Just out of interest do you know what your pipemaker did for a living before becoming a pipemaker ,I know Mark Donohoe was a carpenter but was also involved in making guitars and violins .As far as I know both Geoff Wooff and Alain Froment were engineers ,but what about the rest ?
There are plenty of pipemakers on this forum ,what did you do ,or still do for a living ?
RORY
REALLY!?!? Anyone know what discipline??
David Quinn was a Catholic Priest…thereafter, a Bhuddist monk.
I guess that explains the name of Mr. D’Arcy’s Q&K set: “The Holy Order”.
Dave Williams Engineer / Diver who worked on oil rigs,
Chris Bayley Engineer,
Doug Wilkinson and Glen McCarthy went to the London College of Furniture but in their former lives Glen was a postman and I believe Doug worked in Electronics. They stopped making in the late 70’s
What did the older makers do - were they ever full time pipemakers or was it always part time. From the number of surviving sets they did not seem to turn out that many - certainly not enough to sustain a living.
I’ve heard that Alain Froment had been a civil engineer,
Geoff apprenticed first (I believe) as a machinist and then went for -Mechanical? .
For anyone who’s seen it, He drew up a magnificent blueprint of John Waylands Egan set by hand with old style draftsmans tools. An extinct art.
David Boisvert was a college student… then a High School teacher. 
Not quite extinct. I can still use my drafting machine for drawings if I need. Just don’t ask me to do 1/8 inch lettering… got a little shaky for that skill.
Kirk Lynch - professional musician
Marc van Daal’s original trade is tuning/repairing piano’s
Eamonn Curran was a professional musician back in the 70s. He’s now the principle of Knockatallon Primary School, in County Monaghan.
While most of what little is known about the early makers is subject to some question, a few facts are generally accepted.
Kenna, as has been mentioned here before I believe, also made and repaired spinning wheels, and may have been a wheelwright. James (the elder) Kenna also made flutes. Many pipemakers of that day were also organ builders, for instance the younger Kenna and I believe one of the contemporary makers did as well. Some, like O’Farrell, were primarily stage performers. The amazing blind Kennedy of Tandragee was also a clock and watch-maker, and made looms for the linen trade and repaired various sorts of musical instruments; he trained as a cabinet maker and was according to his own words and contemporary accounts, blind from infancy.
The Coynes seem to have been a farming family, but had several members in the instrument making trade, “John William Coyne” made flutes for instance, and he may have been the man who took over the Kenna premises (and tools!) in Dublin on the death of Kenna the Younger sometime before 1842. There exists a set of pipes stamped “J Coyne” and engraved “1809”, and its design suggests that the date is about accurate, so the family may have been in the business for awhile. The famed Maurice Coyne advertised in the 1830’s and 1840’s that he made “Irish and Scotch Bagpipes”. He seems to have shared his premises with all sorts of tradesmen including hairdressers (!) during this period. During the 1840’s and even into the 50’s there seems to have been sufficient pipemaking work in Dublin to keep Maurice and even a “John Coyne” (his son?) in business in the same district. Thereafter the trade seems to have fallen off sharply - Maurice Coyne was dead and John Coyne gave up making in 1864 - whether the makers died out, or trade dried up due to emigration, as is generally believed, isn’t totally certain I suppose. By this time both Michael Egan and Harrington had emigrated.
William Rowsome started as a carpenter.
Bill
[I am indebted to Sean Donnelly for much of this information, and I highly recommend his article “A Century of Pipemaking, 1770-1870: New Light on the Kennas and Coynes” in the Sean Reid Society Journal volume 2 for more information]
In Ireland Chris Langan was a blacksmith like his father, uncle, grandfather, and great-grandfather. In Canada he was a general smith. But a good tradesman, he often said, could turn his hand to anything.
Hamish Moore is a veterinarian. I don’t know if he still practices.
Seth Gallagher worked at the Von Huene (sp?) flute workshop. He also played GHP for the NY fire dept. Was he a fireman?
Doc
Benedict Koehler used to tune and repair pianos also. Benedict said that he did not like working on pianos and would be happy if he never saw another piano in his lfe.
You can’t tune a piano…but you can tuna fish.
Seriously, I remember BK once telling me a piano must be a little “out of tune” in order to sound right. Peg each note spot on ET and its not at all pleasing to the ear. If I recall correctly, the farther from middle C the greater the number of cents deviation from ET.
Geez…its boring at the clinic at the moment. If only I had the pipes or my art supplies now. You’d think some guy growing breasts would keep his new patient appointment! He’s probably out smoking pot…the number one cause of gynecomastia in young men…inhaled plant estrogens…ok… ok… stop checking yourself guys!
That is interesting Lewis. My piano is way off right now. I do have the tuning wrench and have considered giving it a go myself.
I used to know a few good piano tuners, but I have since moved.
what is gynecomastia?
a piano must be a little “out of tune”
like the pipes 
Abnormal enlargement of the breasts in a male. And no I don’t have it.