I love this man's skill level "it's still very fragile..." as he whacks the excess off with uncaring abandon! He has done this for so long he knows EXACTLY how hard he can push on that pipe without crushing it! You or I try it like he did, we would have a handful of pipe pieces!
I'm a Potter yes it would be very fragile but you'd be surprised how quickly you can get used to the way to handle fragile greenware. I just went and made a whole bunch of clay tiles for testing glaze they don't look like tiles like you think about them they're like a little l-shaped pad of clay and they're exceedingly thin and I had to trim probably two dozen of them just now and didn't break any I mean you could have literally just flick your finger and break these so easily but you just get used to it. It probably would only take breaking maybe three or four pipes before you get the hang of it the human hand is an amazing amazing amazing thing I doubt that we will ever be able to create a robotics device with enough feedback to mimic our hands all of the physical cues that go back to the brain as we touch different objects is an incredible amount of data
Interesting video. They were routinely thrown into the Thames, much like today's discarded cigarette ends, whenever these 'cheap' clay pipes inevitably got blocked and became unusable. Many of them can still be found in the mud today at low tide.
I've dug up dozens of broken clay pipe fragments in gardens over the years, and around a dozen in my own garden alone. It always brings a smile to my face, as I feel the connection to the gardeners of years gone by, who dug the same patch of ground long ago. Sometimes it is clear from the situation they are found, that they were the last person to turn over that sod, or move that stone, and sometimes, like with my own veg plot, they are just one more soul to have worked that soil in an unbroken line of gardening, back through the seasons, in a cycle that probably started as long before them, as they were before us.
I used to find broken bits of these things in Ontario Canada all the time when I worked for an archeology company, it was probably the 2nd most common type of artifact we would find on European settler sites (first being broken ceramics, ie plates and such).
@@planetwisconsin9901 But Nicola says all the pipes she finds are at least 100 years old. Could she be mistaken? As they are clearly still being produced, I suspect she could.
@@patrickglaser1560 No, it's just something I've been saying to people for decades. I've never thought about it before, but the only thing I can come up with is that my late father used to call me that when I was very small, so maybe it was buried in my subconcious? Rainbows are beautiful anyway.
Thank you for sharing your craft! I love tobacco pipes of all kinds. I find them beautiful and so many are works of art. I have been intrigued by how clay pipes were created and its nothing near what I expected. You make a good video sir. We are sorely lacking in people willing to continue with the old ways of crafting objects such as pipes.
It's great seeing old traditions of crafting and trades like this being kept alive. I hope he has an apprentice or two, as I think it'd be a real shame if this tradition were lost. There are still quite a few pipe smokers, even in my generation (millenials), but most smoke briar pipes. At any rate, although I would've loved to see more, this was a *great* video.
This was a great video on an old skill! Very cool! Such craftsmanship around something once so common! I think it is so sad there is less pride in work done than there used to be.
I have been wondering exactly how they were made now for a long time. I have worked in foundry up to plastic injection but those pipes have been around for a long time and am really impressed with the mold being hand made without there being an EDM to burn the image into the mold. I am also amazed how so many are thrown into the Thames River and don't understand why. It would seem the life span of a clay pipe is short. I'm 73 and when little I saw my great grandmothers clay pipe. Us older guys need to keep busy , it's good for us,,,,thanks for the video
Clay pipes were cheap. When the stem got broken, or the pipe became soaked with tar and nicotine and foul tasting, it was easy to throw it away and buy a new one. One pipe might only last a couple of weeks. A thrifty smoker might wash an old pipe and put it aside to dry and air for a few weeks but it was never as sweet as new.
@assassinlexx Glazing not necessary and adds to cost. There were some fancy ones that were glazed. I have seen shiny ones that had an invisible picture printed on them. As you smoked the heat made the picture appear, a windmill or a flower or something of that nature.
I have two brand new churchwarden long clay pipes, except they are now 146 yrs old! I pulled them out of a wooden barrel 150ft down on a wreck in Irish sea, in 1993-94. Got them in a glass display case, although commonly found, it's very rare to find complete original old ones 😁
Thanks for sharing! A true craftsman! I just purchased one from a local maker, they are a wonderfully cool dry smoke and allow the flavors to come through. The older generations knew how to enjoy the finer and simple things in life.
Thanks. I have smoked clay pipes but did not know how they were made. For the sake of my front teeth, I mostly stick to briar or corn cob pipes. Having an interest in archaeology, I have seen the skulls of ancient clay pipe smokers and have seem the big notch it wears in your teeth with regular use. I've seen those very long stemmed clay pipes that were used in pubs. The stem being so long because you break off the very time when using them because they were a communal thing that everyone.used. part of the big appeal, of course, was that they were always cheap and produced in large numbers. Thanks much for posting this.
What a fantastic fellow. It’s only a true expert who can make something look so easy. You are a fantastic man Rex and thank you so much for sharing your skill and experience. To think that these pipes were in use for 300 years or more, with relatively little change to their functional design, is amazing. And then to see one produced really makes all those “field finds” come alive. Thanks Rex
Thanks Rex. In my youth I rather fancied a Church Warden pipe, an affectation, but I liked the idea of something I could point with! I'm not a smoker now (probably never really was either) but I still like the graceful, slender lines of the old clay pipes.
That was an awesome video. I've often wondered how the pipes were made. Thanks for posting. I've found a few bowls while out metal detecting but never a whole one.
