Catterall Pipes

Catterall Pipes is the brand of handmade briar pipes produced by Van Catterall at his own bench in Greensboro, North Carolina, United States. It is not a factory doing mass production but a one-man workshop: each pipe is shaped separately, the workshop stamp is struck onto the shank, and it receives its own number. Records indicate Catterall carried out pipe making alongside his main profession, working days at a Greensboro-based nonprofit organization that supports young people and their families.

Material and Approach to Making

In the workshop, the bit is not taken from a ready mould; acrylic rod is hand-cut and shaped. At the joint with the shank, instead of metal or a turned acrylic tenon, a delrin tenon is used. Delrin is an engineering plastic resistant to wear and breakage; because it extends the life of this frequently inserted-and-removed joint, it has been adopted by many small workshops. Details on the subject are covered in the entry bit craftsmanship.

For the bodies, top-tier plateau briar logs from northeastern Spain are preferred. Plateau is the part of the briar burl closest to the ground, where the grain is dense and the outer surface stays naturally rough; makers value this section both for its grain pattern and its pore structure.