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== Profiles of American Pipe Makers: Tim West == | == Profiles of American Pipe Makers: Tim West == | ||
=== The Artisan === | === The Artisan === | ||
I met with Tim West on a cold November afternoon during his lunch hour at his suburban home in Northwest Columbus. He | I met with Tim West on a cold November afternoon during his lunch hour at his suburban home in Northwest Columbus. He lives there with his wife, Carly, an RN on the orthopedic ward at Riverside Hospital, and three school-age children. A fourth child is grown and out of the house. The pre-Christmas season is a busy time for Tim, and he was engaged in shipping pipes to the 35 retail outlets that carry them. Tim and I settled onto a living room couch, and I set up my tape recorder on a coffee table. But I had to be careful to keep my mind on the interview and off the dozens and dozens of large and extremely tempting pipes (I wanted to hold and fondle all of them) that were spread across the floor and piled up on tables and chairs. | ||
Tim's father, who died in 1960 when Tim was 10, was a carpenter who built and sold custom homes. The family lived in each new house until the next one | Tim's father, who died in 1960 when Tim was 10, was a carpenter who built and sold custom homes. The family lived in each new house until the next one was built and the last one sold. So Tim's childhood was spent living a nomadic existence in a succession of brand-new houses around Franklin County. But he learned from his father a good sense of tools and woodworking by accompanying him to job sites and building things out of scrap wood. | ||
When he was 17 and in high school, Tim began smoking a pipe and got interested in the extensive pipe collection of Charles Ormerod, the father of a longtime friend. The collection featured many sculpted and unusually shaped pipes. Like most pipe smokers in those days, novice and veteran, Tim became a regular at Smoker's Haven, with its huge stock of GBDs and Charatans, where, he says, he "would walk around in awe and drool all over the cases." | When he was 17 and in high school, Tim began smoking a pipe and got interested in the extensive pipe collection of Charles Ormerod, the father of a longtime friend. The collection featured many sculpted and unusually shaped pipes. Like most pipe smokers in those days, novice and veteran, Tim became a regular at Smoker's Haven, with its huge stock of GBDs and Charatans, where, he says, he "would walk around in awe and drool all over the cases." | ||