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Welcome to Radicapipes.net, your premium pipe and accoutrement Store, launched in January 2011.
[RADICA is Italian for Briar and now American for selection + value.]
Our business philosophy is very simple and easily noticed when you browse our product selections:
We carry the Best of each product in as many varieties as we can acquire. Using extensive testing, gathering data, comparisons with similar products, to help you sort through the confusion of hundreds of brands.
Instead of 50 or 60 confusing brands of briar pipes, you will find a large selection of premium handmade pipes by the renowned Italian craftsman Luigi Radice. If there is a shape or finish that you would like, let me know as we have new pipes coming in quicker than we can post them onto the website.
For a lower priced option we carry Luciano pipes that are hand finished with factory turned bowls. Offering the best quality and style among lower priced pipes.
For Calabash Gourd and Meerschaum pipes we feature pipes made by the Strambach family of Austria (New products are being added often!).
For pipe lighters (and cigar cutters) we just discovered a Japanese family brand that makes premium Old Boy style lighters with Seki City Steel (renown for making Samurai swords). (the Full line of 11 finishes in 2 different models is available.)
Other premium pipes were acquired to evaluate during our search for the best pipes and are offered at super low prices.
Originally on a quest to write a book about modern pipes, some amazing discoveries were learned as I set about purchasing and evaluating every major pipemaker currently offering pipes. Being a pipe smoker for almost 20 years and having a great local pipe club filled with expertise and wisdom really helped my quest. That two years of searching led me to offer those superb products as they are discovered to you, the pipe smoking world. (A guide book about pipes and pipe makers is still in the works) For example, learning that some of the most prestigious pipe companies use factory turned bowls and only hand finish their pipes was rather surprising. Using the following parameters it was easy to narrow down the vast amount of pipe carvers to the top ten and then down to the best, (RADICE):
1.)Quality, of the wood, stem and other components along with the craftmanship
2.) Value, compared to other premium makers
3.)Selection, having a variety of shapes, sizes, finishes and options.
4.)Artistic Creativity, the uniqueness or elements of real art and beauty
Many pipe makers scored high on 1 or more of those criteria but only Luigi Radice scored highest on ALL criteria. Meticulous wood selection, quality and aging along with a long history of pipe crafting starting with Castello and then launching the Caminetto brand and then the Radice brand in 1980. Changing distribution to sell directly to dealers in the US instead of using an importer/distributor makes the Radice pipes 30-50% lower than they were in 2007 (and before) and the best value among hand made premium pipes. Browse around a while here and you will notice they have many models, finishes (almost 20), sizes (small, standard, G, GG, GGG, Magnum, etc.) and options/enhancements. Artistic Creativity, like pioneering the dripped wax effect, the most beautiful Hawkbills, large sized Freehands and just an overall individual beauty imparted to each unique pipe.
This evaluation of products against a set of parameters has led us to the best of other products as well. The soft flame pipe lighters by Tsubota Pearl of Japan is another example of comparing available brands and finding the best available products. Similarly with Calabash Gourd and Meerschaum pipes we were able to establish parameters for evaluating and finding the best available brand. For the future, new products may be sought out and offered only if it is the best available product of it's type. We are looking into a few products so please send us your suggestions if a needed product type is missing from our store.
Enjoy your smoking and shopping experience,
-David Bacon
proprietor
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