Johs Giant Smooth Freehand Rhodesian Estate Briar Pipe, Unsmoked

Description

Denmark’s Mogens “Johs” Johansen made his first pipe in 1983, beginning as a self-taught artisan while receiving guidance from his friend, the late Peter Hedegaard. Johs established his own workshop in the mid-1980s, with his pipes quickly garnering significant acclaim. In fact, Joh’s became such a sensation in the Danish pipe smoking community that, at one point, he had to close his doors to the wider public as he was getting so many visitors that it was interrupting his work. Among the growing number of admirers of Johs’s work was none other than the legendary Bjarne Nielsen, who snapped up the former to make Bjarne pipes in 1992. Alongside Tonni Nielsen, Ph. Vigen, and Ole Bandholm, Johs ultimately became one of the main craftsmen behind the Bjarne brand. After Nielsen’s sudden passing in 2008, Johs returned his focus to making pipes under his own name, while also running the Gaden Pibemagerie pipe shop with his wife, Doris. As is common in the Danish artisan community, Johs has since paid forward the debt owed to his debt to Hedegaard by helping to cultivate newer generations of pipe makers, mentoring artisans such as Knud Bech, Johannes Hoffman, Dieter Gottschling.

Freeform Rhodesian renditions are rather prominent in Johs’s output, and if you look back at the kinds of pipes that were being made at Bjarne’s workshop. you’ll notice that they were quite popular there, too. I’d imagine that’s where Johs first took a liking to them, and he’s continued to scratch that itch ever since he went independent. This one is a strikingly large variation on that theme and, unlike so many Johs pipes, it is completely smooth in finish, without any spot carvings of partially sandblasted sections, wearing only a light brown top-coat to accentuate its natural flame grain. Come to think of it, we don’t typically get Johs pipes this large at US retailers, though it looks like over in Europe they’re known as “Giants.” I’d say that’s an appropriate term for this one.

This pipe is completely unsmoked, with an original bowl coating.

Details:

Length: 7″ / 177.8mm

Bowl Width: 0.87 / 22.09mm

Bowl Depth: 2.02″ / 51.30mm

Weight: 3.0oz / 86g