For you?

Above is a photograph of a tamper that was briefly up on my site.  Below is the description that was contained in its listing:

This tamper should have been logoed a Doodle as it was created to try out a new material.  It will be priced accordingly.  As to the material. I’m undecided on it, but am prone to acquiring more.  The “front” and “back” are a deep black red with a black pin stripe barely perceptible, while the sides flash a deep rich red with black accents.  I just can’t dismiss this material. The shape is a two pulsed Bishop that has some very subtle asymmetrical variances. It’s a fine shape. If the material isn’t used again you may see this name with another material.

Well despite what I said in the description I have now dismissed this particular material.  There’s nothing at all wrong with it, but it adds little to what I already have, and there are just so many materials.  The shape is decent, so this tamper needs a home.

 So, if you don’t already own a Ming-Kahuna tamper and won’t just turn around and sell it  (and I’m going to be strict on these requirements), this tamper goes to the person behind the first email that I receive at mingkahuna@aol.com asking for it and giving the password : “Rosebud”.  I will indicate here when the tamper is gone.  I am the final arbiter of all issues that may arise.  If you did not get the tamper you will not receive an email response.  Those are the rules.  There will be no exceptions or deviations.  

THE TAMPER IS NOW SPOKEN FOR. 

Roots

Hop in your Wayback Machine and set the dial for early March of 1998.  Set the coordinates for my family room back on Sunnywood Drive in Solon,Ohio on a gloomy March afternoon.  You’d find my seven year old daughter watching the tube while I sat on the couch lightly sanding the first pipe that I had carved.  On the television is one of my favorite moves, Flash Gordon.  Max Von Sydow is being deliciously evil as Ming the Merciless, all to the music of Queen.  I’m home that afternoon because my wife is out of town and my daughter is home sick from school.  Some time later the pipe that I am sanding is stamped: “MK 1/98”.  The pipe is the one that you see above.  It is called “Kahuna.”

Fast forward to here and now.  Going through some boxes the other day I found Kahuna.  I picked the pipe up expecting to dread what I would see, and to my surprise I wasn’t at all  terrified.  In fact, I thought that I liked the pipe even more than the day that I carved it eight and a half years ago.  Sure, it was only a kit pipe, but it was carved from a clunky block with a Dremel without the benefit of a flexshaft or a bandsaw .  Kahuna took me hours upon hours, and was sanded so meticulously that it was like glass without the benefit of buffing.  You’ve probably noticed the lack of a button on the stem, but the pipe was made for me and I’m not a clencher, so it was gone. Admittedly it is a stout pipe, and I might chalk that up to an amateur’s tendency to end carving prematurely so as to get while the getting is good, but the shape is just right for the pipe, and I must say again that this pipe does not horrify me as I might have expected.

So, here is the pipe, Kahuna, that led to the next one called “Ming”, that led to twenty or so more, that led to a lunch hour fantasy that ultimately came to be known, in another incarnation, as Ming-Kahuna.

It’s funny how one thing can lead to another.

It’s Never Too Late For McMann & Tate

When I was in Richmond this year at the CORPS show a friend of mine asked me why I don’t advertise more for Ming-Kahuna and KazeTamp.  I had to scratch my head on that one for a bit as I had never really considered the issue.  While marketing is important, I have always felt that the best thing that one can do is his best work, provide kind, courteous and efficient service, and contribute generously to the hobby with one’s time, donations, and support.  With the question raised I had to consider whether my friend might be right, that there is more that I should be doing.

Of course a nice big ad in Pipes & Tobacco magazine would be nice, but sadly that isn’t currently in the budget due to huge investments into Ming and Kaze so far this year.  Further, ads in newsgroups and moderated boards are of limited value. While the return from such activities is immediate, especially for the newer artisan, that fades with time as the dynamics of such groups favors flavor of the month mentality.  For an artisan in it for the long term that honeymoon period accomplishes surprisingly little.

So once again it comes back to doing my very best work, making the acquisition process a fun and easy one, and letting my reputation speak for itself, spread by word of mouth by those who know firsthand.  For the most part that is exactly what I have done the past eight years,  and is what I will continue to do.  Believe me, it is from the bottom of my heart that I thank those of you who have supported my work by making your thoughts and opinions about it known to others. You have no idea how much I depend upon that. 

So, to answer my friend’s question, I guess I’ll just continue on my way as I have in the past doing my very best with the hopes that folks will continue to support my work with their kind consideration, an occasional acquisition if they have a mind to, while passing the word on to others as they see fit.  Besides, all of my annual production seems to find its way to new homes, so what more do I need to do? 

