First impressions - Pipe selection with questions

[tedski]

I've never purchased from The Briary ... but I have read tons of good comments about the place.

Pipe shape, size, finish, color, etc are all personal decisions. Pipes that look good and feel good in the hand will enhance your experience.

As for "freehand" shapes ... this is basically a style that was made popular by Danish carvers back in the 70's. They developed pipes that were based more on grain patterns, intuition, emotion, etc ... vs. standard defined shapes. Buying a freehand back then would basically guarantee that nobody else had had a pipe that looked like yours. These days, even "freehand" styles can be made on machines, so in many instances, the uniqueness is gone ... but the interesting shape is still there.