Our Artisan Carvers
My name is Carl Harris, I’m an old guy who’s been married to the same wonderful woman for 53 years. Most of my younger days were spent studying chemistry, learning about nuclear chemistry, working at Arkansas Nuclear One (ANO), and teaching college chem at Arkansas Tech University (ATU).
I like to sail, play with my grandkids, pick my banjo and make a few tobacco pipes when I feel creative. I make, restore and repair pipes in my garage and on my couch in London Arkansas. I have sold over 500 pipes to pipers all across the US, with a few pipes even having made it to Europe. Out of all of the pipes I have shipped to buyers, only one has been returned because it wasn’t what the buyer had in mind--I guess nobody’s perfect!
Dr. Carl Harris
HOW IT ALL STARTED
My grandfather smoked a pipe, my dad smoked a pipe and I started smoking a pipe at college in 1971. I had a Yellow Bowl bent Dublin, a Yellow Bowl Churchwarden and a small Wellington well pipe. While visiting a tobacco shop in Little Rock one weekend I saw my first Ben Wade Danish Freehand and fell in love with the style and had to have one. I still have that Ben Wade on my fireplace mantle. I quit smoking in 1974 but kept my 4 favorite pipes and did not think much about pipes until 2012 when a friend showed me the prices for some of the high end artisan pipes ($Wow$). I then checked out what my old Ben Wade freehand would sell for on eBay and decided I might try my hand at refurbishing a few old estate pipes. After doing that for a year I decided I would try my hand at making a pipe and now I have made over 500 of them. My first pipes were rough and I basically gave them away or sold them for less than $50. As I slowly obtained better tools, better materials and improved my techniques, I actually started to sell a few of them on eBay. The thing that has continued to surprise me the most about my customer reviews is that they say my pipes smoke as well as their (insert well-known pipe here). I have made many different styles of pipes, but my go to shape is a long slender billiard like the old Merchant Service Special or the Wilmer Bel Air. Most pipers call this pipe style a Bing Crosby Pipe because Bing was often seen and photographed clenching one of these long sleek billiards. I will take commissions on building you a Bing based on your specifications.
GRADES:
HUNTER: A decent briar pipe with a vulcanite stem with very little finishing on my part. It will smoke well, in my opinion. I may have made it, refurbished it, or got it in a batch of seconds from somewhere. The idea is if you lose it in the woods or at the lake, you haven’t lost a great treasure.
Bench, Silver and Gold grades come from the same Italian briar ebauchons that were blocked in the late 1960s to the mid 70s. I have stored these briars for the past 20 years, so they are very well-seasoned.
BENCH: Made of high quality briar--may have a pit or two and possibly a fill or two. I often rusticate the Bench Grade stummels to make them more interesting.
SILVER: Made of high quality briar. If a stummel has only one or two small pits, it probably will make the Silver Grade.
GOLD: Made of high quality Italian briar. A Gold Signature pipe will have a near perfect stummel with great grain and accurate drilling.
Dr. Mike Chmielewski