Though the Ashton pipe was born in 1983 and 1984, the story behind this much sought after pipe brand begins thirty-eight years earlier with the birth of William John Ashton Taylor in 1945. The post-war years in Britain, and especially in London, were far from easy as the nation rebuilt from the destruction, both in terms of lives and property that it suffered. Indeed, given the economic climate of the nation through the 1950s, Bill Taylors acceptance as an apprentice in the Dunhill factory in 1959 at the young age of 14 was very lucky, both for Taylor and for the pipe smokers the world over that have come to love Ashton pipes.

Hand crafting cigarette holders was the young Bill Taylors first job as an apprentice at the Dunhill factory. From 1960 to 1977, Taylor was closely involved in the manufacturing of briar pipes. It was during these formative years that he developed his remarkable skill as a pipe maker and came to be recognized as one of the most accomplished pipe makers at Dunhill.

From 1977 to 1984, Bill Taylor worked as an administrator and overseer in the Dunhill factory. Ultimately, he rose to the position of Quality Control Manager, whose job it is to ensure that all pipes that leave the Dunhill factory are worthy of carrying the estimable white spot. Indeed, Taylors skill and pipe making accomplishments has become so well recognized that he often made pipes in the Dunhill shop and in other major London pipe shops as demonstrations to potential customers. It is interesting to here note that Dunhill pipes during this period were fraised by a machine and then completed, finished and stained by hand. The pipes that Taylor made as a demonstration in the stores were made entirely by hand, just as Ashton pipes would be later after Taylor left Dunhill to set out on his own.

Perhaps the next piece of the history of the Ashton pipe moves across the Atlantic, to David Field, a noted American pipe historian and collector (who is now a noted American pipe historian, collector and distributor of fine pipes, including those from William Ashton Taylor). In pursuit of his interest in Italian and English pipes, Field traveled to both countries frequently during the early 1980s. During one of his visits to London, David Field witnessed first hand the skill with which Taylor carved pipes during one of Taylors in-store demonstrations.

In 1980 Taylor had started a side enterprise specializing in meerschaum and briar pipe repair. By 1983, he had also started carving a handful of pipes every year under the label Taylor Made. Having spoken with Bill Taylor, David Field purchased all of the Taylor Made pipes that were available.

Upon his return to the United States, Fields thoughts kept returning to the remarkable carver and his work. Ultimately, Field decided that Taylors pipes needed to be available on the US market. Field wrote Taylor with his proposition and Taylor promptly accepted.

Taylor left Dunhill in 1984 to found Ashton pipes. Before the first pipe was turned or the first stem fitted, it was decided that Ashton pipes would be, quite simply, everything that Taylor thought Dunhill could have been. Like Dunhill, they would be oil-cured, but Taylor set out to develop a better oil-curing system. It was decided that all Ashton pipes would be hand-turned rather than fraised as were Dunhills. Indeed, Taylor set out to create the best English pipe that he could relying on more than a quarter-century of experience as a pipe maker.

As with all new enterprises, Ashton pipes experienced some bumps during its first year of existence. The complications included trying to turn a small workshop normally used for pipe repair and the very occasional crafting of a pipe into a full-scale pipe making facility. However, perhaps the most difficult problem was that of developing the optimal method for the oil-curing process. Not only did the oils have to be the right variety and applied at the correct temperature, but the post curing, heating process that pulled the oils from the briar had to be just right lest the briar crack and the piece be rendered unusable.

Ultimately, it was determined that a blend of three oils would be optimal. Dunhill had used only one oil variety in their curing process. Using the process that Alfred Dunhill had developed at the beginning of the 20th century, Dunhill forced this oil through the wood. The oil was and is used primarily to force dirt, sap and various residues out of the wood. Essentially, this results in a pipe relatively devoid of impurities that can alter the smoking properties of the briar. The second advantage is that it generally lightens the pipe by approximately 10% without compromising the resilience of the briar or the quality of the smoke. Additionally, Ashtons choice of oils also imbues the briar with a delightful nutty flavor. In spite of some early failures, ultimately Taylors oil curing method not only achieved the results that were so prized in Dunhills, but actually surpassed the achievements of the famed English pipe maker in terms of the final weight of the wood and the final smoking quality of the pipe.

Finally, after many months of experimentation, Taylor developed the final process that has been used on Ashton pipes since. First the pipes are bathed in the oils until they are fully saturated and the wood can hold no more of the oils. Following the oil bath, the pipes are heated and cooled successively over a period of fourteen days, which forces the oils through the wood. At the end of the fourteen days the pipes are left with but the merest residue of the oils and have been cleaned of saps and other impurities. As a result of this process many of the pieces are cracked and lost. Though the loss is a regrettable (but inevitable) result of the oil curing process as Taylor devised it, it does mean that the pieces that survive the process are less likely to suffer from potential defects in the wood that can cause burnout. Essentially, the oil curing process also helps to cull the less perfect pieces of wood. The other result is that the oil curing process often pushes additional sandpits to the surface and makes them more obvious and, not surprisingly, this leads to a lower percentage of possible smooth pipes than is common among other pipe brands. Not surprisingly, Ashton Sovereigns (as the smooths are termed) are somewhat rare and very highly prized.

