Beautifully crafted and finished pipe, quite original. So many gifted artisans who aren't well known. This is a labor of love.
Agreed. There are well known carvers with talent that get $1K and up for their puts which is out of my range but the unknown guys are affordable.
A nice thing about choosing a lesser known carver is you tend to judge the pipe much more on its qualities rather than the carver's name. I try to find out if any of my fellow pipe smokers are happy with the carver's work first though, as in the case above.
I'm trying to get an artisan pipe from Mexico since this is where my wife is from. I'm talking to a carver in Mexico right now who has done some spectacular work. He gets $120 for a more regular pipe and $180 for something intricate which is very cheap since and is because he is not well known. He only has one regular pipe available right now but he just started 2 new pipes. It's very fun and exciting to talk to these guys and get such a unique pipe too.