In The Company Of Giants
Posted: Thu Feb 05, 2015 2:27 pm
In the company of giants. Well, that's about how I feel right now while writing my first post. I've browsed the forum, reading some of the posts, looking at some of the beautiful pipes created by the members here, many of you I understand are well known in the pipe world, and I feel absolutely tiny. Like a hobbit among men. But like hobbits (I know some of you are probably tired of the pipe/lord of the rings references) I have a very big heart. I've been smoking a pipe only a couple of short years, beginning the end of 2012/start of 2013. I would be lying if I said the Lord Of The Rings stories and movies weren't a big part of that. But it's more than that. It was also something I feel takes me back to a time when men were men, and men of all different walks of life had their pipes. Whether a scientist, a soldier, a sailor, a politician, a miner, a movie star, artist, or writer like C.S. Lewis or J.R.R Tolkien (see what I did there?) they all had their pipes.
I had also began writing my first fantasy novel, and as some of my favorite authors such as Tolkien, or Robert Jordan smoked a pipe, it seemed the natural thing to do. I could see myself sitting at my desk reading over a chapter I was working on contemplating the thoughts and emotions of the characters involved while I sipped contentedly on the smoke of my pipe. And it occurred to me I wasn't wanting to be like all these other people, the pipe was a missing part of myself. Something that should have been a part of me years earlier... I just didn't know it yet. Pipers tend to be thinkers, dreamers. That has always been me. All those other people just helped me realize it. And I love everything about it.
Pipes are not just a tool that you dump a bit of tobacco into, light a match to it, and smoke like a runaway locomotive, (although I have been known to sing out, "Chooooooo choooooo," once or twice). Pipes are in fact a work of art. A functional work of art. Often I will pick up a pipe just to hold it in my hand, turn it around, admiring the shaping and the feel of it, the way the stain makes the grain appear to reach out and say, "hello." The aroma of a lit pipe, the taste of tobacco, and the slight warmth in the hand is a comfort. It can truly bring you peace on a stressful day. It is a beautiful... a very beautiful thing. And I have fallen head over heels in love with it. I suppose it was only a matter of time before I would try my hand at carving one for myself.
I had been contemplating trying my hand at carving a pipe for some time actually, even though I've not done any woodworking other than cookie cutter shaping a piece of wood into a duck in junior high school, and recently on another forum a member got the ingenious idea to more or less dare us to carve our own pipe. Ok... perhaps it wasn't so much like that. It was more of a gentle push. But the dare makes a better story so I'll go with that. He called it the Carve Your Own Pipe Project. And a few of us got the bug. And what a wonderful bug it is! I put some tools on my Christmas list. Nothing special. Just a set of wood rasps and files, and a coping saw. I would have gotten them for myself anyway, but it was Christmas time and I figured I'd let someone else give me the gift. And it may well be the most influential gift in all of my life. Shortly after Christmas I received my first block of plateau briar in the mail, purchased from Vermont Freehand and pre-drilled. And I began to carve.
Without even a vice, I just gripped that big chunk of briar in one hand and began to slowly shape it into a pipe. I love the look of Danish style freehands. And as most of those I believe are more of a dublin shape, that's what I was initially going for. But at some point in the initial shaping of the pipe, the briar decided it wanted to be more of a pickaxe. Who am I to argue with a piece of wood? That would just be weird and perhaps lead to therapy. I've wanted a pickaxe shape for some time anyway, so I agreed. While carving my pipe I asked a lot of questions from a few people I knew on another forum who had carved pipes and I visited this forum to browse some posts and hopefully gain some knowledge of what I was doing. Most of the questions I had were about how to remove the bark from the plateau, sanding, staining, and waxing and buffing. I had heard before how to bend stems and such but asked those questions and read about that again anyway, because stemwork (even though it was a premade stem) scared the living crap out of me. When I finally came to the stem, I did very little. I just wanted to thin it out a little bit and give it a bend.
I have to say, carving a pipe by hand, watching it slowly take shape from a plain block of briar into an actual pipe, was very satisfying, and quite fun. And personally, I believe it turned out pretty good for my first. Definitely much better than I would have imagined. It is not perfect by any means, but I'm quite proud of it.
