Visit to Fairchild Pipes

Yesterday I had the privilege of visiting the home and workshop of Ron Fairchild of Fairchild Pipes.  As I walked in and he invited me to have a seat in one of his lazy boy chairs, the room was dark, and filled with the sweet smell of aromatic tobacco, smoked from a beautiful dublin that he carved himself in 2007.   We caught up on life and talked jobs, children, and of course pipes.   After awhile he pulled out five custom boxes of finished pipes to show me.  Ron told me the stories of each pipe, everything from pokers, to dublin’s, to billiards, to freehands, and everything in-between.  I reached for one particular that I thought was breath taking,  he told me he carved  it in 1983, which I replied “I was born in 1981.”  Ron had a good laugh about that, and called me a young buck!  We then walked me into his kitchen and Ron turned on his digital picture frame where showed me his travels from around the word visiting various briar shops and pipe making shops, he named some of the greatest pipe carvers and briar suppliers as I watched the pictures click off.  Then Ron walked me into his shop where he showed me all of his tricks to the trade.  Ron is truly a master class pipe maker, sticking with the classic shapes.  I asked him a million questions about pipe carving and learned so much.  Ron has been a huge help for me in as I have been getting into pipe making this past year.  He graciously invited me back anytime and I plan on taking him up on that as I continue to lean the art of pipe making.  He left me with this quote: “you sure won’t get rich making pipes, but you’ll meet some great friends along the way.”

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