Long Belated (and Long-winded) Introduction
Posted: Fri Jun 09, 2017 8:20 am
Hey Everyone-
Realized I never did this when I joined, but probably should have. Been lurking on and off since maybe 2010(?) as life/time/other hobbies allowed, joined in 2012 and never posted until now. Despite having zero interest in other tobacco products, I picked up the pipe at 16 - my dad smoked, his grandpa smoked, and I had a buddy who was a few years older who had worked at the Tinder Box and let me start on one of his - and I was in love. I grew up in Durham NC a few blocks from the Tobacco District - back when it still produced tobacco (you could smell it intensely on humid mornings). My dad had made a few kit pipes in the early 80s, and I was inspired to make my first kit pipe at 19 - it was exactly the entire-block-with-the-edges-rounded 'freehand' that I think a lot of people make at first, though I had done a fair bit of sculpting at that point (and do graphic design as part of my job now), so I maintain that even though it's huge and ugly, there's a little bit of elegance to the flow of it (incidentally, that pipe has a 15/16" chamber that's over 2 1/2" deep - first full bowl I ever smoked out of it was Royal Yacht... and that was my first time getting real good and nic sick).
Anyway, through my late teens and early 20s I built one more very ugly kit pipe for a friend, but was mostly working on guitars - I was a luthier's apprentice for a few years building and repairing electric guitars. I'd mentioned this elsewhere, but the skills translate less than I'd expected they would (at least for me) - it's sort of a different kind of precision and processes (tolerances for hole placement and that sort of thing are marginally looser than with pipes, but if you crown your frets wrong it will never be in tune). Anyway, about 10 years later, I got hitched and got the genius idea of making pipes as gifts for my groomsmen - ended up making 8 for them, plus 1 for my dad, and 1 for myself (I had to match with my wife's bridesmaids, which is garbage because there aren't even 8 people I like that much ). Anyway, that was too many to try to do at once, because they all got rushed a little bit and I didn't learn much in the process, lots of turds and lollypops.
Picked up another 3 kits (my wife's uncle wanted a turd of his own), and through those I decided to stop carving scared and to make an effort to better maintain fidelity to the lines and geometry in my head and not leave as much heavy weight and under baked design (still working on that one). Decided to finally take the plunge and do my first one from scratch (posted that one in the gallery), and that brings us here. Anyway, wish I'd taken more time to get good earlier once the bug had bitten initially, but I'm dedicated to doing what I can to learn better now and sincerely appreciate everyone here for making this such a great resource. Currently biting the bullet and working on my requisite learnin' billiard and saving up for a metal lathe.
Real name: Rick
Age: 35
Location: NC
Years a pipe smoker: 17
How you got into pipe making: See above
Other interesting facts: I guess also see above
Realized I never did this when I joined, but probably should have. Been lurking on and off since maybe 2010(?) as life/time/other hobbies allowed, joined in 2012 and never posted until now. Despite having zero interest in other tobacco products, I picked up the pipe at 16 - my dad smoked, his grandpa smoked, and I had a buddy who was a few years older who had worked at the Tinder Box and let me start on one of his - and I was in love. I grew up in Durham NC a few blocks from the Tobacco District - back when it still produced tobacco (you could smell it intensely on humid mornings). My dad had made a few kit pipes in the early 80s, and I was inspired to make my first kit pipe at 19 - it was exactly the entire-block-with-the-edges-rounded 'freehand' that I think a lot of people make at first, though I had done a fair bit of sculpting at that point (and do graphic design as part of my job now), so I maintain that even though it's huge and ugly, there's a little bit of elegance to the flow of it (incidentally, that pipe has a 15/16" chamber that's over 2 1/2" deep - first full bowl I ever smoked out of it was Royal Yacht... and that was my first time getting real good and nic sick).
Anyway, through my late teens and early 20s I built one more very ugly kit pipe for a friend, but was mostly working on guitars - I was a luthier's apprentice for a few years building and repairing electric guitars. I'd mentioned this elsewhere, but the skills translate less than I'd expected they would (at least for me) - it's sort of a different kind of precision and processes (tolerances for hole placement and that sort of thing are marginally looser than with pipes, but if you crown your frets wrong it will never be in tune). Anyway, about 10 years later, I got hitched and got the genius idea of making pipes as gifts for my groomsmen - ended up making 8 for them, plus 1 for my dad, and 1 for myself (I had to match with my wife's bridesmaids, which is garbage because there aren't even 8 people I like that much ). Anyway, that was too many to try to do at once, because they all got rushed a little bit and I didn't learn much in the process, lots of turds and lollypops.
Picked up another 3 kits (my wife's uncle wanted a turd of his own), and through those I decided to stop carving scared and to make an effort to better maintain fidelity to the lines and geometry in my head and not leave as much heavy weight and under baked design (still working on that one). Decided to finally take the plunge and do my first one from scratch (posted that one in the gallery), and that brings us here. Anyway, wish I'd taken more time to get good earlier once the bug had bitten initially, but I'm dedicated to doing what I can to learn better now and sincerely appreciate everyone here for making this such a great resource. Currently biting the bullet and working on my requisite learnin' billiard and saving up for a metal lathe.
Real name: Rick
Age: 35
Location: NC
Years a pipe smoker: 17
How you got into pipe making: See above
Other interesting facts: I guess also see above