The Carver:
All Tyler Lane Pipes are handcrafted by
Tyler Lane Beard, in Midland, TX. My full time job is as an Associate Pastor at
Midland Bible Church. My wife, Shannon, and I have been married for 10 years, and we have four beautiful daughters.
The Journey:
I started smoking cigars while in college during the cigar boom in the
early 90's. After graduation I took a job as a chemical
engineer in the oil field of West Texas. At that time I started a
cigar business with a friend. After two years I sold my interest to
him, and he is still operating today.
During college and my cigar days, I tried my first pipe. I bought
an $18 basket pipe and some aromatic tobacco. It was wholly
unsatisfactory. It was hard to keep lit, produced thin wispy smoke, and
scorched my tongue. I stuck with cigars.
Some years later, my mother-in-law sent me some pipes she had found
while helping her sister clean out her attic. Having sold the
interest in the cigar business by this time, and having had about five
years for my tongue to heal from my brief foray into piping, the pipes renewed my interest in tobacco.
I immediately went to the 'Net and began researching pipes and tobacco.
Having been a fan of ASC (alt.smokers.cigars) on the early 90's , I went to Usenet to see if
there was an ASP (alt.smokers.pipes). Indeed there was! Since
that day I rarely go more than a day without reading up at ASP. That
was summer 2001.
Somewhere in my "research" on ASP and the web, I decided that I would
try to carve my own pipe. Not having a large disposable income, I
thought that carving my own pipe would provide we with the best possible
pipe for the least amount of money. So I bought a plateau pipe kit
from Pimo, some hand files,
sandpaper, a cheap bench grinder, some buffing wheels and buffing
compound, and some carnauba wax. $100 later, I was ready to carve.
After about forty hours of hand filing I had what I wanted, a buffed,
waxed and beautiful straight grain pipe. It was a lot of fun, and I
even made something that looked like a pipe.
I was hooked.
The next step was to accumulate the tools necessary to start from
scratch with a block of briar. Before starting this pipe making
venture, I had essentially no woodworking tools. In fact, I even had
to build my first workbench. (And of course I had to borrow tools to
build the bench!) Gradually I bought up the necessary pipe
making tools as I could afford them. A Dremmel here and drill bits
there, some stain, some stems and briar, a Pimo tenon turning tool, and
then finally the big one: a Delta Midi wood lathe for Christmas.
While buying up tools I was diligently studying pipe making. I also
asked questions on ASP and in personal e-mails with pipe makers. Trever Talbert's
now defunct web page was, of course, a HUGELY helpful resource,
and Todd Johnson of
STOA
Briars sold me some much needed tools early on.
Cornelius Maenz has been an
incredible help, both with pointers and materials. Along the way Trever Talbert,
Brian Ruthenberg, Andy Ogura,
Todd Johnson,
Bill Weist and especially
Michael
Lindner have been great resources for answering my pipe making questions.
(Thanks guys!)
Once I had the wood lathe -- after I had saved up enough to buy the
necessary accessories -- I began making pipes in earnest. The only
tool that I really lacked was a lathe for turning tenons on stems. I
was using a Pimo tool with wholly unsatisfied with the results. Then
came the opportunity to buy several used tools. I bought a Taig
micro lathe for stems, as well as a band saw and several other key tools
that sped up the pipe making process. At that point, with the gaps
in my tool box filled, the quality of my pipes took a move in the right
direction, and I
became comfortable with the notion of selling my pipes. I began
developing my skills, and pursuing the creation of the "perfect" pipe.
I love it!
The "Shop":
One of the great things about pipe making is that it can be done in a
relatively small area. My "shop" is really my two-car garage with my
tools along one wall. I can still fit both cars in the garage with all my pipe
making tools!
This first view shows where I stand the most while making a pipe, either in front of the wood lathe or the metal lathe. I built the
stand the lathes are on to keep them very stable for turning
pieces off-center, as is necessary when drilling the briar on the lathe.
The stand and lathes together weigh about 325 pounds. It
works quite well.
Below, the main pipe tools are (from left to right) the
heat gun, Dremel, belt sander, bench grinder, drill press. The belt sander I use mainly for cutting stems, the heat
gun for bending stems, and the Dremel for detailed carving work. The
bench grinder is a must for keeping tools sharp, and the hammer is for
honey-do's. I rarely use the drill press
This is a view under the bench with vulcanite and
cumberland rod, brass and delrin rod for tampers, a box with all my
sandpaper, and a bucket of misc. useful scraps and the occasional antler.
This is a micro metal lathe by Taig. I use this
for stem work, drilling the rod, turning the tenon and doing inlays.
Here is a closer look at my wood lathe and band saw.
With these two tool I do all of the wood shaping. 99% of the time I
drill the stummel on this lathe as well. For the hand shaping
that a lathe cannot do, I chuck up sanding discs in the headstock of the
lathe. As is indicated by the buffing wheel currently chucked up in
the photo, I also polish on the lathe. For those that are curious
about what tools to start with for making pipes, I would go against
conventional wisdom and recommend a sturdy mini wood lathe like this one.
It drills and turns of course, but can also be used as a sanding wheel and
buffing rig too. It covers a lot of bases for the money. The
draw back to this is there is a learning curve on turning, and you do need
to buy chucks, tools, and other misc. parts before it is useful.
I must confess that I cleaned up a *little* for these
photos ...the
truth
Materials:
A briar pipe is, in simple terms, a wooden bowl with an a mouthpiece. For a basic pipe two
ingredients are needed briar and rubber:
Special Delivery from Europe: Moroccan Briar and German Rod stock!
Below are various inlay materials that I like: deer antler, various exotic hard woods,
and ivory.
I hope you have enjoyed seeing my tools of the trade; amazingly
compact, but remarkably effective. I hope also that seeing my
set up is helpful to others who may be interested in learning to make
pipes. I have spent hours studying photos on the Internet of
other maker's shops to try and spot different tools on shelves and in the
background in order to get hints on what I needed and how to do things.
It has been a lot of fun for me to see the tools that others use to
exercise their art, and I hope you enjoyed your look at mine.
Click here to see the unfinished
pieces currently "On the Bench."
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