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BOSWELL PIPES IN A LEAGUE OF THEIR OWN

BY CATHY MENTZER

Gazette Staff Writter February 25, 1999

J.M. Boswell’s career may have started as a pipe dream but today, the celebrated craftsman is known for his dream pipes.  

Pipemaker J.M. Boswell uses a band saw to make the first cut to a block of Grecian briar.

  Boswell’s hand crafted pipes are revered, and sought after, by aficionados from all over the United States. Some people, according to his wife, even plan their vacations around visits to her husband at the family business, J.M. Boswell’s Handmade Pipes in Chambersburg. 

   “I sell more Boswell’s than I do any other brand of pipe,” says Charlie Affeld, owner of two Tinder Box shops in South Bend, Ind. “At a reasonable price, it’s a great product. His pipes just smoke great. They break in easily, and people love ’em.” John Boyd, general manager of seven Tobacco Barns of Virginia, describes Boswell pipes as “very easy to sell.”

   “You’re getting a helluva pipe for the price,” says Boyd, who guesses there are only a handful of professional pipe makers in Boswell’s league in the entire U.S. “We probably go through between four and six dozen of his standard, classic pipes a month. He can’t keep up with the demand.”

“I sell more Boswell’s then I do any other brand of pipe. People love ’em.”

—-Charlie Affeld, owner of two Tinder Box tobacco shops in South Bend, Ind.

J.M. Boswell with his first hand-carved pipe he ever made. The pipe bowl depicts a Mack Trucks bulldog.

   A genuine “character” perhaps as much for his personality as his pipes, Boswell and his briar smoking instruments have been the topics of numerous newspaper and magazine articles, as well as web pages on the internet. 

   “We carry weight in the pipe business, I tell you,” Boswell says in typical down-home fashion.

After reading about boswell in a magazine called “Pipes and Tobacco,” Fred Lorenzo two weeks ago drove from Gettysburg to Boswell’s 586 Lincoln Way East shop, which carries pipes, cigars, specialty cigarettes and custom blended tobaccos. 

   Lorenzo promptly bought two pipes, and last week he was back enjoying a smoke in the Boswell shop’s comfortably furnished smoking room.   

   “I don’t think he makes two pipes the same,” Lorenzo says. “Each is a little different, and that’s nice.”

Fred Lorenzo of Gettysburg, left, and Bernard Beckman of Fairfield enjoy a smoke in the seating area of J.M. Boswell’s Handmade Pipes at 586 Lincoln Way East.

To an unpretentious Boswell, there is no science to making a pipe. It comes naturally. For his “freehand” pipes, he uses no patterns or preplanned designs—just his imagination. 

   “Whatever I decide it’s gonna be is what it turns out to be,” he says with a smile. 

   There are many other variables too — the way the grain of the wood looks, different colors that can be applied, a variety of stems and all kinds of styles — that even to Boswell, each pipe is something of a surprise. 

   “A pipe is not just a pipe,” he says. “And when you buy a pipe from us, it’s one of a kind. Nobody else has it.”

Clearly proud of his reputation as king of the Pennsylvania pipe-making scene, Boswell is confident that the quality of his pipes is second to none. 

   “Our pipes smoke as well as anything on the market today, and we prove that time and time again,” he says flatly.

Since he got into pipe-making by accident at the age of 17, the 41-year-old Boswell has perfected the art. Now, he’s passing it along to his 19-year-old son, Danny, who helps him in his shop, along with Gail and the couple’s 16-year-old daughter, Rachel.

Boswell, a native Alabaman whose family moved to Pennsylvania when he was 10, “fell into” pipe-making when Carlisle pipe maker Richard Johnson offered him a job unexpectedly and he became anapprentice.  

   Five years later, Boswell moved to Chambersburg to open his own shop. His business, which was located on South Main Street for 17 years, will celebrate its 20th anniversary next February.

Using machinery he has customized or built himself, Boswell turns out 6,000 to 7,000 pipes a year. Some are sold in his shop, but most are sold wholesale to tobacconists around the country. His active client list numbers 150 to 200 stores. Another 300 stores are on a waiting list, according to Danny Boswell.

