An Excellent Pipe

[Sasquatch]

For anyone who missed it, Todd Johnson condensed something very important into an eloquent line the other day.

"There are a number of guys who will always be average because they're so focused on "perfection" that they're incapable of making an excellent pipe."

I was out in the shop yesterday, looking at my blocks, had a particular shape in mind, and of course, wanted to find a block that would produce that shap in a perfect straightgrain, birdseye-on-the-heel kind of affair. And I couldn't find one. And it pissed me off and threw me a little. I found a very, very good block, did a little shaping, and things were looking sweet, and it had a huge yucky pit thing in the chamber when I drilled it. Just garbage.

Today, I decided it would be better if I relaxed about things, just did something fun, and tried to get a nice pipe instead of a perfect wonder-pipe, out of the blocks I had at hand. I picked a nice looking block, drew a design that was complimented by the grain, even if it wasn't going to be a "perfect" pipe. And got to work.

And.... I got a really nice pipe out of it. It's not my BESTEST pipe ever. And that's fine. That can only happen once in awhile, truth be told. Not every block is special, not every day is the muse going to speak. Sometimes a pipe maker can only ...make a pipe.

Tie this in with a conversation I had with Mike Glukler of BriarBlues - I had indicated that I thought Castello's shaping was often lazy, and he countered with some ideas of style and form that were a little more.... relative, I guess, than I ordinarily accept. Certainly looser than what I strive for.

Tie this in with a pipe I just bought: A Savinelli, of all things. I bought an Autograph, one that said "you should buy me and smoke tobacco in me!". It's so FAR from perfect I can't even do it description. It's off kilter in just about every way except the airway hits the bowl dead on. But it's crooked, the stem is 5 degrees off center, the diamond shank is a horror.... it's well worse than most of us on this board would accept, for shaping. And..... it's great. I mean, it's really wonderful. Super stem, super smoker. Comfortable, the briar is good.... it's dry and cool man. Like, if you ever make a pipe that smokes this good, you're good at this. But it's so far from perfect that it's almost funny. I could easily cut a "nicer" pipe. And I don't care at all - I knew what I was buying. Give me that sweet old briar and an open draw, baby!

So.

There are pipes around, pipes that people really like, which are in all kinds of ways... less than perfect. And yet they are awesome.

Is this carte blanche for pipemakers? Actually in a way it probably is. If you can make it work.... well, you've made it work! There's lots of right approaches, lots of ways to make excellent pipes. I think there's a ton of ideas that carry through - how to make a pipe that people like the look of, that smokes nicely, that feels good in the hand and the mouth... a lot of these things have a pretty narrow range of "correct". But lots of other things are wide open - finishes, shapes, sizes, materials. And the way to learn how to put these things together excellently is to make lots of pipes, get feedback, and make lots more pipes. Things will come to you as you go along. They did me - I don't fight with half the ideas I used to. Doesn't make me the next Bo Nordh, but it means that I stand a chance of turning out an excellent pipe once in awhile. And that's really the only realistic goal in all this.

Sorry, this is 50/50 Sasquatch and Captain Morgan.
Hope this helps Rad

[the rev]

good post, thanks

rev

[d.huber]

I've always said Capt. Morgan helps us to speak the truth.

I take your post and TJ's post that inspired it to heart. I think I probably fall into the category you both refer to. In an attempt to reach the absolute pinnacle of what I'm capable of with every pipe, I may very well be limiting myself and any progress I might make, succeeding in only creating that which is mediocre in an attempt to surpass excellence. This is one of those things that is terribly hard for me to overcome because I am so insistent upon pushing myself with everything I do or create. As a result, I've only almost finished 11 pipes this year. That's one a month since I started. There are folks on this forum who started later than me but have probably created more than me several times over and are probably learning a lot more in the process. I often find myself wondering what this whole process is more about, molding the briar or molding myself.

Anyway, I am really glad you posted this.

[Sasquatch]

I had no one in particular in mind with this. There isn't a right or wrong way to approach this. The opposite might be said of me, David - I made pipe after mediocre pipe, was slow to get into hand cut stems... like, my ideology was never "how perfect of a pipe can I make". I was so excited by the idea of just getting a stem into a chunk of briar that it carried me for probably a year. And then you start learning about some of the aesthetic ideas, and refining your lines and your shapes.. you come to appreciate certain forms you've never thought of before... it's wonderful. The 500 little ways each pipe can be right consume you.

And seeking for those little "rights" is fine, it's good, it's beneficial. Certainly I don't intend the first post here to be self-mocking. You know how to catch a sparrow, right? Just shake a little salt on his tail. I don't mean for my post to encourage laziness or to infuriate with a "Hey asshole, HOW do I make excellent pipes? That's the question!" sort of tone.

Excellent pipes come with practice, they take many forms and finishes. But no one makes an excellent first pipe. And honestly, it's a rare cat who can make a truly excellent 10th or 50th pipe, for that matter. But no one is counting. Try to make each one as good as you can, try to learn something to apply to the next, and you'll get better at this.

I haven't forsaken the things I like - I still like big pipes, still like bent pipes, still like utterly orthodox shapes and I still like rustication. That stuff might not ever change. There's no drive here to make the perfect bamboo-shanked egg with unicorn horn. And that's part of the point here, I hope - you can find room to be you, as a carver, and still chase the goal of excellence within that.

[The Smoking Yeti]

Who woulda thought it... Sas is a prolific writer.

True words my fuzzy friend.

[Massis]

I think Cpt Morgan did the writing

Nonetheless, I can relate to the entire post. Because I have limited shop time ( made 4 or 5 pipes the last year, I just try to make decent progress every time I get into the shop, and sometimes I go in just wanting to finish that pipe I've been working on. The result is far from perfect, but so far every pipe I've made has been significantly better than the last. As long as that keeps happening, I'm going to keep doing the same thing...