Hi All!
My wonderful wife decided to give me a gift certificate from Smoker's Haven for Valentines. This is a rare treat since she really despises smoking of any sort, but she also likes me relieving my stress through pipe smoking rather than hookers and blow (unless she's included). I kid, I kid.
Anyway, I've never purchased anything from SH and I'm pretty sure she meant to get the gift certificate from Smokingpipes since that tends to be the online retailer that I use 99.9% of the time. But, since I had a hall pass to pick out something nice for myself, I decided to peruse the site and see what caught my fancy.
Most everything that I "fancied" was way more than my allotted gift amount, but I did happen to come across a nice Alexander Hasty Sandblasted Brandy with an Ivorite accent.
Now, I've been hearing a lot about Alex lately and how far along he has come in a relatively short amount of time. This particular pipe was made in 2018, and I got it for a steal compared to what some of his pieces are going for today.
I've heard from interviews with him on the usual podcasts that he made some great strides between 2018 - 2020, especially on his stemwork.
Now, I am going to enjoy the pipe no matter what, because it is a gorgeous piece and I can only assume that the engineering is spot on (listening to his interviews, this seems to be a sticking point for him), so it should smoke great.
But I would like to know from those of you who have any of his pipe from previous years to now if you can recognize any discernable improvements in that time period.
The only thing I can tell is that his style and shaping cues may have gotten a little more refined, but overall it seems that this kid came out swinging from the get-go.
I guess my point is, I'm not looking for validation for my purchase. I'm pretty sure I will be very happy with the pipe unless for some reason it just doesn't smoke well. I just want to know if anyone has noticed any differences from his earlier work to now since this will be my first Alexander Pipe, and if I like it, there is a good chance that I will want to acquire more of them.
I'll post pics when it arrives.
PS: Premal at SH was great to talk to. I had to call him because for some reason my phone autocorrected my own address. He had it corrected on the spot and had the pipe shipped the next day.
Thanks!
My wonderful wife decided to give me a gift certificate from Smoker's Haven for Valentines. This is a rare treat since she really despises smoking of any sort, but she also likes me relieving my stress through pipe smoking rather than hookers and blow (unless she's included). I kid, I kid.
Anyway, I've never purchased anything from SH and I'm pretty sure she meant to get the gift certificate from Smokingpipes since that tends to be the online retailer that I use 99.9% of the time. But, since I had a hall pass to pick out something nice for myself, I decided to peruse the site and see what caught my fancy.
Most everything that I "fancied" was way more than my allotted gift amount, but I did happen to come across a nice Alexander Hasty Sandblasted Brandy with an Ivorite accent.
Now, I've been hearing a lot about Alex lately and how far along he has come in a relatively short amount of time. This particular pipe was made in 2018, and I got it for a steal compared to what some of his pieces are going for today.
I've heard from interviews with him on the usual podcasts that he made some great strides between 2018 - 2020, especially on his stemwork.
Now, I am going to enjoy the pipe no matter what, because it is a gorgeous piece and I can only assume that the engineering is spot on (listening to his interviews, this seems to be a sticking point for him), so it should smoke great.
But I would like to know from those of you who have any of his pipe from previous years to now if you can recognize any discernable improvements in that time period.
The only thing I can tell is that his style and shaping cues may have gotten a little more refined, but overall it seems that this kid came out swinging from the get-go.
I guess my point is, I'm not looking for validation for my purchase. I'm pretty sure I will be very happy with the pipe unless for some reason it just doesn't smoke well. I just want to know if anyone has noticed any differences from his earlier work to now since this will be my first Alexander Pipe, and if I like it, there is a good chance that I will want to acquire more of them.
I'll post pics when it arrives.
PS: Premal at SH was great to talk to. I had to call him because for some reason my phone autocorrected my own address. He had it corrected on the spot and had the pipe shipped the next day.
Thanks!