Boswell also repairs pipes, replacing broken stems, banding, reaming and cleaning them. He accepts some custom orders and hand-carves the occasional pipe, but his stock-in-trade consists of two kinds of pipes:

   All of Boswell’s pipes are made from white heath, a Mediterranean bush-like tree commonly called briarwood, which he imports in large quantities from Greece.  Many other U.S. pipemakers buy their briar from Boswell, he says. 

   “I buy as big as anybody with this briarwood,” says Boswell.  “You’ve got to buy large.  We have a 5- to 6- year supply of briarwood at all times.” 

   His shop uses 20 bags of briarwood a year, each bag weighing 270 to 300 pounds.

   The mouthpieces for Boswell pipes come from Italy and are made of either acrylic for colored stems or vulcanite — a very hard rubber — for the black stems.  All of the mouthpieces are cut and shaped in Boswell’s shop.

   Buying briar direct from cutters rather than through a middleman is one of the keys to Boswell’s ability to keep the cost of his pipes down — that, and his faithful determination to keep suppliers from gouging prices.

   Boswell places stickers with prices on all the pipes he ships to other pipe and tobacco shops, and if he hears they’ve jacked up the price they are likely to get a call from Boswell himself.

   “I strictly control the prices,” says Boswell.  “I just believe that everybody should be able to afford a nice pipe.  I don’t want the consumer to get ripped off.”

   That kind of honesty plus a home-spun charm has won Boswell the loyalty of many a customer, as well as business associates.  His measured drawl and occasional grammatical faux pas belie a shrewd business mind that has mastered the craft of turning a profit making superior-quality smoking instruments.

   “He’s a very sincere person,” says Tobacco Barns of Virginia’s Boyd.  “What you see is what you get.  There’s no BS about the man.”

   Over the years, Boswell has purchased the equipment from three pipemaking operations, including one in State College he says was making a different kind of pipe altogether when it switched to tobacco pipes but failed to make it.

   Boswell has altered some of the equipment to specifically fit his needs.  Some of his designs have been purchased by other pipemakers around the nation, he says.

   Boswell graciously demonstrates his pipemaking technique to curious writers and reporters.  His own pipe planted firmly between his teeth, (“You’ve got to know what you’re selling,” he says) he begins by drawling the general outline of a pipe on a piece of briarwood, then cutting out the shape with a band saw.  He uses a drill press to hollow out the tobacco bowl.

   On a sanding machine, Boswell refines the shape of the pipe and smoths it.  He uses special machinery to bore the tenon that will connect to the mouthpiece.

   When the pipe is assembled, his son applies and alcohol-based dye to highlight and bring out the wood grain.  Then the pipe is hand-buffed with wax on a series of buffing wheels.

   The final touch is Boswell’s signature and —on the freehand pipes the date — which he engraves on the stems.

   To the casual observer, it seems as if Boswell could almost make pipes in his sleep.  But he says his work is never dull because every pipe is unique.

   “It’s great,” Boswell says of his life’s work.  “I make a good living.  I’ve got my family working with me.  I’m making something people like.  It don’t get any better than that.”

   He also credits his customers with helping keep things interesting.

   “It’s a lot of fun,” says Boswell.  ‘ The people are what make it worth it.  Their enthusiasm rubs off.”

Chambersburg Pipemaker Combines Today’s Technology With Old World Craftmanship

    J.M. Boswell of Chambersburg, PA, is a part of a rare group of American craftsmen – he is one of a few professional pipemakers in the United States.  “A lot of hobbyists make pipes”, he points out.  “But only a handful of people in this country make pipes as a profession.

    The Alabama native moved to central Pennsylvania, where his career as a pipemaker began by accident when he was 18 years old.  As a favor, he gave a friend a ride to the unemployment office.  “The unemployment office was next to a tobacco shop and pipemaking business where I delivered newspapers when I was a boy,” J.M. recounts. While waiting in the car for his friend, the owner of the business came out of his shop, apparently on his way to do some errands. “We started to talk and he asked me if I wanted a job,” J.M. says.  “I wasn’t working at the time, so I took the job and I’ve been making pipes ever since.”

    After serving an apprenticeship of between six months and a year, J.M. managed the business for the next four years.  In February 1980, he opened his own shop, J.M. Boswell’s Handmade Pipes at 170 S. Main Street, Chambersburg.