Two further Taylor innovations are also particularly worthy of note: Ashtonite, the stem material used on Ashton pipes and the patented Pebble Shell method. Clearly, the history of Ashton is not only one of superlative craftsmanship and artisanship, it is also a history of technical and scientific innovation in the field of pipe making. Until the arrival of the Ashton pipe in 1984, there had been relatively little innovation in English pipe making during the previous sixty or seventy years. Indeed, the overall quality of pipemaking had declined considerably between 1960 and Taylors introduction of the Ashton pipe. The great old English pipe factories had long since past their peak of quality by the early 1980s (by 1980, not only Dunhill, but also Charatan, Comoy, GBD and Barling, had past its heyday). Indeed, it was Bill Taylors two primary focuses; high quality hand craftsmanship and technical innovation that really helped to revitalize an industry in decline.

The first example of this, as stated above, was his adoption of Ashtonite as a stem material. Essentially, Ashtonite is a blend of Vulcanite and Plexiglas. Vulcanite had been the standard stem material for English briar pipe for almost a century before Taylor developed Ashtonite. Vulcanite had clear advantages; it was soft on the teeth, easily worked with as a stem material and inexpensive by comparison to other materials used for stems at the beginning of the 20th century (the alternatives a century ago included materials like amber, which was exceedingly expensive). The disadvantages of Vulcanite are primarily that it is soft, and, therefore, easily damaged by clenching too hard on the pipe. Also, since Vulcanite is, quite simply, vulcanized rubber, it oxidizes when exposed to oxygen. This gives it an ugly appearance and a very unpleasant taste. Plexiglas, frequently used in Italy, solves many of the problems of Vulcanite. However, in eliminating the problems of durability and oxidation, one also loses the primary advantage of Vulcanite: Plexiglas is hard on the teeth. Ashtonite helps to find a common groundit has much of the durability of Plexiglas (it doesnt turn, nor is it easily damaged through wear) and yet is sufficiently softer than Plexiglas to make the stem more comfortable in the mouth. Though there is no real solution to the problem and the decision of what material to use in stem making really is a balance of various advantages and disadvantages, Ashtonite helps to fulfill a much needed middle ground.

The second great innovation made by Taylor was his development of the PebbleShell finish. In 1988, Taylor received a patent for this method; the first patent to be awarded for a pipe making process in over half a century. Essentially, Taylor discovered that some of his blocks of briar were so dense that they could not be blasted as deeply as he would have liked (we will return to briar later, also). When these blocks of wood could not be made into a smooth pipe because of sandpits, discoloration and other undesirable blemishes, he was left with a choice. Quite simply, Taylor had become known for his very craggy and particularly interesting sandblasts. Though he could sell the less deep blasts on the European market (the US market seems to have favored deeper blasts over the years), it must be kept in mind that almost all Ashton pipes were going to the United States in the mid-1980s. The second problem posed by the incredible density of these particular blocks was the weight. Ashton pipes had become known as a lighter pipe as well. These particularly heavy blocks yielded particularly heavy pipes, which are rarely popular with smokers, regardless of their origin and especially unpopular in the United States where larger pipes are more popular to begin with. It is also worthy of note that many argue that the increased density of the pipe leads to a cooler, tastier smoke, making these blocks particularly desirable, if only the problems of weight and aesthetics did not exist. Therefore, in Taylors innovative style, he devised a means of getting around the problem rather than just putting up with it.

Essentially, he needed to find a way to make the pieces lighter and more amenable to blasting without eliminating the desirable characteristics associated with the smoking quality. His solution, though not obvious, was elegantly simple. First rusticate the pipes and then blast them ensuring that more wood would be removed from the bowl. However, even this posed problems because of the way the grain structure is in briar. Ultimately, his ingenious solution was to steam the bowl of the pipe, which caused the softer grain to rise in relief. The softer grain would then be cut away and the pipe would be allowed to dry. Once this process is competed, the pipe can then be sandblasted. The result is that additional briar (and, hence, weight) is removed without affecting the smoking quality. On top of all of this, the resulting finish is particularly stunning. It seems to meld the beauty of the sandblasting with that of a quality rustication in a delightfully harmonious way. Perhaps the only downside to the implementation of this finish is that it is more labor intensive than blasting the pipe; however, it seems that Taylors overriding intention has long been to favor quality over expediency.

All of Bill Taylors briar comes from Italy and specifically from two or, depending on the year, three regions within Italy. Taylor believes, as do others, that briar from the Calabria region of Italy is the most durable, hardest briar available. He generally prefers to make smooth pipes from Calabrian briar because of its unique properties. He also uses Tuscan briar, which is generally slightly softer than Calabrian briar. The Tuscan briar is perfect for the deep craggy blasts for which Ashton has become famous. Taylor also uses Ligurian briar, which is reasonably akin to Tuscan briar, when he feels that particularly good briar is coming from Liguria. (Though I have no direct information on this, I would not be surprised if most of the PebbleShell Patent pieces came from Calabrian briar given its reputation for density and durability, which makes it difficult to sandblast).

Indeed, it is not surprising that Ashton pipes have come to be so sought after in the United States and elsewhere in the world. Superficially, it would seem truly amazing that William Ashton Taylor has been able to garner such a following in the last fifteen years; however, it is hardly surprising given the superb quality of the work he produces.