Ian Fisher

Ian Fisher (b. 1965) is an artisan pipe-maker based in New York.
== Biography ==
Like many artisans of his generation, Ian Fisher’s connection to tobacco pipes began as a fond childhood memory of his father, an engineer and manager at Bethlehem Steel, puffing away at many a bowl of Captain Black. But Fisher did not immediately follow in his father’s footsteps in either regard. He pursued a career in journalism, becoming a reporter for The Lowell Sun and then The New York Times, where he would eventually be assigned a role as a foreign correspondent. Fisher’s knack for ending up stationed in conflict zones —or what would become conflict zones not long after his arrival—meant that his role soon expanded to reporting as a war correspondent as well. His work took him to the Balkans, East Africa, and the Middle East. He was a cigarette smoker, before moving on to cigars while working in Africa. As he reached his thirties, and in part to appease his wife, Fisher began smoking pipes instead. This provided him a rare solace during work excursions and, in his words, “helped me keep sane on the job.”
After a couple of years relying on cheap “basket” pipes, Fisher bought what he recalls as his first “nice” pipe. While covering the Second Gulf War, and amidst the upheaval that took place after the fall of the Iraqi government, Fisher happened upon an unsmoked Dunhill in a junk shop in Baghdad. At first, Fisher was reluctant to spend the $125 dollars that the vendor had asked for it, as this was nowhere near what he had ever spent on a single pipe before. Ultimately, however, curiosity got the better of him. He returned just a few days later and relented to the vendor’s demands. Purchasing this Dunhill proved to be the first critical juncture in Fisher’s relationship with pipes as a craft:“It sort of changed my life. I was amazed at the difference between the cruddy pipes I was smoking—and I started my long journey to discover what makes a good pipe.”Fisher continued to work at the Times until 2017. His departure allowed him more freedom to develop his interest in the manufacture of pipes and how it is that “good” pipes are made. While he had carved his first pipe from a Mark Tinsky hobby kit in 2016, he could now spend time developing his approach; poring over Pimo’s Guide to Pipe Crafting at Home, watching step-by-step videos, combing through Pipemakers Forum for extra tips. Despite this increasing time and labour investment (as well as an increasing investment in woodworking tools), pipe-making for Fisher was, at this time, an end in itself—something enjoyed for its own sake. The only thing he didn’t enjoy was how the pipes looked once they were completed.
Still, Fisher found that people were interested in his pipes and, despite having had no intention of deriving income from his favourite divertissement, he also found that some of them were asking if they could buy one. These requests prompted a shift in Fisher’s perspective on what he was doing. “Selling tends to concentrate the mind,” Fisher reflected during a discussion with Tim Beaumont and Jim Steffey, “you want to please them [the buyer] and, on the flipside, you don’t want to embarrass yourself.”[1]With this in mind, Fisher decided to seek out a more direct form of instruction for his endeavours, which he found through pipe-making classes led by prominent American artisans. Fisher travelled to Indiana, where he met and studied under Grant Batson. Batson’s teachings were nothing less than a revelation for Fisher. In addition to learning freehand carving from Batson, and further developing the various other techniques involved in making a pipe, Fisher returned from Batson’s workshop with a completely changed outlook. There were now two Fishers as far as pipe-making was concerned: the disinterested hobbyist prior to that moment, and the aspiring professional that came after.[2]
In the years that followed, Fisher continued his technical education, including taking classes with Jeff Gracik of J. Alan Pipes. He also reoriented his approach around the fact that the pipes he made would no longer be solely his. Reflecting in 2024, he noted,  
“Pipe-making has replaced writing as my main creative outlet. They have a lot in common: Both are meant for someone else.” [3]
== Style ==
Fisher recalls that his “first love” as far as pipes go were those of Italy, especially those of Paolo Becker and his son Federico. The first pipe-maker that he met face to face was Gian Maria Gamboni, though this was to be a relatively brief encounter while Fisher was stationed in Rome. Fisher is also a great fan of traditional English pipes—which shouldn’t surprise given his formative experience with Dunhill’s—and this is still occasionally expressed in his output. But it is the Scandinavian schools, along with the Scandi-American schools which followed them, which have exerted the strongest influence on Fisher’s own style. This should also be unsurprising given that, by virtue of his training under Batson and Gracik, Fisher belongs to a pedagogical lineage that can be traced back to figures such as Tom Eltang, Teddy Knudsen, and, ultimately, Sixten Ivarsson and Poul Rasmussen. His portfolio is replete with interpretations of classic shapes within this lineage, such as the quarter-bent egg, the strawberry, and the Arne Jacobsen, but there are also plenty of renditions of lesser-appreciated gems, such as Ib Loran's Pearl and Gert Holbek's Polonius.
Fisher works primarily with briar and ebonite, and while the Scandinavian tradition is not without its fair share of the extravagant and the avant-garde, he prefers instead to pursue “functional elegance” and balanced proportions in his designs. Fisher’s personal pipes, for example—those of his own and of others’ making—are for the most part “simple and well done,” in his words, and without ornamentation. Fisher-brand pipes do frequently employ bamboo shank extensions, mounts and ferrules, and accents of horn, fossilised ivory, and various exotic hardwoods, but this has been in part due to a desire to challenge himself, and in part because his customers enjoy them. After all, pipes, like papers, are meant for someone else. 
Despite his early intentions, Fisher’s pipes have found a considerable audience and have been successful enough to be picked up by the tobacconist The Country Squire for distribution, where they presently remain a regular fixture. In 2024, Fisher was also asked to make the pipe of the year for the Sherlock Holmes Pipe Club of Boston.
As of writing, Ian Fisher divides his time between pipe-making and news journalism.
== Gallery ==
File:I Fisher Army Mount Billiard.jpg|Sandblast billiard with silver army mount. Image courtesy Ian Fisher.
File:I Fisher Smooth Apple.png|Smooth apple. Image credit: Drew Dempsey for The Country Squire.
File:I Fisher Blowfish with bamboo.png|Sandblast blowfish with bamboo. Image credit: Drew Dempsey for The Country Squire.
File:I Fisher Sandblast Egg.jpg|Sandblasted egg. Image courtesy Ian Fisher.
File:I Fisher sandblasted bulldog.jpg|Sandblasted bulldog with Elforyn. Image credit: Drew Dempsey for The Country Squire.
File:I Fisher smooth Arne with horn.jpg|Smooth Arne Jacobsen. Image courtesy Ian Fisher.
==Contact Information==
 Email: chisher456@gmail.com
 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fisherpipes/
== References ==
----[1] Pipe and Tobacco Talk (2024, May 17). Pipe and Tobacco Talk: Episode 38 "False Start then Ian from Fisher Pipes." [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/siBaBy2afsQ?t=2369
[2] Pipe and Tobacco Talk (2024, May 17).
[3] Fisher, I. (personal communication, November 12th, 2024).
Category: Pipe makers by nationality
Category: United States