PipesMD Pipes

PipesMD Pipes is the name of the signature under which American maker Charles "Charlie" Sharp gathers the pipes made by his own hand. Records give Rio Rancho, in the state of New Mexico, as the workshop's address. PipesMD is not a factory-scale brand; it is one of the small workshops built around a single bench, of which there were growing numbers in the United States in the second half of the 20th century.

A Maker Who Came From the Machine Shop

Sharp did not enter pipe making from wood but from metal. He spent most of his working life in tool-and-die work and machining. This background carries over directly into pipe making: both the smoke channel and the stem socket demand precise alignment, an area where years spent at the lathe and milling machine pay off directly. Such a career shift is not uncommon among independent American makers; a good share of the names who turned to pipe making in the postwar period learned their trade either in a woodshop or in a machine shop.

Records show he took over a tobacco shop that changed hands in the eastern part of the country in 1971 and used it as a bench where he could display his own pipes. The shop closed in 1980, but production continued.