What differentiates the Lumberman from other pipes in the Canadian family is that the Lumberman has an oval shank with an oval saddle stem. As with other members of the Canadian family, a slender shank graces the bowl carrying about twice the length of the bowl’s height to its end. With its slim and simple profile, it would hardly look at home in a massive calloused hand. Perhaps Canadian lumbermen are slender and gentle, and we’ve had the wrong idea all this time. Matches, or separately lit slivers of wood are often considered preferable to lighters because of lower burning temperature.
After being dried for two years, the cobs are hollowed out to form a bowl shape, then either dipped in a plaster-based mixture or varnished or lacquered on the outside. The broad anatomy of a pipe typically comprises mainly the bowl and the stem. The bowl (1) which is the cup-like outer shell, the part hand-held while packing, holding and smoking a pipe, is also the part “knocked” top-down to loosen and release impacted spent tobacco. On being sucked, the general stem delivers the tobacco pipe smoke from the bowl to the user’s mouth.
Some cultures of the indigenous peoples of the Americas smoke tobacco in ceremonial pipes, and have done so since long before the arrival of Europeans. For instance the Lakota people use a ceremonial pipe called čhaŋnúŋpa. Other cultures of the indigenous peoples of the Americas smoke tobacco socially.2 The tobacco plant is native to South America but spread into North America long before Europeans arrived.
This peculiar and seemingly nonsensical irregularity is what gives the Hawkbill its uniqueness, and not the shaping of its bowl. The Hawkbill’s bowl is usually shaped like a Brandy, Tomato, Author, or something in between. It can be made in a variety of finishes, and is usually accompanied by a short round tapered stem. Once significantly more popular than it is today, the Hawkbill has fallen from the limelight, but there are still some who nurture an admiration for the odd.
Unusual pipe materials include gourds (as in the famous calabash pipe) and pyrolytic graphite. Metal and glass, seldom used for tobacco pipes, are common for pipes intended for other substances, such as cannabis. Inside the bowl is an inner chamber (2) space holding tobacco pressed into it. This draught hole (3), is for air flow where air has travelled through the tobacco in the chamber, taking the smoke with it, up the shank (4). According to popular legend, A local farmer contacted Tibbe to improve on his handmade corn cob pipe.