Monday, February 26, 2007

what other makers do

There seems to be a misunderstanding going around.

I've heard it said that I think other carvers are taking the easy ways out. Wrong!

I'm not in the pipe business just for the money. I'm not in the pipe business just to make friends and be a nice guy. I am in the pipe business for one reason and one reason only. When I am carving a pipe, there is something going on that I have never found anywhere else. It is something very special, and very hard to explain. The few people I could probably explain it to already understand it, and the rest will never get it. It's a spiritual thingy, a feeling of being at one with the world, that everything is as it should be. That's why I make pipes, period.

I make pipes the way I feel they should be made. Other carvers make pipes the way they think they should be made. The fact that they think they should be made one way, and I think they should be made another way, really means nothing. It adds a little variety to the market, a little spice to life.

A few people have expressed puzzlement at the way I price my pipes. Not everybody on the planet understands everything. I make pipes the way that I make pipes, and it takes the amount of time and the materials that it takes. I am not going to sell pipes for less than a price at which I think that I can make a profit, period. I'm not some rich guy operating a charity. If people think my prices are too high, they won't buy the pipes. If they don't buy the pipes, well I have a very very small rotation.

One thing that really gets my goat about pipes is when the humidity makes a stem fit tighter or looser. That really gets up my nose. I go to a lot of effort to try and make that not happen with my pipes. I also don't like it when a stem breaks, or gets all droopy if you leave it in the sun. I don't like pipes that don't draw well. Maybe there are dozens of other makers who are doing the same kind of hand-shaping of the bowl interior that I'm doing and I just don't know about it. But as far as I know, I'm the only guy in the business putting that level of detailed effort into the airway.

Whatever. I do things the way I think they should be done, I set prices where they need to be to make a profit, if pipes sell they sell and if they don't they don't. But I do NOT think other carvers are taking any easy ways out just because they're not doing the same things I'm doing, they're doing what they feel is right, for their own reasons, and I respect that. What they do is up to them, what I do is up to me, what pipe buyers do is up to them; that's what "free will" is all about.

Sunday, February 25, 2007

what happened to random?

I noticed that my website was getting hits that originated in an ASP thread, so I went and checked it out (thanks for thinking of me, Mary). Sorry that I've not updated this blog lately, there have been a lot of things going on, mostly all at once... and I'm really not that thrilled with the way either the old blogger or the new one work, so it's a chore.

There has been a lot going on over the past year, most of it non-pipe stuff. Regarding pipes, here is the bottom line:

1) I'm not dead, I'm not out of business, I haven't given it up; pigheaded/stupid as ever.
2) There are some items being figured out, and some of them have been and some haven't yet.
3) Because of the amount of stuff going on, if I produce 6 pipes in 2007 it'll be a major miracle.
4) Future pipes will be more costly, we're talking $500 minimum and probably a good deal more.
5) Future pipes will use stainless-steel tenons instead of brass, and will probably use a delrin mortise insert. Polycarbonate remains my stem material of choice. The OnePiece may come back, or not -- if it does, it will come back for bents as well as straights.

When all you can get your hands on in the way of pipe tobacco is Prince Albert, it can really screw with your taste buds. Lane's bl/wb, there's the good stuff, hope my taste buds recover enough to enjoy it again.

The next pipe that appears on my site will be one made for Sean Chercover (now a published author and bona-fide Important Person) because he managed to purchase the fugliest pipe I ever made at a point when it made a big difference to me whether I sold a pipe or not. Then I have some replacement stems to make for a very good customer. Once that's taken care of, new pipes will probably begin to appear on my site for sale, occasionally. Very occasionally in 2007, because I'm busier than a 1-legged man in an ass-kicking contest.

I changed my email when we moved the web server last September (the collection of ancient spam had become overwhelming), but the contact form works just fine.