Age: 29
Location: Austria
Years a pipe smoker: about 10 years
How you got into pipe making:
I was never really into woodworking and craftsmanship, but when I got a job at a school here in Austria I was also asked to teach some woodworking lessons at our school so I had to spend time in the school workshop in order to prepare lessons for kinds and to not emberass myself in front of them. At first I was not really a fan of these lessons but after some time I really started to enjoy that and also enjoy making some smaller stuff for myself and as presents. That was also the time i got more and more into pipe smoking. That means I also started to buy my first handmade pipe and I really got hooked by that. After sometime I realized that I have to be careful not to spend too much money on that hobby. Unfortunately by getting deeper and deeper into that hobby I also got very picky about new pipes. In short terms: the pipes I wanted got more and more expensive
So during the Corona Lockdown in 2021 the idea of making my own pipes grew on me. I somehow couldn't get rid of the idea anymore and after a few months of watching Youtube videos and tutorials about pipemaking (which by the way look faaaar to easy 
) I couldn't resist on buying a Metal Lathe which was rather naive action because I had never even seen one in real life before. Still I was super motivated and tried to drill and form the first cheap blocks of briar and ebonite rods. You can imagine it was horrible at the beginning and it still is very hard for me (even though I think I am making small improvements), but I got completely hooked by that whole process and enjoy every minute in my workshop. It's almost a therapeutic thing for me, especially when i am seeing some improvements Other interesting facts:
I'm also a lot into sports. Playing Tennis and Tabletennis on a regular competitive basis and football/soccer as a hobby
Now I just want to say Hello to everyone and thank you for all the information which can be found here. I am really looking forward to reading through everything the following weeks
I would rather say i did loads of research on that whole topic (not enough here tho) and watching probably thousands and thousands of pipes to be honest. I am also quite happy that before I decided to make them my own I bought one pipe of Tom Eltang and one of Mike Sebastian Bay which help me more than in terms of making than i smoke them. 
I started with about 5 blocks, with four of them being completely wasted cause i didn't know how to get them into the briar chucks, which also were pretty expensive. Number 5 was my first pipe then in April 2021. Then I didn't do so much till the summer holidays were i tried out more and more and got a little bit better. I am basically more active in that hobby when there are school holidays here. In the following months (school again) I made more pipes but never more than one in a month until the summer holidays of 2022 so this summer where I really got into it more and more. That is when the second third and fourth pipe where born. Then school started again and the last pipe of the five was made during the christmas holidays. Here are 3 more which are kind of on the bench and to be finished the following weeks. Slowly starting to get faster. But I am very much aware that i am still in the very beginning of all that. I truly enjoy it a lot tho 