Artisan Pipe Maker Joe Nelson Interview
-
Bob - Oct 24, 2010
- 5 min read
By Bob Tate
Joe Nelson is the owner of Old Nellie Pipes and Nelson Guitars. He is an artisan pipe maker as well as a luthier and resides in Fond Du Lac County, WI. For those of you who might not know, a luthier is a stringed instrument builder/repairman. He has been making guitars for 14 years and pipes for 5 years.
While we were at the 2010 Richmond Pipe Show, we had the opportunity to talk with Joe and he took the time out of his busy day to have an interview us. Joe has just recently started using a new method in his pipe making. He is now oil curing his pipes. He explained the advantage of oil curing during our interview.
 |
 |
PipesMagazine.com: Joe, please tell us a little bit about what you do.
Joe: I’m a one man shop and I make high grade smoking pipes and primarily steel string acoustic guitars and I also create electric guitars. I’ve been making the guitars for about 14 years and the pipes for about 5 years. I’ve been doing both of them together for about 2 years now. I’ve been an artisan basically my whole life and I just decided to do this full time and really do what my heart has led me to do.
PM: You are a pipe smoker and a guitar player?
Joe: I am. I’m much better at building and repairing guitars than I am at playing them, but I have fun doing it.
PM: What do you like to play on the guitar?
Joe: Pretty much old rock and roll.
PM: Do you smoke your pipe while playing the guitar?
Joe: Sometimes, but I’m better at playing if I’m not smoking [laughs].
PM: As far as the pipes go; they’re all hand made pipes?
Joe: They are all hand made, definitely. Plateau briar, primarily from Mimmo Romeo briar from Italy, and hand cut stems of course. For the stem, I use Ebonite. I use some materials almost exclusively, but not totally exclusively. Everything is done by hand and it takes me anywhere from 16 to 20 hours per pipe.
My newest thing is oil cured pipes and this is the first show that I am offering them. Prior to this, I had a different proprietary type of curing system that I used, but I’ve now switched it to the oil curing. I have here today both of the types as I’m going through a transition. The oil cured pipes are off the hook incredible.
PM: The concept of oil curing is?
Joe: It draws out the tannins primarily. It just makes the pipe smoke more pure so when you’re smoking a certain blend of tobacco, you’re getting the flavor of the tobacco and not any off taste from the briar. This is very apparent on the break in period of the pipe. What I’ve noticed is; a transparency is very noticeable by the second or third bowlful as opposed to, anywhere between, 3 to 25 bowlfuls of a pipe that is not oil cured. It would normally take about half a dozen bowls before you actually really started getting just the flavor of the tobacco. That’s been my goal all along is to have a very transparent smoking pipe that smokes great right through to the bottom of the bowl. That’s what I’ve been working to achieve.
PM: How many pipes do you make a year?
Joe: Only about 50 because I also try to make around 4 to 6 guitars a year and that takes a fair amount of time. I also do guitar repairs as well.
 |
 |
PM: Do you make commissioned pipes or do you just come up with your own designs and put them on the market?
Joe: I’ve done both. I have people come to me with, no so much their idea, but they see one of my pipes that I’ve made in the past and they would like one that is like it but they would like it with a different color stem or something like that. That’s about as custom as I get. I won’t take somebody else’s blueprint of a pipe. There’s too much engineering that goes into the ones that I make and I like to do all of that on my own.
PM: What is the price range on your pipes?
Joe: I would say my low end pipes right now are about $140.00 and they go up to about $500.00. I don’t have any of the high priced ones here. I think that today my highest priced pipe is about $320.00.
PM: Do you sell direct, through retailers, or both?
Joe: I sell direct and I’ve also been marketing a little bit through Keith Moore down in Nashville, Tennessee at Uptown’s Smoke Shop , but mostly just on my own; on my own website and the pipe shows.
PM: How about the guitars?
Joe: It’s kind of strange with the guitars. I started out doing it as a hobby like I did with the pipes, about 14 years ago, and it’s just been word of mouth in my local area. I built for quite a few artisans in the area. Probably as far south as Chicago and it’s just kind of snowballed. Now I’m currently working on a new website for that which should be up and running shortly after the first of the year [2011].
