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I am really not sure how to go about writing this page, so I will give you a little info about myself and my passion for our hobby, the love of tobacco and briar.
I have resided in Saginaw, Michigan, USA all of my life.
My daytime vocation is the “business” aspect of the tool and die industry. I work for a medium sized family owned machine shop/defense/aerospace supplier.
I have been a cigar smoker since 1978, and my first cigar was a Macanudo Prince Phillip natural. That was when a Macanudo was 100% Jamaican and cigar smoking “wasn’t cool”. Yes, I know everybody smoked cigars before it was cool. Well it is not cool again and I still smoke a good cigar on occasion. When the cigar boom hit in the 90's this ruined the cigars being manufactured, and the prices went through the roof.
About 1996 my friend Tony Deisler ,who smoked a pipe, talked me into "one of those old man things". I bought a $60.00 Butz Choquin 1/8 bent billiard and filled it with Lane Crown Achievement. It has been a love affair since that moment. I love English blends and VA, VA/Perique blends.
I have been honing my cabinetmaker skills for over 25 years, and I have a nice woodshop in my garage. As such I also dabble in pipe making; it is a craft I am very passionate about. I am still learning the aesthetic principles of pipe making, it just takes time. I hope to bring my pipe making skills to the public in the future.
I started making pipe racks and cabinets because everything on the market was geared toward classic straight pipes. Nothing out there was designed to hold larger pipes and the newer shapes I was seeing from the Danes and some American carvers.
Being in the business side of this great hobby of ours, I found a need for tooling to aid in the engineering aspect of making a pipe. I have met and conversed with many of the best pipe makers in the world. Through the guidance of these fine folks I have developed tools to make the engineering process simpler for the pipe maker to spend more time on the aesthetics and artistry of making a handmade pipe.
I had the privilege to spend some time with Bo Nordh at the Chicago Pipe Show in 2006. He was very kind and shared his ideas for some tooling with me which I would have never dreamed of . I will always remember this conversation with Bo, he is sadly missed by many of us.
Please visit my site and stop by my table and introduce yourself at a Pipe Show near you.
To be continued..............top of page
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