Darren, Larry, you can take the day off.

The end of a tradition?

This might be the first year that I will not be able to offer the “Pipes for Papa” Christmas stockings.  More than a few of these satin beauties hang on mantles throughout the pipe world.  I started them five or so years back when I found wonderful Christmas stockings very reasonably priced.  I had “Pipes for Papa” embroidered on them and each year sold them for what was basically my cost.  They came in Christmas red and burgundy and were very well made. 

The problem is that my supply of the old stockings has been depleted and are now nowhere to be found.  I talked to the company that distributed them, but not wanting to buy 10,000 of them they were less than helpfull.  I have not yet found suitable stockings to replace them.  Over the next couple of weeks I will renew my search, but I am less than hopeful.  If I do find the right stocking my embroidery people will be ready to go.  If that happens I will update this entry. 

Ming Legacy Pipes?

I occasionally receive emails from folks regarding the Ming Legacy line of pipes that have been in the works for years.  Let me take this opportunity to tell you a bit more.

A number of years back, just shy of five, I announced that I would begin efforts aimed at pipe making beyond the 25 or so kit pipes that I have carved.  Towards that end I have carved a number of pipes from scratch experimenting and trying to create something unusual that will smoke well.  So far my efforts have been based on a very unusual path to follow, one with plenty of precedent:  the one piece all briar pipe.  My inspiration for this type of pipe came from Tom Eltang and Todd Johnson and a couple of all briar ukulele shaped pipes made by them that I am proud to own.  So far my efforts have gone in that direction, and, I’ve got to say that it is quite an enjoyable direction. 

While I suppose that my efforts will eventually be aimed at more traditional construction, for now pipes such as the ukulele/volcano variant that you see above keep me happy.  That pipe was the first that I carved (from scratch) and is the only one that I will show, for now.  It really is a fine smoker, smoking like a far larger pipe than its current 4.11 inch length.

Unfortunately the photo above will have to do for now sp as to satisfy anyone’s curiosity. I’ve had some primo briar aging for well over four years, and some time in the future I may even use some of it and formally throw my hat in the pipe making ring.  The thing is that pipe making isn’t a real big priority with me, it’s just something that I’d like to do on a very limited basis. I may sell some, or I may not, or heck, maybe I’ll just throw an occasional pipe in with a tamper order. Who knows?  It all remains to be seen.  That’s the fun part.

Getting to it.

12:05 PM-  Following my 10/18 post “Ruh Roh!” I have decided that today is the day to find my missing box of pipes, or not.  Not knowing if they are lost is very difficult to live with, and if they are gone I may as well get to “mourning” my loss and getting on with the pipes that I have left.  So, here I go.  I’ll let you know how it all comes out.

1:27 PM:  There were probably 40 boxes of various sizes, from smaller to huge, stacked three and four high and sometimes three deep, to unstuck, move, and open.  I found plenty of other stuff that I had been looking for, but things were starting to look pretty bleak.  Then I lifted box number 38, with just two boxes left, and there written on top of the box below was the word “pipes”.  Then it dawned on me, this was the very first box that I had packed for the move, and, not being in the swing of things yet I had marked “pipe” on top of the box rather than on the sides as I did with all later boxes.  So, for all intensive purposes the box was unmarked.

I lifted the box (I would have hugged it if I could have) and took it out into the media room to see what was inside.  The first pipe out was a Hedegaard, an incredible disk blowfish, a rare numbered piece, with straight grain and bird’s eye so perfect I would put it up against any pipe on the planet.  Then, pipe after pipe, many of the best pipes in my collection, were laid out on the sectional.  It was like discovering them all over again.  While I had contemplated their loss over the past weeks I had tried to recall what was missing, but before me was more of my best pipes than I had even dreamed of.  As I unwrapped each one I wanted to load it up and smoke it, but that will have to wait. 

To say that I’m thrilled would be the understatement of the century.

Now if I could just find Genesis, the first KazeTamp carved…d’oh!

Taking Care of Business

Over the past eight years, as an artisan who offers his work to the pipe world, I have been privileged to get to know some of the finest people on the planet.  Some are other artisans, blenders, dealers, collectors, smokers, and distributors, and yet others are my customers.  And on occasion I have been honored to get to know their families, which is icing on the cake.  Saying that this association has enriched my life would be an understatement, to say the least.  And if you were to ask my wife and daughter I’m sure that they would tell you that they have enjoyed their time spent with the pipe world as they have attended shows and had visitors in our home over the years.  Without exception people have been kind and gentlemanly exhibiting a sense of honor that some would claim to have died long ago. Sometimes I’m a bit protective of what I have come to hold dear, and that will not be changing any time soon.

