Briar "WTF?" from newbe

[Massis]

Just wait george! One day you'll find giant fissures in a rod of ebonite or acrylic! I once had a rod of acrylic which had a tiny speck on the outside, turning out to be a huge hole that went right through the entire rod!

@Kamkiel: I do the same on my lathe. I cut the stummel and chamber first and then move on to the shank, mortise and airway...

[ronps]

Presumably that's the Zavvos supply out of Greece?

Been there, done that.

The worst of it is that wood smokes great if you can get a clean piece, but sooo many are full of holes.

I had the same experience and reported it to the supplier; no justice was found there.

That was my last order from that company.

[CIIIgems]

I had the same experience and reported it to the supplier; no justice was found there.

That was my last order from that company.[/quote]

I bought on ebay through Paypal, do I'm hoping for the best on getting some money back.

[pipedreamer]

Zarvos has passed away and One of the family has taken over.Steve bought out the rest ( the good stuff ) The briar is good if you find a piece, as Sas said, that's good!

[CIIIgems]

I have an update on my dealings.
I sent ebay a return notification, as there is buyer protection.
Before Zavvos got the notification from them, he refunded a good portion for the two blocks I told him about.

When he got a copy of my return form, he wrote this to me:
"Few days ago you sent me a message that you had problems with some blocks
The same day I made I refund of 85$ and I was waiting for more information.

Bat I saw 2 .days later that you wrote to Ebay and basically you say that I am a fraud (He knows he has a defective product, but keeps selling it.)
This is unacceptable
I have more than 2000 positive reviews, and I sold hundreds of Plateaux worldwide
All briar (PlateauX) is sanded so you can see what you will get
I am not inside the briar
Your behavior is very bad
You can send me back briar ( wit your cost ) as I say on all of my listings and I make a report for you to Ebay asap"

I wrote him back:
"I see that you sent me money on the 16th. Thank you. Usually Paypal lets me know if there have been any transactions, and it did not this time. However, I had already sent the return request to ebay. You also could have sent me a message, and told me that you would take care of me, and that would have helped.

As to the claim that other people have had trouble with your briar, I am on the pipe makers forum, and people guessed without me telling them that you were the supplier. I only told them that it was from Greece.
Here is the link to the thread with my question about the briar, and the other users comments:
viewtopic.php?f=15&t=10758

I was happy with the quickness of your shipping, and was hoping to do more business with you, as I even sent you the tip on not ending your auctions all at the same time so people could bid at the last minute.
I have cut open 4 more pieces that had noticeable holes on the outside, and all had bug damage. That makes 6 out of 12. Here are more pictures of different blocks. I circled tiny holes that I believe the tiny larva drilled into the briar. You can look for them in your stock before shipping them out to a buyer.
http://imgur.com/a/TwTlD
http://imgur.com/a/GGb5S
I just cut out the remaining 4 blocks, and none of them had any noticeable holes or bug damage. So in all, 6 were filled with bug holes. The others only have natural briar inclusions.
I’ll be telling the other members in the forum how you dealt with my issues, so I’ll allow you to decide how the thread ends. There are a bunch of people there who regularly buy briar, and if you are a good to your customers, I’ll let them know. You will read that one member likes the way your wood makes pipes, if they know they will not be stuck with a bad product, they will probably buy, as will I.
Thanks for your time,
Chuck."

So now I await his response.

[CIIIgems]

Update:

He responded to me right after my last post, and asked how much for the bad briar including shipping. I think another $100 is fair, and told him that.
Nothing in Paypal as yet, but it hasn't been very long.

[CIIIgems]

Final update:

He did give me the refund I asked for.
So It seems he is quite willing to stand behind his product.
I don't have much experience with briar, but it does seem pretty light, weight-wise, which I hear is a good thing.

[Sasquatch]

The briar is dry, it has a slightly earthy taste, and it's dimensionally stable. The grain is usually mediocre compared to better cuts. I probably got between 12-20 blocks from Alex in my first few years making pipes, and I got a couple really nice pieces out, but mostly sandblasts or rustic.

I think the best piece I got out of that supply was this:






Whether wood is light or heavy, or the growth rings are close or far, or it's white or grey or brown.... basically none of that shit matters except to people who prefer light pipes or heavy pipes, or brown wood to white wood.

I've sold enough pipes from different briar to repeat customers that I have a pretty solid baseline on briar response, and there are repeated themes, but that's not where the magic in a pipe comes from in my opinion. Maybe a little, but just keep buying wood, CMS, from different vendors, until you find something you like and get good results with.

A hugely monstrously famous pipe maker told me a long time ago now "It doesn't matter where you get it. Find something you like, stick with it, get good at finishing THAT briar. Know THAT product." and I think that was pretty good advice.

[CIIIgems]

Thanks Sasquatch.