I bought a Mark Tinsky from Skip at The Briary about ten or so years ago. A small bulldog with this nice tamarid accent on the shoulder. I remember buying a new tin of Balkan Flake to break it in with. Before I could even smoke it, I had to run into the grocers to pick up some stuff for Mrs. Cosmic. It was a hot day in Alabama, but I knew I wasn’t going to be long. I set the pipe in a rack in my dashboard.
When I got back to my truck, the pipe was in pieces. The wood accent had popped in two. So, I drove back to the Briary. I wasn’t mad. I was heartbroken. I was sooo looking forward to smoking this pipe. Skip offered to send it back to Mark, which I thought was excessive. “Can’t you just glue it back?”
“No, no, Mark fucked up,” and Skip proceeded to explain to me how the design of thisnpipe was flawed.
So, I sighed, and said ok.
There was a back and forth between Skip and Mark. I’ve since learned that Skip can be very strange. But, Skip made it sound to me like Mark was refusing to fix it, but Skip was twisting his arm.
“Whatever.”
I ended up talking to Mark outside of Skip’s rhetoric, and I just explained that I loved the design and I didn’t care if it was merely glued back. Hell, “if it’s too much trouble, just sned it back to me, I’ll fix it.” Which is what I should have done in the first place.
Long story short, that pipe became my favorite, and Mark and I developed a friendship. I now make his stars, bands, and caps for him.
So, when I saw Mark’s son, Glenn, making a bulldog on IG, I contacted him to make me one. I wasn’t sure if Glenn knew that I was their jeweler or not, and didn’t want any extra favors. But, I sent him pics of the one his dad made and wanted a sister for it. A father son set. Didn’t have to have the woodwork on it. But, I did want an amber stem.
So, I got it in the mail today. The one with a lot of smoke patina on it is Mark’s, and of course the virgin pipe is Glenn’s.
These guys know their pipes. It is interesting that the bowl shape is so different between these two, but I like these differences.
Anyways, I’m about to fire up some 13 year old Astleys 109 for the inaugural smoke in this baby.
I couldn’t be more pleased.
When I got back to my truck, the pipe was in pieces. The wood accent had popped in two. So, I drove back to the Briary. I wasn’t mad. I was heartbroken. I was sooo looking forward to smoking this pipe. Skip offered to send it back to Mark, which I thought was excessive. “Can’t you just glue it back?”
“No, no, Mark fucked up,” and Skip proceeded to explain to me how the design of thisnpipe was flawed.
So, I sighed, and said ok.
There was a back and forth between Skip and Mark. I’ve since learned that Skip can be very strange. But, Skip made it sound to me like Mark was refusing to fix it, but Skip was twisting his arm.
“Whatever.”
I ended up talking to Mark outside of Skip’s rhetoric, and I just explained that I loved the design and I didn’t care if it was merely glued back. Hell, “if it’s too much trouble, just sned it back to me, I’ll fix it.” Which is what I should have done in the first place.
Long story short, that pipe became my favorite, and Mark and I developed a friendship. I now make his stars, bands, and caps for him.
So, when I saw Mark’s son, Glenn, making a bulldog on IG, I contacted him to make me one. I wasn’t sure if Glenn knew that I was their jeweler or not, and didn’t want any extra favors. But, I sent him pics of the one his dad made and wanted a sister for it. A father son set. Didn’t have to have the woodwork on it. But, I did want an amber stem.
So, I got it in the mail today. The one with a lot of smoke patina on it is Mark’s, and of course the virgin pipe is Glenn’s.
These guys know their pipes. It is interesting that the bowl shape is so different between these two, but I like these differences.
Anyways, I’m about to fire up some 13 year old Astleys 109 for the inaugural smoke in this baby.
I couldn’t be more pleased.
