Only $7,000.00, exceeding the recent high of the Xu Hai at $6,500.00. Fine straight grain but not exquisite; were it so $10,000.00-$15,000.00?
I ran across Rob Cooper's "An Economic Reality Of Fills In Pipes" that quotes Lars Ivarsson as saying that only 5% of his blocks are free of fills. I don't know but imagine that the number of blocks with great grain is comparably low. Given this, although I am no longer surprised by such prices, I still wonder how makers like Chonowitsch and Bang acquire a seemingly greater proportion of blocks with fine grain than their competitors. I can only think by an arrangement with the briar mill. But as reading a block for the grain can only approximate what is revealed when it is cut, how could the mill select such blocks for makers who are willing to pay for the privilege, and if the makers are selecting their briar themselves, they would be similarly hampered. My best guess is that several different grain patterns are possible from every block but that experience selects the best.
But I don't know how the pipe royalty seem able to procure the very best wood. Meanwhile, best jump on that $7,000.00 Chonowitsch before it sold out from under you!
I ran across Rob Cooper's "An Economic Reality Of Fills In Pipes" that quotes Lars Ivarsson as saying that only 5% of his blocks are free of fills. I don't know but imagine that the number of blocks with great grain is comparably low. Given this, although I am no longer surprised by such prices, I still wonder how makers like Chonowitsch and Bang acquire a seemingly greater proportion of blocks with fine grain than their competitors. I can only think by an arrangement with the briar mill. But as reading a block for the grain can only approximate what is revealed when it is cut, how could the mill select such blocks for makers who are willing to pay for the privilege, and if the makers are selecting their briar themselves, they would be similarly hampered. My best guess is that several different grain patterns are possible from every block but that experience selects the best.
But I don't know how the pipe royalty seem able to procure the very best wood. Meanwhile, best jump on that $7,000.00 Chonowitsch before it sold out from under you!
