Video Blog Episode #4 -- C.O.R.P.S. Show Preview

Sorry for the delay, folks. Business has been busyness lately. I've recorded a lot of video for future episodes, but wanted to get this one out to you all before heading to Richmond this week.

Cheers!

Jeff

Main Site Down Temporarily

My apologies to all. www.jalanpipes.com is having some technical difficulties and will be available again in the morning at ~9am EST. Thanks for your patience.

Sandblasting -- Video Episode #3

Hello folks,

Thanks for tuning in to the third episode of the video blog. In this video I'll talk about sandblasting and demonstrate the process as it is underway. The blasting sections show you just a small section of the time spend in the cabinet due to the long time that it takes to accomplish this process. Youtube certainly would not host that much video and you would all get bored watching a white stream of media pummel a briar stummel.

Additionally, both pipes in the video are currently for sale on the website. You may see the pipes here.

Blowfish from Blunders, or The Creation of a Nosewarmer

Of course we cannot plan for every contingency nor anticipate any and all outside possibilities in anything that we do. One of the requisites of pipemaking is a healthy dose of grace for the natural material with which we work. One cannot predict exactly what will be found beneath the surface of a block of briar. We can, of course, examine the outside layers of the wood to form hypotheses around which we design our work. Many times things go as planned. Sometimes we're surprised. And these surprises are not always good.

Once I remember taking a very "inexpensive" $20 block of briar that I bought intending to make a blast. The grain was wide and unremarkable. Yet inside, it shrugged off the evidence of blandness that the exterior suggested. Instead, it was filled with extraordinarily dense straight and birdseye graining (the two tend to match up. )

More often, though, we take a remarkably grained block that we purchased for a remarkably high price and find flaws within--sometimes pipe killing flaws.

But I digress.

I am not writing today about natural flaws, but human ones. Sometimes we just screw up. Hopefully these times are few and become fewer with time. The most striking of my earliest blunders came when I rusticated through an otherwise extraordinary shape's shank and into the draft hole. I could hardly afford such an error at the time as I was selling pipes just to buy briar and tooling while working hard in my graduate program. I fixed it and still smoke the pipe regularly...but I would rather have sold it.

Well, yesterday, in a feat inspired by the confluence of poor planning and a moment of carelessness I managed to do something I've only done one other time that I recall. I ruined a long-shanked blowfish while drilling the draft hole. After cursing myself, I cut the shank off at the point of error and decided where to go from there. Here's a shot of the pieced together blunder:

I thought it was a pretty cool shape. Something a little different. Well, the idea will have to wait. This one has taken new form as a nosewarmer. Whether the flaw is natural or human in origin, the problem remains until it is overcome. This is the primary task of a pipemaker--to make something beautiful despite the inherent flaws in the material and manipulator. Here is a shot of the same pipe sans long shank, taken from the top to give you an idea of the profile:


You can see that the pipe has been drilled and its engineering has been redrawn and executed. Next I've got a photo of the stem stock with its delrin tenon inset, turned, and fitted to the stummel below a sketch of what I envision the pipe will turn out like.


I've preserved the idea of the upturned or flipped tail to the blowfish, but have transferred the movement to the stem from its intended location on the shank. I think that this will turn out well! Next, the stem stock has had its airway and slot widened, filed, and finished so that I can rough out the shape. This last photo illustrates the "rough" stem and shows the pipe taking on its final form.


I'll shorten up the tail a bit, bring it into form, and touch up the lines before the sanding begins. The pipe has turned out quite well, considering its origin. I have to say that I quite like it and that the story makes the pipe that much more interesting to me. Each pipe has a story, but some are more interesting than others.

As the pipe is being completed I'll post some additional photos so that you all can see it move toward its final form.

Thanks for reading and off to do some sanding.

Best,

Jeff

Video Blog Episode #2 -- Stem Cutting Tools

Well folks, it's been a few weeks now since the last video blog entry. I have received some very good suggestions for topics to discuss in the video blog entries and this second installment is a direct response to a question about pipemaking tools. The video is a brief introduction to stem cutting tools--specifically those used for the airway.

I chose to detail the specific tools of this narrow area of pipemaking because many of you have expressed interest in modifying your own pipes by deepening and widening the slots. The tools that I present to you will help you as you explore ways to enhance your own pipes at home.

As always, please post comments to the video in the comments section of this blog or to my email and I will respond to them as I am able.

A Pipemaker's "Sacrifice"

I have a friend who is a chef. I enjoy taking a break from the shop every day to cook dinner for our family and have enjoyed exploring the world of fine cuisine at home and about town. So, naturally, I like talking "shop" with this friend. During our conversation he told me how when he gets home at night he prefers to take his family out for dinner. It turns out that if you've spent the whole day in the kitchen, the last thing you want to do when coming home is to go right back into it.

He loves cooking. But cooking is his job. Drawing a line between work and play is difficult when your passion becomes your vocation. Cooking is no longer a source of relaxation for him like it was before he became a professional.

Fortunately, pipes are not as "essential" as food for daily living. I don't need to step out of the shop every day and then make pipes for my family for sustinance. Instead, I can step out of the shop and cook for my family. For me it is indeed a source of relaxation after a day filled with briar and ebonite.

This chef friend of mine has also told me how nice it is to have extra food to bring home for dinner on a day he's catering an event. Likewise, in pipemaking I'll occasionally end up with a pipe that I can't justify stamping as a "full" J. Alan for one reason or another. The above pipe was a prototype of a shape I call the Pitbull. I was making this for a good customer of mine some time ago and managed to find a flaw in it. The pipe was mostly finished when I came across the flaw. I took care of the issue and decided that this was an opportunity for me to have one of my own pipes.

It's a "cast off" or a "second." Of course, it has all of the fixin's of all my other pipes. It's made of the same briar, was finished to the same standards, has an exotic wood ring and a handcut cumberland stem. Frankly, I love the pipe. It quickly became one of my most regularly smoked pipes after adding it to the growing collection of my own pipes.

One of the "sacrifices" that a pipemaker makes is to hold back some pipes here and there for their own use. Sometimes these are shape or process prototypes. Sometimes they have flaws. Sometimes we just didn't like the pipe when it was finished. The upshot is that we end up with pipes to smoke.

One of my favorite personal pipes is a lovely sandblasted billiard with a shank extention made of horn. The pipe has been one of my most frequently smoked pipes for three years. ...and I smoke it VERY regularly. The funny thing about this pipe is that I rejected it due to a longitudinal fissure that ran from the outside of the bowl to the inside. It was a hole. I plugged it and coated the bowl. Not only has it never heated up in that area, the hole is now invisible. And it smokes fabulously.

It's never a pleasant experience to find a flaw that renders a pipe unsellable. We've already invested time and materials. We've lost money. The salve on the wound is that I can set the partially finished pipe aside to finish for myself later. The above pipe, the Pitbull, is one pipe that was disappointing to "reject" but was equally and oppositely exciting to "accept" into my own collection.

New Pipe Added

Hi there folks,

This is quite a pair of days--two entries!! :)

I wanted to announce to you all that I've just added a new pipe to the website. Please link to the website to see the new pipe.

You'll also find a new feature to help add perspective to the "glamour shots" that I offer for all the pipes. I've started, with this pipe, to include videos of the pipes that will, ideally, offer you more information as you make your decision about purchasing a new pipe. Pipes are expensive and you should have as much information at your disposal as possible.

So, without further ado, please visit the site to see the new pipe.

Best,

Jeff