Whither the American Market?

Biz News - I've just posted two new Talbert Briars to the site catalog, a sandblasted tankard (already sold, I think) and a beautiful high-grade smooth.

My recent replacement (forced, due to our old printer vomiting its ink cartidges all over its internal workings like Jim Belushi at a frat party) of our office printer has got us a new scanner/printer/fax unit. It's a delight to have a scanner in the house again, after five years without. I'd forgotten how handy they are. This, coupled with the ensuing "Digging through old photo albums for things that need scanning" turned up some pics I'd thought long lost - Photos of my very first pipes. In fact, today's photo is of the first two pipes I ever made - Pipe #1 is the one in the foreground and #2, the ever-popular Bilbo, is the background one. Both were made from blocks entirely using a Dremel, start to finish, including doing all the polishing with it (A slow and arduous affair, without doubt!)

We're about to go into our tenth year of business with Talbert Pipes, and it's a time for some reflection. When I went into the pipe business, my intent was simple - to produce the highest quality handmade pipes I could, pipes to compete with the best of the European masters for slightly more accessible prices. It isn't for me to judge how successful I was at that (or not), but one interesting thing I've noted is the shift in my sales over the years. For the first few years, I sold everything I made exclusively to American buyers, and there seemed no reason to even try to look elsewhere - foreign shipping was a hassle by comparison, and I didn't understand the issues of foreign currencies. The US was riding the economic boom and optimism of the Clinton years and all seemed well. But over the last five years, I've watched the US market go sour with the US economy - Compare, for example, the fact that when I moved to France, a dollar was worth 1.15 €, while today it is worth about .53 cents of a euro. In only five years...

This isn't going to fix itself any time soon. During this period, various folks have confidently predicted that that dollar would turn around in short order, but when you consider the monstrous deficit, the unpopularity of the current administration and lack of global confidence thereof, and the fallout of the sub-prime market, it will be years yet before the dollar can hope to start climbing back up. (Having said that, I cross my fingers and hope the Prediction Law will come into play, and immediately begin to prove me wrong!) It's made it more and more difficult for US buyers to purchase my pipes, to my great sadness. While I haven't changed my prices at all, the pipes have effectively become considerably more costly to American buyers, like all other brands from the EU market. Just recently I talked with a Canadian pipemaker who was himself being forced to reprice his pipes in his native currency to stop bleeding income to the devaluing dollar - something I was forced to do several years ago.

(If this all sounds Greek, I'll lay it out simple - all my bills and food are priced in euros, and the pricing doesn't change. 75 € worth of groceries five years ago is still 75 € worth of groceries today, minus inflation. But if I priced in dollars five years ago, a $500 pipe would have provided me with 575 € for my work. Today, a $500 pipe would only pay me 390 €. Ack. This is the bottom line problem faced by all European vendors to the states today)

These days, more and more of my sales are going to European, Russian, and Asian buyers - people whose currency isn't devalued. I still do regular special order sales and commissions with American collectors and friends who are willing to accept the trade deficit, but I don't try to market my work there nearly so much... It's just depressing to me, really, because I'll be sitting back proudly looking at a new pipe that I think is a real steal for 525 €, and I've got to turn around and tell an inquiring American that, oh yeah, sorry, that's going to cost them something like $800+. I hate that they have to pay so much for my work - It's as much a social problem for me as an economic one, because I miss the general banter and friendly relations with all the US collectors.

What to do? Well, the need to make a living wage necessitates that I have to focus on selling to the people who are best able and eager to buy, and that isn't the US today. This disparity is eventually going to affect even the American pipemakers, who are currently in the enviable position of being able to sell very highly priced pipes at what amount to huge discounts on the world market. The problem is that all their supplies come from over here, and as the price of briar and rod doubles, it's eventually going to have impact even on the American makers. For my own part, it's likely that in future, I will post less pipes to the catalog and move more through various worldwide dealers - probably half of the website catalog sales were still mainly to English-speaking Americans, and with that half dropping more and more from the picture, there is less impetus to try and maintain website inventory. I'm still able to stay fully booked-up with orders for American collectors, at least, and I'm very thankful to these good folks for their business. But when you consider that I probably sell two or three times as many mortas in France and Germany than I do today in the states, it REALLY becomes a question of such basic issues as, should I make a French language version of the catalogs?

