Very cool pipe - How much would you offer?

[winton]

Trever, I like the Croglin Vampire. What did you use to make the white portion, ivory, acrylic, bone?
Winton

 

[redbeard]

Those are both sick looking pipes! I wouldn't mind smoking either of them. Couldn't afford that even in by dreams though. Shoot, a couple hundred dollar pipe is even out of my price range. :crying:

 

[trevert]

Trever, I like the Croglin Vampire. What did you use to make the white portion, ivory, acrylic, bone?

Horn. It was just really pale horn, from the "root" sections. IIRC, that was my first experience working with carving horn in detail, and holy crap, did that stink... At the CORPS show that year I told Sam Learned that I hated to even imagine what his workshop must smell like, with all the horn shanks he uses. It was really pretty stuff, though, and carved well.

 

[misterlowercase]

It's interesting that he used that term because that's not what I'd have thought of as branch wood, it's more deep burl wood. Typically the linear grain is strongest in the outer part of the briar burl, thus plateau, and it gets weaker and starts to vanish as you go inwards. You still have age rings, just not the flow-through grain of the outer parts. It makes for excellent blasting because it's the "up and down" grain that resists the blasting media most. When you have a chunk of wood where the grain is very loose or open, you can normally get some really cool blasting effects out of it. There's a Ligne Bretagne on my site right now that's a good example of this - rather than being stacked rings or such, it's covered in thin curly lines of age rings, all swirling around. Without the flame grain lines to muddy up the surface, the age ring patterns can really stand out.

Damn!

Thanks for that, the way you've written it out allows me me grasp the grain a little bit better.

I should have added in my reply - if I think of "branch wood", what I think of are the occasional sections in briar where there is literally a small branch or rootlet growing out of the burl in that spot. When cut and sanded smooth and/or blasted, what you get is a big round swirl of grain where all the rings have deformed around the growing portion of the branch. It's an immediately apparent effect once you've seen it and know what it is, but I don't have any examples on my site now and can't think of any links to illustrate this. Also, it can look cool or it can look terrible - a lot of times the briar will have a lot of small microfissures around such growths and when it's blasted, you end up with a lot of little open splits on the surface.

...and this too,

sounds like the topo map lookin' kinda stuff, like this old Jobey:

http://www.smokingpipes.com/pipes/estate/united-states/moreinfo.cfm?Product_ID=64921

...would that be an example?
:worship:

I appreciate your taking the time to respond, and I must offer worshipping praise because your innovations and influence has been a most impactful thing on the pipemaking scene, and in many ways I think you were a pivotal figure with ushering in the "new era" of American pipemaking.
Eyes of an alchemist!

 

[trevert]

sounds like the topo map lookin' kinda stuff, like this old Jobey:

http://www.smokingpipes.com/pipes/estate/united-states/moreinfo.cfm?Product_ID=64921

...would that be an example?

Yes, that's a great example. Without the grain lines that are in the outer portion of the burl, you get nothing but age rings, creating the swirly, squiggly line look just like that Jobey displays.
Thanks for the kind words! I just consider myself pretty lucky to have gotten to do something I enjoy for a living. That Alchemist pipe you posted was an example of the crazy Algerian briar I mentioned earlier - It was possible to get the most amazing blasts out of that stuff. It never looked "classical" but it always looked interesting.

 

[cigrmaster]

Trevor, admit it. You make those Halloween Pipes for us baby boomers who did too much acid, that is why they sell so freaking fast.

 

[thehappypiper]

I would never buy something of such value from that website. I'd contact Trevor myself. But honestly, I'd be looking for something similar which has not been resold.

 

[trevert]

I would never buy something of such value from that website. I'd contact Trevor myself. But honestly, I'd be looking for something similar which has not been resold.

I do kind of wonder sometimes why people pay some seriously increased prices on my estate pipes when I'm still making pipes, and often still selling them for less than the estate pipe prices, sometimes. The new Halloween pipes last year were in the $1600-2300 range, unlike all the $3000+ ones on ebay.

 

[peckinpahhombre]

Trevor, as an aside, I seem to get your newsletters announcing pipes for sale many hours after they have been sent. I know Al was indicating the other day that he has the same issue. Whenever I click on them when they come in I see that everything has been sold. I then look at the time stamp and it is always many hours before it shows up in my inbox.

