Who knew what when is tough to discern, but there is potentially a loss to the pipe community that some of the methods or techniques will not be passed on. Sure the leaf is different, but it will be different again tomorrow, maybe better! I work in a trade and having journeyman pass down experience and expertise is one of the things that helps keep the trade alive! The beauty of what they did that was special is that STG probably doesn’t have the skill or patience to respect those methods and get those results, the “secret recipes” require skill and experience that few would be able to replicate, and those few could probably do it nearly as well. Their brand and recipes are nearly dead and fading, and in 50 years if somebody tries a tin they’ll probably say “well the other stuff around must have been better or these guys wouldn’t have closed down”. A huge portion of a legacy is moving it down. Sure they’ll be the best for a few old timers for a bit, certainly til they pass on, but then so will the old timers and then the reputation, recipes, methods, and art will amount to rumors and speculation, a veritable ghosted pipe, a hint of Latakia when you know you packed that bowl with a Va-Per. McClelland will become the Studebaker, Auburn, Deusenburg, Pontiac, Cord of the pipe world, something ever more rare that fewer and fewer experience until it is forgotten. A legacy without perseverance through generations is just ephemeral pride, fleeting and soon forgotten. The hope is that most things get better over time, building on the past. Look at baseball, football, cars, planes. Sadly, McClelland will never serve as a foundation for something better. No Jack Welch or Bear Bryant tree of coaching success. Just the end of something that was good for a period of time. There will be something better coming, and we’ll all say so because we’ll not have had McClellands in so long. It will fade to oblivion, being bested by far inferior products and methods that are still available.
