About the most frequently question asked of me, is, how did you get
into
pipe making?"I usually plant my feet, make sure my bowl is lit, and
say, "It's a long story, are you sure you want to hear it?"If
the response is favorable I proceed.
Sometime late in high school a buddy of mine got a job cleaning briar
for
a neighbor pipe hobbyist named Jack Weinberger. He wasn't a good worker
and was pretty soon fired. Another buddy and my future partner, Curt
Rollar,
immediately applied for the job and got it. At first all he did was
clean
the tops and sides of the briar so Jack could more easily read the
grain
of the wood. As Curt was a good worker he stayed on while he went to
college
and soon became a pipe maker himself as Jack turned his hobby into a
business.
All my friends envied Curt's cool job as we worked at various menial
teenage
jobs at the time. As we had a good source of pipes (the 2cds) we
started
smoking pipes. Curt eventually liked making pipes so much he took it up
full time.
Curt and I were avid bicyclists. We spent many summers touring the
Eastern
USA. Our dream, however, was to ride our bikes to Alaska. We lived in
NJ.
at the time. We accomplished this in 1974. I went back to school at
Montclair
State College, and Curt went back to work for Jack. Each summer after
that
we planned a major excursion. One year we rode to Nova Scotia. The
following
summer Curt hiked most of the Appalachian Trail before succumbing to a
Giardia
infection. I rode to the Gaspe Peninsula. These were only side trips,
however
as our new dream was to ride around the world.
When I finished school, I joined Curt in the pipe shop. We lived in a
ramshackle
apartment and rode our bikes to work in Jack's basement. We worked with
Vic Steinhart, Jack's nephew, who later founded Briar Originals. I also
worked with Scott Parfumi, who was the grandson of the famous Joe
Cortegani,
and Frank Augsberger, who served his apprenticeship at Jack's. We
worked
and saved our money for the big trip. In the meantime I certainly
enjoyed
making pipes. I started at the bottom and was able to work up to being
a
pipe maker before we left.
We had a great time on our trip. We went through England, Wales,
Ireland,
and Scotland. We ferried to Norway and crossed the Scandinavian
countries
before entering the European mainland through Denmark, into Germany. We
crossed through Germany, Belgium and into France. We traversed the Alps
in four days through Switzerland and into Northern Italy. We meandered
down
the Adriatic coast of what was Yugoslavia, through Sarejevo, and South
along
the Albanian border into Greece. Greece was a wonderful country with
lots
of good food and friendly people. The end of our oddessy came in
Turkey.
Sometime during the ferry ride from Greece someone stole our pumps and
spare
tires. We plugged along as best we could. Around that time the Iranian
revolution
began and we were advised that Iran wasn't a healthy place for
Americans
to be at the time. Tired and discouraged we called it quits in Ankara.
We
caught a bus back to Istanbul and flew home. Well, what's this got to
do
with pipe making?
One morning, while still in Yugoslavia, we decided we would make full
time
careers as pipe makers in our own business that we would establish when
we got back. That morning, American Smoking Pipe Co. was born. We
wanted
a name that would distinguish ourselves from the overwhelming majority
of
pipe makers who were European. We were proud to be American pipe makers
and we would make our mark when we returned. Our return was sooner than
expected but we felt we had accomplished what we had wanted and it was
time
to move on to fresh challenges. One of our major misconceptions was
that
we would work only during the winter and leave the summers for
bicycling.
Needless to say that once we were in business for ourselves our
bicycling
days were over.
We returned full of hope for our new business. Hope, unfortunately,
doesn't
alone get you started making pipes. By this time my parents had moved
to
Fla., so I lived in my tent in Curt's backyard. I don't know what the
neighbors'
thought but as it was a beautiful fall, I was content. By this time Vic
Steinhardt had separated from Jack and was running his own company. We
worked
for him in exchange for briar. Briar can take up to 4 months to
received
and up to a year to dry so we needed dry wood in order to begin. A few
months
after returning Curt's grandmother died, (1978). She had been living on
a 50 acre rundown farm in Frenchtown, NJ. The family wanted us to live
there,
as caretakers, until they could sell the place. Not ones to look a gift
horse in the mouth I moved from my tent to a large rambling farmhouse.
What
a neat place this was. Curt's grandfather had been in the egg business
for
a time and had put up many barns and coops that were now falling down.
One
of our jobs was to demolish these barns. We sold off the old barn board
siding, the large oak beams, and used some of the lumber to refurbish a
more modern tool shed where after installing a Franklin stove, we
established
our first shop.
With what money we had left from
our trip we purchased a bandsaw and drill press from Sears and
commissioned
a machinist to make sanding discs and shafts to mount polishing wheels
on.