I loved this! I have always wondered how to make them, I used to find them when mudlarking here in Sweden.Thinking of making a crude one for myself now :-)
They where usualy imported from England in barrels. In Nothern Sweden they are quite rare to find, but i still remeber how awsome it was when i found pieces of one in my fathers garden whan i was a little child. Later i found a few pieces on old shipsites in the sea, probably washed asore pieces seafarers throwed in the water whan it was brooken.
@@sheep1ewe There were lots of broken ones outside Sundsvall, the ships got rid of the ballast there before loading timber. Lots of flintstone as well!
@@MartinAhlman That was interesting, i actualy did a search a few miles from the city some years ago, but i think as You say they are probably concentrated finds to certain locations. I will absolutly hawe another look around those areas in the future! (As well as continue my hunt for weather baloons... ;) ) It's quite annoying that the permission papers for legaly use a metal detector in Sweden cost a small fortune today... It had been interesting to search the shores for metal parts from the wooden ship era.
@@MartinAhlman Thank You for the tip! Yes, especialy since i just got my self a new high grade detector... But maybe if it where many people who could share the same area with permission it would be more realistic, in Sweden mudlarking does not need any special premission for picking up loose finds, as it (formaly) does in Brittain, as long as one keep it outside protected "historical sites" and there are not metal objects of historical significance in the finds (but if one offer them to the state and they does not want to buy it from You, You are alloved to keep the find, no matter what,´from what i could found, and it only refear to objects made of metal, not objects made of other materials outside marked (or similary protected) sites.). So, at least from what i could find, i think we hawe a perfectly legal green card for official mudlarking, actualy, and a fine thing in sweden is that it is not only limited to the shores, one only need the elandowners formaly premission to dig in the ground and move rocks, nothing else outside marked areas, så You are basically free to search everywhere as long as it does not collide with any other regulations.
This was a great video, and hyper-interesting content. After all, this is an ancient craft. I see that he made the pipes for everyone in the series: Lark rise to Candelford, and also to the actors (and filmmakers) in the films: Pirates of the Caribbean, as well as countless BBC dramas. Rex Key has been called: a national treasure. He is constantly getting requests to make pipes for people, which I don't think is strange. I should have liked some of his beautiful pipes, even though I don't smoke, which he doesn't do himself either.
I have several old clays. One was a trade item for North American fur trade. Great little smokers, but the bowl gets too hot to hold. This was nice to watch !
@@petersoal40 Naw. It's easy. I'm a skilled craftsman, this is unskilled labor. Anyone who is good with their hands could pick this up in 5 minutes or less.
Lovely video. In rural Ireland at wakes the mourners were given clay pipes full of tobacco and bottles stout and glasses of whiskey. An old neighbour of my family would inquire a long time ago maybe 70 years ago or more if the family of the one that died gave ham to the people that called and if they had Wainscott ING that was a timber covering across the bottom of the walls to hide the damp. If someone went to a funeral maybe far away the old woman would inquire if they had ham and Wainscott ING . That would impress her and they were well to do and fine decent people in her book then. Have a look for peterson tobacco pipes made in Dublin on hear. It a good show. I refuse to smoke tobacco these days as its wasteful and bad for the health. I prefer to build up my tools I am pretty much there with metal working and mechanics tools but I want to build up a collection of wood working tools and make some projects in woods mainly a compact enough single axel
Single axel compact enough to be towed by a 1000cc car vardo style wagon with a compact half gas cylinder wood stove. I love the old stuff and I recently bought myself a shandon tweed flat cap made by O'Gorman's of Cork. I also intend on buying some leather working tools as I want to make harness quality belts to keep a bloke or ladies trousers up with decent brass buckles. I recently replaced the prong in my leather belt with a nail. It saved money and it was a problem to solve. An idle mind is the devil's play ground even keeping your stuff tidy and organised is rewarding.
I don't smoke, but after watching those mudlarking along the Thames videos and the uniqueness of these (both historic and aesthetic) make me want to get one anyways.
a British lady with a RU-vid channel called "nicola white mudlark - Tideline Art" she walks the Thames river regularly and finds all kinds of old treasures there including clay pipes some of them 100 year old, since the mold is of the same age, maybe those old recovered pipes were made with this same mold from a pipe make a century ago.....
I've smoked a pipe for over 50 years and a clay pipe gives absolutely the best smoke. One thing polish down the bit so it doesn't wear down your teeth to much.
You can always 3D print the mold or carve out a mold of your pipe out of clay and cast it (After firing it) in sand for smelting an aluminium mold of your pipe.
I was thinking same thing, one is not going to find a mould via Amazon. I do think creating a mould out of plaster would be a bit easier. One would need to jimmy rig the wire piece he has as well as that piece he inserted to flesh out the bowl. But I do think this is doable.
Just for personal preference and bragging rights it would be nice to have original moulds though instead of modern day 3d printed stuff.. not that it would do a better job either way... Just like a set of calipers ive got from 1888 made by d kimberly and sons... You just imagine all the hands theyve been through over the years etc... Or it might just be me... Ha
@@tonysolar284, I have a little home hobby type setup for pottery and aluminium casting and am tempted to try that. the most difficult thing is deciding on a design, it has to be attractive enough to justify the effort. Something to do whilst isolating.
According to the Heritage Crafts website, there are only 3 professional clay pipe craftsmen left, this is an endangered craft and needs to be taught before the craft goes extinct!
Beautiful what a beautiful pipe. I want one I love to smoke a Clay Pipe .Thank you for the video . You Sir are a Amazing Man . God bless please let me know how to contact you for a pipe