    Each handcrafted pipe, called Freehand, begins as a small block of briar wood.  The wood, which is imported from Greece, is cut into blocks at a local sawmill.  “The actual name of the wood comes from the White Heath tree”, he explains.  “It’s in the same family as Mountain Laurel and Rosewood.”

    Wood used to make pipes comes from the root of the tree.  The root forms a ball that stores water to keep the root system alive during the dry months of the year.  The size of the rootball depends on the amount of rainfall.  J.M. points out that the rootball gets larger as it absorbs more water, but does not actually shrink during the dry season.  “The rootball is the portion of the root that is used for making pipes,” J.M. says.  “The reason the graining patterns are the way they are is because of the direction the water travels in the rootball.”

    J.M. draws the outline of the bowl on the block with a pencil.  His pipes are made in a dozen different standard shapes.  Using a bandsaw, he cuts away the outside of the block until the shape of the bowl appears.  Then, he uses a drill press to make the hole that will hold the tobacco.  All of the machines that J.M. uses are power tools that he has customized.  “I took the old and combined it with the new,” he says.  “Because I just can’t buy pipe making machinery.”

    The next step is to smooth the bowl of the pipe.  “I use 50-grit paper on a sanding belt to actually shape the pipe,” J.M. says.

    Using a customized “stem cutter”, J.M. bores the tenon to which the stem is attached.  The next machine drills the draft hole or air hole.  “This is the hole that creates the draft that brings the smoke back through the mouthpiece,” J.M. says. With a large amount of the work on the bowl completed, J.M. begins to concentrate on the stem.  Each stem has to fit securely to the bowl.  Stem material is imported from Italy.  The boring of the stem hole is also completed at this stage. “Then,” J.M. says, “I cut the stem to fit the tenon and create and that creates the mouthpiece to hold the pipe.”

    Once the two parts are put together, J.M. must complete three different sanding processes.  Once the pipe is smooth, the stem is shaped and sanded.  After this process is finished, the bowl of the pipe is buffed on an electric buffer.  The final process is to stain the bowl of the pipe.  Using a brush, J.M. stains his pipes in six different colors: black, burgundy, medium brown, dark brown, cordovan, and light brown.

    “After the stain is buffed, it shows the grain of the pipe and the way the water traveled in the rootball,” he says. J.M. has also developed an exclusive coating that is applied inside the bowl.  This innovative coating shortens the “break-in” time of each new pipe and provides a sweet smoke from the first bowlful.

    “Everything is real labor intensive,” J.M. comments.  “But it’s the process that works best.”  For the finishing touch, each pipe is signed.

    In addition to making pipes, J.M. also mixes custom hand blended tobaccos.  The 22 blends are cured with natural flavoring and are free of chemicals.

    J.M. will make about 3,200 pipes this year.  In addition to selling his pipes at his shop, he also sells his pipes wholesale to more than 200 smoke shops throughout the United States.  In his biggest production year – 1990- he made 5,200 pipes.  “That was the first year we did the National Trade Show in Washington D.C.,” he says.  “The size of the wholesale business doubled after that show.”

    Although high rents have forced a large number of smoke shops out of business, more than 3,000 remain nationwide.  Despite the decrease in smoke shops, pipe smoking continues to be popular.  Quality is what pipe smokers appreciate the most.

    “People are buying better and smoking less,” J.M. comments.  “It’s going back to the way it was a hundred years ago when a man worked in the fields all day and then came home and enjoyed a smoke in the evening.”

    However, it isn’t only men who enjoy a relaxing smoke.  According to J.M., pipe smoking is becoming popular with more and more women.  Whatever blend of tobacco a pipe smoker selects, unwinding with a good smoke is what matters the most.  “That’s the way pipe smoking is intended to be,” J.M. reflects.  “Never habit forming, but something to relax and enjoy.”

By Joseph Weagley

Published in “Warm Welcome Magazine”, November 1993.

Pipe Dream Comes True in a Chambersburg Shop

By Keith Snider

J.M. Boswell’s pipe dream has come true…..in the form of Boswell’s Pipe and Tobacco Shop.

