Nate King & Bruno Nuttens (Collaborative Piece) Smooth Panel Dublin Handmade Briar Pipe, New

Description

It is very likely that Indiana’s Nate King had something of a “head start” when he first took up pipe making, by virtue of his previous careers. First employed as a transmission specialist in an IndyCar pit crew, before moving on to work as an aeronautical engineer, King came to pipes already having a wealth of experience working with industrial machinery and an acute understanding of fluid dynamics. On the side, King enjoyed restoring estate pipes and, in the 2000s, he began making pipes of his own, after being taken under the wing (if you’ll excuse the pun) of fellow Indiana artisan Wayne Teipen. In the years since, King has emerged as one of North America’s premier artisans and has received numerous awards for his work, including a Master of Pipes from the Chicagoland Pipe Collectors Club and a fellowship at France’s Confrérie des Maîtres-Pipiers de Saint-Claude. He is also a frequent collaborator with G.L. Pease, with whom he designs yearly, limited runs of novel pipe shapes.

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 makers, 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 artisans such as Chris Herriot.

Collaborations between otherwise solo artisans are not common, but they’re not unheard of either. Some examples include Tom Eltang and Kei Gotoh, Todd Johnson and Bruce Weaver, and Nate Rose and Michael Parks. This particular pipe follows in that vein, having been made jointly by America’s Nate King and France’s Bruno Nuttens, and the process behind it is rather interesting. Not too long ago, King and Nuttens met at the latter’s Charpey workshop with the intention of sharing each other’s company and perhaps trading a techniques. While they were together they also made 6 pipes. 3 of these pipes were made individually in the same workshop; the other 3 were made jointly. In a manner King describes as “American style,” he and Nuttens essentially gave each other 5 minutes to work on the block they were to create a pipe out of, after which they would switch roles for another 5 minutes, before switching again. This carried on until the pipe was complete, and after repeating this process a couple more times, the two artisans were left with 3 pipes that were equally theirs. This is one of those 3 pipes. Exactly which parts of the pipes were King’s and which were Nuttens’ could, perhaps, be dissected if one was so inclined, though for a pipe of this nature, I’d say part of the beauty of it is not knowing. The other part is the pipe itself, of course, which is quite stunning.

Details:

Length: 6″ / 152.4mm

Bowl Width: 0.73 / 18.54mm

Bowl Depth: 1.99″ / 50.54mm

Weight: 1.9oz / 56g