We used the lumber from the barns and old motors we found around the
property
to make tables and sanding and polishing set ups. It was a cold winter
though.
The tool shed was uninsulated and the stove inefficient. The farm house
wasn't a lot better either! I guess we suffered a bit for our art that
year.
Some time that Spring our first wood order came in. We were so excited.
Using the wood we had gotten from Vic, we had our first pipes ready for
sale in July of 1979. Our first thought was to call on customers we
knew
from Jack's. Not many were as accepting as we expected. By then JHW was
a name in pipe making and an easily salable pipe. By this time the
quality
had slipped as Jack had gone back to hiring high school students and he
himself was incapable of making them himself. We found out that a
recognizable
name is a very important in selling pipes.
A few stores that knew us did want to see what we had made. In an
effort
to separate ourselves from JHW style pipes we made more classical
shapes
than the wild freehands that were the JHW repertoire. We slowly built
our
inventory and did a lot of knocking on doors to gain recognition in the
industry. I'd like to say our pipes immediately took off like wildfire
and
there was no looking back from there. What really happened was that we
went
through a very slow building process and we were able to take
advantages
of breaks when we got them.
One of our earliest breaks occurred in 1980. I had been to every major
store
in Washington DC. without making a sale. I went into Georgetown Pipe
and
Tobacco in the evening and gave my pitch. As I was politely being asked
to leave by the manager, the owner, David Berkebile, happened upon us.
He
agreed to look at the pipes and even bought a dozen, our biggest sale
yet
and to one of the better shops in the country. I 've always felt
indebted
to David for looking at our pipes that night. It wasn't make or break
but
I was getting pretty discouraged. Our next big break was getting into
the
Tinder Box at the Lennox Sq. Mall in Atlanta, GA. Allen Mandell was the
owner, I swear he could sell horse manure to a farmer. He was a great
pipe
salesman and a great B.S. artist. He would sell pipes to people who
came
into his shop for cigarettes! On Saturdays, customers would be lined up
three deep along the tobacco bar for the privilege of buying very
expensive
pipes from Allen. They clamored for his attention while he was busy
yelling
at his wife or his manager, or anyone else who displeased him. The shop
was amazing. Well when I came in he turned away from all this and
started
selling my pipes right from the wagon that I used to drag them around
in.
That Saturday we must of sold a dozen or more. He invited me back to
his
house to stay. Before I left he must have picked out another 5 dozen
pipes.
He later told me he had a little trouble selling the first bunch.
Considering
it only took a couple of months I thought he did pretty well. Turns out
he had doubled our RETAIL prices instead of the WHOLESALE and sold them
for double their asking price. I sometimes wonder if this wasn't
unintentional.
( Allen past away in January,1997. A good friend and tremendous pipe
person!)
As word gets around quick in the industry about someone's success we
were
now having an easier time getting in to see stores. As our pipes smoked
well we were getting increasingly larger reorders. Our biggest break
came
in December of 1981 when I met John Hayes. John had worked as general
manager
of Georgetown Tobacco, though I had never met him. He opened his own
store
the weekend I was in town to do a Christmas show at the Georgetown
store.
Apparently this was unbeknownst to David as his son in law George
Brighton
had arranged the show. He was quite perturbed with George, he
remonstrated
, "We have enough of our own stock of unsold pipes to sell. This isn't
the time of year for a pipe show."
As George had been the one trying to get me out the door the first time
at the shop I did enjoy his discomfiture a bit. Being quick on his feet
he suggested doing a show at a shop that was just opening that weekend
in
the Fair Oaks Mall , Fairfax, VA. About 25 miles West of DC. He made
arrangements
and off I went to John B. Hayes Tobacconist.
They had a good crew of people putting the finishing touches on the
store
when I walked in. Everyone was young and enthusiastic about getting the
store off the ground. I fit right in and helped as I could. The next
day
we had a lot of curious lookers . We did sell about 15 pipes on
Saturday
and another 9 on Sunday. Most were in the $25-45 range but at least it
was
a start. John and Cathy, his fiancee, and I became good friends. We had
many common interests and since then they have become my best friends.
Our
pipe business took off with John's success. We sell hundreds of pipe a
year
in his store. At times he had more of our pipes on hand then we did. It
was John's idea to start the annual Christmas shape . We 've made 13 of
them. In the hey day of pipe sales we sold 150 Christmas pipes in
John's
store in 1987. These were all high end pipes that started at $75 for a
sandblast.
The farm was sold in the end of 1979 and we needed to find a cheap
place
to live. We had always liked the Pocono's in Eastern Pa. It was also a
real
cheap place to live so we packed up the shop and moved to Saylorsburg,
Pa.
