Handmade pipes Pt1

I just wanted to show you some of the handmade pipes I have in my collection. Very few pipes are actually 100% handmade, depending on what you put into that definition. Most makers do use a drill, sander, and some other macines, some use a lathe, others again use milling machines etc etc.

I think of handmades as opposed to machine-made pipes, where NC or other computerised/mechanic machines form a pipe out of a piece of briar wood, disregarding the wood's structure, grain etc.

Instead my handmades are made by a person, the maker, who has chosen a shape for that specific piece of briar, worked it to find flaws, oddities like sand pits etc and maybe had to discard one or more pieces until a pipe bowl appeared as the maker had intended it from that piece of wood.

Probably the maker also made the stem, maybe from a rod of some plastic material that was formed using whatever tools/machinery necessary to create just the stem to fit that stummel that would then cohese into a truly handmade pipe.

There is a lot more work involved in creating a handmade pipe, such as staining, sanding, possibly sandblasting and/or rusticating etc etc, but these are the basics that go into what I call a handmade pipe.