Trever Talbert's Drilling Method

Trever Talbert's drilling method is a workshop practice describing on which machine and in what order the three holes in a briar body — mortise, airway, and tobacco chamber — are opened. By his own account, Talbert has been making pipes since the mid-1990s; after a stretch of seven years working on France's west coast, he returned to the United States. The routine described below is understood to reflect the practice settled on at his workshop in Brittany, as recorded. The brand's overall history is covered in the Talbert Pipes entry.

Why the Lathe

Drilling is considered the least forgiving step in pipe making: once the bore drifts off axis, the body usually can't be saved. The reasons for preferring a lathe over a drill press cluster around this risk. A bit fed by the tailstock keeps feeding information to the maker's hand continuously; this is how a crack inside the wood, or the moment the bit breaks through into the airway, is sensed by feel rather than sight. The wide, flat bits used to open the chamber tend to bounce and oval out the hole on a drill press, while they run true on a lathe; the reduced vibration also leaves the hole's surface smoother. On the other hand, the lathe needs to be set up anew for every body: the headstock takes a heavy, two-jawed chuck forged specifically for pipe making, and the tailstock takes a drill chuck. The lathe's general use in the workshop is detailed further in the metal lathe and drilling on a lathe entries.

Order and Speed

The location and depth of the chamber are marked on the block beforehand; the body is mounted in the chuck by the flat surfaces deliberately left on its underside during shaping. Because these flats serve as the reference for every alignment that follows, the shape is given before drilling; the reasoning is discussed in the shaping before drilling entry. The mortise is drilled first, then the airway, adjusting the angle if needed. Once the body is turned in the chuck and the chamber's axis is aligned with the airway, work moves on to the chamber; which chamber bit to use is decided at the design stage.

Speed is kept low; the source gives this limit as the machine's lowest gear, 500 rpm. At high speed the bit bounces, heat builds up, and the wood can scorch. This is why the bit is advanced slowly, withdrawn often to clear chips, and given time to cool. Since the odds of hard wood pushing the bit off axis increase the further it gets from the tailstock, feed is done in short steps. Once the airway is reached, the remaining distance to the base is measured, and the drilling continues by that same amount so the chamber base sits evenly.

The Saint-Claude Machine

The lathe isn't the only option; the workshop is reported to also have several other machines built specifically for pipe making, alongside drill presses. One of these is a drilling machine made in Saint-Claude. The block is clamped into self-centering jaws mounted vertically; a carriage rides toward the bit, which is chucked to a heavy steel spindle turned from overhead by a belt. Because the carriage can rise and fall, slide sideways, and swivel through a thirty-degree arc relative to the source, the chamber and the airway can be opened without loosening the block. The jaws are used with soft wooden blocks softer than the briar itself: they grip firmly but harmlessly and are replaced as they wear. The workshop's larger machines are recorded as applying the same principle with horizontally mounted jaws.