Pipes Magazine Radio Show Episode 378
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Kevin Godbee - Dec 10, 2019
- 1 min read
Welcome to The Pipes Magazine Radio Show Episode 378! Our featured interview tonight is with pipe maker and repairman Mark Domingues from Lone Star Briar Works. He learned pipe restoration out of necessity, buying estate pipes on eBay. After he honed his skills, and posted his before and after photos online, people just started sending their pipes to him for restoration. In the Pipe Parts segment, Brian will have a review of Robert McConnell Red Virginia. Sit back, relax with your pipe, and enjoy The Pipes Magazine Radio Show!
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The Pipes Magazine Radio Show features interviews with pipe makers, tobacco blenders, pipe and tobacco aficionados, collectors, and more. Episodes air every Tuesday.
Our show is sponsored by SmokingPipes.com, Cornell & Diehl, Missouri Meerschaum, and Savinelli Pipes and Tobaccos. Please give them some consideration when making your next pipe or tobacco purchase.
We hope you enjoy our 1-hour show produced just for you—the pipe smoker and collector.
Written by Kevin Godbee
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This is the time of year I like to refer to as the “in-betweens.” It’s not fall, and summer is taking an occasional breather. Just like some of us who begin to search for new tobacco blends as well as hauling out an old dependable. Deep breaths. It is basically a three-pipe problem! What got me all in a twist thinking about change is a recent post from Maxim Engle, whose website Pipes2Smoke about his preferences for this time of year. Of course, his season in Ontario, Canada, is a bit different than here in Southern environs. Maxim, from whom I have purchased many a pipe over the years, says he “shifts to slightly heavier tobaccos with more pronounced Latakia. “The flakes get heavier.” Maxim has provided me with some of the most remarkable pipes in the Pundit herd, including Ian Walker’s stupendous Northern Briars from England, crafted in that Old English way. A few Commonweal trophies from the master pipe makers Les Wood, and Michael Parks, and stems by Charles Lemon have come to me via Maxim. Only a handful of these are made each year to continue a tradition Maxim began in 2021. Les Wood and Ferndown are synonymous with other Old English lovers. And let’s not shrug off Pundit’s love for meerschaum, the ancient beauties from the oceans’ bottomless dark where ancient seashells were crushed and made into properties that only pipe makers could bring to life. Many, many of those gorgeously carved pipes grace the Pundit herd of honor. Now that we have the pipe show and tell over, let’s return to Maxim’s tobacco maxims. Well, if you are a tobacco wimp like Moi, who does not fondly recall a dose of the heaves produced by a brief encounter with a blend that will go unnamed. Hard-core blends are better left to others. 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Well I finally did it! I have finally caught up to be current with next weeks episode. What a wonderful and informative journey it has been listening to 378 episodes which didn’t start out with that number as the finish line kept moving ahead while in progress. It comes as bitter sweet however as now like most, I have to wait a week for the next episode. I must say I have thoroughly enjoyed each and every weeks offerings and thank Brian, Kevin, and everyone else involved in making my horrific commute to and from work actually enjoyable and at times something to look forward to. Thank you again Brian and company for a great asset to the pipe smoking community.
Good show. The review of McConnell’s Red Virginia was good but as I don’t like Virginias I’ll have to pass on it. Leaves more for you.
Domingues sounded like a nice guy. He must have a good side income to sell pipes at a $100 a piece. I am surprised his mentor Mike Butera is letting him do this. Mike normally squeezes blood out of turnips when he sells a pipe. I would be real interested in hearing what kind of pipes he is restoring/repairing. I don’t know why I am asking, George Dibos does mine.
I’m working my way back through the episodes, and I have enjoyed them all. Mark sounds like an interesting fellow. I’m a pipe maker, and do it similar to Mark, in my spare time. I make 20 – 25 pipes a year. I also was extremely fortunate to have a master pipe maker as a mentor. I live in Glendale Arizona, and bought a DeJarnet pipe back in 2002, made by the late renowned Arizona pipe maker Horace DeJarnet (DeJarnet Pipes). There was a contact card in the pipe bag, and I noticed that Horace also lived in Glendale. I called him up, and told him that I would gladly pay to watch him make a pipe. He asked me “whatcha doing next Saturday”? So I made a commitment to go to his house the next Saturday. Before he hung up he asked “you got $40”? I said yes and thought “Doh! he’s actually going to charge me to watch him make a pipe” but oh well I did offer. I showed up on Saturday, and Horace met me at the door. He said” come on, we’re going shopping “. I was totally confused, he’s taking me shopping? We loaded up in his Cadillac and headed out go shopping. We ended up at The Pipe Makers Emporium, a small warehouse sized business that sold everything needed to make pipes. He introduced me to the owner, Paul Hildebrand, and we picked out a very nice piece of Spanish Plateau Briar and some acrylic stem material. My total was just under $40. We went back to Horace’s house and under his close supervision, I made my first pipe! Horace was disabled, he had an above the knee leg amputation. I could see that cleaning the shop was probably a pretty big chore for him, so I cleaned up the shop ‘Army clean’. I offered to come back, from time to time, and trade pipe making lessons for a shop cleanup. This began a three year apprenticeship and an amazing friendship. Horace was about 30 older than I, and had gone through a couple of other young applicant’s, but they fizzled out. I was the only one who showed up, with a note pad and pencil, and that apparently impressed him. He told me that he had been looking for a younger man with whom he could pass on his hard earned knowledge to. I’m honored to have been that man. Following Horace’s lead, I only use Plateau Briar for my pipes. I make both freehand and traditional shape pipes. Plateau Briar is more expensive than ebuchon, but it’s absolutely worth the price, it makes gorgeous pipes. There’s a lot you can do with the bark side of the block. It’s bumpy and knoby under the bark, and makes a beautiful pipe rim left as is, or beautiful birdseye if sanded smooth. Sadly, Horace DeJarnet passed away a few years ago, and the pipe making community is an emptier place now.