A business option for pipemakers

[rorybbellows]

Cillian O,Brien has four children still at school and he seems to manage alright . Saying that, Cillian,s pipes could quite possably be the most expensive out there,but having a waiting list of maybe six years or so ,it shows that people are willing to pay for quality


RORY

[Kevin King]

There seems to be a lot of different ideas on how, or what,would be the best or fairest way for pipemakers to sell their pipe
So what way do you think they should do?

1-Maintain the present system of waiting lists

2-sell their finished pipes to the highest bidder

3-announce that a set of pipes are finished on a web site
and sell on a first come basis at a set price

4-announce that a set of pipes are finished and invited pipers to be
auditioned and pipes sold to the best player


Or do you have another idea how it could be done?

RORY

PS maybe this could set up as a poll ,if people are not already sick of this subject!!!

As a beginner I had a problem getting a good pratice set .
Another idea could be that a pipemaker could have a waiting list for full sets for players who have pipes and not in a big rush .And then another list ,with not such a long waiting time, for pratice sets for beginners

kevin

[billh]

Cillian O,Brien has four children still at school and he seems to manage alright . Saying that, Cillian,s pipes could quite possably be the most expensive out there,but having a waiting list of maybe six years or so ,it shows that people are willing to pay for quality


RORY

Cillian doesn't just make pipes.

[rorybbellows]

Cillian O,Brien has four children still at school and he seems to manage alright . Saying that, Cillian,s pipes could quite possably be the most expensive out there,but having a waiting list of maybe six years or so ,it shows that people are willing to pay for quality


RORY

Cillian doesn't just make pipes.

First of all I,m not commenting on your family decisions as that is 100% your own business as it is with everyone .
But I personally think it is wrong that you should have to make a choice between kids and pipemaking
.I just think you should be better rewarded for your skill !!


RORY

[billh]

First of all I,m not commenting on your family decisions as that is 100% your own business as it is with everyone .
But I personally think it is wrong that you should have to make a choice between kids and pipemaking
.I just think you should be better rewarded for your skill !!

RORY

I appreciate the sentiment Rory.

I wasn't trying to say that it would be impossible to raise kids on a pipemaker's salary, but it would be a challenge. Fortunately for all of us, people are still motivated by things other than money, and we make decisions based on things other than just finance. Probably circumstances for pipemakers and potential pipemakers are better than they have ever been in history.

However we do operate in a world with fiscal constraints, and I guess the point I was making had to do with the economics of expanding beyond a one-person operation. Other than the satisfaction inherent in passing on one's skills, which can be very great indeed, there probably is little advantage to most makers in expanding their shops. On the other hand, "contracting out" aspects of the work might be a practical way of both expanding production and effecting skills transfer - starting with things like bellows and bags, perhaps, and moving on to metalwork, blowpipes, etc.

Bill

[taupe]

Fascinating thread - one of the best for ages, running to 6 pages and unlocked.

Pipemaking as a living in the modern world seems a dodgy way to make a living. 4 full sets a year at £4000.00 or even £5000.00 a set is still not a great wage especially with a mortgage and family.

Were the old pipemakers only making instruments or did they have other jobs ?

The old makers managed with unpowered tooling but what do the present day makers use. Has any maker actually gone hi-tech yet eg CNC machining to speed up production ?

[billh]

Were the old pipemakers only making instruments or did they have other jobs ?

Kenna used to repair spinning wheels, Kenna and Coyne made many instruments (for instance flutes). At some point one of the Coynes )I believe it was) was selling fishing tackle. Don't know about Michael Egan, so little is actually known about those guys...

The old makers managed with unpowered tooling but what do the present day makers use. Has any maker actually gone hi-tech yet eg CNC machining to speed up production ?

Well, to look at their promotional material it looks as though Hevia may have some CNC stuff. But there's a limited amount of pipe manufacturing that can readily be performed via CNC, really.

With a three-or-four-degree-of-freedom CNC milling machine with a lathe-like bed (expensive!) you could rough out the outsides of chanters. A CNC lathe could also be used for the outside of pieces that are circularly symmettrical. However those tools might suffer from things like ebony dust. The actual boring operation would still probably need to be done by hand, but the CNC lathe would be great for making reamers.

Speaking of which, time for me to leave the keyboard

Bill

[Tony]

.....Were the old pipemakers only making instruments or did they have other jobs ?
.....

I asked a similar question before, regarding pipers and their day jobs. If I recall, some well known pipers had jobs (like stone masons and plumbers) that were really rough on the hands. Pipemaking in itself probably isn't too good for the hands.


Many of the whistlesmiths on C&F have day jobs.

[PJ]

4 full sets a year at £4000.00 or even £5000.00 a set is still not a great wage especially with a mortgage and family.

It's not even a salary. Say 5 sets per year at £5000.00 oer set. That's £25000.00, but it's not salary. I'd estimate that at 1/3 to 1/2 of the £25000.00 goes into equipping a workshop, buying materials, rent/mortgage of the workshop, etc. What's left after that is taxable.

Were the old pipemakers only making instruments or did they have other jobs ?

Most of the old pipemakers were not fulltime makers and those that were fulltime seemed to have died in poverty (Egan, Taylor bros.) Leo Rowsome was also a music teacher. Matt Kiernan was a policeman.

[djm]

As I recall, William Kennedy was blind, but learned to build furniture, and later learned piping, and then to build pipes. He was also a clock maker. You just can't keep a great man down.

djm

[Tony]

....You just can't keep a great man down.

djm

Yeah, someone recently said this about Houdini...

[billh]

As I recall, William Kennedy was blind, but learned to build furniture, and later learned piping, and then to build pipes. He was also a clock maker. You just can't keep a great man down.

djm

One of my heroes!

http://www.irishpipersclub.org/articles/Kennedy.html

I especially like this quote:

From this time I increased in musical knowledge, but made no pipes though I repaired many, until the year 1793, when I married and my necessities induced me to use all my industry for the maintenance of my wife and increasing family

[djm]

My principal employment is the construction of the Irish bagpipes, of which I have made thirty sets in the little town I live in, within these eight years past.

There you have it. If a blind man who has to work with tools made and powered only by his own hand can pump them out this fast we'll hear no more of this whinging from modern day pipemakers.

djm

[reedbiter]

Houdini was murdered...

[djm]

He was also quite Harry .....

djm