BriarWorks' Founding Story: The Workshop That Built Its Own Machines

BriarWorks is an American manufacturing venture founded in Tennessee by pipe makers Todd Johnson and Pete Prevost, aimed at combining mass production with workshop craftsmanship. What sets the brand apart from its peers is less its products than its production setup: the lathes that shape its pipes weren't bought ready-made — they were designed and built in-house, within the workshop itself. Almost everything known about the founding process rests on Johnson's own account, shared on a maker forum and passed on to Pipedia before 2015; since it has no counterpart in independent records, the details below are given based on that account.

The Lathe Before the Pipe

According to Johnson's account, the founders' first obstacle was that no machine park existed on the market capable of turning out shapes considered unusual for factory-produced pipes. The needed lathes were first commissioned from an outside firm, and when the work delivered after roughly six months wasn't deemed adequate, the pair took the job on themselves. What made this decision possible was that Johnson had spent years building custom cars and motorcycles, and Prevost had a background in welding. According to the same account, the first lathes were welded together over two and a half months, starting from hand-drawn sketches, and production began after the prototyping and testing period that followed. Four more lathes were added in subsequent years, with each new machine's design revisited in light of the ones before it; at the time the account was written, monthly production was said to be around two thousand units.

Walking Away from China

The venture actually began on another continent. According to Johnson's telling, the original plan was a factory set up in China to produce pipes for the Chinese market; after roughly a year and a half of back-and-forth, it became clear that production only reached the desired standard when he was physically present at the facility. That left two options: move the family there to live for a while, or accept whatever came out of the factory in his absence. With preparations for the move well underway, the plan was abandoned altogether, and the decision was made to set up production in the United States instead. The workshop's founding in Tennessee is the result of that reversal.

Its Place in the Definitional Debate

The BriarWorks example is often cited in discussions of the handmade versus machine-made distinction. The rough shape is cut on a lathe; on the other hand, the lathes themselves weren't bought ready-made but built in-house, and every step after that is finished by hand. The question of at what threshold a production run counts as "handmade" also shows why the line between artisan pipes and factory pipes resists a settled definition.

From Workshop to Brand

The rough shape coming off the lathe is finished by hand by the team; sanding, staining, buffing, chamber lining, and stamping are all done at this stage. The workshop has also stayed open to training new makers, teaching the fundamentals through short-term work and learning programs. The staff later grew with the addition of well-known carvers such as Bill Shalosky and Micah Redmond.

The brand today runs a line based on the classic shape chart, its own in-house designs, and a single calabash shape, as separate ranges; the plainer-crafted Moonshine line also comes out of the same workshop. Production started in Nashville and later moved to Columbia, also in Tennessee. After Johnson left the workshop, Pete Prevost has headed the operation. For the brand's product range and stamping conventions, see the BriarWorks entry; for the material used itself, see the briar entry.