I don't know... Lots of meandering with few answers. At the end of the day, all one can hope for is that there will be a sea-change in US politics and economy in the near future, that will let our American friends start getting their real dollar's worth again!

Pretty, pretty, pretty

My luck has been really bizarre lately. I'm trying to work on an order for a middle-grade sandblast (for another pipemaker, no less!), and after two discards, I got this - One of the more flawless pipes I've handled this year. I kept sanding and thinking, "OK, I'll surely hit something sooner or later that will make this the sandblast it needs to be for this order"... but, alas, no dice. I'm not sure if this counts as being lucky or unlucky! Tomorrow I'll have to decide what to do with it, whether to post it to the website catalog, send it to Larry, or send it to China. It's a very big pipe, though, with a pretty huge bowl, and I'm not sure how well this would work in China - though it would at least provide a smooth pipe for them to see. Must think about this tonight. I do have a small website update coming tomorrow anyway, with two new "paneled beer mug" Ligne Bretagne sandblasts waiting to be posted. Production has been lousy this month, though - too much seasonal shopping to be done!

A Pipe Review

No biz news today, but since I have a few idle minutes, I thought I would post a pipe review of my new greenie. One of the great ironies of the pipe hobby is that pipemakers are usually among the best qualified to review pipes (having a good understanding of the processes involved in making the things, and why this or that quirk exists), yet it's completely impossible for us to review the pipes of others without seeming to be in bad taste. But I hope no one will mind if I pick apart one of my own creations!

So, I've smoked this pipe for two days now. Initial impressions are pretty good. I absolutely love the draw in this thing - It just puffs effortlessly and I haven't had to use a cleaner during smoking yet. I used the curved tenon inlet trick with this one also, so the airflow is angled within the tenon to allow a cleaner to pass smoothly and keep the smoke stream from encountering any sharp turns. A pleasant surprise that I noticed is that not only does it smoke dry, but it smokes extremely clean... Afterwards, cleaners come out with hardly any gunk at all, meaning it isn't generating a lot of whirling condensation in the smoke path. Cool.

It is smaller than I like, but it does OK. The chamber is actually larger than one might guess from the overall dimensions - compare to the Safferling in the photo. The only weird thing is the feature it shares with all bowl chambers that are really wide at the top and taper to points - You light it and smoke and smoke, and the tobacco doesn't seem to tamp down at all, and then when you finally get to what seems like the middle of the bowl, suddenly *PAFT* it goes out and that's all the tobacco gone.

The stem fits without any light gap, and retains this after several smokes and room temperature changes. I used to have annoying problems with this, but these days I think I do OK. And I love this new German ebonite - VERY shiny and glossy, yet with nice soft give. I cut this bit to be one of my "super thin" mouthpieces and cautioned on the catalog page that it should not be clenched hard, yet I missed an advantage that I've found in smoking it, namely that it is so incredibly light that I don't have to clench hard anyway. It takes no effort at all to hold it in my teeth, which is cool. The downside, however, is that making these extremely thin bits requires me to use a smaller bit slot than I personally prefer, though apparently plenty of other smokers don't mind. I like a slot that's 2mm high or so, for easy passage of extra-fluffy cleaners. This slot is around 1.4mm high to allow the OD to be thinner. I made it very wide and deep to compensate, but that only goes so far, and I'll have to stick with normal cleaners for this stem. The nice part is that it's virtually unnoticeable in the mouth because it's so thin, which is really pleasant. For me, though, I'm willing to give up a little ultra-thinness for easier passage of fluffy cleaners.

The bowl carbon coating did its job nicely, making the break-in smokes as pleasant as they ever can really be, and more importantly, helping me avoid those nasty bottom-bowl splits that can occur when a new bowl is smoked too hot. I used to use a waterglass mixture which provides better protection from heat, but I've since changed to an edible mix. Despite not being as tough, it seemed to function well.

The pipe is also retaining a pleasant low sheen. I've largely stopped buffing with carnuba wax and instead just compound very fine and sand to a gloss, since all wax does is liquefy with the first smoke and leave the whole pipe looking dull. This is actually retaining more shine than a waxed pipe would. Makes me happy.

