Department :
METAL STEM & Threaded bowl |
Information courtesy Bill Feuerbach, the current top dog at Kaywoodie and my pal Dave Whitney
> Kaywoodie Filter-Plus. It was made between 1955 and 1959. [ The advert above was in Life Magazine June 1955] It is one of the most indestructible and durable pipes I have ever run across. > Originally Kaywoodie sold the Filter-Plus for $4, with replacement bowls costing $1.50. They originally came with a nylon filter brush that fit in the shank. The brushes had 5,000 fibers that were fixed to a center wire - sort of like an oval shaped bottle brush. These were sold in packs of 2 for 35 cents. Since the brushes are no longer available I have played with these pipes and discovered that a thin pipe cleaner, folded into three sections, makes a perfect filter for the pipe. It can be shoved into the pipe stem from the mouthpiece end and pushed out by removing the bowl, which simply unscrews from the metal stem, and pushed out with another pipe cleaner. It's like having a supply of the cheapest pipe filters on earth for one of the sturdiest, and most easily cleaned pipes ever made. These pipes can be smoked without any filter, which is the way I prefer to smoke them. All the gunk accumulates under the bowl and can be easily removed by simply unscrewing the bowl and wiping out the sump in the stem. > These pipes came with either an aluminum polished stem or a brass-coated one. This has the aluminum polished - more like buffed to give it a pewter look - stem. The Filter-Plus bowl shapes were billiard, bulldog, apple, aerated flemish, aerated billiard and the trumpet. The aerated bowls were bowls with equally spaced grooves cut around the bowl. The billiard had 10 grooves. The idea was to improve cooling. This one comes with a billiard bowl that does not have the aerated grooves. The bowls of the era were some of the best Kaywoodie ever produced. They have a solid bottom with three small vent holes in it to let the smoke pass from the bowl into the pipe stem. They actually have a more pleasant taste than other metal/wood pipes since the tobacco never comes into contact with the metal - thanks to the full briar bottom of the bowl. The bits were made of nylon with the Kaywoodie white club logo embedded in the top of the stem. They remove easily so you can place a filter in the pipe or clean it. I do have one example with the cleaning brush, also a brass toned example Overall length is 5 11/16 inch (145 m/m) |