Luna Pipes: an American Workshop Devoted to the Lord of the Rings

Luna Pipes is a small pipe workshop that operated in Bothell, Washington, in the northeastern suburbs of Seattle. Its founder, Tom Johnson, worked primarily as a cabinetmaker; he took up pipemaking as a part-time pursuit and kept his output at the scale typical of made-to-order workshops. The brand's name has been known only within a narrow circle of enthusiasts.

Founding the Workshop

The year the workshop opened is not documented; available records point to the late 1990s. By Johnson's own account, his first attempt at a pipe — a briar block he bought and worked entirely himself — placed third in a pipe-carving contest run by the American magazine Pipes & Tobaccos in 1998. This placement cannot be confirmed from an independent source.

The stem of this first piece was hand-cut from Corian, the artificial stone sheet used for kitchen countertops. This taste for unusual stem materials carried through into the workshop's later work as well. Johnson is said to have found his first customers through the Seattle Pipe Club; resting on a single source, this account fits the general pattern of the American generation of independent makers who gained visibility through club networks. For the broader picture of that period, see the entry Go West.