Ferndown

Ferndown is a handmade briar pipe brand founded in the early 1980s by English silversmith Leslie "Les" Wood and his wife Dolly Wood. It takes its name from the house the master lived in. The brand is generally known for its large-scale bodies, its distinctive rustic surface called "Bark," and the sterling silver bands individually fitted to each pipe.

The Dunhill Years

Les Wood began working in the silver-mounting department of the Dunhill factory in March 1963, a few weeks after turning fifteen. When the head of the department left within two years, he took over the responsibility; during the same years he spent five years studying silversmithing three evenings a week at the Sir John Cass school in London. His wife Dolly also worked in the same factory's finishing department. Wood's nineteen years at the firm ended amid a dispute that arose after Dunhill's management banned silver mounting for Charatan, which it had acquired.

L&JS and the Brand's Birth

Going independent around 1978-79, Wood set up his own workshop on Carpenter's Road in the Stratford area of East London. The L&JS in the workshop's name originally stood for "Leslie & Jim Silverware," after his partner Jim Craig; once the partnership ended, the abbreviation continued to be read as "Leslie John Silverware," thanks to the master's middle name. In these years the workshop did silver mounting work for Dunhill as well as for the Oppenheimer group's brands, James Upshall, and Barling. Craig, who left the partnership, stayed in the pipe business; following William Taylor's death in 2009 he took the helm of the Ashton brand.

The couple began producing their own pipes in the early 1980s. The first series came out under the names Tudor, Elizabethan, and Jacobean; the Jacobean pipes' mouthpieces were cast rather than hand-cut, and besides, the name posed a pronunciation problem in the American market. Around 1983, for a new series whose mouthpieces would also be hand-cut, the master's house name was chosen; Ferndown was born this way.

Stamps, Finishes, and Grades

Ferndown's finishes fall under five names: orange-leaning smooth Root, brownish Tudor Root, reddish-brown Reo, light-toned Tan, and rustic Bark. Intermediate names such as Antique Bark also appear in sources. The underside of the bowl carries the brand name, the finish name, and the "Hand Made In England, Les Wood" stamps; the silver band carries the L&JS stamp along with the 925 hallmark. Size is shown on a scale running from one star to four stars; examples where the grain runs straight the length of the body carry an SG mark. Pipes sent to the German market were distributed under the Elwood stamp instead, because a similar name was already registered there. The same workshop also made its own pipes under different names for dealers such as James Barber and Astleys.

Workshop Method

Production was split in two: Les turned the bowl, cut the vulcanite rod, and hand-shaped the mouthpiece; Dolly took on sanding, polishing, staining, and final finishing. In the couple's oil-cure treatment, oil was applied not only to the outside of the bowl but to the inside as well.

The Bark surface that is the brand's signature was also opened by Dolly. The process involved pressing a drill bit ground to two sharp points against the body at high speed; the texture left by the flaking material was then smoothed with a wire brush and sandpaper, and the technique is traced back to Peter Wilson of Duncan Briars. Bark is a rustication as a surface finish, not sandblasting; the workshop's sandblasted bodies were few in number, and the sandblasting work was done in Canada.

Sources do not agree on a single figure for annual production: the master's own account settles on a few hundred pipes, while accounts based on sales records cite figures approaching two thousand. The Wood couple retired in 2016, and regular production of the brand ended with them.