Peterson "Makers Series" - Rant

In my opinion, and it's just that, my opinion, which may or may not be your opinion; and which if yours differs, at the outset I grant that you are right, Peterson has long history of being money-grubbing capitalists. Here we have a current example, asking $1500.00 for a smooth with fills. Ridiculous! Stupid! Then too they have dipped pipes and may still be doing so and probably will continue doing so in the future. No problem for the guys who love Petes; they say, " Yeah, I just smoked the 40th bowl and she's getting close." Ridiculous! Stupid! I love looking at pipes but I never look at Petersons and most probably will never buy one.

... a fool and his money...
What's wrong with money grubbing capitalists? Just think, without them, there would be no 'smart phone'. Oh, wait, that would be a GOOD thing. :puffpipe:

My advice would be don't buy one, but what do I know, I'm one of the "stupid" :roll:

The amber stem is a little crooked, too. 8O

Sand pits, not fills

Seems about right to me, price-wise.
Amazing wood, decent+ craftsmanship, high-end leather case, and fancy-schmantzy presentation/storage box.
As for as the noise about "significant quality issues" and etc., that's just the same old what's-reasonable-to-expect-for-the-price argument come 'round again.
Pete's higher end stuff is quite good, and always has been. I'll start posting some pics of them to prove it.
As for company attitude & policy, I've worked with Tom directly several times and found him to be quite reasonable, eager to assist, passionate about pipes, and wholly committed to his brand.

It’s not that they can’t put a good pipe on the market. It’s that they don’t work to do it consistently.

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Well said!

Code et all - sand pits occur in every brands products and in many high graded series pipes. Sand pits are the nature of the beast. The chance of 100% sand spot free briar is rare. It just depends on how much magnification you wish to use.
As far as the Peterson's in question ( only speaking about the smooth finished ones ), the grains look pretty good. The stems are amber. It does not say "cultured amber" or " art amber", so I am going to assume natural amber, which is extremely expensive. I would suspect it runs over $100.00 per inch, IF you can find any. I am told it is not the easiest material to work with. Each of the pipes has an ample amount of silver work as well.
So priced high? Maybe, maybe not. I have seen lots of pipes with much lesser grain, commanding much higher price tags.
The above is of course my humble opinion, only.
Regards

Michael J. Glukler

I think if you find the pipe not to your liking ... you probably shouldn't buy the pipe. If you are like me and never experienced a problem with a Peterson or the company over 50 years, the next time I'm in Dublin I will have to take a hard look at that pipe, should it still be available.

Looks beautiful to me. Beautiful Straight grain with a lovely amber stem, both rare, with lots of silver, which requires craftsmanship. A handmade product with natural materials will always have some individualities, seems to me to be part of what gives it character, as opposed to a machine made artifact where each one is perfect and perfectly similar.
I do know this, I have 3 Petersons, one from the 1970's, one from the early 2000's and one from 2013 and all 3 are great. I have heard about quality issues with Peterson's but have not experienced it personally.

I'd rather buy one beautiful artisan pipe or 4-5 from individual carvers. Help the little guy when possible. I try to as much as possible, harder and harder it seems. No opinion on Peterson pipes one way or the other.

alan73 I don't have $1500 for a pipe, so I don't have to worry about it.

I was looking at those. I really liked the 260882. I know where you are coming from, but I didn't think the price that outlandish, considering all the details, like Michael pointed out.

I like my Petes and don't have any remotely high end versions. I've been lucky on quality control issues and dipped briar. However, I think it is always problematical when a mainstream brand tries to add a very high end version. They tend to borrow from the mainstream product instead of focusing on what's needed at that high end. A recent case-in-point would be the Lincoln automobile from the Ford Motor Company. They went so far as to open a separate branch with separate dealerships. I think Ford has done good things with their trucks, SUV's, mid-level sedans and crossovers, and especially notably with their compacts which have always been problematical from American car makers. But I don't think the Lincoln newly-separated franchise is working at all. It puts them in competition with BMW, Audi, Porche, and other markes that have a much clearer lineage and intensity of engineering expertise, and Lincoln just doesn't seem to get there. They may come up with a breakthrough car, something really cutting edge, but I'm not sure the brand could carry it off, after almost fading from existence. Pete probably needed to open an artisanal shop with carvers given independence and free artistic range, to see what they could do. For $1,500, the wealthy pipe buyer can do a great deal better. I'd be pretty defensive about showing up with the high-end Pete at a pipe show; I'd rather just take my old Peterson B11 Killarney ebony and enjoy myself.

I can see that. Especially if someone is buying from a site that isn't SPC, in that you can't see the *exact* pipe you are purchasing.

Easy solution, if you don't like it , don't buy it.
As for Peterson Quality, I have 50 Peterson pipes. I have entry level and high end silver caps. I have yet to have a bad smoker. Yes, I love Peterson pipes, but the biggest complainers about their quality, as far as I've seen, are the people that have never owned one, and heard from their brother's, next door neighbor's ex-roommate's friend that had a wet smoker.

Yes, I love Peterson pipes, but the biggest complainers about their quality, as far as I've seen, are the people that have never owned one, and heard from their brother's, next door neighbor's ex-roommate's friend that had a wet smoker.

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I've often thought that myself. And I love my Petersons. But I have seen evidence of a few bad seeds from time to time so of course they're out there. But then I've seen evidence of the same with other makers such as Savinelli, and even the high and mighty Dunhill. The fact is, they're a factory establishment putting out tons of pipes, and a few are going to get past Quality Control from time to time.