I had the same conversation with Todd J. and Pete Provost when the Briarworks company was new and their offerings had several tiers, with the top one being exact dimensional replicas of originals made by TJ. I remember his semi-joke, "Can we make 100 pipes that are identical? No... We can make ten thousand that are."sandahlpipe wrote:That’s a horse of an entirely different color.
The value of a handmade pipe far outstrips the utility of a smoking instrument. If you’re a factory looking to maximize profit and minimize the variations that collectors find endearing, a laser engraver is the right tool. If you’re making one-of-a-kind pieces of art that people can relate to, it’s too perfect.
Then I commented that while that was brilliant manufacturing, I'd be surprised if the sort of collectors who bought creatively-shaped pipes liked the idea of a piece not being unique. That to most of them a mass-produced "artisan" pipe was a contradiction in terms because removing the personal connection spoiled the point of owning one.
It was not a popular observation.
A couple years later I saw Pete at a show and asked him how the premium line (Saturn? Jupiter? Neptune? Something like that) had worked out. He just looked down, laughed, and said, "I think we sold five."