The White Tenon

This falls into the category of "unusual things that tend to startle very conservative buyers". I use white delrin tenons occasionally, but for a very specific reason. Translucent materials, like the horn stem above, can sometimes show shadows, or profiles, of tenon inserts that are made from the usual black delrin. Had I used a black tenon with the stem above, one would have observed that the portion of the stem near the ring looked shadowed somehow... darker inside the material. Unlike fully translucent or transparent materials like some acrylics and faux ambers, horn is only subtly translucent - It looks opaque, but you can see more of the material within the material than seems obvious.

I think white tenons sometimes have a bad rap because the ones people encounter most commonly are the screw-in white nylon tenons used in so many meerschaum stems - Many of which have very restricted draws as well as being a bit flexi. While it looks the same visually, the white tenons I use are handcut from white delrin rod, exactly the same material as the black delrin that I normally use except for color.

Here's a pic of the rest of the pipe:


It's sitting out in the shop waiting to ship to Pipe & Pint at the moment. A very nice Ligne Bretagne handmade Collector! (If anyone on this side of the ocean is interested, write or phone me soon as I expect the pipe to go into the box tomorrow or Wednesday latest. Price is 215 € + VAT if applicable) Speaking of Pipe & Pint, so far the blog poll votes by European buyers are pretty clearly in the majority for preferring to buy pipes direct from me, even in the face of having to pay VAT. It does present a conundrum, because if I hold back a few pipes to sell direct here, they'll still be on the site and available to US buyers, and I'll have the same old shipping problems again. I can't really limit sales to one group or another without someone inevitably whining about "the other side getting all the good pipes". Personally, I feel that the EU buyers will like buying from P&P a lot more than they think they will now - at the moment, it's just an unknown quantity, and I'd wager that many of the "direct sale" votes would change after positive experiences. We'll find out, though, once the P&P site is open and selling for a bit. Speaking strictly financially, at the moment I just can't afford to have pipes sitting around here for window shoppers - The work needs to move, and thus it goes to P&P.

Coming up next blog entry - THRILLS! CHILLS! Join me in the further adventures with our Skatblast vac and cabinet! Hear amazing revelations about sandblasting media! See the arrival of a truckload of new repair parts! Hear me spend a solid day cursing as I change piping, motors, valves, and hoses! Experience the shocking tale of my encounter with Matthys and SkatBlast USA over my blog comments! AND...... Join me in the discovery of a horrifying new truth about my system that will chill Rad Davis to the core......
ALL THIS! REAL SOON!!