The Doodler

The Doodler is a pipe model introduced by American pipe maker Tracy Mincer in the early 1950s, designed to cool the smoke through holes drilled into the bowl wall. The model does not carry Mincer's own name; it was stamped as a brand in its own right and continued to be produced under the same name in later years by the firm that bought the design.

Origins

Mincer lost the name of the brand he had founded in 1934 and which had gained wide distribution in the postwar years, in 1953; the details of this process are covered in the article on Custom-Bilt. Records show the new model came about in 1952, with the turning of the bowls contracted out to the National Briar Pipe Co. of Jersey City, New Jersey. The same firm also marketed its own brands, including Biltmore, Forecaster, Kleenest, and Rembrandt.

Sources do not fully agree on the timeline of the design's change of hands. One account has National Briar buying the model around 1960; another has Mincer continuing to make the pipe himself until the mid-1960s, with production passing entirely to National Briar only after that. Mincer's year of death is likewise disputed: the same body of sources cites 1964 and 1966 separately. Production is reported to have ended in the early 1980s; since this date rests on a single collector source, it should not be taken as certain.

Design

What sets the Doodler apart from its peers is a ring of vertical holes drilled around the tobacco chamber. These channels run from the bowl's rim down toward the base and open into one or more horizontal grooves cut into the outer surface of the bowl. The aim was to increase airflow and cool the bowl as it heated during smoking; in this respect the model counts as a distinctive example of the cool-smoke pursuits gathered under the heading pipe filters and systems. Because an even arrangement of holes requires a cylindrical bowl, the model was made mostly in three sizes of billiard shape; thick-bodied pieces in other shapes are also reported. Surfaces were mostly finished with a heavily textured rustication close to Mincer's own style.

The stamp on the mouthpiece is said to carry the words "The Doodler" in a gothic-flavored script, with a line beneath indicating imported briar, and examples with two, three, or even four horizontal grooves have been documented over the years. A weakness of the design is also known among collectors: cracks can form in the areas thinned by the holes and grooves. This fragility is considered the main reason relatively few examples survive today in sound condition.

Holeysmoke and What Followed

Claude Stuart — referred to as Mincer's former partner, though this partnership has not been confirmed by independent records, and whose name also appears spelled Stewart in some sources — produced a line based on nearly the same principle, called Holeysmoke, after the design changed hands. In this way the same idea stayed on the market under two separate names for many years. Stuart later took over the company carrying the Tracy Mincer name, finishing its products mostly with carved and textured bowls; the company closed in 1990. For more on the model's designer, see the article on Mincer.