Kabik: Difference between revisions

I’m sure that many people would like to know about grading. Let me say first that we never filled the pipes. The CHP-X motto was, “The only fill in a CHP-X is fine tobacco,” and I never wavered from this position. Several criteria were used when grading, with the most important being grain. Grain should be tight, uniform, well defined, and vertical to the bowl. Next, flaws, their number, size and type being what you look for, with none being the goal. Finally, design and the execution as relates to the design and the overall look of the pipe. Form always follows function in this craft. Pipes were graded with a lettering system, with “A” being the least expensive and, I think, starting at $35 with Sven-Lar. Pipe sets would be stamped, for example, 2BS, with the 2 denoting the number of pipes in the set, the “B” the grade of the pipes (in this case, I believe, $45each) and the “S” for set.

Demand grew so much that, for the first time, I had to consider hiring another “cutter” or designer to handle the demand. I was very fortunate to obtain a young man named '''Glen Hedelson''' on a Navy work program for those about to finish their stint. Glen and I became fast friends, and he learned quickly. He brought fresh ideas to the design work and devoted himself to learning the craft. Some of my best memories are of bass fishing with Glen in the Dismal Swamp of South Carolina on weekends and occasionally camping out. Glen very quickly became one of the freshest and best pipe cutter / designers in the world. So tight was our relationship that I insisted that the pipes Glen cut have his name stamped on them.

With Glen’s help, we improved pipe production to 200 pipes per week along with perhaps 20 sets, nearly double the CHP-X pipe production. When I look back, the aspect of my career I take the most pride in is that I was able to make substantial improvements in output while improving the quality of the finished product. I never wanted to make a pipe that didn’t look or smoke great at a price only folks in six figures could afford.

After a few years, Tobak’s vision, in my opinion, got too broad, and Mel brought in a father and son from New York to set up a machine-made line of pipes. I was very upset with the move and saw trouble down the line. After a lot of soul searching, I decided to leave, and I’m very happy to say that my new partner, Glen, came with me. We moved back to Maryland to a farm house in Glen Rock and converted an old chicken slaughtering shed into our studio. Fond memories.

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Image:SvenLar_05.jpg|<font size="1">Sven-Lar pipes</font>

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Tobak contracted us to continue making Sven-Lar freehands. This lasted about a year and a half before, as I had sadly foreseen, Tobak closed up the pipe-making facility. Shortly thereafter, Wenhall Pipes out of New York approached us to create a line of freehands called '''[[Wenhall]]'''. Glen and I got a bank loan and set up a studio of 2000 square feet in a fairly new industrial park in Bel Air, Maryland. Wenhall initially wanted 500 pipes a week! Glen and I had doubts that they could move that much product and told them we would produce 250 pipes per week. Happily, some of the old crew from Sven-Lar joined us at '''Vajra Briar Works''' (don’t ask me to explain the name), and we rather quickly met production demands. During this time, Wenhall requested that we create a line of pipes consisting of, I think, 12 different shapes. The line was called '''the Presidential''', and, while we repeated the same 12 shapes for this series, each one was freehand cut. Although we came up with interesting designs, I was never really happy with the line or the concept, but, by this time, we had nine people on full-time payroll. We were a very happy family, and I wanted to keep it together.

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