As you read through these pipe making sections, it is likely that you will have some questions. It is my hope that such questions will be asked in the Pipe Makers Forum rather than my personal e-mail. This is an amazing community of very helpful pipe makers.

Pipe Making

I get several e-mails a week from new and aspiring  pipe carvers wanting information about making pipes.  The questions run the gamut from how to drill a tobacco chamber, to how to hand cut a stem.  Since I really enjoy helping people learn pipe making, I thought it would be most efficient to start gathering my answers here on my web page so they can be found by people doing a web search for pipe making, and so I don't have to write the same thing over and over.

My intent at this point is to get started with a few basic pointers, and let this portion of the site grow as questions continue to come in that I can answer and publish.  If this portion of the site grows I have a few ideas as to how I  could make it a more interactive tool, but for now I will make it a mini-book that has pipe making topics on separate pages.

If you have any questions you would like me to answer, or if there is a particular aspect of pipe making that you would like to see addressed, please let me know at tyler@tylerlanepipes.com.

Let me make the disclaimer that I am not a full-time maker, nor do I have the best equipment known to man.  What I have is equipment that fits in a two-car garage and still has room for both cars.  I also bought it all on a very tight budget.  Raising a family of four daughters on the budget of an associate pastor does not allow for extravagances in any area of life, hobbies included.  I certainly would -- and plan to -- upgrade my equipment as I have the money to do so, but for now, I can accomplish 95% of what I want to with what I have.  This is very much intended to be a manual for the "normal" guy.

Let me also add that very little of the information I will share on this site is information that I figured out myself.  There have been so many helpful people that it is probably an exercise in offense to try to offer public thanks, because I am sure to leave someone out. None the less, there are those that have been so helpful to me it would be more of an offense to leave their names off of this page since they provided so much of the information.  Those people are Brian Ruthenberg, Michael Lindner, Todd Johnson, Cornelius Maenz, Trever Talbert (through his web page that is no longer on the web...I hope this project grows into something that is as helpful to others as Trever's site was to me), and many others such as Mark Tinsky and Bill and Terri Weist that have offered valuable comments and suggestions along the way.