Penguin Briar

Penguin Briar is a small-scale pipe workshop run by Kim Kendall in Phoenix, Arizona, United States. Production is carried out not on a series-manufacturing basis but through a method in which every piece is shaped by hand, one at a time. The brand's founding year is not on record; the workshop's known story begins with Kendall's attempt to make a pipe for her own use.

Learning Process

When Kendall took up pipe making, she had a modest collection of eleven pipes from different brands. For her first attempts she chose the path requiring the least investment: acquiring ready-drilled briar blocks and shaping them with a rotary tool and sandpaper. After the first two pipes were finished, it became clear that the technical side of the work was heavier than it looked; she then sought out formal training. Starting with a ready-drilled block, avoiding the investment in a lathe and drilling rig, is a common starting method among new makers wanting to get into the craft; because the position of the chamber and the smoke channel is predetermined, only shaping the outer form and finishing are left to the maker.

She received her training in the pipe-making classes occasionally held by Paul Hildebrand of the Pipe Makers Emporium. The classes covered internal geometry, the alignment of the hole between body and mouthpiece (stem), the manufacturing sequence, and surface finishing techniques. Through the same circle, Kendall also met Horace DeJarnett, another well-known pipe maker in the region. It is known that, guided by the two, she focused her work on the basic structure of pipe making before moving on to showier shapes.