Briar Quality in Dunhill
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Just read this amazing thread . Thank you distinguished gentlemen !
This is the kind of thread we thrive on.
This is the kind of thread we thrive on.
I've cut 2/3 of my posted blocks, and quite likely will cut the third today... once I have pics of all the pipes I'll post 'em up for fun.
Interestingly, I've been reading Dunhill's "About Smoke", the 1928 version, and there's quite a bit of talk about Alfred's preference for the tight, hard Calabrian briar (mentioned by name) over the softer Algerian, and how the Shell pipe came about as a way to toughen (and frankly use up) the Algerian briar he had on hand. Pretty fascinating stuff. (And again, no mention of oil curing the smooth pipes - only the Shells).
Interestingly, I've been reading Dunhill's "About Smoke", the 1928 version, and there's quite a bit of talk about Alfred's preference for the tight, hard Calabrian briar (mentioned by name) over the softer Algerian, and how the Shell pipe came about as a way to toughen (and frankly use up) the Algerian briar he had on hand. Pretty fascinating stuff. (And again, no mention of oil curing the smooth pipes - only the Shells).
Great thread. I have enjoyed reading and re-reading it as it has progressed. Sasquatch, I seem to be the only one who doesn't know your work. Do you mind telling me/us who you work for or what name to look for your pipes under?
Yes Sas, please tell us 
Again, the US Dunhill patents concerning oil curing and blasting, very interesting read :
https://www.folloder.com/pdf/1341418.pdf
Again, the US Dunhill patents concerning oil curing and blasting, very interesting read :
https://www.folloder.com/pdf/1341418.pdf
Thanks, for some reason I was getting mixed up on the Sasquatch Instagram member who posts pipes and the guy at Cupofjoes and here. So many Sasquatches.
Hmmm, ...eats puppies. Did I miss one this weekend?
Hmmm, ...eats puppies. Did I miss one this weekend?
Yeah, it was last week sometime. Trying to find it but search reveals nothing. Pretty funny thread. Maybe it was deleted?
Bringing old ( really interesting ) threads back to life is getting the better of me.
Should I quit ?
Should I quit ?
Heck no... I missed that one. Absolutely fascinating read. Now I want an Upshall, a Castello and defininately a Squatch pipe.
Not yet a clue bout Squatch pipes, but some of my best smokers are Castello's ( the virgin briar ones are heaven ) and JU's !
Are the Squatch yours Sas ? The website is terrific.
Are the Squatch yours Sas ? The website is terrific.
Sorry for any confusion - yes, there are a few "sasquatch" types, including Micah Cryder, the Yeti. I took this handle more than 10 years ago when I started haunting various forums. I started making pipes, and unlike EVERYone else, I didn't just call myself "Todd Bannard Pipes". There was already at least one Todd in pipe making. I stamped my initials on my pipes: STB also, BST for Briar Sweat and Tears, which is mostly what pipe making is. Never thought anything of it because I expected to sell about 4 pipes my whole life.
Here's the deal, and some of you know this or will get it immediately: I make pipes, and they have to sell themselves. I don't pound the pavement, I don't advertise in any way. If I make pipes that are good enough looking AND good enough smoking, they will sell, it's that simple. And quite correct actually. By the time people find me, they are interested. If they never find me, that's okay.
I found this fascinating quip from Dunhill the other day: "...Advertising did not play any part in the development of the Dunhill business. ...Our first customers came to know Dunhill goods by what was probably a quite casual entry into the Duke St. shop. The large majority of these casual customers became regular customers." If you make something pretty good an offer it at a fair price, it works. I don't compete with other pipe makers really in any way - I do what I do, working in the niche I have created, and it works for me, and the people who want to buy the kind of thing I sell, which is hopefully a pipe that smokes as good or better than anything they have. In some cases this is a basket pipe and I am a gateway to the artisan world, my cheaper pipes being available under 300 bucks. In other cases people wander in off the street and ask for something special, which I can sometimes deliver.
