Few pipe brands can claim the kind of history Brigham has. Founded in Toronto in 1906, the Canadian marque is celebrating its 120th year, and its signature Rock Maple Insert has been part of its pipes for nearly as long. When Paul Graham, Brigham's Sales Manager, came down to visit, I sat down with him to talk about how he found his way into the pipe world, the company's long history, how its grading system evolved, and what makes that Rock Maple Insert work.

From the Tobacco Shop to Sales Manager

[Stephen Mawby]: Paul, thanks for coming down and sitting with us. Tell us a little about your role at Brigham and how it's changed over the years.

[Paul Graham]: I've been with the company for 24 years now. I started out as a Sales Rep on the road, then became Sales Manager in 2008 and have been doing that ever since, so I oversee everything to do with sales for the company. We have a team of reps in Canada that I manage, and we also have an export business. You guys are our distributor down here, and I work closely with Cassie [Davison]. That's what I do in a nutshell.

[SM]: Were you a pipe enthusiast before you started working there?

[PG]: Honestly, no. I always joke that I wasn't sitting in grade 11 telling my guidance counselor, "I want to sell pipes for a living." By chance, I started working part-time at a tobacco shop in Toronto called The Smoke and Cigar, one of the premier shops in Toronto and in Canada as well. I worked there for about four years and, through there, got to know the president, Dan More, pretty well. A rep position came up in 2003, and here I am, almost 24 years later. It's been an interesting ride with a lot of change, especially in Canada with some of our draconian legislation. But we always find a way to jump the hurdle and make it work.

120 Years of Brigham

[SM]: You've definitely done that. Brigham is one of those brands with a lot of history behind it. It's been around forever and weathered all kinds of storms in the industry. Can you tell us a little about the history of Brigham?

[PG]: First and foremost, we're 120 years young this year.

[SM]: This is the 120th year?

[PG]: This is. We're in the midst of it. Brigham was founded in 1906 by Roy Brigham, who started as an apprentice doing pipe repairs. He evolved over the years and manufactured his own pipe brand. Then, around the '30s, Roy and his son, Herb Brigham, who had joined the business by then, created the Rock Maple Distillator. We still have the patent from 1937, I believe.

[SM]: Wow.

[PG]: Our heyday with pipes was heading into the '50s, '60s, and '70s, and then the market changed a bit. We evolved and started distributing pipe tobacco, and then cigars. Today, we're primarily a cigar distributor in Canada; that's the bulk of our business. But pipes are still near and dear to our hearts and a very important part of our heritage. We manufactured our pipes at our facility on Ripley Avenue in Toronto right up until the late '90s, early 2000s.

Like a lot of other pipe manufacturers, economies of scale necessitated a change. We couldn't find workers. That was the challenge. Nobody wanted to do it, so we slowly transitioned certain parts of manufacturing over to Italy and France, until everything was manufactured there under contract for us. We're still selling pipes. I wish we could get more, but I think that's a common theme in the industry these days.

[SM]: That's a very common refrain.

More Than Just a Pipe

[SM]: One of the great things about you guys is that, along with the pipes, you sell the Rock Maple Inserts, the Brigham pipe cleaners, which are one of my favorite brands, the pouches, and all those sorts of accessories. It's getting harder and harder to find places where pipe smokers can get the things they need, so it's great that you're carrying that tradition on.

[PG]: It's important. One of the challenges everybody has is meeting MOQs with manufacturers. You might not sell a boatload of pipe reamers, just to pick an item, but those are important accessories. We're always telling retailers, "Don't just sell a pipe." If somebody's trying a pipe for the first time, sell them a pack of cleaners and a proper lighter, or at least some good matches, the right tobacco, and all the other accessories.

[SM]: You really need all of those things. You can do without some of them for a little while, but to get the best experience as a pipe smoker and really enjoy it, you need some options for your equipment.

[PG]: With a cigar, you can bite it off, find some fire, and you're good to go. Far more goes into smoking a pipe.

From Dots to Canadiana

[SM]: Speaking of the pipes, let's talk about those for a while. We've got a little selection of your offerings here. I can't remember the exact number of series, but I know you've got the Algonquin, the Chinook, the Acadian, and so on. And I think you have 12 shapes?

[PG]: 12 or 13, depending on the line. Originally, we were known for our dot system. This is a three-dot right here, this is a two-dot, and that's a one-dot. The higher the dot, the higher the grade of briar, and in the day, it went all the way up to a seven-dot. That was how we graded our pipes. The System pipe is the entry level, and then you have the one-, two-, and three-dots and so forth.

In the early 2000s, we kept the dot system for the one-, two-, and three-dots but got rid of it on the higher end, and that's when we applied Canadian-themed names: the Voyager, the Algonquin, the Mountaineer, the Chinook, the Heritage, the Klondike, and the Acadian. Then you also have our Giant, or Géant in French, pipes and our President Series, and there's a lovely President Series pipe right there.

