Schulte’s / Max Schulte Smooth Freehand Estate Briar Pipe, Unsmoked

Description

Schulte’s was an American pipe tobacconist, located in New Jersey in the second half of the 20th century. Like many pipe stores, Schulte’s sold house brand pipes, but unlike most pipe stores, many of these house brand pipes were made by the store’s owner, Max Schulte. Similarly to a few other American pipe tobacconists, like Boswell’s, Schulte himself would divide his time between sales and both restoring and making pipes, during which time he served as a teacher in the craft to a young Jack H. Weinberger.

While many of Max Schulte’s pipes were more classically inclined in their design, he did carve a few freehands, and those freehands were just as nice as his traditional shapes. This one checks all the boxes as far as a Danish “fancy” freehand is concerned, with plateau burl at both ends and an ornate, beaded stem, but it also does some really interesting things with the briar’s grain. Schulte seems to have made the decision to position the briar’s bird’s-eye at the front of the bowl, which means that, as it progresses toward the bowl’s sides, it slowly transitions into rich flame grain, running just about parallel to the shank and stem.

This pipe is completely unsmoked, with an original bowl coating.

 

Details:

Length: 5.5″ / 139.7mm

Bowl Width: 0.83 / 21.08mm

Bowl Depth: 1.19″ / 30.22mm

Weight: 1.6oz / 46g