Curt Rollar pipes?

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free_byrd15

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I saw 2 on eBay, and this one looks exceptional. Thoughts on any of his pipes from those that may have them? I

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Sold on eBay with a buy it now for 75 bucks. Seemed like a great deal
 
I've done a little research and apparently he and Mark Tinsky worked together at one time?
 
free_byrd15":2gsgn7ah said:
I've done a little research and apparently he and Mark Tinsky worked together at one time?
That's true. Mark has always spoken highly of Curt, who no longer makes pipes.

Jack
 
Mark and Curt started American Smoking Pipes back in the 1970s. The pipes that they made are stamped with MT or CR, indicating who made the pipe. They later went their separate ways, with Mark continuing to make pipes under the ASP name. Curt is well known for his bent cauldron shapes.

You can read more here

http://www.amsmoke.com/Index%20Folder/PipeHist.html

Mike Hagley
 
I read through that while doing a search. I'm curious to hear if 75 bucks for that pipe is a good deal. The grain is great, and with the cost of a tinsky now, It seems like a good buy.
 
free_byrd15":k1ld69za said:
I read through that while doing a search. I'm curious to hear if 75 bucks for that pipe is a good deal. The grain is great, and with the cost of a tinsky now, It seems like a good buy.
It is, in my opinion, if that darkening on the left side is a thumbprint and not an impending burnout. I'm not sure if, for American Smoking Pipes pieces of that age, it makes a big difference in price whether it was made by Curt or Mark. This was really the early days, and it may be that in the end Curt didn't make enough pipes for people to collect him, specifically. This is the second one I've seen a question about in just a few weeks, though.

Jack
 
I have one Curt Rollar, originally purchased at John B. Hayes years ago. The original owner didn't smoke it very often; I got it for quite a low price on Ebay a few years ago. It is shaped like an upside down "witches hat," which is what the store owner named it!! It's a 1/8th bent rusticated beauty which smokes like a dream. I think you'll enjoy your "Rollars." :pipe: FTRPLT
 
howellhandmade":d6n94z2p said:
free_byrd15":d6n94z2p said:
I read through that while doing a search. I'm curious to hear if 75 bucks for that pipe is a good deal. The grain is great, and with the cost of a tinsky now, It seems like a good buy.
It is, in my opinion, if that darkening on the left side is a thumbprint and not an impending burnout. I'm not sure if, for American Smoking Pipes pieces of that age, it makes a big difference in price whether it was made by Curt or Mark. This was really the early days, and it may be that in the end Curt didn't make enough pipes for people to collect him, specifically. This is the second one I've seen a question about in just a few weeks, though.

Jack
I'll show my ignorance here....what is an impending burnout? How can you tell if it's about to happen?
 
free_byrd15":5gte8d7u said:
I'll show my ignorance here....what is an impending burnout? How can you tell if it's about to happen?
When the wall of the tobacco chamber begins to char deeper in one spot. Left unattended, this spot can char all the way through to the outside, at which point there is a burnout and the pipe is ruined. There can be a soft spot or a flaw in the briar that allows it to burn, or the smoker may be in the habit of smoking very hot and/or relighting aggressively. They are rare, but I've known pipe smokers who burned out practically every pipe they owned, just a matter of time.

Burning briar has a distinct taste and aroma, so you can usually tell if one of your own pipes has a problem. In most cases early detection can be backed up with careful smoking of partial bowls until the area (usually in the lower third of the bowl) is protected by cake, or with application of pipe mud, a paste made of cigar ash and water, if the spot has charred deeply. Wood that needs pipe mud will appear cracked and burned, unlike a properly caked surface.

Pipes that are about to burn through will often show a darkening of the exterior at the problem spot. That is not necessarily the case with the pipe pictured -- I have a friend who holds all his pipes so that his thumb darkens exactly the area that is darker on this pipe -- but not being able to look at the inside of the bowl makes the question stronger, especially since that spot is one of the typical problem areas for burnouts. The first half of the bowl is rarely susceptible, but farther down in the bowl, the tobacco can get a little moist and hard to light, the smoker puffs harder in an effort to get the tobacco to light or stay lit, the proximity of the draft hole draws the flame toward the back of the bowl . . . voila. Again, it could just be a thumb print, but I would expect any darkening like this on an ebay estate to depress the price a little.

Jack
 
hmmmm, I would be interested to find out what it actually is. I didn't know that you could get darkening from keeping your thumb in the same place..

One more question....if burnout it occuring or on the verge of occuring (like say hypotheticaly this pipe is) is it possible to hide it on the inside of the bowl and claim that it's a thumbprint? Like build up cake over it or something?
I've looked at estate pipes for quite a while but never knew about this. All i did was look for cracks or chips and try to see if the pipe was in overall ok condition. I guess this is one very important thing i'll have to start looking for in estate pipes.
 