Unfortunately, I'm still getting a very little bit of stain bleed-off during these first smokes. Greens are as bad as the popular reds and oranges about bleeding excess stain on start-up, and mastering and eliminating the bleed has been an ongoing project for me. This is far better than some earlier green pipes, but still after a full bowl I can detect a very faint trace of green tint on my fingertips. Unfortunately, I'm not sure there's any way around this other than to heavily lacquer the whole bowl to seal it, and obviously this is something I don't want to do.

The verdict? I like. If I'd paid 500 bucks for it, I'd have been very pleased (and I did, really, in terms of working time). It's going to be a favorite for any hands-free situations because of its light weight and easy clenching - probably a perfect pipe to take to a pipe show.

Last Call

Biz News - I've just posted two new Ligne Bretagne Collectors to the LB catalog. Otherwise, no changes, though I seem to have about a dozen special ordered pipes going out in different directions. I guess it's officially seasonal pipe request time!

It's last call on the Fantasy Calabash! Yes, this is the pipe that was in the catalog last month in a much more conventional red-orange stain. It also, inexplicably to me, did not sell quickly - another example of how I can never tell. I personally think it's a gorgeous shape and just about the perfect pipe for me, but maybe people were put off by the fact that it was smaller than my typical group 6 sizes, who knows?



In any case, I only own one high grade example of my own work and that is from nine years ago and not really comparable to what I do now. So, I think this one is going to be mine. I re-stained it to my new favorite, Froud Green - an odd choice perhaps, since it doesn't make the grain "pop" like more typical black/orange contrast stains, but I think it goes well with the mushroom-ey shape. So, it's soon to be smoked. If anyone wants to buy it in its current green incarnation (grade 3, 519 €), contact me SOON, because this evening I'll be smoking it and then it will be mine forever (and it's 5:26pm here now). I actually hope no one buys it, but being that it's Christmas shopping season and 500 € is too much to pass up, I figured I should at least make the offer before yanking it off to my collection forever.

In other news, check out the pics of this very cool volcano blast that's on its way to China. The black contrast against the faint orange tint really makes the grain snap, especially in the close-up enlargements. And how's this for bird's-eye on the bottom?



I'm really going to be curious to hear what the pipe buyers in China and Hong Kong think of this sort of style.

Finally, this latest site update is a strange one, because the whole thing has been done via Ubuntu Linux. While Ubuntu's Firefox and Kompozer are the same as XP's, I have lived in terror of the Gimp graphics program for some time. The Gimp is an open source Photoshop alternative, surprisingly powerful and often touted as a great example of the capability of open source, yet it's also a glaring example of the flaws of open source too - to put it mildly, the interface is .... strange. The XP version of Gimpshop, a Gimp mod that rearranges the menus to match Photoshop, even includes a component aptly named the "de-weirdifier" which bundles all of Gimp's various different dialog windows into one central window app, like other programs. I'd tried using the Gimp in Windows and it was like being repeatedly whacked in the head with a ball peen hammer, in comparison to Photoshop which I could sit down with and immediately figure out. So, I was freaked, to put it mildly. To my total surprise, though, I had a very good Gimp experience. Where it seemed slow, buggy, and strange in XP, in Ubuntu the Gimp runs fast and efficient, and the Linux windowing system options (tagging windows to stay on top, for instance) completely transformed the annoying experience from XP.

To my considerable surprise, I was able to easily zip through assembling the two pic sets of the new LBs, and in some ways it was even simpler than in Photoshop. It DID require regular reference to the help files and "Grokking the Gimp", however, so it wasn't as intuitive. I think I'll be getting the hang of it in short order, though. Like the rest of my Ubuntu experience, it turned out to be not nearly as horrible as I was braced for, and in fact was quite pleasant once I accepted that there would be some re-learning involved.

Interview with Uptown's

Biz News - One more Goblin has crawled into the catalog, the largest one yet...

Today's pic is an oldie, an uncropped group shot of the 2002 Ligne Bretagne Yule pipes. 2002 was the last year I made a Yule pipe. There has been some discussion for this year, though.... but that can wait till a future blog post. Today, I have an excellent little interview with Kevin Getten of Uptown's Smoke Shop, where we talk a bit about his views of the shop and its place in today's pipe biz. Enjoy!
_______________________________________

Me: What do you do at Uptown's? What's your part of the business?

