Bruno Nuttens Heritage H1 Partially Sandblasted Dublin Briar Pipe, New

Description

Starting out as a pipe restorer, Belgian artisan Bruno Nuttens moved onto producing his own pipes under the careful guidance of France’s most esteemed master pipe maker, Pierre Morel Jr. Nuttens’ first pipes creating relatively traditional pipes—often using carefully selected, decades-seasoned stummels from France’s historic Saint-Claude factories—but he would soon begin developing entirely handmade pipes in styles that seamlessly blended the old with the new. In the case of the latter, Nuttens was no doubt aided by time spent in the workshop of Danish legend Tom Eltang, where he further developed the skills and techniques behind his craft. Nuttens made such an impact in Denmark, in fact, that he’s been commissioned three times to develop the Stokkebye Pipe of the Year, a number rivaled only by Eltang himself. Today, Nuttens continues to craft high-grade pipes in a variety of styles, including his signature “Bing” and “Twiggy” shapes, all while mentoring students of his own, including the English-born artisan Chris Herriot.

Good briar is by no means inexpensive, and even briar sourced from the finest cutters in the world may well end up with sandpits and fissures that render it completely unusable as far as pipe making goes. Not unlike Trever Talbert before him Bruno Nuttens’s Heritage series takes pre-turned stummels from the historic warehouses of Saint-Claude and finishes them himself, adding hand cut mouthpieces in the process. You could think of these pipes as something of a collaboration across time. The stummels were once turned in the pipe making powerhouses of 19th and 20th century France, before the companies responsible for them shuttered, or were absorbed into other companies. Now, in the 21st century, Nuttens uses his contacts in Saint-Claude to acquire the best of these preserved, well-seasoned stummels, turning them into the pipes they were always meant to be—or, indeed, something even better.

In the case of this one, I’d say that was certainly the case. Speaking to Bruno about it, he mentioned how he had been looking to the late, legendary Danish artisan Sven Knudsen for inspiration recently. This led Bruno to take some stummels of a rather traditional Dublin shaping and modify them to be closer to Knudsen’s iconic tall, slender, and supple renditions from the 1960s, leading to pipes like this one.

Details:

Length: 6.9″ / 175.2mm

Bowl Width: 0.76 / 19.30mm

Bowl Depth: 1.80″ / 45.72mm

Weight: 1.1oz / 32g