About Us

Welcome to J. Deschaine Smoking Pipes, (J.D.S.P.). My name is Jim Deschaine and I make pipes in my small shop in the beautiful California Sierra Foothills. I have been involved with wood working for over 30 years. My father and I have made furniture, jewelry boxes, humidors, and many other projects. We both have smoked pipes off and on for the last 25 years. With our background in wood working and our love for pipes it just seemed like a natural transition for me into making smoking pipes. I started making smoking pipes in 2013 after a trip to Montana where we were fortunate to get an opportunity to make pipes with Mr. Mark Tinsky. Mark was instrumental in getting us headed in the right direction and advancing our pipe making. We have become good friends with Mark and hope to get back to Montana to do some fly fishing in the near future. We can't thank Mark enough for all of the help and time he has graciously given us.

Over the last year I have been working with Mr. Chris Morgan. Chris has been a big help in improving my technique and advancing my skills at a steady pace. We have had many long conversations on engineering, shaping, blasting, grain and finishes. I can't thank Chris enough for his tutelage and patience.

At this time my father is not making pipes. He does hand carve and finish our collaboration pipe. He also is making tampers and leather pipe pouches.

Materials

We use the finest materials we can obtain. Currently we are using Italian and Algerian briar, Plateaux and Ebauchon blocks. Most of the J. Deschaine pipes sport a custom hand cut German Vulcanite or Cumberland stem. We still occasionally use Lucite/Acrylic for our collaboration pipes or upon request. We use many different exotic woods for our tamps, ashtrays, and pipe racks.