I know it's been awhile since I've posted anything substantial, so I guess I'll start here.
I've been wanting to have a pipe commissioned for quite some time now, and as such I've been looking at quite a few carvers out there. All of who are creating some beautiful pipes. I've seen some here, and I've seen some on some of the pipe groups on Facebook, and some on another forum or two. You really don't realize outside of the normally talked about artisan pipe makers just how many are out there until you really start looking around. And when you aren't really looking, just trying to enjoy reading posts or looking at pipes here or on Facebook, it seems you find even more! I was beginning to think I'd never be able to make up my mind on who to contact to make my first commissioned pipe. So in a way, it was quite by accident that I found a guy by the name of Will Crawford. He has been posting some of his latest creations on Facebook under the name William Anderson Pipes... Anderson being his middle name. You may not have heard of him but I think he's going to go far. It was one of his pipes that I really fell in love with the shaping of and I just had to have one similar.
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So I sent him a message asking out of curiosity what a similar pipe would cost me. It was definitely a cost I could live with, but I'm an indecisive procrastinator... although I think my mind was somewhat made up that I wanted Will to carve my pipe. So a few days of thinking about it, and a few messages back and forth between Will and I, I decided to go for it.
Talking with Will has been a real treat. He's been easy to deal with and has encouraged me to ask questions and have feedback between the two of us. And from our messages, he seems to truly enjoy what he's doing. So I decided I wanted a pipe similar to the one in the photo above, but with a cumberland stem because I've always wanted a pipe with a cumberland. I also wanted a shank extension or some such with exotic wood. Originally. I thought maybe a bit of Brazilian rosewood, common on guitar fretboards, because I play guitar. He mentioned spalted maple, and I'm glad he did. Spalted maple is quite nice and I hadn't even thought about it. Throughout all of this, we've chatted a few times about pipes, tobacco blends we like, myself getting into pipe carving and I'm sure one or two other things. It's been fun. So he's working on my pipe now and I do have a couple photos of the pipe so far, so I thought I'd share them here. Because we just love pipe photos here.
As you can see in this photo, the shaping is already coming along quite nicely
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And this photo told me and Will both that there appears to be some really nice grain hiding in there.
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And that's the story so far on my first commission pipe. I'll post more photos as they come, and I really think the end result is going to be quite nice. Look up William Anderson Pipes on Facebook if you'd like to see a few more of his pipes. Good stuff.
I've been wanting to have a pipe commissioned for quite some time now, and as such I've been looking at quite a few carvers out there. All of who are creating some beautiful pipes. I've seen some here, and I've seen some on some of the pipe groups on Facebook, and some on another forum or two. You really don't realize outside of the normally talked about artisan pipe makers just how many are out there until you really start looking around. And when you aren't really looking, just trying to enjoy reading posts or looking at pipes here or on Facebook, it seems you find even more! I was beginning to think I'd never be able to make up my mind on who to contact to make my first commissioned pipe. So in a way, it was quite by accident that I found a guy by the name of Will Crawford. He has been posting some of his latest creations on Facebook under the name William Anderson Pipes... Anderson being his middle name. You may not have heard of him but I think he's going to go far. It was one of his pipes that I really fell in love with the shaping of and I just had to have one similar.
So I sent him a message asking out of curiosity what a similar pipe would cost me. It was definitely a cost I could live with, but I'm an indecisive procrastinator... although I think my mind was somewhat made up that I wanted Will to carve my pipe. So a few days of thinking about it, and a few messages back and forth between Will and I, I decided to go for it.
Talking with Will has been a real treat. He's been easy to deal with and has encouraged me to ask questions and have feedback between the two of us. And from our messages, he seems to truly enjoy what he's doing. So I decided I wanted a pipe similar to the one in the photo above, but with a cumberland stem because I've always wanted a pipe with a cumberland. I also wanted a shank extension or some such with exotic wood. Originally. I thought maybe a bit of Brazilian rosewood, common on guitar fretboards, because I play guitar. He mentioned spalted maple, and I'm glad he did. Spalted maple is quite nice and I hadn't even thought about it. Throughout all of this, we've chatted a few times about pipes, tobacco blends we like, myself getting into pipe carving and I'm sure one or two other things. It's been fun. So he's working on my pipe now and I do have a couple photos of the pipe so far, so I thought I'd share them here. Because we just love pipe photos here.
As you can see in this photo, the shaping is already coming along quite nicely
And this photo told me and Will both that there appears to be some really nice grain hiding in there.
And that's the story so far on my first commission pipe. I'll post more photos as they come, and I really think the end result is going to be quite nice. Look up William Anderson Pipes on Facebook if you'd like to see a few more of his pipes. Good stuff.
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