Maybe it's just me, but I keep looking back at the photo's and wonder if that dark area is on both sides of the pipe? If so I guess it would just be a natural discoloration in the grain.
 
Ol'Dawg":a7ecqwt9 said:
Here's a website link showing some burned out pipes in various stages--
Burned out pipes

Beware though it's not for the faint of heart. :pale:

Jim
Wow! :affraid: Didn't know you could do that to a pipe!
That's like pipe sin #1. :(
 
Ol'Dawg":e0g0d3to said:
Here's a website link showing some burned out pipes in various stages--
Burned out pipes

Beware though it's not for the faint of heart. :pale:

Jim
Yes, that's an excellent example of habitual abuse. Notice the relationship of the damage to the draft hole in most of the pipes. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with the CR above, just venturing a possible explanation of how a pipe with such excellent grain and a decent pedigree might go for $75. The same pipe made today by Mark would be several hundred dollars. There are many possible explanations for the darkening, but without a clear view of the inside of the bowl a bidder might well take into account the possibility that the briar is thin there, or that the pipe has been smoked too hot.

Jack
 
A few things.

1.) Those burn out pipe pics are crazy! I didn't know it was like THAT! Why wouldn't you stop once you noticed something wrong!?!

2.) The unsmoked CR is a little more than "a few dollars"....like two times + the price but I agree its a sweet pipe.

3.) In relation to an earlier question, can you "cover up" where a pipe is starting to burn out in the bowl?
 
free_byrd15":46tdfrta said:
A few things.

1.) Those burn out pipe pics are crazy! I didn't know it was like THAT! Why wouldn't you stop once you noticed something wrong!?!

2.) The unsmoked CR is a little more than "a few dollars"....like two times + the price but I agree its a sweet pipe.

3.) In relation to an earlier question, can you "cover up" where a pipe is starting to burn out in the bowl?
Hey, Byrd,

1) That's a rare and extreme case, but I used to know a guy who would burn out his pipes just like that, pretty much every one. It was kind of a race, whether he would burn it out before he bit through the stem/ Why didn't he stop? I don't know, some people can't stop chewing their fingernails.

2) I didn't say $75 was cheap and never used the phrase "a few dollars," just that it is several times less than a comparable pipe would be today new from the same company. You could look at it two ways, either it went for more than expected because the grain is so nice and the whole pipe is so reminiscent of, say, a Cavicci or Don Carlos Fiammata. Or, it went for less than expected because it wasn't a Tinsky and it had some dark spots. It's not my style, but if it didn't have the dark places I'd say $75 is a very good price.

3) If you search for "pipe mud" on any of the fora, you'll come up with plenty of discussion. It boils down to a) ream the pipe back to bare wood, b) save the ash from a cigar and mix with water to form a paste, c) spread the paste in thin layers, first working it into the damaged area, being careful to fill any fissures; d) allow to dry thoroughly. It's good knowledge to have, but with luck, you'll never need it.

Jack
 
Howell-

Thanks for the info! I've never had a pipe that didn't have the carbonized inside, either new or otherwise....bare wood has always made me afraid i'd mess something up! I would be interested to buy an estate pipe sometime and ream it down to the bare wood and try to build a cake up, just cause it would come in handy if I ever buy an expensive pipe and need to break it in from bare wood. If you mess up a 20 dollar estate, oh well, but it you butch up a 1000 dollar straight grain, that would break my heart!
 
free_byrd15":628pzejy said:
Howell-

Thanks for the info! I've never had a pipe that didn't have the carbonized inside, either new or otherwise....bare wood has always made me afraid i'd mess something up! I would be interested to buy an estate pipe sometime and ream it down to the bare wood and try to build a cake up, just cause it would come in handy if I ever buy an expensive pipe and need to break it in from bare wood. If you mess up a 20 dollar estate, oh well, but it you butch up a 1000 dollar straight grain, that would break my heart!
Yes, that's another topic -- bowl coating or no bowl coating -- that's gotten lots of play over the years. I think a bowl coating does offer some initial protection, but most customers don't want it, and those few who really are going to burn out a pipe are likely to do so, coating or no. I'm a strong advocate of starting with partial bowls in a new pipe. Pipes, in general, *don't* burn out in normal, careful use, so it's nothing to be too worried about. Smoking outside in strong winds, hooking a pipe up to a vacuum pump to break it in, holding a lit pipe outside a moving car and letting the wind blow the ember into a welding point, those are some examples of warranty-voiders. But I've had several discussions with smokers who say things like, "I loaded her up with Marlin Flake, and only tasted wood toward the bottom of the bowl." My assertion is that if they had smoked a third of a bowl of some nice, even ribbon or shag four or five times, then another four or five half bowls, they never would have tasted wood at all. What I think happens is that tobacco often is smoked a little too moist, and requires harder puffing or more relights at the bottom of the bowl. Partial bowls to build cake first at the bottom protect a new pipe from this.

Jack
 
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