Sara Eltang Pipe Opinions

[deathmetal]

All Sara Eltang pipes is made in my workshop and they are all finished by me.
http://www.eltang.com/sara-eltang

Oh. Finished.
So, someone else does everything, and he handles the details?

 

[lyso]

So I just googled Sara Eltang Pipes looking for an opinion and came here. Is there anyone that can provide their experiences, thoughts, or an opinion now that the issue above is settled?

 

[rhoadsie]

I have Sara Eltang pipes and they smoke flawless. Given that Sykes Wilford has weighed in above (along with my firsthand experience), I would tend to dismiss the above chatter from denizens here that have not experienced the pipes firsthand. If you can accept the pricepoint, then I suggest that it is well-worth giving the pipe a go.

 

[bigpond]

OP, I have a Sara Devil Anse, an Eltang Poker and an Eltang Arne Jacobsen all rusticated. They smoke ok, are fun in the hand and are a treat for the eyes. I haven't noticed much difference on the business side of things, as in the wood seems to be the same quality, as is the "engineering" with the exception of last inch or so of stem, naturally.
So, from a smoking perspective a Sara is an Eltang imho, or at least 90% if you're a stem snob..err, aficionado. I don't mean to make light really; that last inch is often what separates a good pipe from a great one. It's just that I'm stem material agnostic and have had my stem standards ruined by Castello
I will say this thread and the last have taken a turn for the weird though. A bit hard to follow. Quotes are all from Sykes.

Tom's pipes aren't fraized.

Fraizing leaves the manufacturer with very, very little control over grain patterns and the like, but it's a fairly efficient way to turn, say, 400 bowls. The Danish copy-fraizer offers more shaping flexibility and more control over grain placement, but requires a bunch more expertise to run and it's a lot slower.

Copy-fraizing involves a bit of human interaction to rough shape what may become a decent pipe. Ok, got it.

Tom also makes a substantially similar shape under the Sara Eltang label that has different production standards and methods. The Tom Eltang pipes have hand cut vulcanite stems; the Sara Eltang version has stems made from modified acrylic blanks, for example. There are a number of other differences associated with the care with which they are finished.

Ok, so the Sara's aren't made with or finished with the same level of care as a TE handmade. Ok, we're good.

Specifically to Sara Eltang, they are fraized (see previous post on commentary about fraizing) by Tom (or helpers from his workshop) at Former's workshop because Tom and Former share the copy fraizer and Former has, at present, more space for it. They're finished in Tom's shop, mostly by Tom (some steps others can do; some steps only Tom does).

Wait, what? So Sara's are copy fraized and then finished by a crew that may or may not include Tom.
Ok, so that means Eltang produces two versions of the same pipe? One batch he hand-makes alone from a jig that produces near identical pipes, and the other batch is copy-fraized and finished by Tom or someone else. Have I got that right?
I'm not a pipe maker, but wouldn't it be less complicated to simply use one method to create all the pipes and simply cherry pick the best bowls of the lot for more detailed finishing work?
https://www.danishpipeshop.com/d/Tom-Eltang-Devil-Anse-Black-i7939.html

https://www.smokingpipes.com/pipes/new/eltang/moreinfo.cfm?product_id=178905
It's cool that these are both still in production 3 or 4 years on.
I don't think there's anything wrong with a fraized pipe. I have a bunch and love them. Some of my best pipes are fraized, in fact, my best friend may be fraized. The only thing I think sucks about fraized pipes is when you've been lead to believe they aren't.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

Let it go, bigpond, don't question Sykes!!! He keeps the lights on in this place.

 

[mso489]

I used to have some excitement about having pipes from different nations on my racks, believing the stamps on the pipes as to their origin. With older pipes, I still somewhat believe the stamps. With more recently made pipes, i don't.

 

[bigpond]

Let it go, bigpond, don't question Sykes!!! He keeps the lights on in this place.

10-4

 

[craiginthecorn]

Honestly, I couldn’t care less if the pipes are fraised to start. What I care about in a pipe at this price point is that it looks and smokes great. Obviously, Tom and his very skilled assistants know how to effectively use the fraising machine because the pipes are beautiful. And yes, they smoke very well too. A lot of handwork remains after the fraising is complete, including the finishing, which is something that Tom Eltang is well known for. The stems are good, but not quite to the level of his hand cut stems.
The compromises that have been made to produce the Sara Eltang line greatly reduce the cost with only a modest reduction in overall quality. I own six Sara Eltangs and two Tom Eltangs and one Eltang Basic pipe. None of the lines are inexpensive, but the Sara Eltang line represents an excellent value.

 

[johnbarleycorn]

^ What he said.....

 

[rhoadsie]

Honestly, I couldn’t care less if the pipes are fraised to start. What I care about in a pipe at this price point is that it looks and smokes great. Obviously, Tom and his very skilled assistants know how to effectively use the fraising machine because the pipes are beautiful. And yes, they smoke very well too. A lot of handwork remains after the fraising is complete, including the finishing, which is something that Tom Eltang is well known for. The stems are good, but not quite to the level of his hand cut stems.
The compromises that have been made to produce the Sara Eltang line greatly reduce the cost with only a modest reduction in overall quality. I own six Sara Eltangs and two Tom Eltangs and one Eltang Basic pipe. None of the lines are inexpensive, but the Sara Eltang line represents an excellent value.

+1

The vast majority here don't know crap about how a pipe is made but pretend that it means the world to them. In the end, how a pipe smokes and craftsmanship are important, yet, again, the vast majority couldn't distinguish between different pipes, if we could effectively put together a blind "taste" test.

 

[bigpond]

Oh, I think folks can tell a good pipe from a bad one pretty easily once they’ve had enough pipes fly through the rotation. I also think folks tend to adapt their technique to compensate pretty quickly, after a bit of experience. But to your point about a blind test between hand made or all machine made stummel I’m in total agreement wrt smoking.

 

[alialansari]

What is fraising exactly?

 

[craiginthecorn]

Fraising is a duplicating process used for roughing out pipe shapes with a tool that operates, I believe, much like the ones used for making copies of keys. I’ve never seen one used, but this is a photo of the one that was in Uhle’s workshop in Milwaukee in 2017. The contents of that workshop has since been purchased by Jamie Connelly of Stem and Briar. It’s not the best photo of the machine, It doesn’t even include the entire tool. Sorry, but it’s the only one I’ve got.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

Awesome picture of a fraising machine, Craig. It is hard to find a good picture of one. I am fascinated with these. Thanks for posting it.

 

[alialansari]

Thank you very much Craig!