Photographed and written by
John M. Young
Just when you thought that I could not get any more lazy, I throw this at you. Okay, this is really more of a show and tell. The esteemed Sascha Mertens from the great country of Germany recently sent me this Schowa pipe and a tin of Dan Tobacco’s, Mike’s Ready Rubbed blend. A fine gift by any measure but, to me it was extra fine. I have always wanted to lay hands on a German style hunter’s pipe. As much as I love to look at an old patent diagram or a schematic I much prefer to hold an item and see how it works or how it was made as compared to just examining a drawing. Well, Sascha’s gift allowed that and then some.
Background
When researching the German hunter’s pipe I was surprised to find that it is not considered a “normal” pipe shape. I started looking at pipe charts and found no mention or matches to the German Hunter’s pipe. I then went to a fairly exhaustive list of shapes from smokingpipes.com and found shapes that I don’t remember ever seeing before, like a Ramses but no no hunter’s pipes.
The Many Shapes and Styles of Tobacco Pipes
Undaunted I turned to the more traditional porcelain hunter’s pipes and found many great pieces in Gray Bumrarner’s collection:
The Collector: Gary Bumgarner’s antique pipe collection tells stories of wonderment rooted in history
(https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2023/feb/09/the-collector-gary-bumgarner/)
Now, you may be wondering, “John, you are a Certified Pete Geek, what does this have to do with Peterson pipes?” That is a good and reasonable question and I have an answer. Well, again being lazy, I can show you the answer. Mark Irwin’s Peterson Pipe Notes 366 is a wonderful blog on how Peterson took the component nature of the old hunter’s pipes and made it their own:
366. Gary Hamilton’s Nitzschke-Strickler Gesteckpfeife (c. 1890-1920)Restoration & its Connection to the Peterson System Pipe (+ The PPN 2023 Sherlock XL5BCHas Dropped!) (https://petersonpipenotes.org/365-gary-hamiltons-nitzschke-strickler-gesteckpfeife-c-1890-1920-restoration-its-connection-to-the-peterson-system-pipe/)
Now for this particular pipe, a Schowa on an attached tag, BRUYE above a line then GARANT was stamped on the left shank. Now the usually meticulous German production may have had a brief lapse in stamp quality control or the technician that day is a worse speller than myself. I believe the stamp should have read BRUYERE over GARANTE. The Schowa company is relatively ill represented in websites. The source pipedi.org had the following to say,
“In 1988 the last large tobacco pipe factory in Bad König, the Schowa company, was closed.[1] Schowa (A. Schum Söhne) was in operation from approximately 1919 to 2003. Based on its letterhead, it was founded in 1877.” (Schowa – Pipedia). Pipephil.eu, my other “go-to” source had a bit more but also was lacking in detail.
This lovely little German Hunter’s pipe was likely made by Schowa prior to the closing of the company in 1988.
Thank you Captain Obvious! What do you expect from a retired smart-ass Gen-X slacker?
The Non-Restoration
This pipe had never been smoked and I saw little reason to restore it to its previous glory since it looked pretty glorious already. I did take some photos to show you how this pipe works. The stem is connected to the metal rim cover with a lanyard. Apparently German Hunters have a fear of losing their pipe stems during the hunt or later in the pub. German beer has been known to make all sorts of things disappear. Think back to that German classic film: Ey Mann, wo is mein Auto? Oh wait, that was Ashton Kutcher in Dude where’s my car. I’m pretty sure Kutcher is a German name so the analogy still works.
The metal rim cover also has a hinged lid. German hunters being a hardy lot and like the Boy Scouts, always prepared for any foul weather or, flying German beer foam while in the pub.
The pipe disassembled into its component parts. The large base screws onto the briar stummel providing stability for when a German hunter needs to set down his pipe to focus on tracking his elusive quarry or to use the restroom in the pub.
This drilling surprised me. The lower hole is exiting the bottom of the bowl. The smoke leaving the bowl would then circulate in the plastic base before flowing up the top hole into the shank portion of the stummel.
Another surprise! Below you can see the hole at the top is leading from the space between the bottom of the bowl and the plastic base. The smoke then enters a small chamber very reminiscent of Peterson pipes, with a reservoir. The bottom hole is what I presume to be the reservoir. Personally I think this whole chamber is far too small to have any real effect of the smoke as it is only approximately .33 inches (8.3 mm) from the draft hole in the shank to the draft hole in the stem.
Below is a slightly better view of the holes in the mortise.
The tenon is aluminum and seated into a black plastic stem extension. This aluminum tenon fits nicely into the briar of the mortise.
The mouthpiece is a separate piece which is threaded and screwed into the black plastic stem extension. The mouthpiece appears to be made of horn. The traditional round bit is not as comfortable as a modern button but it is far from uncomfortable. The word utilitarian comes to mind.
So the question arrives: How does the pipe smoke?
Answer: Very nicely. I opened the German Dan Tobacco Mike’s Ready Rubbed and gave it a go. The blend was an interesting aromatic with a tin note of undefined berries. The aroma faded significantly as I allowed the tin to air out. The tobacco felt like it needed little drying and I packed it as I would normally. The room note was very nice, certainly not offensive to all but the most self centered and dictatorial Karens. The taste was of yeasty pastries with ample berry (still undefinable) jelly. The retrohale was a pleasant virginia with fruit, while the after taste reminded me distinctly of Paladin Black Cherry. The after taste faded after the halfway point of the bowl and turned more toward a typical Virginia blend. The pipe performed well. The briar warmed quite a bit. It was not painfully hot but was noticeably hot. Afterwards I measured the outside diameter at 1.32 inches (33.53 mm.) and the chamber diameter of 0.67 inches (17.02 mm). This means that the walls of the stummel are slightly less than ⅓ inch thick (8.3 mm), a bit thinner than I like but about the average for factory produced pipes.
After the pipe had cooled I disassembled it to see how the components fared.
In the photo below you can see that the plastic base did lead to the condensation of some moisture from the smoke. The small reservoir, if that is what it is, looked exactly as it did from the first photos. Like I had thought, it appeared to do nothing. I ran a pipe cleaner through the stem and found that it was quite clean with only a trace of moisture. I conclude that the plastic base does a fine job at cooling the smoke, condensing moisture and trapping it in the base.
Below is a diagram overlaid on a photo of the Schowa. I think this makes things more clear. Now everything is not quite to scale but the general idea can be envisioned. The lower “cooling chamber” works as designed. Based on my smoking of the pipe, moisture from the smoke was condensed and trapped here. The “upper chamber” served no purpose from my test as it appeared no different before or after the smoke. The “drilled reservoir” seemed pointless, though reasonable. None of the moisture from the smoke remained to condense in the upper chamber and accumulate in the reservoir. Perhaps with a much wetter tobacco this second chamber would be of use.
Conclusion: This was a great gift by a great guy. Thank you very much Herr Sascha Mertens. The pipe performed well and is a wonderful addition to my collection and the tobacco was delightful. The dimensions of the Schowa Hunter’s Pipe are:
Length: 6.08 in./ 154.43 mm.
Weight: 2.02 oz./ 57.27 g.
Bowl Height: 2.17 in./ 505.12 mm.
Chamber Depth: 1.17 in./ 29.72 mm.
Chamber Diameter: 0.67 in./ 17.02 mm.
Outside Diameter: 1.32 in./ 33.53 mm.
I do hope that you have found something here useful to your own pipe care, maintenance or restorations. If you like this sort of thing, please click the like and subscribe buttons. Thank you for reading the ramblings of an old pipe lover.
NebraskaPeteGeek 