PM: Are they all just hollow body acoustic guitars?
Joe: I do solid body electrics also, but primarily hollow body steeled six string acoustics.
PM: What are the guitars made of?
Joe: Just about anything that you can imagine, but the majority of them are East Indian rosewood. I’ve done zebra wood, Honduran mahogany, ebony, cocobolo rosewood. At one point or another, I do incorporate just about every type of exotic wood that’s out there with some of the ornamentation depending on what the customer would like to have.
There’s a myriad of woods, but the primary types that I use for construction would be maple, cherry, and walnut as far as American species and East Indian rosewood, zebra wood, and so forth from import species.
PM: What is the price range for your guitars?
Joe: They start at $3500.00 and go up from there.
—————
We hope that you enjoyed our interview with Joe Nelson and be sure to go to oldnelliepipes.com to see more of his gorgeous pipes and possibly pick one up for yourself.
Written by Bob
Recent Posts
Welcome to The Pipes Magazine Radio Show Episode 640. Our featured interview on tonight’s show is with Ben Rapaport. Ben has been known internationally as an avid pipe smoker, antique pipe collector, and book author. His first book on pipes was published in 1972, and his latest book – his 10th – is out now in very limited quantities. The distribution has already sold out, but you can still get a copy of “The Wide World of Wood Tobacco Pipes. Two Centuries of Craftsmanship and Creativity” by contacting him directly at ben70gray@gmail.com. At the top of the show we’ll be turning the tables on our recurring Ask the Pipemaker segment. This time, Jeff Gracik will ask the questions, which Brian will answer as a pipe collector, and you can give your answers too.
Welcome to The Pipes Magazine Radio Show Episode 639. Our featured interview on tonight’s show is with Per Billhäll. Per is the owner of Scandinavian Pipes, which is an online retailer of high grade pipes. He started smoking pipes in the 1960s. His first high grade pipe was made by Hans “Former” Nielsen, who is one of the living legends from Denmark. That led to Per becoming a huge pipe and tobacco collector, and show attendee where he became well known. Along with pipe book author Jan Andersson, they started The Pipe Club of Sweden in 1991. Then in 1999, Per started “Scan Pipes”. He is now one of the pipe retailing legends from Sweden. At the top of the show Brian will talk about holiday blends, and other special pipe tobacco blends.
Welcome to The Pipes Magazine Radio Show Episode 638. Our featured interview on tonight’s show is with Fae “The Sassy Pipe Lady” Simmons. Fae is the owner of Tobacco Treasures, which sells new, vintage, & estate pipes, and smoking accessories on Etsy. She has been in business since 2017, and has been surrounded by pipes and tobacco most of her life. Her father and his brother smoked pipes, and so does Fae. Her husband is also a retired tobacconist that worked all over the industry from coast to coast for several different companies in the industry. She has a great story of how her business got started with a great inventory of unsmoked vintage pipes. At the top of the show we will have an Ask the Tobacco Blender segment with Jeremy Reeves. Jeremy is the Head Blender at Cornell & Diehl, which is one of the most popular boutique pipe tobacco companies in the USA.
