Purdy (Will Purdy)

Purdy is the brand under which American pipe maker Will Purdy signs his pipes. Born, by the records, in 1958, Purdy works at a small bench he set up in the basement of his home in Louisville, in Boulder County, Colorado. His workshop is a one-man operation, and because his annual output is kept low, his signature is thought of less as a widely distributed brand than as a name that circulates within collector circles.

Founding of the Bench

Purdy's acquaintance with the pipe goes back to his youth, to a family circle of pipe smokers; but he only took up making pipes in the very early 2000s. His first attempts, in 2001, involved kits assembled from ready-made parts; the following year he acquired two lathes along with a stock of briar and ebonite rod, moving on to shaping from the block. It is known that he developed his skill not through workshop apprenticeship but through a daily, uninterrupted routine of practice; it is also recorded that he drew on the assessments of a number of collectors along the way.

The bench's opening to the wider world came at the Los Angeles and Chicago pipe shows in early 2004, where he brought his pieces. Smooth-finished pipes entered circulation that same year, while sandblast-finished examples are said to have been announced for 2007, with later-dated sandblasted pieces also known. This trajectory runs in the same direction as the multiplication of self-taught small benches within the American handmade pipe scene of the same period.

Material and Making

The briar he uses is reported to come from Italy and to be rested for at least five years; in choosing briar, reading the grain of each block is decisive. No ready-made mold is used for stems: German-made ebonite rod is hand-cut and shaped, and this rod is recorded as sourced from the Danish maker Tom Eltang and Pia Eltang. Alongside black ebonite, marbled-look cumberland is also favored. This stance aligns with a line that leans toward hand-worked ebonite among stem materials.

Depending on a piece's shape, the chamber may be opened round, conical, or stepped; which cross-section is chosen is tied from the outset to the block and the shape. As is often the case with small-scale benches, every stage from rough shaping to final polish comes from the same hand; this is also the primary reason annual output stays limited.

Approach to Shape

Purdy draws on the established shapes of the French, English, and Scandinavian traditions; but because he determines shape according to the grain of the block, no two pieces bearing the same name are copies of one another. He also produces one-off pieces that fall into no established mold. This approach is akin to the artisan bench philosophy rather than factory work built on molds and serial production. Pieces carry a grading mark; secondhand records show letter tiers such as A and C alongside named tiers as well. The criteria behind these tiers have not been explained by the maker.