This is the literal first one. I just now re-found it after my move to KC a couple years ago (I thought it was lost), and thought you might get a kick out of it.
It was made in 1978 from a block given to me by Art Englander at that time. (If you've ever seen Carl Ehwa's The Complete Book of Pipes and Tobaccos, most of the antiques in it came from Art's shop.) It was a virtual museum, and the cluttered back room had some briar blocks in an old chest, saved from when Art tried carving in his youth (he was 90 years old in 1978).
Anyway, I hadn't the slightest idea what I was doing, and used kitchen table tools. A small Sears drill press for the holes, a sanding disk chucked in a cheap electric drill clamped in a bench vise for rough shaping, and knives, sticks, and paper for the finer shaping. The finish is simply wax over raw wood. No sealants, no color coat, no nothing. I had no idea what type of stain to use, so left it natural rather than risk wrecking it.
The stem was stolen outright from a Ban Wade table pipe I sacrificed, and simply plugged in. If I'd had to make a stem I'm not sure what I'd have done for a tenon.
But it smoked well, as I recall, and the wood was a once-in-a-lifetime thing. Bookmatched grain, and zero flaws. Not so much as a tiny sand speck anywhere. Tad Gage saw it at a show in 1991 and loved the bizarre backstory, so ran an article about the pipe in The Compleat Smoker that I still get questions about from old timers. (Please excuse the top's condition in the photo... I can't even remember what I was trying to do that left it less than pristine. I'll have to restore it properly now that I re-found the pipe, I guess.)
Anyway, there you go. Everybody's gotta start somewhere.
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