Ok, so it’s that time of year, as we all know. Family feasts, houses, yards, and big trees festooned with lights and dangling ornaments, just high enough to keep the cats from reaching a paw into the greenery. It’s also the time of year when your pipe-smoking-significant other makes vast hints about a new pipe. That’s to be expected since he or she was a good boy or girl during the year. Yes, ladies smoke pipes, too. Oh, you want an example? Okay, try Actress Greta Garbo, Millicent Fenwick, Mary Frith, and my late grandmother (who died when she was 93) dipped snuff and smoked a cob occasionally. So now that we have settled that the gentler side of life will puff a pipe too, let’s move on to the upcoming biggest holiday of all. Of course, that huge event is brought to us by the hefty fellow in a red suit, puffing his pipe all the way in a sled filled with presents, being led by a reindeer with a red nose. Or some such. That’s Santa Claus, of course. Becoming a bit more serious, Christmas is such a wonderful time for families and friends. It’s also quite special for pipe puffers. For many of us, this brings up a nostalgic look back to our pipe-smoking or cigar-smoking friends who have died during the current year. A great journalist pal whom I often joined in a local brick-and-mortar pipe and cigar shop. I puffed my pipe, and occasional cigar, as he enjoyed a cigar. He died in October and will be missed. On the happier side of things, Christmas is also a time when mind workers of the world renew their collections with fresh additions. Pundit included. A French passion has overtaken Pundit, from reading more Albert Camus, a heavy cigarette smoker, as were many French intellectuals of a certain time. Instead of cigarettes many of us prefer the more relaxed enjoyment of pipes for that “calm and objective judgment” in the comings and goings of the world. This brings me to French pipes. While visiting France once in the long ago, I happened by a “Tabac” shop in Paris, Tabac Des Vosges. I purchased a beauty of a Chacom bent. I also later bought a Ropp made from ancient briar. To learn more about the dawn of briar pipes and beginnings, take a peek at a well-done piece by Davin Hylton in Pipe Line on April 12, 2023, on Saint-Claude, France, the birthplace of briar. Also in the long back when, on a cold Christmas afternoon, Pundit wandered into an Atlanta bricks and mortar pipe shop to look around. There, resting in an enclosed glass counter was an exquisite Comoy. An older gent, smoking a beautiful bent, asked me if I wanted to look at that pipe. It had a $100 price tag. A college student working for a grocery store chain to help with college tuition at the time, Pundit didn’t have one hundred cents, let alone a C note! I declined and found a $5 basket pipe. A Christmas tradition had just begun. Since that early time, Pundit has made it a holiday ritual to either reward himself, or a special friend, with pipe or tobacco. A Claudio Cavicchi would be nice. Just sayin.’ And now for a couple of December-born Pipe Smokers of the Past: Joseph Rudyard Kipling was born on Dec. 30, 1865, and died on Jan. 18, 1936. I always prefer to believe the best of everybody; it saves so much trouble—Rudyard Kipling. Martin Van Buren, born Dec. 5, 1782, and died July 24, 1862, U.S. President, 1837-1841 As to the presidency, the two happiest days of my life were those of my entrance upon the office and my surrender of it—Martin Van Buren. And one more note to recall a deceased World War II veteran who loved William Somerset Maugham, the author. Maugham, a pipe smoker, was born in Paris, France, on Jan. 25, 1874, and died on Dec. 16, 1965. One cool afternoon as the veteran and I talked while sitting in his backyard patio, he looked off into the distance as if studying something. Nothing in particular. Just looking. He turned to me and said if I wanted to learn about life, “read Somerset Maugham.” I did. It wasn’t until late in life that I discovered how easy it is to say, ‘I don’t know’ –W. Somerset Maugham And now a Parting Shot: Any day with an old friend with pipes and tobacco is a good day.
Welcome to The Pipes Magazine Radio Show Episode 637. Our featured interview on tonight’s show is with Nate King. Most people know of Nate as an excellent pipe artisan. He also has an honorary Master of Pipes degree from the Chicagoland Pipe Collectors Club, and is a member of the prestigious Confrérie des Maitres Pipiers de Saint-Claude. To be inducted into the Confrérie, this past May Nate travelled to Saint-Claude, France with master tobacco blender G.L. Pease, who was also inducted. It was quite a time in France, and at the ceremony. We’ll hear all about those adventures on the show. At the top of the show we’ll continue the virtual tour of Brian’s pipe collection with six of his Satou Dublin-shape pipes.
Welcome to The Pipes Magazine Radio Show Episode 636. Our featured interview on tonight’s show is with Barry Kane. Barry started smoking a pipe in 1961 when he was 14-years old. Back then it seemed like everybody smoked, and you could buy pipes and tobacco just about anywhere. Barry is a true old-school pipe smoker, sticking to just one blend. See if you can guess which one before listening. At the top of the show Brian will give his take on Scandinavian Tobacco Group’s purchase of Mac Baren and Sutliff Tobacco and their announcement that they will be shut down.
