Broken Dreams of Briar

I was able to finish a couple of pipes this past weekend despite a plethora of flawed briar. If you are not aware of the potential for flaws in a block of briar then consider yourself lucky to be free of such heartbreak. It is not uncommon to have a beautiful piece of briar beaming with all the potential of the fine smoking apparatus that it is soon to be. As you poor your time and labor into bringing forth the form of the new pipe greatly, anticipating the glorious creation to be, you heart sinks as a hole the size of a lunar crater emerges in the middle of the bowl or some other location that is sure to render the piece a lost cause. Now suppliers of briar will tell you that this is simply a part of life and that in the end it will work out that more often then not the briar will be usable. Well strike me twice with lightening and consider me shark bait for these odds seem stacked most unevenly against me these days. Despite such comforting assurance from said suppliers, I scrapped three pieces in row in one night this week. I have defiantly seemed to find more flawed pieces of briar then my fair share theses days. On the other hand if I were to air on the side of the half full glass, then I am assured to never see a flaw again, or at least for a long time, if that is truly the statistical stance of the "briar guys". But in reality I now look at each piece with suspicion bordering on contempt, questioning the briar's true motive, will you yield the pipe of my desires or leave me broken once again. With that I am off to the shop, I have a new shipment of briar to get into. Wow I really need a new hobby! Check out this weeks "successful" attempts.

Unspoken For!

While I have been busy trying to complete pipe orders, makes me sound busy when in actuality I'm just a slow worker, I was able to complete a couple of pipes this weekend that are available now! In the future I will list pipes that are "unspoken for" at the following site; http://www.christopherpipes.com Thanks, Chris