WELL; Mso489, based on my observations YOU said it all as how it is,one thing of which I was amazed with French ones and is the quality of briar for the price, yes sometimes the stem shaping leaves to be desired,the draw can be anything, but overall they very good ones, and if someone wants to explore some more St Claude make pipes I'd happy to direct you to the following sites,La Pipe.fr,Lahavane-Nimes.fr they ship world over and are having discounts ongoin' yet if someone here is feelin' troubled when processing and checking his/her order,I'm here to help ,Ok so much for this today.Regards, Paul