Well, whatever it is , it is mine and Smoochys. One goal I had after moving to Central Texas was to get a Texas made off-set. Kind of officially makes me a bonafide Texan.
Now living in the Lone Star state does make the shipping a little less expensive but the price of off-sets in Houston are anywhere from 1500 and up and up and up.
Craigslist Waco has been my destination for the last month and something turned up that caught my eye and for some reason I had heard of the Mfg before.
Very little on the internet but between on-line and the previous owner of this grill, I have some sort of back-ground.
Don Burnett was a pitmaster that made his smokers in Austin. They were called Smokemaster. His pits would show up in fireplace stores and the like. Patio size models with large square grilling fireboxes.
Don sold his business in 2005 to Big Hat BBQ. They made his design for about 4-5 years until they completely changed the shape of the pit.
The old Smokemaster smoker was extremely well made and they show up on CL from time to time and are still in very good shape. Barrel chamber is 3/16 with 1/4 inch fire-boxes.
We traveled an hour and a half to get this pit from a fella named Jim in Georgetown. He can't say for sure when he got this pit but he said he has lived at his place for 22 years and they got the pit not long after they moved in so we are guesstimating that this pit was made around 1995-1997.
Smoochy (yeah he went along for the ride) and I immediately fell in love with this piece of Texas smoking history and home to Waco/Marlin was its next stop. Not too many people probably show up with their pet toy frog but that is how
The Smoke rolls......
Jim said he burned only post oak and the pit smells great. I got some nice pecan splits for when the pit is ready to be cooked on.......
I have been grinding and sanding and what not the last couple of weeks and the finish paint will be this week so for now here are the first pics of the smoker when we got it home that day.
See the original fire-box tool hanging on the handle?
Smokestack outlet is at grate level
Heat management included....Jim said it came standard with his pit
Original thermometer still works "Quality to last a lifetime" was the Smokemaster slogan and it was a true one
Grilling fire-box with three settings. A neat feature is that while the fire-box comes with its own cooking grate, you can also slide the main meat grate from the smoker chamber right into the fire-box if you wish
The star is located on the state where Austin is. All Smokemasters were made in Austin. The Big Hat version in 2005-2009 were made in Marfa.
Well, back to masking things off.................