But Boswell’s dream consists of more than simply owning and operating a tobacco shop. He is also a seasoned pipe maker. He makes big pipes, little pipes, unusual pipes. What he doesn’t make, he says, are average pipes.

Boswell, born in Elba, Ala. 25 years ago, discovered his craft by accident. His family moved to Carlisle when he was 10, and he got a job delivering newspapers. One of his customers was a man who owned a tobacco shop. He offered Boswell a job, and the youngster turned out to be a natural pipe maker.
“It’s a success story,” he says. “That’s how most people find success. They fall into it.”
Three years ago, he took a big gamble and moved to Chambersburg to open his own shop at 170 S. Main Street. He left a $300 a week job to pursue his dream.
“We (his wife and he) sold everything we had to get into this business,” he says. “We sold a nice house in Carlisle and borrowed from everybody and his brother.”
What prompted him to choose Chambersburg?
“I thought this was a good market and a chance to make a nationwide name” he says. He doesn’t envision a chain of shops, he adds, just international recognition.
Boswell feels he is the best at his chosen profession. It’s not bragging, he says smiling, just the truth.
“My aim in life is to be the best pipe maker in the world,” he continued. “I’ve mastered the art of pipe making.”
He claims there are only seven bona fide professional pipe makers in the United States. “There are a lot that say they’re good and aren’t,” he says.
Boswell makes about 30 basic styles of pipes regularly but has made hundreds of others. He figures he has produced 10,000 to 20,000 pipes in seven years. His pride and joy is a replica of the Mack Trucks bulldog. He doesn’t bother to discuss the common styles, saying they are easy to make.
Boswell approaches a rough block of wood as a sculptor would a chunk of granite. He visualizes what style of pipe can be formed from the wood, then pencil sketches his mental image onto the block. He makes the first cut on a bandsaw and removes the rough edges with a sanding wheel. The tobacco hole is drilled next, then the air hole is bored, and then there is more sanding.
Most of Boswell’s pipe stems are made of hard rubber. He places them in a pot of boiling water to make them flexible and bends them to the desired angle. He also uses deer antler for stems.
He finishes the process by finishing the pipe with natural dyes. Wood stain would come off on the smoker’s hand, he says. The finished product is coated lightly with beeswax for shine.
The blocks of wood are from the hump of the white heath tree and are native to the Mediterranean. Boswell pays an importer $7 to $35 for each block. Because the material is costly, Boswell tries to keep the final price low.
“I put the prices right and they sell,” he says. Boswellmoves about 36 pipes in an average week, selling many more at peak times such as Father’s Day and Christmas.
Boswell also has 60 pipe repair accounts with shops throughout the U.S. and Canada. It’s the latest facet of his business.
“They run it over with a truck, I can fix it,” he says. “Don’t throw away them old pipes until you check with me.”
Boswell custom blends his tobaccos and has come up with what he thinks are 22 of the best blends on the market. All sell briskly and he sees no reason to increase his inventory. He ships his blends to other shops, but doesn’t actively seek accounts.
When he opened the shop, Boswell attempted to create a homey atmosphere. The pipes are displayed in early American cabinets. Tobaccos are arranged in large jars, and Boswell encourages customers to relax in a padded chair and try a sample.
“I’m not a high-pressure salesman,” he says. “Pipe smokers know what they want and you can only help them so much.”
The area has accepted Boswell and his sales philosophy. Sales are increasing by 36 percent a year. His inventory is worth $35,000, up from $5,000 when he began. He has a six-year supply of wood, worth nearly $10,000.
“I’ve found favor with the people of Chambersburg, and they’ve found favor with me,” he says. “I’m down to earth; I’m not over your head.”
Boswell has become successful by working about 60 hours a week and maintaining a positive attitude during tough times. But he has no desire to become rich at the expense of his family. His wife, 3-year-old son and 3-month old daughter often visit the shop, sometimes eating lunch with him.
“I could move to the big city and triple my business. But it wouldn’t be good for the family,” he says.
Boswell most enjoys the creative aspect of his trade. “It’s really satisfying when you take a piece of wood and turn it into something worth $100.”
Basic pipes cost up to $50, with carved heads priced from $50 to $1,000. “Carving is something you develop,” he says.
At “25 and going strong”, Boswell intends to operate his shop for many years. Will his son take over the business? Boswell hopes so, but it will be the boy’s decision.
The youngster already has had an initiation of sorts. Boswell gave him a small pipe bowl to teeth on. What else for a pipe makers son?

