Scoring pipe makers is really tough, and developing a stratifying set of criteria for certain "levels" probably even tougher.
The so-called Pipemaker's Guild for example has a set of specific targets for each of their designations - a journeyman for them has to produce a certain pipe, with a home-made wind cap, etc and have it "inspected" by their experts. I think it's nonsense. It renders a Rad Davis (who I realize is retired) outside of Journeyman status, and that's just goofy.
It is semantics, and as usual, someone will fall out of the mix just because the definitions are too tight (or too loose).
I consider myself an artisan pipe maker because I make one-off pieces, I have generic rather than specific equipment (no specific piece of equipment in my shop generates anything pipey as it's prime function - there's no shaping heads, no drilling jigs, no stem shaping jigs), I work alone, and I've made enough pipes that I feel like I know what I'm doing, or rather, my learning curve is flattening out at this point, there's less and less change in the pipes week to week, where a "newbie" is on a much steeper curve in that regard.
Anyone else considering themselves as an artisan pipe maker, I would probably accept that they are, and anyone wishing to kick me out of their definition, I would probably accept that as well. I am neither fully-industrialized to manufacture pipes, nor am I going to make them with only my teeth and fingernails.
