S. M. Frank & Co.

S. M. Frank & Co. is the New York-based manufacturer that, over the course of half a century, united separately born American pipe brands under a single company. What began, according to the record, as a small tobacco-accessories business opened by Sam Frank Sr. in 1900 came in time to own the Kaywoodie, Yello-Bole, Medico and Wm. Demuth lines; the firm markets itself as "America's oldest pipe house."

From Sam Frank to Medico

Sam Frank Sr. started out selling pipes and tobacco accessories, working closely in those years with the sales staff of Wm. Demuth & Co. When he needed an experienced master to run the factory he founded in the Bronx in 1919, he called on his old friend Ferdinand Feuerbach, who had served as Demuth's production manager since 1903. The business became a company in 1922 with the purchase of the Manhattan Briar Pipe Co.

The product that brought the firm to a wide audience arrived in 1933: the Medico filter, made of absorbent paper, and the pipe line carrying the same name. Medico played a part in spreading pipe filter systems across America. In 1937, when New York's city government decided to seize part of the factory's land to widen two streets, production moved to the Wm. Demuth factory in Richmond Hill, Queens; Demuth in turn became a subsidiary of S. M. Frank.

The Acquisition of Kaywoodie

The Kaywoodie name originally belonged to a separate company, Kaufmann Bros. & Bondy (KB&B). KB&B's roots reach back to 1851, to a small pipe shop the German-born Kaufmann brothers ran in New York's Bowery. The brand name appeared in February 1919, derived from Kaufmann's initial and the word "wood," used here to mean briar. The screw-in "Drinkless" stem system that distinguishes Kaywoodie was introduced in 1931 and became standard across the whole line by the middle of the decade. The lower-grade briar blocks that didn't make the cut for Kaywoodie found a home in the Yello-Bole line, opened in 1932.

In March 1955, S. M. Frank purchased four companies at once: Kaywoodie, KB&B, Reiss-Premier and New England Briar Pipe. Collectors treat this date as a dividing line; the stamp and stem criteria used to distinguish pre-1955 production are gathered in the Kaywoodie collector's guide and dating entry. The brand's London arm was run as a fifty-fifty partnership with Comoy's of London; in the early 1970s both this share and the brand's UK rights passed to Comoy's.

Brylon and the Later Years

In 1966, seeking a cheap alternative to briar, the firm combined wood flour with a heat-resistant resin and named the resulting material Brylon. Brylon was more resistant than briar to cracking, scorching and burn-through; on the other hand, its weight and quick heating meant it was never embraced by a portion of smokers. Even so, it was used for decades in the Yello-Bole and Medico lines.

The company moved in 1980 to Peekskill, on the Hudson. From 1992 on, briar pipes were made at the plant in Tampa, Florida, and Brylon pipes in Peekskill; after 34 years, headquarters moved to New Windsor in 2014. In May 2024, Nathan B. Davis, who had grown up under fourth-generation owner Bill Feuerbach, took over the business. Kaywoodie production continues today on a bench-made, small-batch basis in Cobleskill, in New York State's Schoharie County.