Hello!
This is my first post and therefor everything might not go smoothly format-wise. Hopefully I get it figured out in time. I'm new to pipesmagazine forum but not pipe tobacco forums and I'm glad to have joined these ranks as an extension of the hobby. Onto the meat and potatoes of this post...
I started pipe smoking in late 2013, and only early 2014 did I start realizing how amazing artisan pipes were. I heard about lots of famous ones, heard about some on YouTube, word of mouth, etc, but Jeff Gracik's work was foremost brought to my attention by a friend on another forum, crimsonrat. He urged me for a good long while to get a J Alan as he has a few and I can be quoted as saying that I would have one by 2016. Looks like I made my promise, and ahead of schedule, at that! I have many more pipes, artisans mostly, and the majority of those are American, so you could say a J Alan is quite a fitting addition to my collection. I think Mr. Gracik needs no introduction. Without further adieu, here are the pictures (if this formatting works out)
So there it is, an estate from 2007, marked number 120, and I'd like to say it's a Danish blowfish (if anyone has a better name for it, let me know, and even better why it is or is not a fish). I'm aware that Jeff is now either reaching 1000 or has surpassed it, and that this was an early piece and would be of understandably different quality than what he makes today. I found it on neatpipes.com and the price was agreeable so I went for it, and I'm really very far from disappointed. As I've seen some even earlier pieces from Jeff, while still elegant, the sophistication in this pipe for it's age is remarkable. I'm not reviewing it, so I won't address every aspect, but the shaping is superb, stem/button work is as comfortable as can be, stem/shank junction is beautifully done, and he really took advantage of the grain. I'm just being honest, where the stem slopes down into the ebonite teardrop, it isn't as rounded and doesn't have quite the flow you might expect from a later piece, but it's just fine, because it looks like instead of trying to do something he couldn't do perfectly, he went a different route that at the time he knew he could do perfectly. At the end of the day, I do appreciate flawlessness and practicality against overly-ambitious attempts that just miss the mark. I can't complain about this pipe. It's absolutely gorgeous and will be one my treasures that will stay in my collection and be passed down. In fact, I love it so much that I have another on the way, this time a much newer piece in the 900's. I'll be excited and very interested to see the difference between pipe #120 and #934.
Thanks for taking a look everybody, and I'll be looking forward to meeting new people and making friends!
Okay, I'm having trouble posting pictures, I was using imgur with the [/img] format but the pictures don't seem to have worked. I'll try something else, let me know if I'm doing it wrong, please. As I suspected, imgur albums don't work, I fixed it. Thanks, pitchfork.
This is my first post and therefor everything might not go smoothly format-wise. Hopefully I get it figured out in time. I'm new to pipesmagazine forum but not pipe tobacco forums and I'm glad to have joined these ranks as an extension of the hobby. Onto the meat and potatoes of this post...
I started pipe smoking in late 2013, and only early 2014 did I start realizing how amazing artisan pipes were. I heard about lots of famous ones, heard about some on YouTube, word of mouth, etc, but Jeff Gracik's work was foremost brought to my attention by a friend on another forum, crimsonrat. He urged me for a good long while to get a J Alan as he has a few and I can be quoted as saying that I would have one by 2016. Looks like I made my promise, and ahead of schedule, at that! I have many more pipes, artisans mostly, and the majority of those are American, so you could say a J Alan is quite a fitting addition to my collection. I think Mr. Gracik needs no introduction. Without further adieu, here are the pictures (if this formatting works out)
So there it is, an estate from 2007, marked number 120, and I'd like to say it's a Danish blowfish (if anyone has a better name for it, let me know, and even better why it is or is not a fish). I'm aware that Jeff is now either reaching 1000 or has surpassed it, and that this was an early piece and would be of understandably different quality than what he makes today. I found it on neatpipes.com and the price was agreeable so I went for it, and I'm really very far from disappointed. As I've seen some even earlier pieces from Jeff, while still elegant, the sophistication in this pipe for it's age is remarkable. I'm not reviewing it, so I won't address every aspect, but the shaping is superb, stem/button work is as comfortable as can be, stem/shank junction is beautifully done, and he really took advantage of the grain. I'm just being honest, where the stem slopes down into the ebonite teardrop, it isn't as rounded and doesn't have quite the flow you might expect from a later piece, but it's just fine, because it looks like instead of trying to do something he couldn't do perfectly, he went a different route that at the time he knew he could do perfectly. At the end of the day, I do appreciate flawlessness and practicality against overly-ambitious attempts that just miss the mark. I can't complain about this pipe. It's absolutely gorgeous and will be one my treasures that will stay in my collection and be passed down. In fact, I love it so much that I have another on the way, this time a much newer piece in the 900's. I'll be excited and very interested to see the difference between pipe #120 and #934.
Thanks for taking a look everybody, and I'll be looking forward to meeting new people and making friends!
Okay, I'm having trouble posting pictures, I was using imgur with the [/img] format but the pictures don't seem to have worked. I'll try something else, let me know if I'm doing it wrong, please. As I suspected, imgur albums don't work, I fixed it. Thanks, pitchfork.
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