 

The world can be a cold hard place.  As an attorney I have seen it at its very worst.  I have been locked alone in an interview holding cell with a man who one day, out of the clear blue, decided to put a .357 magnum up to his wife’s forehead and pull the trigger.  I’ve seen and dealt with even worse than that.  I have seen the underbelly of society. I’ve had a front row seat to the rock bottom of society and the bleak streets of wasted lives. I’ve watched drugs and alcohol ravage lives and families, and have dealt with the results.  And even where the addresses are far more desirous and the front lawns are trimmed neat with two cars in the garage and a barbeque in the back by the pool, I’ve also seen people at their worst.  The weaknesses of the human spirit are not always born out of poverty: affluence  fathers its fair share.  It’s rarely a .357 to the forehead, but in the end the results can be just the same, just a slower more subtle decline.  I’m not complaining, sometimes it’s my job, but it can be rough.

 

On the other hand, over the past eight years as an artisan, I’ve experienced the exact opposite.  My refuge into my craft and the pipe world has provided an oasis amidst the insanity that so often grips life in the early 21^st Century. The honor amongst pipe folks, seemingly a throwback to another time, has provided a nice cozy warm corner insulated from the coarseness of the world.  It’s a place where folks are good to their word, where checks don’t need to clear before shipping, and where the discourse is civil such as might be welcome in one’s own home.  It’s a place where the merits of one thing are never defined by tearing down another, and competition breeds excellence rather than contempt.  It is a place that has exhibited the finer aspects of the human spirit while quietly and respectfully dealing with those less fine.  It has become almost like a family, something that most anyone who frequents pipe shows has felt.  To me it is something that must be protected while it is carefully nurtured.  Change is inevitable, but it must be carefully and thoughtfully considered.

 

So, that is why when I hear some, mostly new to the hobby/business, say that we should be more like some other business, I shudder.  Invariably they find the pipe world, the way that it is, to be too old fashioned and ineffective, requiring great change.  Well, I partially agree, some change and an ongoing evolution is healthy and necessary for survival, especially in these times,  but before they go and try and drastically change things I would invite them to first come and spend some time to see and understand what it actually is that they are trying to change.  That way the aspects that should undeniably be protected can be preserved, and change consistent with those aspects can be considered.  It’s much easier to throw out the baby with the bathwater if one isn’t aware that there is a baby.

 

Finally, I would submit that after actually spending some time at pipe shows, or at a pipe club, those folks so desirous of change may well come to better understand what some of us hold dear, and may find themselves drawn to it, if not protective of it.

 

A blast from the past…

Here’s a real blast from the past, an Arcanum.  The tamper above, carved inGlacier Bay, is one of a group of four Arcanum carved around the time of theChicago show three of four years back.  It was displayed with the other three Arcanum (Caneel, Ming and Razzle) all selling between $227 and $267.  This one was 5.2 inches long and if I recall correctly resides in Japan. 

I may have to look at this shape again, one that is certainly a direct ancestor to the current KazeTamp Torune-do.

About beauty…

A thought for the day: http://www.campaignforrealbeauty.ca/bblank.asp?id=6895

Ruh roh!

I have a confession to make.  I have been smoking the same dozen or so pipes since I moved to Atlanta a year and a half ago. And while that alone is all fine and good, and will be the topic of another blog post, it has directly led to a situation that may well end very, very badly.

Before the move down South from Cleveland as I was packing my collection I culled some pipes so that I would have something to smoke upon my arrival.  As it happened, in my new house I didn’t have the wall of shelves that I had in my last house to display my collection, so they stayed packed in boxes while the selected pipes remained in service.  I have not yet had the shelves built to house the collection in optimal conditions, so they remained out of sight and mostly out of mind in their shipping boxes.  That is until recently.

Before the CORPS show in Richmond my bud Jeff Folloder stayed at my house for a few days.  One evening in my workshop Jeff spied my boxes of packed pipes and started to go through them, laying them out on the floor.  As there was a Safferling that I wanted to take with me to Richmond, I kept my eye on what he was doing as I carved, occasionally asking him to put aside a certain pipe.  Finally all of the pipes were laid out, but not the Safferling that I was looking for. In fact, I came to realize that several pipes were not there.  And among that several pipes were many of my favorites, most valuable, and ones with the most sentimental value.  Among them were pipes such as the first pipe that my daughter ever picked out for me and gave to me for my birthday (she was probably three), and, the Eltang all briar ukulele that I will smoke on her wedding day.  As I looked onto the shelf where the boxes had been store, now empty, my stomach sank.