Boswell, born in Elba, Ala. 25 years ago, discovered his craft by accident. His family moved to Carlisle when he was 10, and he got a job delivering newspapers. One of his customers was a man who owned a tobacco shop. He offered Boswell a job, and the youngster turned out to be a natural pipe maker.
“It’s a success story,” he says. “That’s how most people find success. They fall into it.”
Three years ago, he took a big gamble and moved to Chambersburg to open his own shop at 170 S. Main Street. He left a $300 a week job to pursue his dream.
“We (his wife and he) sold everything we had to get into this business,” he says. “We sold a nice house in Carlisle and borrowed from everybody and his brother.”
What prompted him to choose Chambersburg?
“I thought this was a good market and a chance to make a nationwide name” he says. He doesn’t envision a chain of shops, he adds, just international recognition.
Boswell feels he is the best at his chosen profession. It’s not bragging, he says smiling, just the truth.
“My aim in life is to be the best pipe maker in the world,” he continued. “I’ve mastered the art of pipe making.”
He claims there are only seven bona fide professional pipe makers in the United States. “There are a lot that say they’re good and aren’t,” he says.
Boswell makes about 30 basic styles of pipes regularly but has made hundreds of others. He figures he has produced 10,000 to 20,000 pipes in seven years. His pride and joy is a replica of the Mack Trucks bulldog. He doesn’t bother to discuss the common styles, saying they are easy to make.
Boswell approaches a rough block of wood as a sculptor would a chunk of granite. He visualizes what style of pipe can be formed from the wood, then pencil sketches his mental image onto the block. He makes the first cut on a bandsaw and removes the rough edges with a sanding wheel. The tobacco hole is drilled next, then the air hole is bored, and then there is more sanding.
Most of Boswell’s pipe stems are made of hard rubber. He places them in a pot of boiling water to make them flexible and bends them to the desired angle. He also uses deer antler for stems.
He finishes the process by finishing the pipe with natural dyes. Wood stain would come off on the smoker’s hand, he says. The finished product is coated lightly with beeswax for shine.
The blocks of wood are from the hump of the white heath tree and are native to the Mediterranean. Boswell pays an importer $7 to $35 for each block. Because the material is costly, Boswell tries to keep the final price low.
“I put the prices right and they sell,” he says. Boswellmoves about 36 pipes in an average week, selling many more at peak times such as Father’s Day and Christmas.
Boswell also has 60 pipe repair accounts with shops throughout the U.S. and Canada. It’s the latest facet of his business.
“They run it over with a truck, I can fix it,” he says. “Don’t throw away them old pipes until you check with me.”
Boswell custom blends his tobaccos and has come up with what he thinks are 22 of the best blends on the market. All sell briskly and he sees no reason to increase his inventory. He ships his blends to other shops, but doesn’t actively seek accounts.
When he opened the shop, Boswell attempted to create a homey atmosphere. The pipes are displayed in early American cabinets. Tobaccos are arranged in large jars, and Boswell encourages customers to relax in a padded chair and try a sample.
“I’m not a high-pressure salesman,” he says. “Pipe smokers know what they want and you can only help them so much.”
The area has accepted Boswell and his sales philosophy. Sales are increasing by 36 percent a year. His inventory is worth $35,000, up from $5,000 when he began. He has a six-year supply of wood, worth nearly $10,000.
“I’ve found favor with the people of Chambersburg, and they’ve found favor with me,” he says. “I’m down to earth; I’m not over your head.”
Boswell has become successful by working about 60 hours a week and maintaining a positive attitude during tough times. But he has no desire to become rich at the expense of his family. His wife, 3-year-old son and 3-month old daughter often visit the shop, sometimes eating lunch with him.
“I could move to the big city and triple my business. But it wouldn’t be good for the family,” he says.
Boswell most enjoys the creative aspect of his trade. “It’s really satisfying when you take a piece of wood and turn it into something worth $100.”
Basic pipes cost up to $50, with carved heads priced from $50 to $1,000. “Carving is something you develop,” he says.
At “25 and going strong”, Boswell intends to operate his shop for many years. Will his son take over the business? Boswell hopes so, but it will be the boy’s decision.
The youngster already has had an initiation of sorts. Boswell gave him a small pipe bowl to teeth on. What else for a pipe makers son?

