Todays pipes were made at Paul's shop in Albany, New York. We get together about 4 times a year and have a weekend of pipe making and visiting. Pauls wife ,Sandi, is a great cook and a whole lot of good eating goes on also ! We exchanged Christmas pipes. I made him his favorite shape a rendition of a Dunhill LB and he made me a rakish billiard ( in the second picture) .IMO Paul makes the best traditional billiards.
Before begining our work we made a pilgimage to Mel Feldmans, The Smoker, in downtown Albany. We spent the morning with Mel and Bob Smith, of Utica NY, who also owns a shop and does pipe repair. Whle there we couldn t resist picking up some pipes. Paul bought an Asorti egg shape oompaul tan blast and I picked up a Savenilli Giubeleo d oro with a killer flame grain. Mels got a fantastic selction of pipes and highly recc a visit if you re ever in the area. While there Paul spotted a squat bent ball that we both liked. He took a sketch and decided to copy it when we got home.
Our standard practice is to make each other a pipe while visiting. We choose what the other will make. I decided on the squat bent ball we had just seen and Paul chose a larger version of a Castello canted dublin with an oval shank and long tapered stem. As I just happened to have it with me it made things easier! The results are below:
The Savenilli that I got from Mel Is pictured top and Paul's Christmas present( the rakish billiard is below it:
We had a great time and I m hoping he ll be able to come early to my shop beofre the Newark show. We enjoy working together so much we may launch a colabration of shapes sometime in the future!
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