Learned (Sam Learned)

Learned is the name identifying the handmade pipes of pipe maker Sam Learned (1936-2015), who worked in York, in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. Learned took up the craft at fifty-nine, while running an established patent law practice. Over a production span approaching twenty years he became known for his horn shapes and his "Hunter" pipes, which set a crown of deer antler at the end of the shank. Within the American handmade pipe tradition, he is counted as a small workshop with a distinctive style.

From Engineering to Patent Law

Sam Learned was born in Seattle on 17 September 1936; his family moved to Phoenix in 1946. In 1960 he earned a chemical engineering degree from New Mexico State University and joined the army as a lieutenant that same month; his introduction to pipes dates to these years. Leaving the army in 1964, he settled in York and worked as an engineer. Holding patents on several machine inventions of his own steered him toward law: in 1973 he earned a doctorate in law from the University of Baltimore, and after 1975 practiced patent law on his own. Pipe making continued alongside this demanding profession, carried on as a pursuit confined to certain days of the week at a workshop in his home's basement.

Apprentice to Mr. Groum

Learned had seen the pipes of Jim Margroum for years at Adams County's apple harvest festival, and in December 1995 proposed to apprentice under him. Margroum (1921-2001), who worked in Hanover and stamped his pipes "Mr. Groum," was a self-taught maker known for figurative carvings — a bitten apple shape in particular. The apprenticeship began on 4 January 1996 and ran for a year in sessions of four hours, twice a week. Greek plateau briar sat at the center of the training: reading a block's grain, spotting a flaw in advance, and drawing the shape from where the wood allowed it. In later years, the ties he built with American makers such as Ed Burak, J. M. Boswell, and Mark Tinsky shaped his style. Records indicate that under this circle's influence he moved away from stained surfaces, increasingly leaving pipes in their natural color, finished with polish and wax alone.

Lines and Grades

The maker's output was gathered into a few named lines:

• Horn — horn shapes he developed by way of Danish and Italian interpretations. He is known to have set aside his largest and cleanest blocks for this line.

• Hunter — pipes in which the mouthpiece seats into a crown of horn at the end of the shank. Since every piece of horn differs, no two examples are alike; bark-topped plateau bowls also appear in this line.

• Free Style — free-form shapes not tied to a classical mold.

• Large Mouth Bass — figurative pipes finished by hand from large, near-flawless blocks.

• Mule — a plain entry line marked with a single-star grade, made to introduce his work to new buyers.

Quality grades ran three tiers based on the wood's quality: Star (select), Crescent (superior), and Sun (first class). Hunter pipes were made mostly at the first two grades, and at Sun grade where the wood allowed it.

Stamp, Mouthpiece, and Dimensions

Learned signed his pipes with an interlocking "SL" mark, accompanied by a two-digit year, so dating can be read directly off the shank. On pipes from later years a grade mark was also added to the stamp. He used lucite for the mouthpiece in early years but later switched to vulcanite, which he found lighter and easier to work; he is known to have deferred to buyer preference on mouthpiece material. Chamber diameters were mostly around 2 centimeters; he also made large chambers exceeding 2.5 centimeters in his Hunter and free-form pieces. He tried to source his briar directly at origin: alongside an Algerian connection, records show he planned supply trips to Corsica and Italy. By 1997 he had completed around 350 pipes; in his prime he turned out about twenty pipes a month. Sam Learned died on 5 October 2015.