The tobacco is piled high.
Stuffed in clear glass jars are mounds of loose, sweet smelling black, brown, and golden flakes. Boxes of fat, hand-rolled cigars, imported and domestic are stacked in a special humidity controlled room. The wall behind the register is lined with the colorful cartons of scores of commercial cigarette brands.
The air is thick with mingling aromatic smells. Glass cases display the tools of the trade: mahogany-colored hand-carved pipes, soft leather pouches, gleaming cigarette cases and smooth brass lighters. Matchbooks are crammed into a jar. Metal racks hold soft cotton pipe cleaners and Bic lighters.

This is a smoker’s paradise.

On downtown main streets and suburban malls these are havens for the true lover of tobacco, smoke shops that, like the tobacco they sell, will not go away.
Amid the backdrop of intense anti-smoking campaigns by the U.S. surgeon general, the American Cancer Society, and other health organizations- “negative P.R.”, as one tobacconist calls it- the tobacco trade is changing, but it is not dying.
Smoke shop owners say cigarette sales may be down, but pipe tobacco and cigar sales are up.
“There’s never been that anti-attitude towards pipes or cigars,” says J.M. Boswell, owner of J.M. Boswell’s Pipe and Tobacco in Chambersburg, Pa. Boswell and other tobacco customers switch from cigarettes to pipes or cigars because of the more direct link between cigarettes and cancer.
But Boswell says health concern isn’t the only reason smokers have made the switch. With cigarettes ranging from $1 to $1.25 a pack, smokers who burn up seven to 14 packs a week are finding it’s a lot cheaper to buy a couple dollars worth of loose tobacco to puff on, Boswell says.
And while tobacco can be bought almost anywhere- grocery stores, drug stores, gas stations- shop keepers say other stores can’t offer what they do.
Firstly, smoke shops offer a wider variety of loose tobaccos and accessories, shop owners say. In addition, they say smoking is a very “personalized” habit. Smoke shops offer customers a place to browse as well as pick up additional background and know-how for pipe and cigar smoking.
Smoke shop prices run the price gamut from $5.95 specials made from flawed briar wood to $100 pipes of carved meerschaum- a white organic material- to $400 pipes hand carved in the shape of animals or human faces.
Hundreds of pipes are on display at The Smoke Shop, Widmer’s, and Boswell’s.
In Chambersburg, 28-year-old Boswell, who’s been in the business since he was 17, makes hand carved pipes at his Main Street shop. Last year he made between 3,000 and 5,000 pipes and shipped them throughout the country.
Smoke shops are good places for smokers to find the tobacco blend they want. Most smoke shops sell commercial varieties of pipe tobacco as well as their own tobacco blends. Boswell sells 17 of his own specialty blends, and Phil Widmer, owner of Widmer’s Tobacco Shop at Valley Mall, sells 21. Most tobacconists will blend them to order.
For the cigar smoker, smoke shops offer the cheaper commercial varieties displayed in packages on the racks as well as more expensive varieties – domestics from Connecticut and Florida and imports from Honduras, Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic – that are stored in humidor rooms.
Prices range from 10-cent American-made Swisher Sweets to $4 imports.

The pipe smoker is often thought of as a thinker. For the most part, that pipe smoker image still holds true, says Chambersburg smoke store owner J.M. Boswell, a pipe maker and pipe smoker. The image has been a long time in the making.
“Pipes have been around a couple hundred years,” Boswell says. Pipe smokers are calm people, he says.
“A true pipe smoker I’ve never seen uptight,” he says. “They always seem to take their pressure out on the pipe.”
While a chain cigarette smoker lights up when he gets nervous, Boswell says the pipe smoker fidgets with his pipe: cleans the bowl, stuffs in tobacco and lights it.
“The playtime that involved in it………takes your mind off the pressure,” he says.