Even though I had much yet to do, putting a final buff on the show tamps, I had to search for the box of pipes.  I went through box after box, all to no avail.  There are many, many boxes in the storage room,  so I may not have looked in all,  but as I was the one who packed the pipes and marked the box, I should have seen it if it was there.  To say that I was a bit panicked would be a grand understatement.  While the dollar value of the pipes in that box is great, well into the thousands, it isn’t about that at all.

So, with having to leave for Richmond the following day I pulled a Scarlet O’Hara and decided to put it out of my mind and worry about it another day.  Believe me, that has been no easy task,  and it has gotten to the point where I am frightened to find out if the pipes are indeed lost.  I did go as far as to look in our spare bedrooms to see if the box was mistakenly place there, but the pipes remain missing.

So now here I am, frightened that many of my most special pipes are gone forever, and too chicken to find out if that is indeed the case. At least with not knowing I can hold onto hope that it will all end well.  But I know that I must answer this question by going through the house and garage box by box,  and I am just now working up the courage to do so.

One way or the other I’ll let you know how this all ends up.

Making It So

If you look back on 10/15 you will see a sketch of a new shape, basically a modified Incubus.  I knew that it wouldn’t be long before I would have to carve it.  Today was the day.  Below you can see the piece rough carved.   This first piece turned out a good bit different and larger than planned, but to say that I’m thrilled with it is an understatement.  If I graded KazeTamps this one would be at the top.

As soon as I laid the shape out on the sheet of Caneel I knew that it was going to be different than the sketch.  That is often how it goes.  Once the shape was roughly cut out (and I mean roughly, about as roughly as you could imagine) and I started shaping towards the penciled sketch I could see the start of some contours that weren’t originally planned.  To add some contours to the top made sense as I had taken away contours from the original Incubus shape, and the sketch was kind of “plain Jane”.  So, rather than try and do the exact tamp in the sketch I went with it, and I’m darn glad that I did.  Add to that the fact that this is about the most electric blue piece of Caneel that I’ve seen and this is going to be one amazing tamp.  Hopefully I’ll have is sanded and buffed in the next day or so.  I haven’t measured the piece but it has to be well in excess of five inches long, so it’s no shrinking violet.  Even so, it will be a fine fit in many bowls, and the future scaled down pieces will be even better.

I’m already hoping that this one doesn’t sell, so I’ll say this without hesitation:  If it turns out like I think that it is going to turn out it won’t be cheap.

Opportunity Knocked

The doorbell rang today, and at the door was a nice lady offering me a “new religion.”  She handed me a brochure and I smiled, handed it back to her, and thanked her telling her that I wasn’t done with my current one yet. She smiled, told me to have a nice day, and I told her to do the same.

I’m not sure what that new religion was, but to me it doesn’t really matter.  The way that I see things is that in the end we’re all pretty much on the same page as it is.

Out of the ashes…

In my October 13^th posting “Easy Does It” I talked about how important it has been for me to learn from my errors, but one aspect that I didn’t discuss is the degree to which errors have led to some of my best designs.  The diagram and rough carved tamper that you see above is a perfect example.

The tamp that you see at right started out to be an Incubus in
Bali.  As I was carving the piece I found the profile to be way off, and not in a good way.  So as I often do when a piece has failed I took it over to my bandsaw and cut it in half.  I do this so that I won’t be tempted to compromise and go with the piece in less than optimal form.  But as I stood there at the bandsaw and looked down at the remaining Incubus scrap a little voice in the back of my head, a voice that I have learned to listen to, said to me that I shouldn’t throw the scrap away.  It told me that there might be something there to consider, something that could be special.  That little voice, who I think of as “Fritz” (sort of like the devil on Pinto’s shoulder in “Animal Hose”) has generally served me well in the past so I placed the piece on a shelf for further contemplation at a more convenient time. 

A few weeks later that time came.  It was plain to see that adding a brass tamp end would create a very desirable variant of the basic Incubus shape.  Tamping with the Incubus requires one to orient the front wall above the tamp towards the bowl wall.  The dramatic arched contour on the opposite side, the back, can interfere with tamping in deeper narrow bowls unless the tamp is oriented as has been described.  Fortunately Incubus users have found this to be an easily learned minor accommodation in light of owning and using such a uniquely shaped tamp, but for those not wishing to do so the new variant offers a straight shot into any bowl for flawless function.  And while the shape isn’t quite as dramatic as the Incubus, it is a great shape nonetheless that stands on its own.

