I don't know whether the visiting gentlemen in the story which follows were "having him on" or not, and have no way of finding out. Opinions on the matter, needless to say, differ widely and vociferously. (I'm omitting the section where he covers rat urine out of respect for the delicate sensibilities here).
FWIW then (Posted at his site on April 20, 2014):
Back in the late 60s, early 70s, I worked in an office just 2 1/2 blocks from Smoker's Haven in downtown Columbus. You can guess where my lunch hours were spent several days a week.
I got to know the owners and staff very well and was a regular customer. I think it was about 1969 that several representatives of Charatan came to S.H. for what we today would call a trunk show. Smoker's Haven was one of the leading sellers of Charatan in the US, maybe even the top seller. I was lucky enough to be invited to lunch with them and several of the S.H. staff.
One of the Charatan staff, who I happened to sit next to, had the unusual title of "Briar Buyer". His father and grandfather before him had held the same title with Charatan. He told me they selected briar and warehoused it for years. He said that his father bought briar that he knew wouldn't be made into a pipe till after he retired.
Some of their briar was warehoused for as long as fifty years before it was selected to make a pipe. They had thousands of blocks. Dunhill probably got most in the late 70s when they took over Charatan but it was rumored that Barry Jones managed to acquire several thousand blocks when he left to start Upshall, which is also why some of the early Upshalls are fine smoking pipes. Old briar.
Rick also recommends coating a new pipe's bowl with a layer of honey, packing it with table sugar, dumping it out, and leaving the sugar layer intact for the first smoke as a shortcut to creating a perfect cake. 
I'm fine with you thinking me a fool for it. But it really works well for me with the couple of testing pipes I've made myself.