 

[andystewart]

$2,000. I love the pipe but that's my ceiling. Period.
Andy

 

[elpfeife]

Moi aussi. Although I now seemed to have been dropped from the email list. Guess I need to reregister.

 

[peckinpahhombre]

elfpfeife - it is pretty frustrating. I have almost unsubscribed several times because it is driving me nuts getting the email hours after the fact. Trevor's emails are the only one I have this problem with.

 

[trevert]

I can probably tell you why - I'll bet you have your emails subscribed in "Digest" form instead of as individual emails. Somewhere during the sign-up process there is an option to receive "Individual Emails" or "Digest Form". Digest waits for a period of time to group emails together before sending. I've heard this from a few other people and when I've doublechecked their addresses, that's been the case every time. If you'll email me or PM me with your subscribed email addy, I'll check it for you and fix it if needed.

 

[crazypipe]

$00.00. I'm a classic style guy. I know others love that stuff but it's not my thing. ::

 

[cigrmaster]

Trevor, the reason people are paying so much for your estate work is people know that when you die, the pipes values are going to go through the roof. You might want to think about getting some security as I think these estate buyers may be planning your demise. I know I would be if I owned your high end pipes, as it is I own a Ligne Bertagne and for the price I paid, I would not consider offing you for that little amount of money.
Here is my Ligne Bretagne, a great smoker by the way.

 

[andystewart]

Beautiful pipe Harris. Ligne Bretagne are now on my hit list.
Andy

 

[trevert]

Given that I'll soon be autocrossing my little MR2 Spyder, I could die any day now, LOL! I have to admit that it's really weird watching pipes that I sold for $700 a few years back now reselling for $2-3000, but I still do not ever advise anyone to think of pipes as an investment. That way lies madness and probably some very unhappy wives.
Regarding Ligne Bretagnes, I've got seven more going up on the site later this afternoon.

 

[cigrmaster]

Trevor, autocrossing a Spyder is pretty much a death wish. They are great little cars but a 2000 mile run through the Sahara desert is pushing it a bit don't ya think? lol
A 700 pipe selling for 2-3k means they are lining up to off you. There is a secret society of estate pipe owners who have a hit list of makers and you are on it. I just added Rad to the list so once I hit 20 of his pipes in my collection( I own 18 now)his number is up. It looks like I need to add a bunch of your pipes before they get to you, when you see 700 going for 2-3K it means you are close to getting offed. It has been a pleasure knowing you and I wish you a great trip to the afterlife.

 

[misterlowercase]

Damn, MR2's are baddass!
What gen?
They remind me of the old Fiat X 1/9.

If I had the loot I'd be playing in the woods pretending I was Stig Blomqvist,

Saab forever!

 

[trevert]

Trevor, autocrossing a Spyder is pretty much a death wish. They are great little cars but a 2000 mile run through the Sahara desert is pushing it a bit don't ya think?

Well, in this case autocross means "Racing around local parking lot cone courses set up by our SCCA chapter". :D

It should make for some fun afternoons.

What gen?

It's a 3rd gen, a 2002 Spyder.

Thanks to it being older, we were able to pick it up cheap. It's the first car I've actually purchased since 2000. Spyders are wonderfully fun little cars; the main problem is finding ones that haven't fallen into the hands of high school kids by now and been modded/molested/ruined. I shopped for a couple of years before I found one that hadn't been body-kitted, had 19" wheels mounted on it, been turbo-ed, etc.
When my wife and I got married back in 1989, the first car we bought together was a 1986 1st gen MR2. We loved it a lot and figured that since we've managed to stay together now for 25 years and two international moves, we'd buy ourselves another MR2 as our mutual 25th anniversary present to each other. I'm looking forward to putting the top down and driving up and down the Blue Ridge Parkway in the fall.

Saab forever!

Ha! SPEAKING of Saab, well, that's my other car. ::

A 1999 9-5 Turbo that I got for free, believe it or not (A story unto itself). You can sometimes find me on the Saab Central forums in my ongoing quest to restore it to "like new" condition and keep it running forever. I love that thing, although the Saab and the MR2 are about to make me crazy because of the totally different positions of EVERYTHING inside the cars - power window switches, ignition, gas cap, trunk open, headlights, brights, wiper controls... pretty much every single bit of switchgear is in a different position between the two.