A bucolic village that the 20th century had seemed to leave behind. At
least
on weekends when we looked took the rental. We moved the entire shop in
a van. In our next move it took 3 of the largest U Haul trucks. As I
said
Saylorsburg was real quiet on the weekends, but the following Monday we
found out there was a quarry located down the road . When the bog
trucks
rolled by our little house shook. Our shop though was inside the house
in
a large basement. This was a real step up in the world for us. It had a
two car garage for storage and only cost $240 per month. To supplement
my
income I opened a karate school at the local YMCA, where I still teach
today.
In Saylorsburg there were few distractions and we settled down to
produce
a large volume of pipe making. Our business flourished and by 1982 we
had
saved up enough money t buy our own house. Its main attraction was a
large
new shop in back of the house. We moved in October of 1982. This was
also
the year our mentor, Jack Weinberger died.
The story of pipe making in the 80's is a story in its self
deserving
of a fuller treatment than I can give here. I will address this subject
more completely in later writings. There are many stories, many
personalities,
and a whole era to recapture. For me this was a happy time. I got
married
had a child. Had time to pursue personal interests after concentrating
solely
on the business for so many years. We were accepted by the Pipe World
in
general. We made various club pipes for PCI magazine. We were in many
retail
catalogs. I went to Europe to buy
briar
and stems directly. Things were going well and we enjoyed the
recognition and fruits of our success.
Change is the one constant you can count in life .Curt had carved out a
life for himself. He got married and bought his own house in 1986 and
learned
kayaking which he is expert at today. In 1990 when I wanted to expand
our
business, hire employees etc. He decided he wanted to do other things
with
his life. In my opinion he was the premier pipe maker in the country;
he
had been making pipes for 20 years at this point and was ready for
something
new. I was surprised to say the least, but as we had been friends since
the 7 th grade this was more important than our business partnership.
We
amicably settled our business, I retaining sole proprietorship of
American
Smoking Pipe Co.
Soon thereafter, I divorced . It was a rough year. I set up shop in a
friends
storage shed. It was 12x20' and large enough for two people to work in.
She came to work for me as a polisher and I was soon back in business
again.
I guess I too was looking for a change and I incorporated pipe
repair into my work for the first time. Unfortunately, this
alienated
a couple friends of mine on the East coast who were pipe repairmen who
didn't
like this encroachment. One, Howard Shulte, still isn't speaking to me
today,
as John Hayes went with me instead of him. I enjoyed learning pipe
repair.
Its a lot different than pipe making. Some of its mundane, of course,
but
there are a lot of interesting problem solving opportunities that I
find
challenging. As it turns out this was a wise decision.
For whatever reasons the bottom of the new pipe market dropped out
after
1992. We experienced a recession, anti-smoking laws stiffened, and the
older
pipe smoking generation was passing on and nothing was taking its
place.
Pipe smokers continued to smoke and need repair. They were able to
smoke
in fewer places and there collections became concentrated at home. They
just didn't need as many pipes. Gray marketing, inflated prices by the
big
pipe companies also hurt new pipe sales. The interest in the used
market
was market was peaking as large estate collections were becoming
available.
Being able to smoke in fewer areas concentrated pipe smokers
collections
at home. Smokers didn't feel the need for new pipes as they no longer
could
be spread around their various habitats.
My current interests include fly fishing, reading, and writing about
pipes
over the Internet via Alternate Smokers Pipes newsgroup and Pipe
Digest. I see a great future in this new form of communication and
it
has begun to change the way I'm doing business already. I can now deal
directly
with customers as I could never do before. I've met many interesting
people who have used computer programs to design
pipes. I plan to straddle the line between retailers and direct
sales
by protecting a retailers local territory. Its a big country and now
with
the Internet, a big world! I'm sure there's room enough for me to do
business
without upsetting too many people. I plan to do further writings about
people,
stories, and experiences I've had in the pipe industry. I've collected
some
of my writings on pipes in a section called Musings from the workbench.
If you're interested, please look for further updates. Time for a new
bowl
of tobacco.
Addendum
With the renaissance in pipe smoking I ve gone back to being a full time pipe maker. Certainly , my first love! My biggest problem is trying to wade through my list of custom order pipes. I can never seem to get caught up. Just once in a while I'd like to work on a few of my own designs! I'm not complaining business is great and I'm making pipes again. We'll have to see what the rest of the decade brings but its wonderful to have reached the point where everything I make can be appreciated and quickly sold. While I certainly haven't reached the lofty status of some of the European makers as Curt and I had dreamed of doing 20 years ago; at least nationally I do have some positive name recognition for which I'm grateful! Maybe the next generation of American pipe makers will put us over the top.