Kevin: I am the Pipe Office Manager, my job responsibilities range from online orders, updating the website, taking pictures for the site, calling customers when new pipes come in. Most of our customers know what I am getting in before it arrives and I call them and send images of pipes. Other customers I call and describe the pipe and they take it on my recommendation. I am always on the phone talking to customers. Either I call them or they call me. I feel like it goes beyond a customer/retailer relationship. I consider them friends. Sometimes we just talk about our favorite tobaccos. I also help out a lot on the sales floor selling cigars and humidors. I spend a lot of time behind the tobacco counter helping customers with pipe tobacco. Customers will bring in samples of tobacco they can not purchase anymore and I try to match the blends. That is one of the best parts of my job. One customer was so happy he came back a few hours later with a bottle of wine for me. Once we find the right blend, we keep a log of it and our customers keep coming back when they run out.

Me: Tell me where you see Uptowns in the pipe world today.

Kevin: I see Uptowns expanding in a few different directions. The high grade pipes still sell as soon as we get them in. Our customers are pretty loyal. As soon as they arrive they are sold. The pipes sell so quick I do not have a chance to put them on the web. My high grade customers are in two categories; people that have been collecting for years and are looking for specific shapes and the other half are the people just discovering high grades. They have always been interested in buying a high grade but were hesitant because of the price. But almost every time they make the decision to buy the pipe, they smoke it and realize what a great smoking experience it is and they eventually call me to order another one.

We are also growing our local, walk in business. We have a lot of college students coming in buying their first pipe, and we take the time to walk them through packing, cleaning and smoking a pipe. They start to smoke the pipe and enjoy it and a few days later they bring in five of their friends to try it. As they learn how to smoke they advance to another pipe and before you know it they are buying Castellos and Rinaldos and other hand made pipes.

Uptowns is also here to support Amercan carvers. We have a few surprises coming up in our quarterly catalog that will hopefully expose some great new American pipemakers to our customers.

Me: A few years ago, you guys were practically THE shop for super high grades in the US, but in intervening years a number of other high-end shops have appeared. Do you intend to keep fighting for the "rare air" of the top spot, broaden your appeal across the market, or both?

Kevin: We plan on doing both. Those other high grade shops are doing a great job. The way I look at it is we are all in the same business and each shops success only expands the hobby. I have bought pipes in the past from those shops before I worked here. And everyone that I dealt with was great. Our main competitors are being run by friendly, knowledgeable people that are only making the hobby better and making other high grades accessible to the general consumer. It's great to get together at pipe shows and talk about the business. Its nice to see how other retailers see the business and to have their perspective on market trends, hot new pipemakers etc.

Me: Related to the previous question, I know you guys caught a lot of flack in the 90's for essentially ushering in the era of the super-expensive pipe... at least in the popular pipe culture. People today don't bat an eye over the profusion of $900 pipes on the market, but that wasn't always the case. What can you tell me about the pluses and minuses of essentially having been trail blazers in the world of high grade collecting?

Kevin: The pluses far outweigh the negatives. When I was in college I read all about Uptowns and new about their reputation in the market place. When I was hired there was still that mentality. I remember my first pipe show I was told not to talk to certain people and just concentrate on our table. That was remedied shortly after that and I was put in charge of the Pipe Office. Now at pipe shows, anybody (even other carvers) are more then welcome to come up to our table and examine the pipes we have. Where before most pipemakers and pipesmokers I have talked to said they felt uncomfortable doing that.I remember my first day here, I stayed in my office all day and held my first Chonowitsch, Ivarsson and S Bang and it was an amazing experience just to hold these pipes I had only read about for years.

I feel I am slowly changing the perception of Uptowns in the market place. Our customers love us, yet I know there are people out there that refuse to do business with us because of the way the we did business in the past, which I understand. But what I tell people when this topic comes up is that we cater to the whole pipe market.We have customers that only call us during our catalog and purchase $15.00 estate pipes and we have customers that buy only high grade pipes. We have also experienced a big increase in brands like Ardor,Rinaldo,Radice,Stanwell and Savinelli. I think we cover the whole spectrum.

