Directory of US Pipe Brands (3/3)

The Directory of US Pipe Brands is an attempt to gather the scattered record of American pipe production in one place; this page holds the last of the three-part directory, covering 86 entries from Norwalk Pipe Co. to Zeus. Pipe making in the US ran along two tracks: on one side, the factories and patented system pipes clustered in the first half of the twentieth century around New York, Chicago, and North Carolina; on the other, the one-man workshops that grew rapidly in number after the war. The entries below are brief and factual; brands for which only a name is on record are kept in the list, with the gaps clearly noted.

Brands

• Norwalk Pipe Co. — This New York-based company produced Jobey and Shellmoor pipes for a time. In 1941 it moved for this purpose to a new address on East 26th Street; before that it had been located on West 34th Street, with production carried out in Stanhope, New Jersey. The company's president at the time was Louis Jobey.

• Ogura — American pipe maker Andrew Ogura, working in Hawaii, died in 2005. No detailed record of his pipes has survived.

• Okie Pipes — The brand of a carver working in Newalla, Oklahoma. No detail beyond the maker's location appears in the records.

• Old West Briar — A pipe line for which Tim West handles the final finishing himself.

• Owl Pipes — A workshop run by Steve LaVoice Jr. in Springfield, Massachusetts. LaVoice's interest in pipe making began at a New Jersey tobacconist, after which he taught himself to make his own pipes. He works together with his wife Ruth LaVoice; every pipe is a single hand-shaped piece.

• Parfumi — Only the brand name appears in the records; there is no trace of its maker, period, or location.

• Patterson — James Patterson, an architect by profession, began making pipes in March 1999. He was introduced to the community through Trever Talbert, who liked his work. He was a finalist in the 2001 Pipes and Tobaccos pipe-carving competition.

• Paul's Cayuga — The brand of pipes made by Paul Spaniola in Flint, Michigan. Alongside pipe making, Spaniola also ran a repair business. Cayuga pipes use a method in which the briar is oil-cured at roughly 210 degrees Celsius; the pipes carry no filter of any kind.

• Peevey — The brand for the classic and freehand pipes made by Gregg Peevey; the pipes were carried by a tobacconist in Nashville, Tennessee. His stamp reads "G. Peevey Made," with a red dot as his emblem. The brand's current status is unclear from the records.

• Percolator — A pipe about which no information could be found. The shank and mouthpiece cavity are thought to have been designed to accommodate an unusually large filter or sponge. The pipe filters and systems entry gives the general framework for mechanisms of this kind.

• Perri — A workshop registered as "Paul L. Perri & Son" in Manhattan Beach, California. Paul Perri continued making pipes even past the age of a hundred and died in December 2021, just short of his 101st birthday; he is thought to have been the oldest living pipe maker. Well known in California, Perri influenced many American makers, Trever Talbert among them. His work consists of large classic shapes reinterpreted with subtle changes; sandblasted lovat examples represent this approach well.

• Phoenix American Cob Pipe Company — A corncob pipe maker that operated in Boonville, Missouri, from the 1910s to the 1950s. Information about the company is drawn from an application filed with the National Register of Historic Places.

• Phoenix Pipes — The brand of Jason Watkins-Brock, working in Arizona. He began carving under Paul Hildebrand, owner of The Pipe Maker's Emporium and a well-known Arizona maker in his own right. His work is marked by clean, strong lines and sharp angles; his pipes are often accompanied by a matching stand and tamper.

• Piedmont Briars — The pipe work Mark Spell, an internal auditor at a credit union in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, carries out outside working hours.

• Pioneer — Pioneer Pipe Company was a brand owned by Wally Frank; the name was registered in 1940, with the application stating the mark had been in commercial use since 1925. The company's address is recorded as Putnam Avenue in Brooklyn. Pioneer distributed pipes made first from Turkish and later from African meerschaum through Wally Frank's catalogues and other channels.

• Pyro-Bol — A pipe for which Chicago tobacco blender Frank Furedy filed a patent application in May 1960. Furedy died before the patent was published; the document was issued roughly seven years later at his heir's request. The design's distinguishing feature is a glass inner combustion chamber surrounded by removable, vented wooden pieces.

