Brigham Pipes

Brigham Pipes is a Canadian pipe brand founded in Toronto by Roy Brigham in 1906 and kept within the same family across four generations. The brand announced itself not so much through briar craftsmanship as through the filter mechanism based on a replaceable maple rod fitted inside the mouthpiece.

From Repair Shop to Factory

Having completed his apprenticeship under an Austrian pipe master settled in Toronto, Roy Brigham opened his own repair shop in 1906. In the early years earnings came almost entirely from repair work. Within twelve years the workshop grew to a team of six and became an address known beyond Toronto for its craftsmanship. Pipes bearing his own signature also began to appear during this period; as the product of a workshop that knew exactly where breakage most often occurred in repairs, they were designed with points such as the bowl-shank joint reinforced without sacrificing lightness.

Pipes coming in for repair were at the same time an archive of complaints. The conclusion Roy Brigham drew from this archive was that what bothered smokers most was the burning sensation left on the tongue (tongue bite). The common explanation of the era attributed the problem to the temperature of the smoke.