Me: Do you folks do any repair work in-house?

Kevin: We do mostly restoration. I have buffing wheels in the back and I restore pipes. We have a few processes that are unique to our shop and our pipes look brand new after we are done. I also clean and restore every estate pipe we sell in our catalog. We average 200 estate pipes each catalog, so I get a lot of practice whether it is an old, abused Medico all the way up to an S Bang.

Me: What about pipemaking in-house? There's a grand tradition of quality
"house brands" on this side of the ocean, and I'm curious if there is/might be an Uptown-brand pipe.

Kevin: We do carry a Savinelli pipe that is branded Uptowns Smoke Shop that retails for $79.00. I have also talked to a few new pipemakers about doing a house pipe for us. But I want it to be something unique. I would love it to retail for less than $100.00 and be a well made pipe and a great smoker.

Me: The same question for tobacco - Do you have your own blends, and if so, tell me a bit about them. Particularly the "tough" question, of, do you actually get involved in the recipes and leaf sourcing and all, or are we talking about the usual house blends made by mixing a few Lane bulk tobacs together?

Kevin: We carry a large selection of Lane and Stokkebye tobaccos. We sell a lot of bulk tobacco. Just as an example, we go through 40 pounds of our Green Hills blend a week.

We also have quite a few house blends that are actually blended by hand in the shop. Our most popular is Black Lung. It is a 70% percent Latakia blend with Cyprian and Syrian Latakia. We also have Lord Alfred which a Virginia Oriental blend and Caney Fork which is a popular Burley blend. These were all house blends before I arrived, but I plan on blending some new tobaccos. I really want to make a great cigar leaf blend. I have a lot of people go from cigars to blends like Robert Lewis 123 and Fox's Bankers. It is a great transition.
_____________________________________________________________

I hope you've enjoyed this little peek behind the scenes with Uptown's Smoke Shop!

Interview with Uptown's

Biz News - One more Goblin has crawled into the catalog, the largest one yet...

Today's pic is an oldie, an uncropped group shot of the 2002 Ligne Bretagne Yule pipes. 2002 was the last year I made a Yule pipe. There has been some discussion for this year, though.... but that can wait till a future blog post. Today, I have an excellent little interview with Kevin Getten of Uptown's Smoke Shop, where we talk a bit about his views of the shop and its place in today's pipe biz. Enjoy!
_______________________________________

Me: What do you do at Uptown's? What's your part of the business?

Kevin: I am the Pipe Office Manager, my job responsibilities range from online orders, updating the website, taking pictures for the site, calling customers when new pipes come in. Most of our customers know what I am getting in before it arrives and I call them and send images of pipes. Other customers I call and describe the pipe and they take it on my recommendation. I am always on the phone talking to customers. Either I call them or they call me. I feel like it goes beyond a customer/retailer relationship. I consider them friends. Sometimes we just talk about our favorite tobaccos. I also help out a lot on the sales floor selling cigars and humidors. I spend a lot of time behind the tobacco counter helping customers with pipe tobacco. Customers will bring in samples of tobacco they can not purchase anymore and I try to match the blends. That is one of the best parts of my job. One customer was so happy he came back a few hours later with a bottle of wine for me. Once we find the right blend, we keep a log of it and our customers keep coming back when they run out.

Me: Tell me where you see Uptowns in the pipe world today.

Kevin: I see Uptowns expanding in a few different directions. The high grade pipes still sell as soon as we get them in. Our customers are pretty loyal. As soon as they arrive they are sold. The pipes sell so quick I do not have a chance to put them on the web. My high grade customers are in two categories; people that have been collecting for years and are looking for specific shapes and the other half are the people just discovering high grades. They have always been interested in buying a high grade but were hesitant because of the price. But almost every time they make the decision to buy the pipe, they smoke it and realize what a great smoking experience it is and they eventually call me to order another one.

We are also growing our local, walk in business. We have a lot of college students coming in buying their first pipe, and we take the time to walk them through packing, cleaning and smoking a pipe. They start to smoke the pipe and enjoy it and a few days later they bring in five of their friends to try it. As they learn how to smoke they advance to another pipe and before you know it they are buying Castellos and Rinaldos and other hand made pipes.