• Quiet Comrade — A patented aluminum-bodied pipe made by Mech Tech Inc. The briar bowl insert is not screwed in; instead it is held in place by an internal rod passing through a horizontal hole drilled in its base. An O-ring in the body provides the seal. The design's patent was granted to Robert J. Frederick on February 19, 1974.

• Quinn Pipes — The brand of Bryan Quinn. No detail beyond the maker's name is on record.

• R.A. Ward Pipes — The pipe work Robert A. Ward carries out part-time in a modest workshop. By the maker's own account, he continues to develop his craft.

• R.G. Freehand Pipes — The RG brand of Robert Gebbie, working in Vancouver, Washington. He makes only freehand pipes and describes himself as an artist; his background includes painting, writing, photography, and web design. He has worked with burl wood. His production is recorded as having paused.

• R.M. Perkins Pipes — The brand of Robert M. Perkins. The maker works between Houston, Texas, and Puerto Vallarta in the Mexican state of Nayarit.

• Racine & Laramie — A tobacconist founded in San Diego in 1869 by Alexi Racine and Charles Laramie. It is today located within Old Town San Diego State Historic Park, and its Smoking Pipe Museum houses a large collection of historical pipes. The business has also had pipes made under the Racine & Laramie and Golden Bull names.

• Rainey — Jim Rainey was one of ten finalists in the 2004 Pipes and Tobaccos/Butz-Choquin competition. No further information is on record about him.

• Random — The brand of a maker whose name is unknown. Tired of city life, he settled in the mountains of Colorado, founded the brand in September 2002, and was active in the online pipe discussion groups of the time. Some of his pipes were made using ultem, a high-temperature-resistant thermoplastic more durable than acrylic, shaping the shank and mouthpiece from a single piece. Known for his unconventional techniques and untested materials, the maker later withdrew from the community.

• Reco Manufacturing Co. — A Chicago-based company best known for the Zephair, an aluminum pipe with a screw-in briar bowl. The pipe was patented in 1940 and released in 1947, carrying no stamp of any kind. Despite having a round shank, it could stand upright thanks to two small feet underneath.

• Regal — A now-discontinued North American brand of Regal Pipe Co. Models bearing the same name also appear in Preben Holm and Butz-Choquin production. The brand is also said to be associated with M. Linkman & Co..

• Richard Lawton — The brand of Richard Lawton, who began his career as a globetrotting cook working on yachts, is called Briar Arts Pipes. His interest, sparked in the 1970s by a pipe his fiancée gave him as a gift, never left him. At the time this record was taken, fourteen years had passed since his first pipe, though he had only been selling for two. He often adds a matching tamper to his pipes and, more recently, presents them in custom-made wooden boxes.

• Rimkus Pipes — A workshop run by Victor Rimkus in Edgewood, New Mexico. An electronics engineer, Rimkus brings his engineering background, from design through production, into his pipes; he hand-cuts his mouthpieces, preferring lucite though also using vulcanite and ebonite. His pipes are made so a pipe cleaner passes smoothly from mouthpiece to bowl, and small flaws in the briar are not hidden.

• RobE's Art — The part-time business Robert Bartholomew has run in Kalamazoo, Michigan, since 2003. It draws on classic and Danish influences, bringing his art-school background into his work. He started with ready-made kits, then moved to modular pipes such as the calabash; feedback from an online maker community steered him toward traditional pipes. He began making pipes to sell in 2014.

• Robertson — The "House of Robertson" in Boise, Idaho, operated for many years before closing in 1999. Thayne Robertson opened the shop around 1947; his son Jon joined the business along with his sister after finishing university in 1970. Father and son made large, striking pipes from then until Thayne's death in 1987. Jon continued running the shop, while his sister moved into other work.

