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Anthony, please do a video. It would be a true gift and inspiration to all. Also where can we see some other things you have done?

I agree. I'd love to see Anthony's videos. I've got a lot to learn about how to use my sharp tools.


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Anthony's stuff is simply amazing and his table is always full of impressive turnings in addition to his impressive pipes.

Expansion and contraction due to moisture and temprature of the wood has always been in the forefront of the design. The stem and ring are designed to soak up changes in the wood without losing function.

The ring is usually made of ebonite. It has the male thread for the end of the chamber. If that opening in the air chamber expands or contracts, the ring will twist in a little more or less as it seats. The tenon of the stem fits into a mortise in the ring. That way, the stem can be adjusted to level as the ring compensates to the wood.
The greater the diameter of the chamber, the more the wood moves. The greater the diameter of the opening that the ring has to fit, the more the wood moves. I seek to minimize the size of the opening - the opening on the biggest pipe in that picture is just a hair over half inch. I don't have to adjust it at all. The chamber is big enough that it never really gets wet or warm, and the opening is just about as small as I can make it without spending some serious effot designing and making some new tools.

Whether the pipe will last 20 years is a question that only a hundred twenty-year old pipes can really determine. Some of my pipes are coming up to five years. The threads on all of them, due to repeated impregnation with tobacco juice and repeated use appear to be better than when they were created. Slick and solid.
There is a lot of treen (read: old turned stuff in England) with threads on them that are more than a hundred years old. They are not usually tobacco juiced, though, so perhaps they don't count.

Maybe half of the smaller ones come in around two ounces - not really much different from a lot of pipes. That shape really set some people back. I had degenerated to smoking calabai most of the time, so I had already left the reservation on that count. These pipes, for me, are function first. I have made some pipes that approach traditional shapes, but I don't think that I will sacrifice the function to do so.

I have been making some Captain Warren style pipes that seem to fill the "second-chamber" function while maintaining a more traditional shape. I was at first skeptical that they would smoke as well, but work as well as a 100 cc chamber. I will stick a picture of a couple of them up in a little while.

anthony