The thing that freaks me out in all of this is how many truly bad pipes there are and were. Awful quality in any number of ways, and usually manifesting with a gurgling, difficult smoke. The fact that a an essentially talentless person like myself can be kept busy merely by making pipes that are not like that is very telling for the whole industry imho. I'm not thrilled with Dunhill pipes, preferring Castellos myself, but at least Alfred TRIED!
Here's the deal, and some of you know this or will get it immediately: I make pipes, and they have to sell themselves. I don't pound the pavement, I don't advertise in any way. If I make pipes that are good enough looking AND good enough smoking, they will sell, it's that simple. And quite correct actually. By the time people find me, they are interested. If they never find me, that's okay.
I found this fascinating quip from Dunhill the other day: "...Advertising did not play any part in the development of the Dunhill business. ...Our first customers came to know Dunhill goods by what was probably a quite casual entry into the Duke St. shop. The large majority of these casual customers became regular customers." If you make something pretty good an offer it at a fair price, it works. I don't compete with other pipe makers really in any way - I do what I do, working in the niche I have created, and it works for me, and the people who want to buy the kind of thing I sell, which is hopefully a pipe that smokes as good or better than anything they have. In some cases this is a basket pipe and I am a gateway to the artisan world, my cheaper pipes being available under 300 bucks. In other cases people wander in off the street and ask for something special, which I can sometimes deliver.
The thing that freaks me out in all of this is how many truly bad pipes there are and were. Awful quality in any number of ways, and usually manifesting with a gurgling, difficult smoke. The fact that a an essentially talentless person like myself can be kept busy merely by making pipes that are not like that is very telling for the whole industry imho. I'm not thrilled with Dunhill pipes, preferring Castellos myself, but at least Alfred TRIED!
Isn't it a lovely myth? Since they were advertising their leather goods before they ever got into the pipe business they must have been idiots to be spending all that money on an essentially useless effort.
Years ago I had the opportunity to talk with several of Dunhill's top American dealers on separate occasions, and they all said the same thing, excellently made stems attached to indifferent wood.
Yeah, there's plenty to be skeptical about. I never can figure out when I read stuff Alfred wrote whether he is just blowing smoke up my ass, or whether he really believed a lot of the stuff he said, or what. Lots of it sounds good, but lots of it sounds like total, impossible utter bullshit too....
Virtually none of what Sasquatch just said is true.
Here's what's up:
"Sasquatch" is a huge Canadian carpenter-guy from the semi-wilds of central Alberta, who captured and keeps an actual pipemaker prisoner in his shop-equipped basement. The pipes this guy produces are then sold for travel and hotel money so that "Sasquatch" can go to the Chicago show each year to drink beer, leer at the Scandinavian women, and entice a couple of foolish & impressionable newbie carvers to visit him in Alberta, where he will promptly EAT them... because what makes him so big is legit Sasquatch DNA. He's the Missing Link. (He's allowed to remain at large only because Justin Trudeau pees his pants and goes into a catatonic terror-state whenever he thinks about real men.)
As Paul Harvey said: And now you know the rest of the story.
Here's what's up:
"Sasquatch" is a huge Canadian carpenter-guy from the semi-wilds of central Alberta, who captured and keeps an actual pipemaker prisoner in his shop-equipped basement. The pipes this guy produces are then sold for travel and hotel money so that "Sasquatch" can go to the Chicago show each year to drink beer, leer at the Scandinavian women, and entice a couple of foolish & impressionable newbie carvers to visit him in Alberta, where he will promptly EAT them... because what makes him so big is legit Sasquatch DNA. He's the Missing Link. (He's allowed to remain at large only because Justin Trudeau pees his pants and goes into a catatonic terror-state whenever he thinks about real men.)
As Paul Harvey said: And now you know the rest of the story.
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