Todd Bannards? Let's see 'em!

[Andy Lowry]

AKA BST (Briar, Sweat, and Tears). Here are mine:

 

[Anonymous]

(Over-exposed picture) :
http://brothersofbriar.forumotion.com/t23265-sasquatch

Designed to be the ultimate Form-Follows-Function Flake Pipe. 20 mm i.d., 34 mm depth, 18 mm walls, wide, comfortable acrylic stem.

One of Todd's pipes is, IMO, an outstanding eye-opener in the matter of "is an artisan-made-from-scratch pipe really 'better than' a nice Peterson/Savinelli/Stanwell ? And a surprisingly affordable eye-opener, given the quality of work he's turning out and the prices he's charging for it.

Another (of several here, probably) guy I'd have my eye on is Jesse Jones (Ocelot88). Opened my eyes about bite-zone comfort.

I'm not about to replace the old, customised favorites with brand new ones but, by the same token, when you taste, you know. With the right maker, there IS a distinct step up.

:face:

 

[Sasquatch]

Those are a blast from the past, Andy!  

Appreciate the kind words Yak.    On one hand, pipes are dead simple, and on the other, it's way easier to have them turn out poorly than perfectly.

 

[Andy Lowry]

Those are a blast from the past, Andy!  

Appreciate the kind words Yak.    On one hand, pipes are dead simple, and on the other, it's way easier to have them turn out poorly than perfectly.

-----

Howdy, Squatch! Right after posting the pics, I was reading through some threads and discovered that you were a member here. Boy, do I feel silly now. No point in bragging on your work to people who already know you, eh?  :mrgreen:  I'm smoking that tall blasted craggy one as I type; it's my number 2 pipe. My number 1 is your bent blasted with the white ring. When ya gonna get some pipes on your site, huh? Huh?

 

[Sasquatch]

Tell you what.   I'm having issues with my site - I seem to have locked myself out, but I'll post a couple pipes for sale in the Towne Crier below.    Just for you.

 

[Andy Lowry]

Tell you what.   I'm having issues with my site - I seem to have locked myself out, but I'll post a couple pipes for sale in the Towne Crier below.    Just for you.

--------

There are people here who could most likely help you with that-- do you have a backup of the site? A re-install and restore of whatever the software is might fix your lockout.

I'll watch the Crier to see what you have.

 

[Slow Puffs]

Here is one:

https://www.brothersofbriar.com/t9886-slow-puffs-to-the-front-desk-please

I have three or four others... at this stage, he was in "training wheels" :lol::lol:

 

[Anonymous]

A little more on what I wrote about re. Todd :

I've heard people say that I don't like Peterson pipes.  That's not true, or at least it's not true that I have some innate aversion to them.  What I have is an innate aversion to low standards and mediocrity.  Take this pipe, with beautiful Bird's Eye on one side of the bowl and rather mediocre grain on the other side.  Take the fact that the air hole, on a not particularly difficult pipe to drill properly, is so high that you will need to take a cab from the draft hole to the bottom of the bowl.  Add that even with a normal stem it has a mediocre (there's that word again) draw. Then factor in the gold band and the "Supreme" designation and what you have is a pipe maker that doesn't give a shit.  I'm sure they would say they do.  I bet they believe they do, but the end result of whatever work they are doing belies a statement like that.  

Wolfgang Becker gives a shit.  Michael Parks gives a shit.  Jim Cooke and Rad Davis give a shit.  These people don't.  Do you think I like writing this and wasting all this space when what I want is to be able to write nice things and sell pipes?   But I can not lie to you, sell you a $200 pipe and then hope that when you get it you are blind to its shortcomings.  I can't afford to do that and be seen as a mere huckster...not for one pipe.  So, if you are a Peterson devotee, and are looking for a Supreme in excellent condition in XL size, here is one.  I truly hope it smokes great. 6" long, bowl 2" tall.  Weight: 2 1/2 oz., 72 grams. Price: $200.

Marty tells it like it is !  :heart:

:face:

 

[Brewdude]

A little more on what I wrote about re. Todd :

I've heard people say that I don't like Peterson pipes.  That's not true, or at least it's not true that I have some innate aversion to them.  What I have is an innate aversion to low standards and mediocrity.  Take this pipe, with beautiful Bird's Eye on one side of the bowl and rather mediocre grain on the other side.  Take the fact that the air hole, on a not particularly difficult pipe to drill properly, is so high that you will need to take a cab from the draft hole to the bottom of the bowl.  Add that even with a normal stem it has a mediocre (there's that word again) draw. Then factor in the gold band and the "Supreme" designation and what you have is a pipe maker that doesn't give a shit.  I'm sure they would say they do.  I bet they believe they do, but the end result of whatever work they are doing belies a statement like that.  

