Happens to the best of us. And the worst of us too. Still a bummer seemed like a nice guy.
Ken Barnes Passed Away?
- Thread starter bluegrassbrian
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Oh, damn, damn, damnit all!
All of the above personal reflections were wonderful to read, yet sad as he is gone. He will not be forgotten!
We exchanged some emails at the time he was starting to gear up to produce in his own workshop, and I was lucky to obtain a couple of beauties. Then I noticed details of his house, and sent him a photo of a friend's house in Cornwall, which looked similar to his house. It was always my intention to visit with him when I stayed in Cornwall, but Covid and my health prevented a trip. Damn, again!
A truly wonderful human and a top notch pipe maker. May he Rest In Peace, and sincere condolences to his family and friends.
All of the above personal reflections were wonderful to read, yet sad as he is gone. He will not be forgotten!
We exchanged some emails at the time he was starting to gear up to produce in his own workshop, and I was lucky to obtain a couple of beauties. Then I noticed details of his house, and sent him a photo of a friend's house in Cornwall, which looked similar to his house. It was always my intention to visit with him when I stayed in Cornwall, but Covid and my health prevented a trip. Damn, again!
A truly wonderful human and a top notch pipe maker. May he Rest In Peace, and sincere condolences to his family and friends.
I'm so sorry to hear this sad news. Ken was a gentleman, generous and considerate. This is a great loss, not only because of his tremendous knowledge, but because he was a great guy. His loss will be felt keenly.
Evidently, that was how blocks were shaped at Charatan, when Ken was learning the trade.
Can't see that happening these days with "Safe Workplace Practices"
Me - I'd demand titanium chainmail gauntlets at the very least
Cooler still: it was literally (one of) the same saws. Where did he put it, you ask? On the roof of his house.
Proof that he wasn't crazy, though, just confident, I sent him a video of me removing slice-sized-pieces from a seasoned briar block using a Burr-King belt grinder set to 7200 surface feet per second w/36 grit belt at the same pace as his saw---zip, check, zip, check, zip, check---with the hope he'd consider adopting the same method for safety's sake, and he said it was definitely on the table. He hadn't known newer & safer tools existed. That he'd recommend anyone starting down the same shaping road to NOT use a saw, and if his own ever broke or similar he'd change over himself.
Oh. That is truly sad news. No wonder Ken did not respond to my recent email. He was remarkably warm and friendly and eager to share his knowledge.
I feel it is now okay to share this document outlining Ken's method for cutting briar blocks. He sent it to me four years ago as a preview of a book that he said he was writing. At that time, he asked me not to share it, but with his passing, I feel absolutely certain that he would not want whatever knowledge is contained in it to be lost. At the moment, I cannot seem to find the images he had sent along with the text, but they may be in my desktop computer, which I won't be able to access for a week or so. I have a video that Ken shared with me which I believe is the same one that has already been shared in this thread. The document should be a good adjunct to that, especially since Ken doesn't describe what he's doing in the video.
I had written to him hoping that he was still carving, as I wanted to buy a pipe from him. The ones he made in the last few years were stunning -- nicer than any of the James Upshalls I have seen. If anyone has any of those "Ken Barnes" pipes and wishes to sell one, please PM me.
Rest in Peace, my friend.
I feel it is now okay to share this document outlining Ken's method for cutting briar blocks. He sent it to me four years ago as a preview of a book that he said he was writing. At that time, he asked me not to share it, but with his passing, I feel absolutely certain that he would not want whatever knowledge is contained in it to be lost. At the moment, I cannot seem to find the images he had sent along with the text, but they may be in my desktop computer, which I won't be able to access for a week or so. I have a video that Ken shared with me which I believe is the same one that has already been shared in this thread. The document should be a good adjunct to that, especially since Ken doesn't describe what he's doing in the video.
I had written to him hoping that he was still carving, as I wanted to buy a pipe from him. The ones he made in the last few years were stunning -- nicer than any of the James Upshalls I have seen. If anyone has any of those "Ken Barnes" pipes and wishes to sell one, please PM me.
Rest in Peace, my friend.
Such sad news. Ken was so kind, enthusiastic, talented, generous and thoughtful -- what an extraordinary man he was! I'll never forget when he gave me a tour of London streets, showing me where various pipe shops of old had been located. Visiting his house in Cornwall was special, too, which I wrote about five years ago. Charatan, Upshall and Ken Barnes - https://pipesmagazine.com/blog/industry-spotlight/charatan-upshall-and-ken-barnes/
Paul Hubartt and Jon Guss talked about Ken's habit of licking briar blocks to see the grain better. Bo Nordh did that too, so when I saw Ken do it, I was not totally surprised. And who could capture straight grain on a block of briar better than those two guys? Maybe there's something to this practice of licking the wood ...
May he Rest in Peace.
Paul Hubartt and Jon Guss talked about Ken's habit of licking briar blocks to see the grain better. Bo Nordh did that too, so when I saw Ken do it, I was not totally surprised. And who could capture straight grain on a block of briar better than those two guys? Maybe there's something to this practice of licking the wood ...
May he Rest in Peace.
The sad part of this story is I was talking to two long time members of our pipe club and they both responded "Who?". These guys who have attended zillions of pipe shows and I thought knew everybody didn't know him.
I'm not surprised. Interest in the history of the trade doesn't run wide and Ken had been away from the trade for a long time. Most just enjoy smoking a pipe and it doesn't run much deeper than that.
@jiminks and I were having a discussion along these lines, as he's an experienced interviewer and documentarian who has recorded a lot of history related to comic books from those artists who created them, what a race it had been to gather their experiences before they passed away, and how little has been collected about the history and people involved in pipes and tobaccos. Losing Ken's knowledge, in part because he hadn't been interviewed, is collateral damage. There's not a lot of information in the articles on Charatan that I've read. If anyone wants to change that, they better get off their ass.
As for fame? That's pretty ephemeral. Most of us won't leave a ripple when we go, and many of us will be forgotten before we've gone. Lasting fame is exceedingly rare.
I understand, but these guys were both age contemporaries and knew most of the people in the industry.
Huge loss in his death.His life was an even bigger gain to the world and to us pipe people.
I really liked Ken's posts on Forums. He sounded just like his fellow pipe smokers, conversational and low-key. After a few of his posts, I got the drift that this was not just a pipe smoker with a pipe carving hobby, but he always sounded like good folk. Also, he had a youthful perspective, open and curious. It seems wrong that he's gone, but he did, as they say, have a good run. RIP.
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