It's not perfect by any means, but I learned a few thing in the process. And I definitely want to do more. I believe I can learn a lot here, so I hope you'll all forgive me the thousands of questions I'm likely going to be asking. My name is Anthony, by the way. Although, Tony is fine as well. I live in Fort Worth Texas where I work in the butcher block as a supervisor at a grocery store. And I love smoking my modest collection of pipes. But don't we all love that?
I also want to thank the administration here for accepting my registration request, and I look forward to reading some posts and learning more about pipe crafting. Thank you all very much.
I had also began writing my first fantasy novel, and as some of my favorite authors such as Tolkien, or Robert Jordan smoked a pipe, it seemed the natural thing to do. I could see myself sitting at my desk reading over a chapter I was working on contemplating the thoughts and emotions of the characters involved while I sipped contentedly on the smoke of my pipe. And it occurred to me I wasn't wanting to be like all these other people, the pipe was a missing part of myself. Something that should have been a part of me years earlier... I just didn't know it yet. Pipers tend to be thinkers, dreamers. That has always been me. All those other people just helped me realize it. And I love everything about it.
Pipes are not just a tool that you dump a bit of tobacco into, light a match to it, and smoke like a runaway locomotive, (although I have been known to sing out, "Chooooooo choooooo," once or twice). Pipes are in fact a work of art. A functional work of art. Often I will pick up a pipe just to hold it in my hand, turn it around, admiring the shaping and the feel of it, the way the stain makes the grain appear to reach out and say, "hello." The aroma of a lit pipe, the taste of tobacco, and the slight warmth in the hand is a comfort. It can truly bring you peace on a stressful day. It is a beautiful... a very beautiful thing. And I have fallen head over heels in love with it. I suppose it was only a matter of time before I would try my hand at carving one for myself.
I had been contemplating trying my hand at carving a pipe for some time actually, even though I've not done any woodworking other than cookie cutter shaping a piece of wood into a duck in junior high school, and recently on another forum a member got the ingenious idea to more or less dare us to carve our own pipe. Ok... perhaps it wasn't so much like that. It was more of a gentle push. But the dare makes a better story so I'll go with that. He called it the Carve Your Own Pipe Project. And a few of us got the bug. And what a wonderful bug it is! I put some tools on my Christmas list. Nothing special. Just a set of wood rasps and files, and a coping saw. I would have gotten them for myself anyway, but it was Christmas time and I figured I'd let someone else give me the gift. And it may well be the most influential gift in all of my life. Shortly after Christmas I received my first block of plateau briar in the mail, purchased from Vermont Freehand and pre-drilled. And I began to carve.
Without even a vice, I just gripped that big chunk of briar in one hand and began to slowly shape it into a pipe. I love the look of Danish style freehands. And as most of those I believe are more of a dublin shape, that's what I was initially going for. But at some point in the initial shaping of the pipe, the briar decided it wanted to be more of a pickaxe. Who am I to argue with a piece of wood? That would just be weird and perhaps lead to therapy. I've wanted a pickaxe shape for some time anyway, so I agreed. While carving my pipe I asked a lot of questions from a few people I knew on another forum who had carved pipes and I visited this forum to browse some posts and hopefully gain some knowledge of what I was doing. Most of the questions I had were about how to remove the bark from the plateau, sanding, staining, and waxing and buffing. I had heard before how to bend stems and such but asked those questions and read about that again anyway, because stemwork (even though it was a premade stem) scared the living crap out of me. When I finally came to the stem, I did very little. I just wanted to thin it out a little bit and give it a bend.
I have to say, carving a pipe by hand, watching it slowly take shape from a plain block of briar into an actual pipe, was very satisfying, and quite fun. And personally, I believe it turned out pretty good for my first. Definitely much better than I would have imagined. It is not perfect by any means, but I'm quite proud of it.
It's not perfect by any means, but I learned a few thing in the process. And I definitely want to do more. I believe I can learn a lot here, so I hope you'll all forgive me the thousands of questions I'm likely going to be asking. My name is Anthony, by the way. Although, Tony is fine as well. I live in Fort Worth Texas where I work in the butcher block as a supervisor at a grocery store. And I love smoking my modest collection of pipes. But don't we all love that?
I also want to thank the administration here for accepting my registration request, and I look forward to reading some posts and learning more about pipe crafting. Thank you all very much.
Seriously though, welcome.
Thanks for the welcome, and thank you for the kind word on the pipe. I'm looking forward to learning a few things 
