Tyler Lane Pipes

Tyler Lane Pipes is the one-person workshop run under his own name by American pipe maker Tyler Beard. Beard never turned pipe making into a full-time occupation; even so, thanks to the discussion forum he founded and the construction videos he published, his name is known in a circle far too wide to be explained by the number of pipes coming out of his bench. These two contributions are frequently cited when describing the rapid growth of the American handmade pipe scene in the 2000s; for the broader picture of the period, see the American handmade pipe scene entry.

A Self-Taught Maker

Nearly all information about Beard's background before the bench comes from his own account; none of it has been confirmed by independent record. According to this account, his primary profession is engineering: after finishing school he worked as a chemical engineer on an oil field in West Texas, and left his share of a cigar business he had entered with a friend to his partner two years later. His interest in pipes was rekindled in the summer of 2001 by a few old pipes that came to him through family; his ongoing reading in Usenet's alt.smokers.pipes group quickly turned this interest into a curiosity about making them.

He did not come from a woodworking background; by his own account he even had to build his own workbench first. He carved his first pipe from a ready-made plateau kit, using mainly a hand file and sandpaper; spending nearly forty hours of hand labor on a single body pushed him to learn the craft starting from a raw briar block instead. He completed his equipment as his budget allowed: after drill bits and polishing tools came a wood lathe, and finally a small metal lathe for turning the stem's tenon, along with a band saw. This sequence is instructive for showing which operation a maker hands off to which machine and when; for detail, see the entries how a pipe is made and lathe drilling. He notes that during his learning process he consulted makers such as Trever Talbert, Todd Johnson, Cornelius Mänz, Brian Ruthenberg, and Michael Lindner, and that their answers shortened his path considerably.

Pipe Makers Forum

Beard's most-cited contribution to the community is the Pipe Makers Forum, which he opened for aspiring pipe makers. At the time of its founding, the site is considered the first regular meeting place where construction techniques could be openly discussed; knowledge that had until then been passed along largely through mentor-apprentice relationships or personal correspondence began accumulating for the first time in a publicly accessible archive. According to the site's own history, when Beard paused pipe making in 2005 he looked for a volunteer to host the forum; maker Kurt Huhn took on the server and maintenance burden. In late 2006 the site was brought down through vulnerabilities in the content management software it used. The community was kept alive for a while through an email list, after which the forum was rebuilt on more secure infrastructure.

Videos and the Later Period

Beard is also known for the pipe-making videos he published on his own site; because these recordings allowed viewers to follow bench operations from start to finish, they became a frequently used resource for beginners. His production was never regular: he himself described, as a guest on episode 123 of the Pipes Magazine Radio Show, returning to the bench after a long break he took to spend time with his family. By his own statement as well, he finished his pipes in both sandblasted and smooth surfaces, and his production numbers remained limited.