• Rodriguez — Tony Rodriguez, working in Los Angeles, was known for extremely high-quality pipes and craftsmanship. According to collector and writer Rick Newcombe, Rodriguez trained under Lars Ivarsson and Jess Chonowitsch, sourcing his briar from Chonowitsch and Bo Nordh. After more than a decade of producing highly sought-after pipes, he disappeared entirely from the community in the mid-2000s, which is why his name is counted among the most mysterious chapters in pipe collecting.

• Royal Court Pipes — The brand for pipes made by Glen Court in Hadley, Massachusetts.

• Rudolph Hirsch — Kaywoodie's first president. In 1936 he led the formation of the parent company Kaufmann Bros. & Bondy; the same year, while serving as president of KB&B, he was also vice president of Reiss-Premier Co..

• Ruth, Dennis — An independent American maker working in Des Moines, Iowa. He is counted among makers who value quality over quantity. In the 1970s and 1980s he worked at a tobacconist called Tobacco Bowl, making pipes there to customer request.

• Rylan Doyle Pipes — The brand of Rylan Doyle Bishop. He makes his pipes one by one and by hand in his basement workshop, using no special machinery or advanced equipment. A significant part of his work is order-based and stays close to the Danish style; he says he favors a usable line over surreal or futuristic shapes.

• S.E. Thile Pipes Workshop — Scott E. Thile's workshop in Kentucky; records under this heading refer only to the pipes prepared for the 2018 Chicago Pipe Show. The brand itself is covered in detail in the S.E. Thile Pipes entry.

• S.S. Pierce — A Boston firm founded in 1831 by Samuel Stillman Pierce and his partner Eldad Worcester. The business began as a wholesale supplier to ships in Boston, then a busy port; over time Pierce brought in goods from distant ports by trading with ship captains. In 1910 he bought the OVERLAND cigar brand from John Gray & Co. and made it his own. Some pipes carry the "OVERLAND PIPE" stamp.

• Samhara Pipe Co. — A system-pipe maker that appears in US patent records toward the end of the 1940s. Its inventor was Samuel Harris, who lived in Dayton, Ohio. Born in Detroit and raised in Oakland, California, Harris graduated from Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati and served four years as a rabbi in Toledo before settling in Dayton; he also headed various companies in the clothing business.

• Sands, Jerry — An American maker working in North Carolina. He makes pipes in his free time, using acrylic and vulcanite mouthpieces.

• Schoenleber — The workshop of Louis Schoenleber, an immigrant from Austria who lived in North Arlington, New Jersey. His hand-carved pipes were carried at his own shop, "Schoenleber's Newark Pipe Shop," on Branford Place in Newark; the shop is thought to have opened in the 1920s and operated until the late 1960s. Louis Schoenleber died in 1976. It is highly likely he also produced for other brands such as Jelling, also based in Newark, whose design and surface treatment closely resemble his own.

• Scofield — Ben Scofield came to pipe making, like many others, through a ready-made kit and as a hobby. He later received support from Tyler Beard, the maker behind the Tyler Lane brand, and for a time was active on maker forums. Between 2006 and 2007 his pipes were carried at a tobacconist in Springfield, Missouri.

• Sellars Made Briar Pipes — The brand of the husband-and-wife team Tim and Dana Sellars, working in East Tennessee. Their notable work includes shapes called Cobra, Ballerina, and Devil Anse, and a surface finish called Smoky Mountain Red Oak. Tim focuses on carving and shaping, while Dana handles the finishing.

• Shalosky Pipes — The brand of Bill Shalosky, born in Columbus, Ohio. A graduate of the Columbus College of Art and Design with experience in wood turning, he started out doing minor repair and restoration work at the Smokers' Haven workshop; together with Premal Chheda he produced the Smokers' Haven Hand-Mades, Buckeye, and Chheda Pipes lines. The pipes he releases under his own name are made from cured briar, with mouthpieces hand-cut from German vulcanite; in spring 2015 he began working within BriarWorks alongside Todd Johnson and Pete Prevost.

• Sheffield — A brand registered under the name Ed Sheffield. No information beyond the maker's name is on record.

