A day at the shop – 1/30/10

I always enjoy my time at my B&M, for me it is my shop time. Whether it is spent on a Saturday afternoon with all the guys filtering in, or during the week with a bit of solitude and time to really get some work done on a pipe, it is always rewarding. For anyone that is interested, my B&M, Smokers Haven of the Southdown’s has a pipe sale going on. Now the website doesn’t list the available pipes, but you can call and see if they have something that maybe you have been looking for. The site was not intended to be a web store because they pride themselves on old fashioned customer service. Brian prefers to talk to someone on the phone over simply seeing their email address. They have been doing mail order for 30 years though, so if you are interested in anything or are looking for something specific, give them a call.

 

Yesterday was no exception, as I finished a pipe and re-stemmed one of my old standbys that was just a bit on the short side. My Canadian Apple is a pipe that I have been working on for about 3 weeks, and just couldn’t seem to find the shop time to finish it. I hadn’t been to the shop in over 2 weeks including last Saturday, so it sat on my shelf at home, looking rather neglected. Well, it’s done now, and I’m quite content with the outcome. She is a long shanked Apple (I have seen it referred to as a Canapple, but I don’t want to steal the name) perfectly proportioned, drilled spot on and the grain turned out to be rather impressive. You can see the rest of the pictures of her at Windjammer Pipes.

Brian finished up a gorgeous Paneled English Freehand. Hard to really nail down the shape of the pipe since many of Brians’ creations are Charatan inspired, and anyone that knows Charatan is aware that they were not always producing pieces from the standard shape chart. It is a gorgeous piece though and I wish I would have gotten some pictures of it.

All in all it was a great day smoking, shooting the breeze and getting some work done. I intend on spending a couple days there this week, so I might have some more pipe updates. I have a volcano in the works that looks like it is going to be pretty.