Cardinal House Pipes by Walt Cannoy

October 7, 2015 by Eric Squires in Makers and Artists

Dedication to quality is the mark of true artisans, even more so than anything that may happen to be stamped, etched, or otherwise inscribed onto their works. So what does it say when an artisan whose quality of work is well-established dedicates a year to shifting his focus and work-flow to a new project? It says he means to get it just right, according to his vision of just what that "right" means.

For Walt Cannoy and his Cardinal House project, that "just right" meant producing one of the most competitive quality-to-price ratios anyone would be able to find in the world of pipes. That, in turn, meant a lengthy process of teaching himself new habits and tailoring processes in order to, as he puts it, "make great pipes faster." It also meant re-prioritizing. There are only so many hours in a day and only so many days in a week, and if he was going to take Cardinal House all the way to its potential, something else had to give. What that something else was, was the pipes Walt makes under his own name, and what they had to give was their place as his full-time occupation.

That is a big leap for any independent artisan who has made a name for himself, placing his own-name established work under an "as time permits" priority in favor of focusing on a new way of doing things under an entirely new name.

So what is new about Walt's Cardinal House pipes? Well, it isn't the briar. That's still all coming from Mimmo. And the stems are still all hand-cut from either German ebonite or acrylic. Are the designs simpler? Well, I shouldn't think we'll be seeing a Cardinal House Penny Farthing shape, but what Walt's sent our way so far is hardly staid, ranging from broad-bowled, bamboo-stemmed pieces, to very neat American neoclassical Liverpools, to a whole bunch of little charmers that make no compromises whatsoever about being nosewarmers.

What we're looking at today, in short, is just what Walt set out to make, and spent a lot of time and effort making sure he could fulfill: great pipes, hand-made from start to finish that he taught himself to turn out with great efficiency, and that by consequence Cardinal House is able to offer at prices competitive with marques that involve multiple-artisan workshops.

We wish Walt the best of luck in this new brand and endeavor of course... but personally I doubt he'll need it. Judging by the efforts he's put into making Cardinal House what it should be, and the quality of work we've seen, I think Walt is doing just fine making his own luck, as they say.