• Smokemaster — An unusual brand made by two separate manufacturers at different periods, also distinguished by its joint design. The joint features a single aluminum inner tube along with two holes to receive the ends of a doubled-over pipe cleaner. The pipes were first made by Briarcraft; the company closed in the 1950s. In 1967 rights to the name and system passed to Dr. Grabow, which began producing three lines stamped 100, 200, and 300; these pipes carry a red diamond-shaped emblem on the mouthpiece. Production continued in Sparta, North Carolina, until the 1990s.

• Snook — An amateur maker living in eastern Washington state. He gave the pipes he made, dated to the 1950s or 1960s, to a friend living in Kentucky. What makes the work interesting is the idea of building the calabash shape entirely from wood: examples are made from walnut and cherry wood, with ebony and brass details. In the Rhodesian example, a pipe cleaner wrapped inside the shank cavity serves as a filter.

• Souers — The brand of Denny Souers. By the maker's own account, the pipes he has hand-carved for thirty-five years are mostly freehand shapes in the Danish style; each is made as a single piece.

• Spence Pipes — The brand of Taft Spence, living in Nashville, Tennessee. Working as a deputy sheriff, Spence makes pipes whenever he gets the chance and says he enjoys it as much as oil painting. Because he is legally blind, many stages of pipe making take him longer than usual.

• Sportsman — As might be expected, this name was used by more than one manufacturer over the years; these include the Tanganyika Meerschaum Corporation and its affiliate Amboseli. The Sportsman covered here predates them and belonged to the John Hudson Moore company, active in the 1940s; a 1947 advertisement showcases the brand's distinctive paneled rusticated and smooth finishes. The pipes appear to have been part of the firm's broader product line aimed at the era's sports-minded man.

• Stachowiak — The brand of local maker Jerry Stachowiak, working in Buffalo, New York. Carving mostly freehand, the maker marked his pipes with the "GJS" stamp.

• Stefan Cashwell — The brand of Stefan Cashwell. While no detailed catalogue of his pipes exists, the maker appeared as a guest on a radio interview recorded in 2023.

• Street Pipes — The brand of James Street, working in Englewood, Colorado. Mastering the ornamental side of pipe making, Street is known for his "wizard pipes" and his small pipes with rotating wooden caps, sometimes made without a mouthpiece. He is thought to have retired.

• Super-Temp — Super-Temp Corporation began in 1963 making plastic pipes with a bowl coated in pyrolytic graphite; the product was marketed under the name "the pipe." In 1965 the company entered a marketing agreement with Venturi Inc., a seller of cigarette filters. Around 1967, colored and striped options were added. Around 1970, THE SMOKE pipes, with cheaper bowl coatings and unconventional shapes, joined the line; around 1972 the Venturi pipes, with no bowl coating at all, were added as well. Production ended before 1975.

• Sweetheart — Though it resembles one of the Kirsten Pipe Company models at first glance, this is a separate brand. On an example considered early, a handwritten stamp appears on top of the shank and the phrase "MADE IN U.S.A. PAT PEND" beneath it. The shank has a hexagonal, fluted cross-section; the internal filter mechanism allows air to enter from the front of the pipe during the draw. The patent was filed in 1958 in the name of Philip J. Stieger of Saint Paul, Minnesota, and granted on August 7, 1962; the design shown in the document differs considerably from the pipe that went into series production.

• Swift — The brand of Dick Swift, working in New York. No detail is on record beyond the maker's name and the city he worked in.

• Swinks — Wilbur Swinks, living in Franklin, Ohio, and working at a local newspaper, began making pipes as a hobby around 1955. The pipes carry a single-word "SwinkS" stamp on the left side of the shank. His apprentice Chester Blair took over the business in 1983; Wilbur Swinks died in 1987 at the age of eighty. After continuing production for a short time with an assistant, Blair sold all the equipment. Though the brand is little known worldwide, it is remembered with respect around Dayton, Cincinnati, and Columbus, Ohio. His "Swinks Doodler Aircooled" pipes, with a finned bowl, are nearly identical to Porsche Design pipes, though his were first made in the 1950s.

• Tapia — The brand of William Tapia, working in Monrovia, California. No further record exists beyond this.

