J. Davis Pipes (Jody Davis)

J. Davis Pipes is the brand under which American pipe master Jody Davis signs his handmade briar pipes with his own name. What sets Davis apart from his contemporaries is that he shares his bench with the touring schedule of being guitarist for the Christian rock band Newsboys; the brand's most notable trait, its scarcity, is largely a result of this double life. His pipes are known for bringing classic English proportions together in the same body with the shape sense of the Danish school.

A Life Between Two Benches

Davis joined the band in 1992, left in 2003, and turned pipe making into his full-time occupation; during this period he settled with his family in Yuma, Arizona, setting up his workshop at the edge of the desert. His return to the lineup in early 2009 changed both his schedule and his production fundamentally; he moved to Nashville and went back on tour. He is said to have pared his workshop down to a portable setup that fits into two suitcases so he could work on the road, finishing tasks that need fixed machinery, such as sandblasting, once he is back home. Annual output stays around fifty pipes. An observation from spring 2014 notes that the brand holds strength not only as new pipes but on the secondary market too, because owners do not part with them.

Visits, Not an Apprenticeship

His interest began in 1990s Nashville with a Peterson canadian he bought from Keith Moore, who handled purchasing at a tobacconist's shop. His first attempt at making one used a pre-drilled briar block and a ready-made mold mouthpiece bought from a shop in Murfreesboro, Tennessee; not long after, he sold off part of his collection to buy a lathe and hand tools. Davis's training proceeded less through a formal apprenticeship than through a string of visits. Jess Chonowitsch, whom Moore introduced him to, gave him access to better raw material; J. T. Cooke, who ended up at the next table at Nashville's first pipe show, invited him to his workshop in Vermont, and the week he spent there led him to rebuild his bench setup and working method from the ground up. The drill bits Todd Johnson brought back from Tom Eltang and his freehand approach were his first contact with Danish-style drilling and shaping; the real progress came from the time he spent at the workshops of Lars Ivarsson and Chonowitsch in Denmark. He is said to have worked for a long time with a below-standard airway diameter, moving to 4 millimeters around 2010.

Tiers and Workmanship

The workshop's grading system has five steps built from religious titles:

• Friar: sandblasted finish only; D through A.

• Abbot: smooth or sandblasted finish; D through A.

• Bishop: smooth finish only; B and A.

• Cardinal: smooth finish only; B and A.

• Saint: exceptional pieces; B, A, and the Halo stamp at the top.

Mouthpieces are chiefly ebonite (vulcanite); shank bands feature materials such as cocobolo, wenge, silver, and fossil mammoth ivory. The shape repertoire runs from classics such as the billiard, acorn, lumberman, and calabash to freehand interpretations such as the blowfish and the bent dublin; the limited-edition bent dublin that Pipes and Tobaccos magazine named 2009 "pipe of the year" also comes from this repertoire. Where surface finishes are concerned, the brand is particularly known for its sandblasted examples.