It takes pipe smokers a while to feel comfortable with their pipes- they have to “break it in” or let the tobacco season it- but once they do, the pipe is never far from the smoker’s hand.
“It’s a secure feeling, smoking a pipe,” Boswell says. True pipe smokers “probably have it with them more than they’re with their wife of kid.”

“All I Do Is Make Pipes”

By Dyan Kastle

After spending time with owners, J.M. and Gail Boswell and meeting their son, Danny (19), and daughter Rachel (16), I was overwhelmed with an education on pipes, tobacco, cigars, and all the “toys” that go along with this very personal and fun hobby.

As I walked into their quaint shop, I was greeted with Gail’s grandfather’s smoking jacket, walls of pipes, the aroma of pipe tobacco, a sitting area, climate-controlled humidor, and other comforts that would please even the most frugal connoisseur. I felt like I was home in talking with J.M. and Gail. The wealth of knowledge they share is comprehensive, as well as humble. J.M. said, “All we do is make pipes. You’ve got to love it and we do.” That quickly becomes obvious.

J.M. got into the business by accident. As a ten year old boy, he had a newspaper route and delivered papers to a pipe shop in Carlisle. At the age of 17, he ran into the shop owner and was asked to do odd-and-ends work. The rest, you could say, is history. An accident, one might ask? It was more like a calling to a hidden talent. J.M. said that he made a lot of mistakes while learning, but caught on quickly. After five years he decided to move his wife, Gail, and at that time two-year old son Danny, to Chambersburg, PA. J.M. was going to work for a local manufacturer. But when driving through downtown Chambersburg, fate hit them again. There on Main Street in downtown Chambersburg was a sign in the window of a business suite, “For Lease, Will Remodel to Suit.” It was as if someone was telling them to stay in the pipe business. They took the little bit of savings they had to open the doors and offer the local people a part of their dream. Gail said, “J.M. would work all day in the shop, come home and eat, and then work until 1:00 am making pipes, calling wholesalers and making runs to businesses to sell his product.” He is one of a handful of professional pipe makers in the world today.

As we talked in the smoking area, two young men walked over and asked if it was okay to join us and smoke the cigar they had just purchased. J.M. and Gail, with open hearts, invited them to join us. J.M. made some chit chat with them and I could tell they felt truly welcome. As they talked, Gail leaned over to me and explained that when they moved up the road (to their current location), that the were a little worried about losing clientele. But, they have actually gained customers. They come by and bring their newspaper and coffee to relax for awhile before going home. Some spend their time here when they’ve had to drop someone off at the hospital. Instead of worrying in the waiting room, they come here and relax, she commented.

“Pipe smokers come from all walks of life,” they told me. From the regular Joe off the street to Ambassadors (one from South Africa who stops in when he is in the area); from soap opera stars to Curtis Armstrong (from the Return of the Nerds and Moonlighting); from first-time buyers to the most experienced.In the 20 years he has been mastering his art, J.M. has crafted well over 150,000 pipes. Generally, he makes around 6,000 pipes a year, as well as blend tobacco. “The key to blending good tobacco,” J.M. confided, “is that it needs to not only smell like its name, it’s gotta taste like it also. People don’t smoke a pipe for habit, it’s the taste.” Pipes are personal. They are an extension of each individuals personality. There are pipes for cool smokes, big pipes, pocket pipes, feminine pipes, masculine pipes, pipes for all occasions and all walks of life. Customers are confident in J.M.; they tell him what they want and he creates it.
One gentleman that was in the shop lives in Roanoke, Virginia. He travels to Chambersburg because he said, “J.M.’s the best.” He didn’t mind traveling the distance because, “it was worth it.” The traveler had a box of pipes he showed me. These were pipes he had purchased through the years at different places and they were in need of repair….you guessed it! J.M. is a pipe doctor, too. The way this man handed me his pipes, showing me where the repairs had been made, I could tell he genuinely loved the craftsmanship of the pipe. The traveler posed a good question, “You’d travel for a good meal, wouldn’t you? Well, I travel for a good smoke.”
As J.M. went back to work and Gail continued to show me around the shop, I began to understand how personal it was to have the right pipe. My husband now owns a Boswell and I have a pina colada cigar. Best cigar I have ever smoked.