• Texaco — At least some Texaco pipes appear to have been made by LHS Sterncraft under the Texaco Inc. name. The pipes generally carry "Texaco" and "Imported Briar" in large letters on the side. The Drinkless mechanisms seen on these pipes came into use around 1927 and were gradually abandoned after 1964.

• Thoro-Kleen — A metal pipe system sold by Greenwich House Corporation. It was offered both as a metal outer bowl with a briar liner and as a full briar bowl. It comes from the same family as the Roybrooke, Comet, and the original Gridiron pipes, with parts thought to be interchangeable among these brands. The company was located on 8th Avenue in New York in 1947.

• Thorpe — Like many carvers, Tim Thorpe got his first pipe kit from Tim West; after completing three kits he realized he had become truly passionate about the craft. Over the years he received West's support. He experiments with different materials, cutting his mouthpieces from rod stock, mostly German vulcanite rod, occasionally bakelite. He makes his pipes one at a time and mostly applies sandblasting, preferring a smooth surface on blocks with beautiful grain. His stamp includes his initials and the year the pipe was made.

• Threeton — The brand of Robert Threeton. His interest began with a small meerschaum pipe he acquired as a stage prop while participating in American Civil War reenactments in South Carolina; it first turned into collecting, then, drawing on his woodworking background, into pipe making. He made his pipes from Greek briar as a hobby and in limited numbers; he is thought to have given up pipe making today.

• Tobak — Tobak Ltd., based in Virginia Beach, was owned by Mel Baker. Michael Kabik was hired to help set up the workshop where these pipes were made, together with Sven-Lar Pipes.

• Tom Pipecarver & Son — The brand of Thomas Arcoleo, who had previously worked as a materials engineer and technical economist. From 1973 to 1993, he made commercial pipes from African bubinga wood in Princeton, New Jersey. These heavily worked freehand pipes were carried both at his own shop and at various retailers around the country. The business began in a home basement under the name Princeton Pipes/USA; as it grew it moved to different addresses, continuing at the Spring Street shop until his retirement in 1993. Alongside pipes, Arcoleo also specialized in restoring small art objects, keepsakes, and antiques.

• Tom Rakowski — Using the name Gioto, Tom Rakowski is best known for his tampers. He makes about forty pipes a year, most of them freehand. His stamp reads "T.R."

• Tony's Pipe Towne — A tobacconist in Indianapolis, Indiana, located on North Keystone Avenue in the 1970s, selling a house line of pipes stamped with its own name. It was incorporated on May 15, 1970, as Pipe Towne, Incorporated, at an address on Virginia Avenue. No printed records of the company's name appear after 1979; it was dissolved by the state of Indiana in 1988 for inactivity.

• Trapwell — Trapwell pipes, stamped "World's best briar," were actually made not from briar but from mountain laurel (Kalmia latifolia), a species in the heath family. The brand was made by D & P Pipe Works, owned by D. P. Levitas in Sparta, in Alleghany County, North Carolina; the company was first named Sparta Pipe Works, then Sparta Industries. At least three brands made from the same wood are known: Trapwell, Breezewood, and Custombilt.

• Tredway — Bob Tredway, working in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, began making pipes for himself in 1965; his first pipes took up to ten hours of work, and later he could turn out up to two pipes a day. According to a local newspaper report he produced around two hundred pipes a year. He uses Mediterranean briar, boiling the blocks and drying them for two years, and since he used no filler, he would go through three or four blocks before finding one he liked. He specialized in freehand and free-form shapes and made many pipes for women as well. Some of his designs were made not to be smoked but to be admired.

• Tria Pipes — Run by Adrian James, TRIA was a brand that brought together American pipe makers and American manufacturers. Alongside pipes it offered leather goods and men's accessories. One of the makers working under the brand was Timothy W. Thorpe.

