I wanted to say that I've been enjoying your conversations for some time now. I wanted to thank you all for your willingness to share your thoughts and idea so new guys like me can learn from your experience.
A bit about me. I've made things with my hands most of my life, and one day when I was trying to smoke my pipe I thought, "I wonder if I could make one of these." Having never heard of this forum or other pipe forums before, I ordered a block of briar from ebay and set to work with a drill, a saw and some sand paper trying to recreate on of my favorite Ben Wade pipes. I was pretty proud of my first pipe...until I started really learning more about them. There is so much to learn...fluid flow, turbulence, french curves and on and on. I unaffectionately named that pipe "Knuckles" because of it's angular non flowing shapes that make it look like a good pipe that might have melted in a bad way. The only thing that looks ok on it is the stem and that's because I didn't make that
I bought it at a store and stuck it in there.Over the last year or so I've had about a dozen conversations with Tyler Lane (thanks Tyler) and had the awesome experience of a shop visit with Rad (thanks Rad). That's where I decided I wanted to really give this a shot...so much to the point that I sold my baby, my BMW 740i to buy some tools (Jet Lathe BD-920, Shop fox buffing system, Band Saw, custom Mark Yingling Bison Chuck, Cutting Tools, Heat Gun, Digital Calipers and so On). Now that they're arriving and I'm about ready to dig in. I'm really looking forward to being able to put my first completely hand made pipe on here for your critiques.
This is a great community and I look forward to being more a part of it.
Sincerely,
Brian.
Attached are a few pictures of "Knuckles" and my long gone BMW...
Man I miss that car....
PS. If you're near Fairhope Al don't hesitate to reach out. I'd love to chat with you.
