal cake and only light tooth scuffs on the bit. A small build-up of unburned leaves in the bottom suggests that the previous owner rarely finished the bowl. I would hazard a guess because it was uncomfortably warm by the time he got that far. It had barely any tar on the rim and the inside of the shank produced hardly any black stuff at all. I did give it a light reaming, since the upper part of the bowl had a disproportionately thicker cake than the bottom--more evidence that the previous owner had trouble finishing the bowl.

This pipe is so light, you might forget you have it in your mouth. At about 13cm in length, it weighs only 16 grams (about 1/2 ounce).

I'll be giving this one a trial run this week sometime, just so I can offer an honest opinion on how it smokes, but I can't see making this one part of my regular rotation.

UPDATE: Okay, I gave it a whirl. It did provide a very short smoke (20 minutes or so), and the bowl got so hot I had to hold it by the shank. Maybe it would perform better for someone who is not such an aggressive puffer as I. This one will go on the shelf as part of my Kaywoodie collection, but I doubt I'll be reaching for it very often.

The other Bertram

Here's a photo of the other Bertram in my work box--this one a big straight Dublin. If I'm not mistaken, that's some mighty fine straight grain on that pipe. The rim has some nicks, but not nearly as bad as the other one did. I'm pretty sure I still have the stem for this one, but it's a complete loss and will have to be replaced.

Revisiting the Bertram

I did some pipe work today, cleaning up the unidentified lovat and another Kaywoodie (also a lovat). I'll post about them later. In one of my pipe boxes I discovered that I still had the stem that came with the refinished Bertram, so I thought I'd clean it up and see how the pipe looks with a stem.

The stem was badly oxidized and took a good long bleach bath, followed by diligent buffing with tripoli. After further waxing, it didn't look too bad. However, I'm not sure this is the original stem. The tenon is slightly too long and it doesn't fit flush against the shank (might need to sand the tip of the tenon off just a little). Also, I think the taper stem is a mistake on this pipe. It is a big hunk of briar and is quite heavy. The tapered bit and all that weight causes it to slide right down to the button (the bulgy part on the end of the bit). What you can't see in this photo is that there is a big hole on the bottom of the bit from bite-through. I'm even more convinced now that my previous idea of putting a saddle bit on this pipe is correct. It would be flatter and should be easier to hold in the mouth.

No matter what kind of bit goes on it, it's still going to need some hand support. It's just big. Here are some dimensions.

Outer bowl diameter: 1 5/8 inches
Inner bowl diameter: 1 inch. One full (holy cow) inch. The bowl walls are a solid quarter-inch thick.
Bowl depth: 1 1/2 inches.
The stummel alone weighs just a hair less than 2 ounces. I have a small digital scale that use to weigh various small items. I had never thought of weighing pipes before, but now that I've done it, I think I'll have to do it more often. That will be interesting. For me, anyway.

I still plan on getting a new stem for this pipe because of that big bite-through hole, but I think I might have to try it out as is tonight.

UPDATE: What a fantastic pipe! This bowl is so cavernous that I could hear echoes as I trickled the tobacco in. Definitely not a writer's pipe, unless that writer chooses this pipe to take a break from writing. But wow, what a pipe!

Two more unnamed pipes

I thought I should go back to the early days and work forward from there, so here's a twofer because neither of these pipes are especially remarkable.

Back in the early days of my pipe smoking, that is, before internet access, I had no resources to help guide me. I bought what I could find. This meant I pretty much smoked nothing but various flavors of Captain Black and Borkum Riff. I still love the smell of Captain Black Whiskey, and although I'm sure it would make a nice sachet, I would never smoke it again. Anyhow, in one of those pouches was an ad for a place called Blue Ridge Pipe Company or something like that--Blue Ridge was in there somewhere, but I don't remember the exact name. So I sent for their catalog and to me, back then, it was a treasure-trove of pipe smoking supplies and paraphernalia. Over the course of a year or two I ordered tobacco, three pipes, a beautiful rosewood-bolstered pipe tool that I have since misplaced (but it's gotta be around here somewhere), and a pipe rack from them. These two pipes are from there.

Pipe #1 above is simply a small filter pipe. Like most small pipes of this nature, there is not enough mass in the bowl and it smokes hot. The interesting thing to me about this pipe is that it was described as a "pear" shape. This isn't a shape name that I've ever run into anywhere else and is worth keeping just so I have an example of the "pear."

This little bent billiard is actually a nice pipe and has some beautiful grain for such a cheap pipe. It's one of those unnamed Italian pipes. I have kept this pipe set aside for occasionally sampling aromatic blends, however, I just don't smoke aromatics at all anymore so I think I will give this one a salt treatment to try and remove the last vestiges of vanilla and then start putting some Perique blends through it.