Wolfgang Becker gives a shit.  Michael Parks gives a shit.  Jim Cooke and Rad Davis give a shit.  These people don't.  Do you think I like writing this and wasting all this space when what I want is to be able to write nice things and sell pipes?   But I can not lie to you, sell you a $200 pipe and then hope that when you get it you are blind to its shortcomings.  I can't afford to do that and be seen as a mere huckster...not for one pipe.  So, if you are a Peterson devotee, and are looking for a Supreme in excellent condition in XL size, here is one.  I truly hope it smokes great. 6" long, bowl 2" tall.  Weight: 2 1/2 oz., 72 grams. Price: $200.

Marty tells it like it is !  :heart:

:face:

Indeed he does.

Happily, I can relate that as of this date I have yet to have issues with Petes in regards to this issue.

Just my small experience.



Cheers,

RR

 

[pepesdad1]

Andy...those are some beautiful pipes ya got there. Smoke em with pride.

 

[Anonymous]

Facts are Facts.

This just in from one of my satisfied customers.  I hate to brag, but his comment speaks for itself.

"Both of the large Dunhill bents I got from you were drilled the same way: The draft hole in the shank starts at the junction where the butt of the mortise contacts the top of the wall. In other words, they won't take a pipe cleaner to the bowl. Using a phillips screwdriver and a tip curved diamond file, it took me a half hour each to slightly ream out the draft hole and ramp from the center of the butt to the hole. With a twist, they'll both take a cleaner. Now comes the question based on the observation: If I can do that by hand in a half hour with jury rigged tools, why can't Dunhill do that with all the equipment they have? (Or any other maker, for that matter.) Just pisses me off, that's all."

Actually, I'm just teasing, and as you can read, he's not pissed at me.  In fact he just purchased another pipe off this site (but it was a straight piece, I will say that), but he is justifiably angry at such indifference in what is an expensive, and self-congratulatory brand.  With much the same degree of pique, I have excoriated the Peterson Supreme that was posted near the bottom of the English page.  

We are in a golden age of artisan pipe making, I would say.  There are a very good number of pipe makers (sometimes it seems one-to-one in terms of pipe makers to pipe smokers) who are devoting serious effort to constructing and carving the very best pipes their considerable skills allow.  It is a shame, and an insult, when long established companies can't or won't come close to matching the quality relative newcomers achieve every day.

:face: 

 

[Sasquatch]

The advantage I have is that I'm only responsible to turn out a great pipe.   If I do so at a profit, great.   If not, no biggy.   A proper company can't operate on a loosey-goosey margin like that.  

I do however find it surprising how many larger operations pay basically no attention to certain small details of construction.  There are any number of small improvements that cost hardly any time or material and which make a pipe smoke a lot better.   So... fine, the Sasquatch, Wayne, Dave, James, Abe, Andrew... we can do those little touches and that's why people buy our stuff I guess. 

 

[Anonymous]

Go back over what you wrote and see if Marty's "give a shit" doesn't cover what's involved. Attitudinally, it's moot. But results speak for themselves.

In fairness, every bent Peterson I've ever seen has been drilled high and smoked well. There's no reason why they should change what works for them, nor be expected to by anyone with no nickel in their dime. Still, it was exactly this kind of thing that always kept them out of the pipe world's upper crust -- exascerbated by having to crank out the huge quantities of drek that defined them in the minds of many. You knew not to expect too much from them, and you were happy when they delivered what you bought them for -- they were affordable pipes (pre-dip stain/coating) that smoked OK and just tasted good.

:face:

 

[Anonymous]

Todd,

Do you have access to your cpanel logon? 

If not, the first step is to contact  your webhost -- webhostingpad.com.  They can do a password reset after you provide info as to who you really are.  That is often done by giving the credit card info you provided when you bought their service. Do that with secure chat and not emailing.

If resetting your WordPress password is the problem, take a look at this info to do that from your cpanel. 
http://codex.wordpress.org/Resetting_Your_Password

 

[Sasquatch]

The issue for the site is that I'm unhappy with the hosting and want to go in a slightly different direction with the whole site, so I'm just going to blow it all up and start again.

 

[Harlock999]

The issue for the site is that I'm unhappy with the hosting and want to go in a slightly different direction with the whole site, so I'm just going to blow it all up and start again.

There's a quote in Dispatches by Michael Herr attributed to an unknown U.S Army major:
"We had to destroy Ben Tre (Vietnamese town) in order to save it..."

 

[Anonymous]

The issue for the site is that I'm unhappy with the hosting and want to go in a slightly different direction with the whole site, so I'm just going to blow it all up and start again.

I think we're all unhappy with the hosting company at times and for a variety of reasons.  Here is a site that you can get quite anal about hosting companies:  http://webhostinggeeks.com/

I've used justhost.com and bluehost.com and they are what I'd call average but with rankings typically near the top with many ranking sites.

Frankly most hosting sites are like peas in a pod. They all use cpanel interface and have the same installable products available.