THE Chicago Pipe Show — Battle of the Briar, Pt 1

[pipestud]

Thank you so much for your part in putting this together Jeff! I really enjoyed sitting and smoking a pipe in the smoking tent watching this. What an entertaining experience. I am sure that it was no easy feat to pull this off and you all made it look easy and effortless but I know you and Steve and many others put a lot of hard work into this event. Thank you.

Papamique

Thanks for the comments Papamique and all of the other contributors to this thread. And I know that I worked hard over the several days of preparation. Yes sir, it was tough chugging down those huge slices of Chicago pizza in order to stay out of the way of all those young strong guys who were moving all that equipment, etc., into the room for the competition. But hey, somebody had to eat all that pizza so I was glad to be of help. (-:

As for the competition itself, it was great to see those young pipe makers challenge themselves by turning a block of briar into very nice pipes in one hour's time. And Jeff hit the nail on the head with his comments: "The objective of the Battle was to demonstrate just how talented these makers are--if they can make these in an hour under pressure, imagine what they can do with a pipe in 8 or 16 hours! Were these 'high-grade' pipes of the first quality? No, of course not. We don't have the time or equipment to do that, not to mention that it would hardly be an 'exciting' event to watch that happen. These were high grade pipemakers challenging themselves to see what they could do in an hour and they were all great!

In my prior career as a sports broadcaster for 25-years, many of the sporting events I covered like football, basketball, horse racing, etc., were entertaining due to the speed in which these athletes performed. And what made this particular pipe making event so exciting was that one hour time limit. Hey, I love pipe makers but would fall asleep quickly if I was among the crowd watching them make their usual high grade pipes for 16-hours! The event was live on YouTube and in the smoking tent, and I sure heard from a lot of very impressed observers who were, like me, fascinated at how those pipe makers actually came up with very nice smoking pipes in an hour's time. And long-time pipe enthusiasts like Sykes Wilford (president of smokingpipes.com) and Rick Newcombe (pipe collector and multiple pipe books author) were as entertained and in awe as I was at what took place in that one hour time period. I was very proud to be a part of that first-ever Battle of the Briar, and can't wait to see what Jeff and the Chicago Pipe Show crew come up with for an encore in 2024!

Have a great weekend everyone,

Steve

 

[alaskanpiper]

I can take that hit.

I'm glad you all liked the event and we certainly appreciate all the feedback--positive and negative. We learned a lot by doing it this year.

The objective of the Battle was to demonstrate just how talented these makers are--if they can make these in an hour under pressure, imagine what they can do with a pipe in 8 or 16 hours! Were these 'high-grade' pipes of the first quality? No, of course not. We don't have the time or equipment to do that, not to mention that it would hardly be an 'exciting' event to watch that happen. These were high grade pipemakers challenging themselves to see what they could do in an hour and they were all great! I'm so proud of each one of them, and what they were able to do in the competition to showcase their talents and the glimpse that they offered the public into their worlds. Thanks all for watching and we hope that we can have a chance to do it again next year!

It really was very fun to watch. I honestly couldn’t have cared less about how it was scored, it was just so fun to be there and watch them work. Especially watching Jared age 30 years in 20 seconds when he fired up that wheel with the vacuum malfunction

 

[HawkeyeLinus]

Thanks for the comments Papamique and all of the other contributors to this thread. And I know that I worked hard over the several days of preparation. Yes sir, it was tough chugging down those huge slices of Chicago pizza in order to stay out of the way of all those young strong guys who were moving all that equipment, etc., into the room for the competition. But hey, somebody had to eat all that pizza so I was glad to be of help. (-:

As for the competition itself, it was great to see those young pipe makers challenge themselves by turning a block of briar into very nice pipes in one hour's time. And Jeff hit the nail on the head with his comments: "The objective of the Battle was to demonstrate just how talented these makers are--if they can make these in an hour under pressure, imagine what they can do with a pipe in 8 or 16 hours! Were these 'high-grade' pipes of the first quality? No, of course not. We don't have the time or equipment to do that, not to mention that it would hardly be an 'exciting' event to watch that happen. These were high grade pipemakers challenging themselves to see what they could do in an hour and they were all great!

