DSH Pipes (David S. Huber)

DSH Pipes is the one-man workshop of American maker David S. Huber, working in Durham, North Carolina, signed with the initials of his own name. Every stage, from design to final polish, passes through the same hands; no assistant is employed at the workshop.

The Road to the Workshop

The first pursuit that connected Huber to pipes was not production but collecting: according to records, after buying his first pipe in 2006, he collected pieces for years, examining the shape approach of different schools along the way. His own first attempts date to around 2010; the initial setup consisted of a few briar blocks, ready-made mouthpiece rods, and a handful of files. In 2012 he acquired a lathe and set up his first regular workspace in his Chicago apartment, counting February of that year as the start of the work. Moving to Durham in 2014 marked a turning point; he left his stage-design profession and moved into pipe making full time.

The workshop is today housed within the Liberty Arts sculpture studio and foundry in Durham; Huber works there as a guest artist. His running his lathe at the studio's events and showing the shaping and sanding stages to visitors has also been the subject of the studio's own announcements. It is also on record that he gives short monthly introductory lessons in pipe making at the same location.