I love having an artisan craftsman custom-make something I collect to my design. It helps the artisan and I get a one-of-a-kind object I can treasure. Dr. Elder was kind enough to build several custom tournament casting reels for me.
I collect smoking pipes and recently commissioned a London maker to build a 6” carve-blasted billiard pipe with stained black briar and pearl white stem for me. Here are some photos.
The maker has a YouTube channel, “London Calling With Simon.” If you go to the 10:40 mark of this video, you can see what the maker has to say about the pipe:
john elder wrote: ↑Sun Jan 07, 2024 1:40 pm
Wow, that is something else, Mike! Nice add! Still trying to figure how that briar bowl was etched and what we are looking at from the bottom!
Nowadays the briar is “blasted” or rusticated ring by ring using a Dremel. The surface on the bottom of the pipe is left flat and plain and not rusticated to allow the pipe to sit and as a place for the maker’s stamp. One purpose of the grooves is to allow the pipe to cool even while being held. I’ll post a few more photos when it arrives from London in a couple of weeks.
reelsmith. wrote: ↑Mon Jan 08, 2024 8:17 pm
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Beautiful pipe, Mike. Very distinctive.
Will you smoke it ?
Dean.
Yes, Dean, I plan to use it when it arrives from across the pond. Nothing sadder than “unsmoked estate pipes” listed by some guy’s heirs on eBay.
Just before he stained the briar, the maker sent me the photos below and asked if I wanted to keep it natural. I declined knowing that after a few bowls of pipe tobacco it will off-color from the heat, anyway.