What is the "salt treatment?" This is something I do often with estate pipes to remove the old flavors and rejuvenate it. First remove the stem and plug up the shank with a q-tip, a small piece of cotton, or a pipe cleaner. Prop up the stummel so that it will remain upright and won't fall over. Then you fill the bowl with salt. Then you carefully pour a small amount of alcohol into the bowl, just enough that the bowl is filled without any liquid slopping out on the rim. Most people prefer to use potable types of alcohol for this. I prefer to use Everclear, which in my opinion is the best pipe cleaning fluid you can get. Any kind of high-proof alcohol that doesn't have much flavor will work. Rum is another good one. So you've got it all filled and propped up, and you let it sit. How long you let it sit is up to you, but I always let it go until the salt is brown from absorbing gunk from the old cake and all the alcohol is pretty much evaporated. It usually takes a few hours. Use your pipe pick to remove the salt, then give it a regular cleaning like you always do with pipe cleaners and pipe sweetener (or more of your favorite high-proof alcohol beverage). Put it aside and let it rest for a day or two, then load it and light it.

If this doesn't work, it can be repeated but one must be careful because the salt treatment can dry out the wood. I destroyed a cheap basket pipe like this once by giving it too many treatments and it caused a bad crack in the shank.

There is an even more drastic measure that can be taken if the salt treatment doesn't work, but I will talk about it in a later post.

The third pipe that I purchased from Blue Ridge is a much better pipe, and will get it's own post (probably) tomorrow.

SOLD: Red Dot rusticated straight billiard

THIS PIPE HAS BEEN SOLD. IT IS NO LONGER AVAILABLE.

I've been going through pipes that I cleaned up a long time ago but never got around to putting on eBay. Most of them are not in the best of shape, anyway. This one is the best of the bunch, so it gets its own post.

The nomenclature is "RED DOT" over "IMPORTED BRIAR" on the left shank. It's about 5 1/2 inches long, with a bowl width of a little over 3/4 inch and a bowl depth of about 1 1/2 inches.

The bowl and shank are all rusticated. The rim is not nicked. Those are part of the rusticated finish.

This is a screw-stem pipe without any kind of condenser ball. The bit is in excellent conditon and has no tooth marks. All in all, this pipe is in great shape for an estate pipe. I just wish I had more information on the maker.

This one is for sale, $5 plus shipping. Leave a comment or email me at alandp (at) blazeisp (dot) com if you're interested.

S.M. Frank-era Kaywoodie straight billiard

Here is a scannergraph (a photo that I took with my old scanner) from several years ago, right after I had done some major restoration on this pipe. It is one of the more modern Kaywoodies that are made by the S.M. Frank company. This pipe, along with the Dublin in the previous post, was one of the pair of pipes that were my first Kaywoodies ever purchased.

There's nothing special about this pipe. A plain straight billiard with a heavy finish, it is reliable and has stood up well to repeated smokes with little or no rest between. But it will serve as an example of something that, when it comes to pipes, fills me with rage.

In this photo I took this morning (overcast and dark, so it's not the best but it will do), the billiard in question is at top and the apple that I posted on a few days ago is beneath. The stem of the apple shows a typical Kaywoodie "stinger," or screw fitment. Stingers are not all identical, but they should all look something like the one pictured. As you can see, the billiard has been mutilated.

There is absolutely no reason whatsoever to take a hacksaw to the stinger of a Kaywoodie pipe. If there is a moisture problem, the aluminum fitment makes it perfectly safe to unscrew the stem while the bowl is still warm so you can run a pipe cleaner into the shank or wipe off the stinger itself. If you want to cut it off because it makes cleaning the stem more difficult, well then, that's a personal problem you need to deal with. You still have no business castrating a Kaywoodie this way.

This pipe will also serve to show an example of the difference between Kaywoodie logos. The old logo is a white material (I don't know what it is) set into a cloverleaf-shaped indentation in the stem (or on older Kaywoodies, the shank). The modern S.M. Frank Kaywoodies simply have a cloverleaf outline on the stem which is originally marked in white. It is cheaply done and the color wears off easily, as you can see.

In spite of all its problems, this has always been a very reliable pipe for me. It can bang around in my truck all day with no problem, and handles strong Perique blends with aplomb. Since it is not an original American Kaywoodie and also since the stinger has been cut off, I would never try to sell it. It is just an everyday pipe and remains part of my collection for the examples it provides--and it smokes well, I must admit.

Bertram billiard

Previously...



I should add that the other side that I didn't take a picture of had a worse scratch than that.

And now...

At first I was worried that the stain I used was too dark. It made this stately stummel look like a dark blob. But the buff & wax turned it into a real jewel. I just need to sandpaper the inside of the bowl to make the cake smooth. I'm looking forward to getting a stem on this one.

This is where it all started...

It was cold, I remember that. I was in tech school, so it was in either 1991 or 1992, in January or February. On the other end of the strip mall from the school there was a Walgreens. We often walked down there during breaks to fortify ourselves with junk food and Mountain Dew to keep from going to sleep in classes that ran until 11:00 at night.

And yes, they had a shelf of cheap Dr. Grabow pipes.