Uptowns is also here to support Amercan carvers. We have a few surprises coming up in our quarterly catalog that will hopefully expose some great new American pipemakers to our customers.

Me: A few years ago, you guys were practically THE shop for super high grades in the US, but in intervening years a number of other high-end shops have appeared. Do you intend to keep fighting for the "rare air" of the top spot, broaden your appeal across the market, or both?

Kevin: We plan on doing both. Those other high grade shops are doing a great job. The way I look at it is we are all in the same business and each shops success only expands the hobby. I have bought pipes in the past from those shops before I worked here. And everyone that I dealt with was great. Our main competitors are being run by friendly, knowledgeable people that are only making the hobby better and making other high grades accessible to the general consumer. It's great to get together at pipe shows and talk about the business. Its nice to see how other retailers see the business and to have their perspective on market trends, hot new pipemakers etc.

Me: Related to the previous question, I know you guys caught a lot of flack in the 90's for essentially ushering in the era of the super-expensive pipe... at least in the popular pipe culture. People today don't bat an eye over the profusion of $900 pipes on the market, but that wasn't always the case. What can you tell me about the pluses and minuses of essentially having been trail blazers in the world of high grade collecting?

Kevin: The pluses far outweigh the negatives. When I was in college I read all about Uptowns and new about their reputation in the market place. When I was hired there was still that mentality. I remember my first pipe show I was told not to talk to certain people and just concentrate on our table. That was remedied shortly after that and I was put in charge of the Pipe Office. Now at pipe shows, anybody (even other carvers) are more then welcome to come up to our table and examine the pipes we have. Where before most pipemakers and pipesmokers I have talked to said they felt uncomfortable doing that.I remember my first day here, I stayed in my office all day and held my first Chonowitsch, Ivarsson and S Bang and it was an amazing experience just to hold these pipes I had only read about for years.

I feel I am slowly changing the perception of Uptowns in the market place. Our customers love us, yet I know there are people out there that refuse to do business with us because of the way the we did business in the past, which I understand. But what I tell people when this topic comes up is that we cater to the whole pipe market.We have customers that only call us during our catalog and purchase $15.00 estate pipes and we have customers that buy only high grade pipes. We have also experienced a big increase in brands like Ardor,Rinaldo,Radice,Stanwell and Savinelli. I think we cover the whole spectrum.

Me: Do you folks do any repair work in-house?

Kevin: We do mostly restoration. I have buffing wheels in the back and I restore pipes. We have a few processes that are unique to our shop and our pipes look brand new after we are done. I also clean and restore every estate pipe we sell in our catalog. We average 200 estate pipes each catalog, so I get a lot of practice whether it is an old, abused Medico all the way up to an S Bang.

Me: What about pipemaking in-house? There's a grand tradition of quality
"house brands" on this side of the ocean, and I'm curious if there is/might be an Uptown-brand pipe.

Kevin: We do carry a Savinelli pipe that is branded Uptowns Smoke Shop that retails for $79.00. I have also talked to a few new pipemakers about doing a house pipe for us. But I want it to be something unique. I would love it to retail for less than $100.00 and be a well made pipe and a great smoker.

Me: The same question for tobacco - Do you have your own blends, and if so, tell me a bit about them. Particularly the "tough" question, of, do you actually get involved in the recipes and leaf sourcing and all, or are we talking about the usual house blends made by mixing a few Lane bulk tobacs together?

Kevin: We carry a large selection of Lane and Stokkebye tobaccos. We sell a lot of bulk tobacco. Just as an example, we go through 40 pounds of our Green Hills blend a week.

We also have quite a few house blends that are actually blended by hand in the shop. Our most popular is Black Lung. It is a 70% percent Latakia blend with Cyprian and Syrian Latakia. We also have Lord Alfred which a Virginia Oriental blend and Caney Fork which is a popular Burley blend. These were all house blends before I arrived, but I plan on blending some new tobaccos. I really want to make a great cigar leaf blend. I have a lot of people go from cigars to blends like Robert Lewis 123 and Fox's Bankers. It is a great transition.
_____________________________________________________________

I hope you've enjoyed this little peek behind the scenes with Uptown's Smoke Shop!