[SM]: I love the plateau you get on all the President Series pipes.

[PG]: They're stunning. They're really well done. That's another pipe I wish we could get more of. We made the change because putting the dots in was very labor-intensive and was really driving up our costs. We transitioned to the little gold B on the Chinook, Heritage, Klondike, and Acadian lines, and we gave the pipes Canadiana-themed names to pay a little homage to our history. But having been in the industry for 28 years, and with Brigham for almost 24, I still refer to the dots sometimes, and we still see retailers who do too: "Do you have a three-dot pipe? I need a three-dot pipe," or shape 84, or shape 47. So I'm always going back and forth between the two.

[SM]: The dot is a great shorthand, but I love having the more unique, specific names that give each line a little more identity and a story to latch on to. And I think it's great what you're able to do across the range. We've got the Presidents at the higher end, where you get that really stunning plateau.

[PG]: The kind of, like, freehand, typically Dublin shape.

[SM]: And then you mentioned the System, which is the entry level. It's remarkable how inexpensive these are for the quality of pipe you're getting. You've been able to keep the price low for somebody who's just getting into pipes, or for somebody who wants to collect more, and you're still getting a good pipe. It hits above its weight class and is one of the better values dollar for dollar.

[PG]: It's a good pipe. Lots of people will also get an inexpensive pipe if they're going hunting or fishing, in case they drop it in the water.

[SM]: I'm rough on my pipes. You need something you can knock around a little.

[PG]: Bang for the buck, they're excellent pipes. They smoke really well.

The Rock Maple Distillator

[SM]: It's hard to talk about Brigham without talking about the Rock Maple Insert. Do all Brighams have them, or just the vast majority?

[PG]: All of them have them. Sometimes people refer to them as filters, but they're not filters. With a filter, like a 9mm charcoal filter, the smoke stream is filtering through something. To give a little history, back in the day, if you used a paper filter or a 9mm filter, the challenge was that it would impede the flavor of the smoke. Roy and Herb Brigham set out to solve that issue.

And so what they did is they created what we call a distillator, and it's this rock maple wooden dowel. You'll really have to zoom through to see it, but it's a complete dowel, and what happens is, as smoke passes through the dowel, by means of a natural wicking process, all the tars and the acids sweat, basically, to the outside of the rock maple filter.

It removes the stuff you don't necessarily like and reduces tongue bite significantly. For some people, it's gone. But it doesn't impede the flavor of the tobacco, so you're still getting that flavor. That's why we call it a Rock Maple Distillator: It's not filtering. It's similar in a way to a Savinelli balsa filter, which isn't a filter either. It has a somewhat similar process, I guess, is the best way to describe it. And the nice thing about these is that you can wash them. Over time, they'll start to change color a bit, of course.

[SM]: You get a little internal patina on the pipe.

[PG]: At one point, I think we used to advertise that you could get up to 40 uses out of one. I change mine out about every six uses. You just run it under water to clean it off, set it aside to dry, and reuse it. But I don't go 40 times, because they're not very expensive to begin with.

[SM]: They're pretty economical. Another cool thing about the rock maple is that you can actually pass a pipe cleaner through it, which you can't do with actual filters.

[PG]: That's a good point, and I'm glad you mentioned it. That's another way of cleaning it: putting a cleaner through it to get out any little stray bits of tobacco or moisture.

[SM]: It's a very cool innovation and one of the things you guys are known for. You get the best of both worlds, like a filtered and a non-filtered pipe at the same time.

[PG]: Historically, the U.S. has been more of a non-filtered market, and that definitely still holds true today. If you're that type of smoker and don't want a filter, I encourage you to try a Brigham pipe for that reason. It works quite well, and it's an enjoyable smoking experience. It's that happy medium. It's not a 9mm filter; it's somewhere in the middle.

[SM]: Best of both worlds.

Final Thoughts

[SM]: Before we get out of here, is there anything you're excited about for the future, or anything you'd like to say to our audience?

[PG]: Pipe smoking's fun. When it's done right, it's done right. If you're trying it for the first time, there are lots of good videos out there, and you guys put out a ton of content to help. Some people think, "I'm just going to buy a pipe and try it," and that's not how it works. There's a little bit to how you pack it and all that.

[SM]: There's a bit of a learning curve.

[PG]: Absolutely. I want to thank all the wonderful pipe smokers out there in the pipe industry and the pipe community. There are a lot of fun people, and pipe smokers are fiercely loyal. That's one thing I've noticed. And if you've never smoked a Brigham pipe, give one a try. I'm pretty confident you'll like it.

[SM]: Paul, thanks for being with us.

Brigham pipes are available on Smokingpipes.com. Have you smoked a Brigham, or do you swear by the Rock Maple Distillator? Let us know in the comments which series is your favorite.