Ever since I had been a little boy smelling the sweet scent of an old farmer's rum-flavored pipe tobacco, I had wanted to--someday--smoke a pipe. It looked good. It smelled good. There was an unassuming, quiet dignity about it. So one night I purchased the pipe shown above and a pouch of Captain Black Whiskey.

Oh, the junk I put through that poor pipe. Several varieties of Captain Black, Borkum Riff, and who knows what other brands that I've forgotten by now. This was before internet access became widespread, and I had no one to go to for information about pipes and pipe smoking. I was a rank newbie with no mentor in sight, and everything I learned, I learned through bitter trial and glorious error. It was my only pipe for several weeks, and it didn't get nearly enough rest between loads of gunky drugstore aromatics. It's a wonder I didn't throw it in the trash and never think about it again. But I persevered. The entire process of smoking this cheap pipe still greatly appealed to me, and I knew instinctively that the experience should have been even better.

A simple straight apple filter pipe, there is nothing great about it. It is a thin-walled, poor quality pipe with a heavy finish that smokes hot no matter what goes in it. As soon as I had built up a rotation of four or five pipes, it became semi-retired and seldom-smoked. Within a year or so of its purchase, I cleaned it up very well, polished it, put it on the rack, and never smoked it again.

It is a worthless pipe. I wouldn't be able to give it away on eBay. I now have probably a good 30 pipes that are better than this one. But still it stays on the rack, because it was my first, and one should never lose track of one's roots.

Kaywoodie #67 Prime Grain Long Shank straight billiard

Several years ago I got lucky and scored a lot of five 1960s-era Kaywoodies that were all in excellent condition, except for one that had a huge fill on the shank. If I had acquired the same lot now, I would have put them all on the rack and not considered reselling. But back then I was more interested in getting funds into my Paypal account (if I recall correctly, I was saving up to buy some Makarov accessories from makarov.com). I sold the other four, but this one looked so nice I couldn't bring myself to auction it right away. Finally I put it up with a starting bid of $20. No one took it. A few months later I tried again with a start of $15. Still, nobody wanted it. Your loss, folks, because it won't be offered again.

This one is most likely from the late 1960s, and it looks like it was never smoked at all. I still haven't smoked it because it looks so pristine, and who am I to soil a 40-year-old pipe? Just kidding. I'll smoke it eventually, but I'm in no hurry. I'll be taking extra care of this one because it just looks so good. By the way, I uploaded a picture that's a little higher-res than usual, so click to enlarge and glory in all that slick briar.

With a shank longer than the usual, but not long enough to fall into the Canadian family, Kaywoodie understandably called this one the Long Shank. The shape number 62 designates it as a small billiard. The bowl still cants well right of center, so it likely has not been used at all. The Prime Grain is toward the upper end of the Kaywoodie system, although not as high as the Flame Grain, so a better-than-the-average-quality burl went into the making of this pipe. This pipe certainly merits a place in the permanent collection. Maybe someday I'll smoke it, or maybe I'll just save it for the next generation--or both.

Kaywoodie #H7 Hi-Bowl

Produced during the 1960s, this is the Kaywoodie Hi-Bowl designated #H7. There were six different shapes in the Hi-Bowl line. I have not been able to find pictures of any of them. No vintage ads, no descriptions, nothing. This is the only one I have ever seen.

This is one of the few pipes that I bought via eBay as a single. Most of what I get are in lots of several; I may keep one or two that appeal to me and resell the rest. But I thought this pipe looked so ungainly, so awkward, that I bought it for the same reason Charlie Brown bought that little Christmas tree. That was back before I considered myself a collector, and I wasn't looking for Kaywoodies intentionally.

This pipe required extensive work before it was presentable, much less smokeable. The briar is in fine shape, however, the stem has one hole in the bit from bite-through. It's a small hole on the underside and is invisible in this photo, and as far as I can tell it doesn't affect the smokeability.

I don't smoke this pipe often. The combination of that tall bowl and a long, straight stem makes it very fore-heavy and I prefer bent pipes with a lower center of gravity. But since I do like to collect Kaywoodies, this one definitely gets a place in my permanent collection.

Kaywoodie #42 Super Grain straight apple

As I was going through my "work-on" box I rediscovered this old Kaywoodie and knew I had to clean it up.

Exact dating of Kaywoodies can be a problem, but based on the logo and the stinger configuration this one runs somewhere in the 1940s to 1960s range, and is in pretty good shape for a fifty-year-old pipe. The bowl cants very slightly left of center, so it has some some wear but is not out of balance by any means. Although I am most fond of bent pipes, this simple straight apple is a classic design. The rim has some minor charring, but that is about to be expected for a well-used pipe of this age. The shape number 42 means that this one is a medium apple.

This one smokes quite well and the apple shape is very comfortable in the hand. I might have to forsake my usual bents for this one to get re-seasoned with something I like.

The Super Grain grade is midway in the order of Kaywoodie pipes, and this one will have a place in my permanent collection.