Brand New Cracked Mario Grandi?

Brothers of Briar

Help Support Brothers of Briar:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
the madadh

the madadh

Member
Joined
Feb 27, 2011
Messages
14
Reaction score
0
Hey brothers,

I just received a new Mario Grandi for my 30th, and I just love it. It's has a big bowl, a beautiful grain, and wonderful rustication on the bottom... One problem: I think it might be cracked.

Not on the inside, but on the exterior. A very shallow hairline fracture running about 1 1/4" vertically. I got it on the 27th of May, and have smoked it perhaps 3 times since. The walls are so thick too! I can't imagine that I cracked this thing from smoking too hot, but I swear I didn't notice this crack when I first got it (I could have been awestruck and excited though).

I just emailed Mario Grandi (AKA Futurepipes) letting him know of my predicament. Do you guys have any advice or anecdote that can assuage my grief?

Thanks,

Tim Madigan
 
I have an old Preben Holm that has a hairline crack in the bowl that I hadn't noticed until after I smoked it a few times. It was always there, and I just thought it was a texture in the grain until I noticed a minute amount of seepage while cleaning it. It smoked fine, though I eventually decided to retire it, and it still makes a nice display piece. Was yours purchased new?
 
Quite sure that Mario will offer exchange, which you should likely do - a crack will only get bigger over time and was surely a flaw in the briar that went unnoticed...
 
I had a bought an olive wood churchwarden from them that also developed a crack in the shank very shortly after I bought it (directly via their eBay store).

I sent them some pictures of the damage and they kindly replaced it with a pipe of my choice from their store. Great company to deal with IMHO.
 
Yeah, this was a brand new Grandi. I know that he does so many great shapes and styles of pipes, but if he can arrange an exchange for me, I'd hate to lose such an awesome piece of briar. Hope for the best.

Thanks for the reassurance. This was sort of the capstone on a week from hell! This makes me feel better...

Tim
 
Top