Great thoughts jayrob. I think you've got the right idea. One has to know the rules before they can break them.thejayrob wrote:Todd,
I have to say your original post is right on. I'm a newbie. I wouldn't even regard myself as a pipe maker yet. I have shaped a total of four predrilled blocks with prefabricated stems. After watching a ton of youtube I did what a lot of newbies do. I thought my pipes were amazing and I plastered them all over the net. I made two more. Those two were amazing too. Im being sarcastic. Then for pipe four, I thought I would try to make a blow fish. I had to throw away the block. Wow I learned a lot. After speaking with a friend of mine he told me how this whole pipe making thing goes. A new pipe maker needs to learn the first basic principles of pipe making. So like I'm on lessons 4-10 and guys like Tyler Beard and Jeff Gracik are on lessons 900-1000. I learned the best pipe makers in the world are able to do what they do and use the materials they do because they don't have to think about things a new pipe maker has to think about. I have been humbled and I have learned to ask more questions and I have no desire to try to reinvent the wheel. I also believe in innovation. But the nature of innovation is that you have to have a level of basic understanding of the area of our innovation. I can not come up with a new and exciting way to bake a cake if I don't know the basic process and ingredients of making a cake. Anyway, these are thoughts from a newbie.
It's tough to know when one has become a pipe maker. Everyone on this forum makes pipes for fun or profit, but where's the defining line? I surely wouldn't have the balls to call myself a Pipe Maker in front of anyone. Do I make pipes? Sure do and I love it. Am I a Pipe Maker? Eh... not yet. Maybe some day.