• Tsalagi Pipes — The brand of blues musician Iron Mike Norton. Drawing on his Cherokee heritage, Norton makes his pipes by hand in the US as one-off pieces, using Mediterranean plateau briar and native American woods, and holds strictly to a no-filler principle. Influenced by, and at times trained alongside, Thomas Cristiano, Bill Feuerbach III, and Randy Wiley, Norton has an easily recognizable style; most of his work features native-wood shank ornamentation and turquoise inlays.

• Tuerk — Victor Tuerk worked as a pipe maker first in New York and later in California. No further information is on record about him.

• Urquiza — Having grown fond of the smell of pipe smoke, Juan Pablo Urquiza began collecting and restoring old pipes, and a year later made his first pipe from cherry wood, followed the next year by a second made from olive wood. When online forum friends admired this second pipe and placed orders, it steered him toward working with different materials such as rosewood, olive, and briar. Until March 2015 he made ninety-five percent of his work entirely by hand using only a file; after that he began using a lathe as well to increase his output.

• Van Varick — A brand registered under the name Al Van Varick. Nothing beyond the name appears in the records.

• Veeja — Apparently the brand of pipes made in New York. Its maker is known by the name Max D., and is said to keep his entire stock at his home in Georgia. Alongside pipe making he is also involved in painting and photography.

• Vickers — A brand of which only the name is on record; its maker and period are unknown.

• Vottis — Pat M. Vottis ran his workshop in Schenectady, New York, from roughly the late 1940s to the mid-1970s. He was one of the first American carvers to make freehand pipes in a measured Danish style, and his work still holds its value today. He preferred Corsican briar. Alongside what he produced under his own brand, private-label pipes coming from England were most likely made by the Sasieni factory.

• Vox Pop — A brand made by, or on behalf of, Henry Leonard & Thomas Inc.

• Waddell — Steve Waddell, a respected maker from Marion, Iowa, has retired for health reasons. Alongside fine freehands, he also made unusual and sculpted pipes. He won several awards at US pipe shows: chief among them, "Best Pipe Maker" at the 1986 Chicago Pipe Collector's Exhibition and "Most Original Pipe" at the 1987 Pipe Collectors International event; in 1981 he received a Certificate of Merit from the Saint-Claude Pipe Makers Guild. A churchwarden he made in 1989 was used by actor Jeremy Brett in Granada Television's Sherlock Holmes series. He worked with Greek briar and signed some of his pipes.

• Walls — The brand of Bob Walls, working in Ohio. No record exists beyond the maker's name and state.

• Wardleigh — No information on the brand's history has survived; all that remains is a single pipe example and promotional brochures.

• Warner — A brand registered under the name Anthony Warner. No data exists beyond the maker's name.

• Wathen — Kerry S. Wathen worked in the 1970s at a small pipe shop called "The Briar Patch" south of Kansas City. Drawn to large pipes, the maker's masterpiece was a big briar calabash. When the shop closed he most likely moved to Iowa; his pipes could be found in Des Moines from 1977 and again between 1980-81. In those years, worsening trouble with his hands forced him to give up carving. He generally signed his pipes with his name and the last two digits of the year, as in "Wathen '75"; he gave his best pieces the name "Reflection." He died on April 1, 1985, in his hometown of Topeka, Kansas.

• Watkins — The brand of Philip Chase Watkins, born in 1991. Involved in blacksmithing, woodworking, and leatherwork, the young maker came to pipe making later; he made his first working pipe from walnut and says he is new to working with briar, hoping to use horn or bone in the future. He also designs pipe racks; all his work is done by hand.

• Webb — Roy Roger Webb, working in Sevierville, Tennessee, has been making pipes for around thirty years. The briar pipes he now produces in limited numbers are finely detailed and meticulous, often carved with mythological figures. He uses acrylic mouthpieces.

• Weidemann — John Weidemann won the "Best Pipe Maker" award at the 1994 Los Angeles Pipe and Cigar Expo. No further information is available about him.

• Yingling — A machinist by trade, Mark Yingling also makes pipe-making tools. His pipes combine a machinist's eye with an artist's hand; volcano, lamp, and beehive-shaped examples are among his notable pieces.

• Zeus — A brand sold by L&H Stern and Altamira. Records associate it with US patent number 2158897.