Those last three, I just threw in to show you how well-rounded I am. I can't think of how they would apply to pipe carving yet.
Of course, me being the soul of humility, I wouldn't mention all of this in a braggardly way. I'm just saying that I feel almost custom-made to be a pipe carver. As writers talk of having to write to get it out, I feel as if I have pipes in me that need to get out. If I don't get these pipes out, there's no telling what neurological conditions they might cause in my elder years. Who knows? Alzheimer's may be caused by unfulfilled pipe carving ambitions and uncarved pipes stuck in the cerebral cortex.
I've tinkered with other hobbies for a time. Music has always been a hobby of mine, too, and I've invested a lot in that hobby, both time and money, though not nearly enough to be really good at it. Music never went where I wanted it to go, so my interest has waned considerably over the years. Big dreams have been tempered by reality and I no longer think investing time in that hobby will be profitable in any way but academic.
Pipe carving, on the other hand, is just right. You don't need a band or other musicians or a studio or a gig or venue. You don't even need customers, though a customer would be nice. You can also perform into your golden years, maybe leaving in a wake of legend like Bo Nordh, who I would consider to be the Neal Peart of pipe carving.
Right now, I'm mired in an obsession with pipe carving. It's all I eat and drink anymore. I'm wanting to learn everything I can before I buy my first piece of equipment, my first block of briar. I spend time reading and researching and reading pipe carver forums, saturating myself in the culture. Eventually, I want to practice the art, turning/carving/sanding pine blocks if I need to, to master drilling and shaping and finishing. Then, when my skills warrant a real ebauchon or plateaux block, I want to master basic shapes--billards, bulldogs and bent saucers. Later will hopefully come the golden years of freehand pipe carving, when you shape and hand-drill and put virtually nothing into the chuck of your lathe anymore except perhaps some quality Cumberland rod stock. By this time, your shop is a cluttered mess of bits and pieces, the floor littered with curly leaves of briar and whisps of ebonite and strata of dust, years having passed since cleaning up after yourself was important enough to merit the necessary effort.
Perhaps, someday, there will be a black-and-white photo of me somewhere on the web, sitting amongst my machines and raw materials and by-products. A golden ray of sunshine streams in the window, gleaming off my thinly-haired pate. A well-smoked shop pipe hangs from my mouth. It's one of my earlier, more rustic, less skilled creations, but it smokes well. The sun hits the smoke and makes it all seem a little dreamier, a little more surreal.
Then again, maybe nothing as grand as all that...
Another great thing about pipe carving is that the initial capital investment is small enough as to be within reach. Heck, I spent as much on my camera rig as I will most likely spend on my initial pipe carver machinery and tooling. As a family man, I have to consider silly things such as how my hobbies affect our bottom line and whether the purchase of briar or a new lathe chuck will mean we eat beans for a month.
This obsession has led me to do a lot of soul searching. Why am I doing this? Is this only a passing fancy or is it destiny? What if I'm no good at it? What if I never sell a single pipe? I've swept aside these doubts though. Learning new skills has never been a waste. They have always been multi-faceted, spilling into other areas of need, broadening my skill set in a greater sense than what is found in the obvious initial benefit. Pipe carving, I'm sure, will be no different.
I found the community of pipe smokers to be a welcoming bunch. The more experienced always had good advice, some to be taken with a grain of salt. When I once mentioned using a slice of apple to keep my jarred bulk tobaccos moist, one fellow in a pipe forum took me to task, mentioning that this method opened the door to molds forming on your tobaccos. I still use apple and have experienced no such mold invasions. As in any group of dedicated aficionados, you will have some that say this or that is the best, this "best" usually falling into an area of opinion which changes even among other aficionados.
In every group like this, there are the bigheads and blowhards. Yet there are also those whose knowledge is more vast, better tempered, and yet is freely given, not just thrown about like Mardi Gras beads. When you ask for it, you find that it is both free and valuable, an extremely rare thing these days when you usually only get what you pay for.
There is a community of pipe carvers that are like this, too. There may be a few blowhards in the midst (haven't seen any yet), but there are those quiet sources of knowledge, too, and their knowledge is also free and valuable. It's a community I want to be a part of. I'm hoping that I can some day be an humble participant, offering what I can to encourage someone else who is coming along in the hobby. I hope to someday have fresh ideas, not to necessarily do things in a better way, but to offer my own unique insights into the art--to make my own mark.
Right now, I'd say it's destiny. It will happen. It will happen soon. Wait and see.