As you can see above, the first piece carved in
Bali at 2.6 inches is rather short due to its former “scrap” status.  When I realized what I had created I sat down and did a quick sketch of what will be the prototype stretching the piece out for the sake of greater function.  As you can see at roughly 4.5 inches (size will vary) it will be a great fit in bowls up to two inches deep, and the length can be tweaked greatly from there.  Even that first piece at right in
Bali (a keeper for me) will be a darn fine tamp for my smaller Danish pipes, my new Rad Davis nosewarmer, or any number of pipes in my collection.  The prototype as depicted in the sketch will come to life later this afternoon and will hopefully be the subject of a future post.  I wish that I could convey to you how exciting I find such developments.  It’s like Christmas morning, Halloween and a birthday all wrapped up into one!

As you can see, out of error can come advancement.  To be perfectly candid, so many of my successes have had their roots in failure.  I wouldn’t have it any other way.

KazeTamp Cards and Pouches

Here’s a quick update for those of you waiting for KazeTamp pouches and ownership cards.

 

Understand that the delay has been completely my fault and not at all Neil Flancbaum’s, the creator of those wonderful pouches  (see the blogroll for a link to his site and the finest pipe bags on the planet).  At the Chicago show Neil and I poured through numerous books of leather samples looking for the right orange/gold leather for the KazeTamps made fromBali.  As you may know the pouches for Bali pieces will be made up of two pieces of leather, an orange/gold piece on one side and black on the other.  Caneel pouches will have blue elk on one side and black elk on the other. 

I’m told that the blue elk is in so we can proceed with pouches for Caneel KazeTamps. Neil has a couple of samples of Bali to help him in the search, or a piece can be sent off to his suppliers for them to try and match some samples.  I’m hoping to have the Bali pouches resolved in the next month.  I will be sending the dimensions for the Caneel pouches to Neil directly.  Please bear with me and I really do appreciate your patience.  This should have been in place when Kaze kicked off, but my artist’s temperament kicked in with a rather spontaneous decision to launch Kaze after two plus grueling years of planning.  That move left me behind the 8-ball on a number of things.  Such spontaneity is a luxury afforded to me as an artist/artisan, one that is denied me as an attorney,  so it is savored.

As to the laminated ownership cards, I had figured that I would send them along with the pouches.  These cards are a whole new thing compared to the Ming cards.  Size-wise they are something like three by five inches.  An actual photo of the tamp is on the card linking the ownership card to the tamp.  Part of the KazeTamp logo spreads from the lower corner as a watermark.  The problem has been that since the very first initial cards the watermark has failed to appear when printed.  I’ve pulled my hair out trying to correct this to no avail, but I will resolve it soon and ship the cards with the pouches.  Above is a photo of the front and back of the cards with the owner’s name blurred for the sake of privacy. 

Note: Today marks eight years of Ming-Kahuna. 

Easy Does It

Someone at the CORPS show in Richmond paid me a compliment that really got me thinking.  I was told that I “make it look easy.”  That is actually a wonderful compliment, one that I have paid to others on occasion,  but as I looked down at my work before me on the show table I realized that while it may appear easy it often isn’t.  I also thought back to a time eight years ago (Ming turns eight tomorrow) when just about everything I did in the shop was a challenge.

Yes, in those early days I knew from nothing about being a craftsman or making tampers.  Even worse, I had no one to teach me.  I sort of made it up as I was going along.  As there was really no one else doing what I was doing there was no one to go to with questions.  Truth is I probably wouldn’t have even if there had been as that really isn’t my style.  So I slogged through it, often with cut and bloodied hands, with many failures and just enough successes to keep me going .  So much of the early part of my craft was accomplished through a problem-solving approach, and so much of my resulting style is defined by my limitations in those early days.  But it was the failures that defined me as much as my successes, and to a degree that is true today.  I don’t mean to make this sound like the proverbial five mile walk to school through two foot deep snow, but those early days were truly a most trying time.

Of course that’s not to say that where I stand today is without challenge, or failure, for that is not the case.  I have a tall bucket full of failures with more current times well represented in the top layers.  Just last week I had a major failure with a twelve chamber tamper stand.  As it turned out, two chambers were cracked.  Of course the cracks didn’t become visible until many hours had been invested in the piece, but I can live with that.  You see, I learned from the experience and the mistake that lead to the cracks will not be made again.  It’s all a part of the learning process that carries me on to bigger and better things, but not without a cost.

So, if it looks easy that is all fine and good, and that is a compliment that I’m most happy to receive, but there are still times when it is most definitely not easy.  Truth be told, I wouldn’t have it any other way.