Artisan Spotlight: Getting to know Chris Herriot | | For this week’s Artisan Spotlight, we sat down with the British-born artisan Chris Herriot for a short Q&A to help you get to know the man behind Herriot Pipes. Chris originally took up pipe making in 2020, starting out under the Oiseau Briars brand, before switching…
From Dunhill to Ferndown: An Interview with Les Wood Leslie Wood is one of the towering figures of post-war English pipe-making. As a silversmith, he has left his mark—if you’ll excuse the pun—on countless pipes from countless makes. Together with his wife Dolly Wood, he crafted handmade pipes that are widely considered to be some…
Broken Pipe: R. Bear Graves, 1958-2024 It is not an overstatement to say that Bear Graves was a transformative figure in the world of smoking pipes. He was a true trailblazer in the brave new 21st century world of online pipe culture and commerce. Though he had experience working at brick and mortar stores, Bear…
In this interview, James sat down with R. Bear Graves to discuss his time in and around the tobacco pipe industry. How did you first get into pipes? It started when I was five years old. I was living in a living in Alaska and my father’s best friend smoked a pipe, and I just…
To see our currently available Stanwell pipes, click here. Stanwell is one of the most popular contemporary pipe-manufacturers, as well as being the oldest Danish-owned manufacturer still in operation at the time of writing (2024). As a result, Stanwell is one of the most common makes found on the contemporary estates market. If you’ve encountered…
Briar Pipe Finishes, Part 1: Smooths by CW Hawes Following its introduction as a pipe material in the middle 1800s, briar quickly became the dominant material for making pipes for the general pipe-smoking public. Briar is durable, and with reasonable care, a briar pipe will serve generations of pipe smokers. Another feature of briar is…
In this article, James takes a deep dive into the concept of the ‘freehand pipe.’ This is the first of a multi-part series exploring concepts like ‘freehand’ in and outside of pipe culture and history. Where possible, illustrations are included, but the reader is encouraged, if they are not already familiar with the pipes and…
