C. Kent Joyce Pipes

Kent Joyce is a part time pipe maker from Oklahoma. On first impression, Kent is rather unassuming, but his soft-spoken voice and slight stature belies a razor sharp wit and immense creative prowess. Kent was a regular cigar smoker, but around 2001 he was convinced by a friend to start smoking a pipe. This began a long love affair with briar.

Kent is no stranger to working with his hands. He has worked in construction since graduating high school. Like many pipe smokers, his appreciation of good craftsmanship, also influenced by his profession, led him to start collecting briars of increasingly high caliber. In 2012, he acquired his first kit and began to carve.

Initially Kent relied on his own knowledge of woodworking and whatever information he could glean from the Internet to help him develop his craft. When fellow pipe maker and co-creator of Pipe Maker’s Forum, Tyler Beard, relocated to Oklahoma, Kent began seeking his advice on the finer points of the craft. Before long Kent was attending his first pipe show in Kansas City, and his pipes were met with some acclaim.

Kent’s work is hard to classify. His playful use of organic lines and sinuous form is reminiscent of Danish and Eastern European colleagues, but there is a certain extra quality of Kent’s work that makes it stand out uniquely among an ever-crowded field of excellent pipe makers. Many of his designs take fundamental shape from the Danish canon, and alter one or more key elements, creating a pipe that looks familiar, yet unique.  

One thing that impresses us about Kent’s work, besides his novel approach to design and modest price, is the finish quality of his stems. It is no easy feat to polish ebonite to a glossy black abyss and it clearly demonstrates Kent’s attention to detail.