2006 - SERIES C (OH, CANADA!)

 

The pipe below was made as Christmas gift for a friend. I tried to fashion it after the Canadian style, for two reasons. Firstly, I had never before attempted a Canadian-shaped pipe. Secondly, the friend in question happens to be married to a lady of the Great White North.

 

As is my typical practice, I decided to post images of the new pipe (the same images you see here) to my favorite online forum - Christian Pipe Smokers. I am not the only amateur pipe maker who does this, and typically such posts generate helpful feedback & sporting conversation. In this instance, however, there was a bit of a stir. Why? Well, apparently my 'Canadian' pipe was not so Canadian after all! What follows is a bit of the exchange:

 

K-MAN: "I dont see why you say its Canadian style though. Most of the ones in the shops here do have a straight mouth piece though not bent."

dennisthemenace: "Actually it looks more like a cross between a Dublin and a Lovat. A Canadian pipe has a billiard shaped bowl long straight oval shank & short tapered mouthpiece. A saddle mouthpiece would make it a Lumberman according to most reliable sources..."

 

These comments were all in good humor, and so I took no offense. The capstone of the conversation, however, came in when the forum's resident Canadian Presbyterian minister (a friend & kindred spirit who goes by the moniker 'TweednBriar') told the following parable:

 

There was a pipe maker in Hollidaysburg who called his new pipe a Canadian. A pipe shape inspector came by and saw that pipe and took him to the Pipe Shape Superintendent. The Superintendent said to the young pipe maker, 'You had better have a good reason for this.'

 

The young pipe maker replied, 'Well, Sir, I made this pipe to remind my friend of his wife's Canadian heritage. The mouth piece is like a Lovat to remind him of the Fraser Highlanders and their part in the winning of Canada from the French. The bowl is shaped like a Dublin to remind him that he is better living in PA than in Ontario under Provincial Premier Dalton McGinty. The shank looks long like a Lumberman to remind him of the soft-wood lumber agreement that was finalised between Canada and the US this year. The Shank is round to remind him that many people came to the New World from the port of Liverpool. And the pipe is straight because my friend's wife doesn't come from Toronto. So, even though my pipe hasn't got a billiard bowl and a long oval shank and tapered mouth piece, it serves my friend as a history book, a political and economic commentary, and celebration of his marriage.'

 

When the young man had finished, the Superintendent wiped a tear from his eye. And when he had stopped laughing, said, 'Don't tell me that you are going to start a sausage factory too.'