American Smoking Pipe Co.: Difference between revisions

About the most frequently question asked of me, is, how did you get into pipe making?"I usually plant my feet, make sure my bowl is lit, and say, "It's a long story, are you sure you want to hear it?"If the response is favorable I proceed.

One morning, while still in Yugoslavia, we decided we would make full time careers as pipe makers in our own business that we would establish when we got back. That morning, American Smoking Pipe Co. was born. We wanted a name that would distinguish ourselves from the overwhelming majority of pipe makers who were European. We were proud to be American pipe makers and we would make our mark when we returned. Our return was sooner than expected but we felt we had accomplished what we had wanted and it was time to move on to fresh challenges. One of our major misconceptions was that we would work only during the winter and leave the summers for bicycling. Needless to say that once we were in business for ourselves our bicycling days were over.

We returned full of hope for our new business. Hope, unfortunately, doesn't alone get you started making pipes. By this time my parents had moved to Fla., so I lived in my tent in Curt's backyard. I don't know what the neighbors' thought but as it was a beautiful fall, I was content. By this time Vic Steinhardt had separated from Jack and was running his own company. We worked for him in exchange for briar. Briar can take up to 4 months to received and up to a year to dry so we needed dry wood in order to begin. A few months after returning Curt's grandmother died, (1978). She had been living on a 50 acre rundown farm in Frenchtown, NJ. The family wanted us to live there, as caretakers, until they could sell the place. Not ones to look a gift horse in the mouth I moved from my tent to a large rambling farmhouse. What a neat place this was. Curt's grandfather had been in the egg business for a time and had put up many barns and coops that were now falling down. One of our jobs was to demolish these barns. We sold off the old barn board siding, the large oak beams, and used some of the lumber to refurbish a more modern tool shed where after installing a Franklin stove, we established our first shop.

For whatever reasons the bottom of the new pipe market dropped out after 1992. We experienced a recession, anti-smoking laws stiffened, and the older pipe smoking generation was passing on and nothing was taking its place. Pipe smokers continued to smoke and need repair. They were able to smoke in fewer places and there collections became concentrated at home. They just didn't need as many pipes. Gray marketing, inflated prices by the big pipe companies also hurt new pipe sales. The interest in the used market was market was peaking as large estate collections were becoming available. Being able to smoke in fewer areas concentrated pipe smokers collections at home. Smokers didn't feel the need for new pipes as they no longer could be spread around their various habitats.

My current interests include fly fishing, reading, and writing about pipes over the Internet via Alternate Smokers Pipes newsgroup and Pipe Digest. I see a great future in this new form of communication and it has begun to change the way I'm doing business already. I can now deal directly with customers as I could never do before. I've met many interesting people who have used computer programs to design pipes. I plan to straddle the line between retailers and direct sales by protecting a retailers local territory. Its a big country and now with the Internet, a big world! I'm sure there's room enough for me to do business without upsetting too many people. I plan to do further writings about people, stories, and experiences I've had in the pipe industry. I've collected some of my writings on pipes in a section called Musings from the workbench. If you're interested, please look for further updates. Time for a new bowl of tobacco.

With the renaissance in pipe smoking I ve gone back to being a full time pipe maker. Certainly , my first love! My biggest problem is trying to wade through my list of custom order pipes. I can never seem to get caught up. Just once in a while I'd like to work on a few of my own designs! I'm not complaining business is great and I'm making pipes again. We'll have to see what the rest of the decade brings but its wonderful to have reached the point where everything I make can be appreciated and quickly sold. While I certainly haven't reached the lofty status of some of the European makers as Curt and I had dreamed of doing 20 years ago; at least nationally I do have some positive name recognition for which I'm grateful! Maybe the next generation of American pipe makers will put us over the top.