In my prior career as a sports broadcaster for 25-years, many of the sporting events I covered like football, basketball, horse racing, etc., were entertaining due to the speed in which these athletes performed. And what made this particular pipe making event so exciting was that one hour time limit. Hey, I love pipe makers but would fall asleep quickly if I was among the crowd watching them make their usual high grade pipes for 16-hours! The event was live on YouTube and in the smoking tent, and I sure heard from a lot of very impressed observers who were, like me, fascinated at how those pipe makers actually came up with very nice smoking pipes in an hour's time. And long-time pipe enthusiasts like Sykes Wilford (president of smokingpipes.com) and Rick Newcombe (pipe collector and multiple pipe books author) were as entertained and in awe as I was at what took place in that one hour time period. I was very proud to be a part of that first-ever Battle of the Briar, and can't wait to see what Jeff and the Chicago Pipe Show crew come up with for an encore in 2024!

Have a great weekend everyone,

Steve

And you wouldn't say it, but I'll bet they appreciated your sponsorship and emcee role as well -- I watched it live and thoroughly enjoyed it - it even got my wife to look up from her "Nook" a few times (maybe it was the smooth announcer in the cowboy hat, lol).

 

[craiginthecorn]

If you mean because of the grain, that wasn't supposed to factor into it. What's "inside" a block is luck at the best of times, and was to be completely disregarded for contest purposes.

Yes. The grain was specifically excluded from the scoring, but I have to think it still had an effect on the scores. Scotti's block had little grain and quite a few sand pits. I'll get a scoresheet sometime this week and share what they were judged upon, specifically.

 

[craiginthecorn]

I just learned that "bonus points" were awarded for the order of completion. The faster you finished, the more points you received.

Meaning the entire thing was a RACE with a one hour maximum.

Sorry, event organizer(s), but that's just plain stupid for too many reasons to list.

I tallied the scoresheets, George. Even without the five bonus points, Tommi Ascorti would have won by the slimmest of margins. I'm sure the scoring methodology will be revisited before next year's Battle, but can't say whether it will change.

 

[ron123]

I might be in the minority, but I’d like to see them double the points for first and second submissions. Bring like an F1 pit crew element into the contest.

 

[HawkeyeLinus]

IMO, if they all finish in the allotted time I don’t see a reason to give more points for getting done more quickly. It’s a very short time as it is - that may dictate more access to the wheels if they are needing them at the same time.

 

[georged]

The entire concept still mystifies me.

Foot races at the Olympics or cars going down a drag strip, sure. That's the POINT.

Going as far as possible in an given time? Same thing, just arranged differently.

However...

Imagine yourself mega-wealthy and shopping for a new personal jet airplane, and there are only two specimens of the model you want available. Would you buy the one that was built in 24 hours (a new record time for the factory!!! Yay!!!), or the one they spent a week on?

Or, there are only two brain surgeons in the world who can perform the procedure you need. One loves to work fast and guarantees he'll get it done in an hour, the other says he'll take as long as necessary. Which one do you hire?

In short, sometimes there are times when speed is very much NOT the point.

 

[trouttimes]

The entire concept still mystifies me.

Foot races at the Olympics or cars going down a drag strip, sure. That's the POINT.

Going as far as possible in an given time? Same thing, just arranged differently.

However...

Imagine yourself mega-wealthy and shopping for a new personal jet airplane, and there are only two specimens of the model you want available. Would you buy the one that was built in 24 hours (a new record time for the factory!!! Yay!!!), or the one they spent a week on?

Or, there are only two brain surgeons in the world who can perform the procedure you need. One loves to work fast and guarantees he'll get it done in an hour, the other says he'll take as long as necessary. Which one do you hire?

In short, sometimes there are times when speed is very much NOT the point.

Kind of like fast smoke and slow smoke comps. Not optimal outcome but interesting to watch.