Well, to make a long story short, my back recovered without the need for surgery, and after a brief vacation I’m back to work, and back in the shop. I completed four pipes over my summer vacation--two Bulldogs, a partial blast (Opus 2 #91), and a natural blast (Opus 2 #92), and two freehand pokers, one smooth (Freehand #93) with a black and white ebony end cap, and one blast (Freehand #90) with a boxwood stem insert.

The shop has also seen a few nice improvements, including a new insolated garage door with a row of windows! See the Workshop Tour for pictures of the current tooling and setup.