Hi George,
Pardons, I was writing my last post when you posted your GBD repair and I didn’t notice it. Nice work, especially at the join. Sorry for the thread hijack (to all).
You define the Lions as the best of their breed so a comparison to Factory Britwood, who made tens of millions of pipes, across dozens of brands and in a wide range of quality, is far too broad. The only valid comparisons are Barling (1960 or before), handmade bowl and stem, and the work of Horry Jameson (Barling and Cadogan) who gave us a glimpse of free-form shaping potential of that era.
I don’t question that machinery and tools are more precise and technically advanced. The Lions make some extraordinary pipes with incredible cosmetics and some more ordinary.
I have a bit of experience with pipemakers and know what I’m looking at as well as how to interpret what they tell me. The Lions are (mostly) free-form shapers, in the Danish School tradition, where shape is altered to eliminate flaws and accentuate grain. Lots of flexibility and the Lions have produced some beautiful pipes.
Any Barling will be at least 50 years old, most having been hard handled, smoked, buffed or polished, rounding the stem/mortise join and making their lines and fit less precise. Their stems were made for comfort not as a display of ability.
Barling shaped to rigid tolerances (English school), eliminating flaws while preserving a specific (predetermined) shape. Little flexibility or personal statement. This gets into the question of form vs. function and is a pipe valued for its cosmetics or it’s utility, and that corresponds to the school, Danish or English. Barling was the latter, that’s what they did, but Jameson’s work shows that even before the Danes began producing primitive free-hands, Barling could make exotic pipes but that wasn’t their market.
I always ask to see a Pipemakers smooth billiards (canadian, lovat, etc.) to determine their technical skill. A simple design but demanding in execution. A bit like asking to hear a musician’s dexterity moving between scales and keys. A Lion, who does beautiful free-form shaping, admitted that the classics were challenging. He showed me a couple of smooth classic shapes that he’d made. They were close to clean but somewhat crudely shaped, lacking the beautiful lines of his free-form pipes.
Jesse (@Sablebrush52) well states the objectives of Barling (though not named) in his post earlier in this thread. Pipe makers of either school (Danish or English) work to make clean smooths. Sandblasting (carving) salvages a saleable pipe when they don’t. Barling’s yield of clean, smooth pipes was probably over 65%. A Lion told me that he yields less than 10% smooths. Chris Asteriou, (pictures) has made some smooth billiard (family) pipes that remind of Barling quality. If I missed anyone else, pardons.
Lions tell me a wide range when I ask how long it takes them to make a pipe. 8-10 man hours would seem to be conservative (for less extravagant pieces). Barling made their pipes in about 2 hours. What I see is that Lions produce beautiful free-form pipes in the Danish school (artistic) tradition but can struggle to make clean, smooth and beautifully formed classic pipes in the more technical English school. At the Barling factory, shaping was the third level of skill after Cutting and Lathing.
Pardons, I was writing my last post when you posted your GBD repair and I didn’t notice it. Nice work, especially at the join. Sorry for the thread hijack (to all).
You define the Lions as the best of their breed so a comparison to Factory Britwood, who made tens of millions of pipes, across dozens of brands and in a wide range of quality, is far too broad. The only valid comparisons are Barling (1960 or before), handmade bowl and stem, and the work of Horry Jameson (Barling and Cadogan) who gave us a glimpse of free-form shaping potential of that era.
I don’t question that machinery and tools are more precise and technically advanced. The Lions make some extraordinary pipes with incredible cosmetics and some more ordinary.
I have a bit of experience with pipemakers and know what I’m looking at as well as how to interpret what they tell me. The Lions are (mostly) free-form shapers, in the Danish School tradition, where shape is altered to eliminate flaws and accentuate grain. Lots of flexibility and the Lions have produced some beautiful pipes.
Any Barling will be at least 50 years old, most having been hard handled, smoked, buffed or polished, rounding the stem/mortise join and making their lines and fit less precise. Their stems were made for comfort not as a display of ability.
Barling shaped to rigid tolerances (English school), eliminating flaws while preserving a specific (predetermined) shape. Little flexibility or personal statement. This gets into the question of form vs. function and is a pipe valued for its cosmetics or it’s utility, and that corresponds to the school, Danish or English. Barling was the latter, that’s what they did, but Jameson’s work shows that even before the Danes began producing primitive free-hands, Barling could make exotic pipes but that wasn’t their market.
I always ask to see a Pipemakers smooth billiards (canadian, lovat, etc.) to determine their technical skill. A simple design but demanding in execution. A bit like asking to hear a musician’s dexterity moving between scales and keys. A Lion, who does beautiful free-form shaping, admitted that the classics were challenging. He showed me a couple of smooth classic shapes that he’d made. They were close to clean but somewhat crudely shaped, lacking the beautiful lines of his free-form pipes.
Jesse (@Sablebrush52) well states the objectives of Barling (though not named) in his post earlier in this thread. Pipe makers of either school (Danish or English) work to make clean smooths. Sandblasting (carving) salvages a saleable pipe when they don’t. Barling’s yield of clean, smooth pipes was probably over 65%. A Lion told me that he yields less than 10% smooths. Chris Asteriou, (pictures) has made some smooth billiard (family) pipes that remind of Barling quality. If I missed anyone else, pardons.
Lions tell me a wide range when I ask how long it takes them to make a pipe. 8-10 man hours would seem to be conservative (for less extravagant pieces). Barling made their pipes in about 2 hours. What I see is that Lions produce beautiful free-form pipes in the Danish school (artistic) tradition but can struggle to make clean, smooth and beautifully formed classic pipes in the more technical English school. At the Barling factory, shaping was the third level of skill after Cutting and Lathing.
