Catterall Pipes

Catterall Pipes is the brand of handmade briar pipes produced by Van Catterall at his own bench in Greensboro, North Carolina, United States. It is not a factory doing mass production but a one-man workshop: each pipe is shaped separately, the workshop stamp is struck onto the shank, and it receives its own number. Records indicate Catterall carried out pipe making alongside his main profession, working days at a Greensboro-based nonprofit organization that supports young people and their families.

Material and Approach to Making

In the workshop, the bit is not taken from a ready mould; acrylic rod is hand-cut and shaped. At the joint with the shank, instead of metal or a turned acrylic tenon, a delrin tenon is used. Delrin is an engineering plastic resistant to wear and breakage; because it extends the life of this frequently inserted-and-removed joint, it has been adopted by many small workshops. Details on the subject are covered in the entry bit craftsmanship.

For the bodies, top-tier plateau briar logs from northeastern Spain are preferred. Plateau is the part of the briar burl closest to the ground, where the grain is dense and the outer surface stays naturally rough; makers value this section both for its grain pattern and its pore structure.

Stamping and Grading System

Every pipe has the brand logo and its own number worked into the shank. The grading the workshop uses consists of three tiers rising from C to A based on the briar's grain pattern and freedom from flaws. Beyond these there is a "Signature" tier that does not carry a grade stamp; per records related to the workshop, only three pipes had been made in this tier by the late 2010s. In small workshops of this kind, a grade stamp is considered less a quality guarantee than the maker's own way of explaining his material distinctions to the enthusiast.

The USS North Carolina Series

The brand's most distinctive work is pipes dedicated to the battleship USS North Carolina, preserved as a museum ship in Wilmington. The ship, which served in World War II, opened to visitors in 1962, and underwent a thorough restoration through a donation campaign launched in 1998, during which its teak deck was renewed. According to accounts, in the pipes of this series, ring-shaped wooden collars fitted over the acrylic bit are made from the teak of the original deck that was removed. These pipes carry the mark "NC" in addition to their usual stamps; it is stated that the maker made a donation to the ship's restoration fund for each one.

The brand's own website is not currently accessible; for this reason it cannot be said with certainty whether production continues. Catterall is counted among the examples of the small-maker tradition in American pipe making that reaches a narrow circle in the shadow of the large workshops.