Kirsten: Dating the Metal Pipe from Seattle

Welcome: a pipe with a metal body

Welcome. If your pipe has a metal body and says Kirsten, this guide helps you place it in time.

A Kirsten is not one piece of briar. It has a metal tube, called the radiator, with a bowl screwed on top.

The parts are the mouthpiece, the radiator body, the valve, the bowl and the bowl screw. Many also have a bowl ring.

Kirsten never stamped a year on its pipes. The factory also kept no clear records of years and models.

So every date here is a range of years.

Most of what we know comes from one collector, Dave Whitney. He sorted Kirsten pipes into generations, like car collectors do with models.

His work is printed on Pipedia, an online pipe encyclopedia. He says some of his edges are a best guess.

Each rule has a rank: high, medium or low. High means strong evidence. Low means a wide range or a weak hint.

1936 to 1958

How the pipe began

Professor Frederick Kirsten designed the pipe in 1936 in Seattle. Pipedia says he built the first wind tunnel for Boeing.

His doctor had told him to stop smoking. He wanted a pipe that traps the tar and the moisture.

The metal radiator cools the smoke. The valve stops the trapped liquid from running back into the bowl.

The first pipes carry the words PAT APPLIED FOR. Pipedia also shows a Kirsten patent paper of 1938.

Later Gene Kirsten, his son, ran the factory for many years.

A pipe magazine of January 1946 says all wartime Kirstens went to the armed forces.

So civilians could not buy a new Kirsten from Pearl Harbor in December 1941 until the end of the war in 1945.

1958 to today

The big change and the later years

In 1958 the company was incorporated. Lynn Kirsten, the granddaughter of the founder, says the biggest change in models and making came then.

From then on, rubber O-rings sit on the valve and on the mouthpiece. They make a tight seal in the metal tube.

In the change years, the factory used up many old parts. So some pipes mix old and new parts.

Whitney calls these the transition pipes, or Generation 1.5. He places them in the mid to late 1950s.

In the 1950s and 1960s Kirsten also made cigarette holders in three lengths.

A Kirsten catalog of 1976-77 is shown on Pipedia.

Whitney writes that Generation 3 runs from 1985 to the present. We did not check if the firm still makes pipes today.

The four generations

Generation 1, from 1936 to about 1958: no O-rings. The metal parts were made so exactly that they fit without rubber.

Generation 1.5, the mid to late 1950s: an O-ring at one end only, on the valve or on the mouthpiece.

Generation 2, from 1958 to about 1985: O-rings at both ends.

Generation 3, from about 1985: O-rings at both ends, new model letters, and MADE IN U.S.A. on the body.

Whitney says Generation 3 may overlap back into the last Generation 2 years.

Only the 1958 edge has a firm event behind it, the incorporation. The other edges are approximate.

The marks to read

Start with the words on the metal radiator body. They tell you the patent stage.

PAT APPLIED FOR, or PAT. APPL. FOR, is the earliest stamp. Whitney says it was used only for about two years.

PATS & PATS PENDING followed it. It runs through Generation 1 and stays on some later pipes.

PAT. PENDING and MADE IN U.S.A. show up on some transition pipes. MADE IN U.S.A. stays on the later generations.

Then look at the logo. Most Kirstens carry the Kirsten name in joined-up script.

Only one model, the Thrifty, carries the Kirsten shield logo. Its valve also works the other way round.

Some early Companions show only the word Companion, without the Kirsten name.

Next, take the pipe apart and look for the O-rings on the valve and the mouthpiece.

Last, read the model letter on the body, such as S, M, L or G. The letter tells the size and the bend.

An X after the letter means a brass-tone finish, as in SX. A B after the letter means black, as in MB.

Traps we see often

The same letter was used again in a later generation. So a letter alone can point to two different models.

A can be the Aristocrat of Generation 1 or the Aladdin of Generation 2. S can be the Standard or the Sportsman.

M was the Medium in early years and the Mariner later. L was the Large and later the Lancer.

So always read the letter together with the patent words and the O-rings.

Whitney's own table puts the Gem and the Aladdin in Generation 2. In his text on bowls he calls them first generation. We follow the table.

The bowl does not date the pipe. Pipedia says all Kirsten bowls are interchangeable.

Many early bowls were made by Kaywoodie and carry no stamp. A bare bowl cannot be named as Kirsten by itself.

Bowls made by Kirsten have the Kirsten stamp on the bottom. Nobody knows when this stamp began.

Old Kirstens are often stuck together by old tobacco juice. Whitney says only three or four in five can be fully restored.

Patent words on the body

These are the main dating marks on a Kirsten.

How the parts fit

Take the pipe apart to read these. Read them together with the patent words.

Finish

One finish has its own window.

Model names

Model names from Whitney's table. Each belongs to one generation only. The generation edges are approximate.

Changelog

• 2026-10-10 — First published. Every year comes from our Kirsten cabinet. We read the saved Pipedia copy again today.