Talk:Briarworks Pipe-Story in a Nutshell
So just to clear the air here, let me say this. If your goal is to make excellent pipes that demonstrate respect for the craft and for the customer parting with his/her hard-earned money, you are absolutely not in Briarworks' cross hairs. In fact, I've personally spent the past 15 years trying to help anyone who is genuinely striving for excellence as a pipe maker, a fact I hope many here can attest to. Unfortunately, I'm afraid I've also created some monsters in the process, and as a result, the market seems to be littered with hastily wrought $400 pipe-turds of late. If you are a purveyor of such pipe-turds, make no mistake, I strive with every fiber of my being to drive you out of the market and back to the hole whence you came, so that consumers and real pipe makers alike no longer have to suffer the indignity of your existence.
I understand the frustration of seeing a competitor's product you consider inferior selling when your own is not. I understand the anger that can result from losing out on sales because of a lack of marketing know-how rather than the quality of the two products. I cannot, however, for the life of me understand the mindset that makes a post like this appropriate in the mind of its author.
Personally, I'll continue to support and buy from artisans who strive daily to improve their own craft, and who don't even have a set of crosshairs, rather than a factory pipemaker seeking by his own statement to drive independent artisans he doesn't approve of out of business. No pipe on this earth is good enough to justify the level of arrogance required to make this post, much less to repost it here on Pipedia as the public face of a business. There is no doubt that Mr. Johnson is a talented pipe maker. Reading this sort of vitriol makes me wonder, however, if he also happens to smoke a pipe. Because this statement evidences a true lack of the pipe smoker's spirit so common to this pasttime.
There are many wonderful pipemakers in this world. There is only one I have ever seen who believes he is so talented as to dictate repeatedly to his own industry what is and is not acceptable, and attempt to stifle the work of new pipemakers in so doing. I have never in my life seen a statement from any other pipemaker so arrogantly insulting to both customers and fellow artisans. I do, however, appreciate the honesty. It's good to know that if I give my money to Briarworks, at least some of it is being used to support a crusade against non-Todd Johnson approved pipemakers. Believing that quality wins out in the end every time and backroom market manipulation is always a bad thing, I will continue to put my money towards artists who seek to improve their own craft, rather than depriving the consumer of choice.