It was the plain truth; I had never felt this need. The question, however, obliged me to give some sense to my feeling, mostly because who had asked me that question, dwelt on the importance of grading as a distinguishing feature and professional prestige.
Why wasn’t it like this for me? Does a buyer really look at the grading assigned to a pipe, before deciding how much it is worth?
I told myself that this could be correct for mass-produced pipes, but it was senseless for the unique pieces produced by a pipemaker. A buying collector has already in his mind all the necessary data to evaluate a pipe: briar quality, kind of shape (classical or free hand), possible rustication or sandblast, hours needed to realize that piece, materials quality (possible extensions, such as ebonite, shape of the lip), cleanness of the lines, general harmony. More or less asterisks won’t definitely affect his evaluation.
I think that the best form of grading is the value set by the pipemaker. Moral: I don’t use grading and I don’t regret it.
As for the logo, I have chosen time ago a wave with my name beneath (who wishes to know more, can read my article about it), or just the wave.
Well, as in nature the wave is never the same, I had it first freehand engraved on my pipes, using a pyro-graph. It was the theoretically sought effect, but my scarce drawing ability often produced a questionable result. So, grudgingly, I have started using a hand pantograph, an old gravograph I bought from a jeweller, maybe converted to the more modern laser.
Therefore, you can find variations of the logo on my pipes, but it is not important to me, what really matters is the pipe.
