Ferndown Bark 2 Star Silver Spigot Apple Estate Briar Pipe, Unsmoked

Description

Ferndown pipes were made by the legendary British pipe-maker Leslie ‘Les’ John Wood, along with his wife Dolly. Both Les and Dolly previously worked for Dunhill, where Les developed his skills and reputation as Britain’s premier pipe silversmith, as well as one of its premier pipe carvers. Ferndown pipes are highly coveted by pipe-smokers due to their superlative craftsman(and woman!)ship, whose bowls are oil-cured and which typically feature beautiful silverwork. Sadly, Les and Dolly retired from pipe-making in 2016, making Ferndown pipes rather scarce – especially given how difficult it is to get their owners to part with them.

Pipe-makers often suffer for their art, as all artists often do. This can be a financial kind of harm, given how fickle and difficult to break the market is, but it can also be more physical. Ferndown’s Bark finish was certainly a case of the latter. As Les revealed recently in an interview with MBSD (feel free to check it out on the main hub), his and Dolly’s “barking” technique involved filing the head of a drill bit into two sharp points, setting the drill in motion, and holding a stummel against the split bit as it spun at several thousand RPM. This was excellent for creating the richly textured rustication Ferndown became famous for, but it was also a very easy way to slice your hand open. This was something Les and Dolly became acutely familiar with over the years, but they nonetheless kept barking their pipes, much to the relief of many a smoker. This particular Bark is a two-star size grade (which is still quite large, given the Woods’ preference for stouter pipes) and has the distinction of one of Les’s sterling silver spigots, something he had even more familiarity and expertise with than briar and ebonite.

This Ferndown is completely unsmoked, with an original bowl coating.

 

We recently interviewed Les which you can read the whole interview here..

https://www.mbsdpipes.com/from-dunhill-to-ferndown-an-interview-with-les-wood/

 

Details:

Length: 6″ / 152.4mm

Bowl Width: 0.82″ / 20.82mm

Bowl Depth: 1.63″ / 41.40mm

Weight: 2.4oz / 70g