Bennie Joe Pipes: Handmade Pipes from Jakarta with Hand Tools

Bennie Joe Pipes is the name Prasetya Tri Wibowo, working in Jakarta, gives to his handmade pipes. Wibowo, born in 1991 according to records, studied architecture and spent his early career in that field; he took up pipe making in the late 2010s, in hours freed up by his job, and turned it into a full-time profession in 2020. What sets the brand apart within contemporary artisan production is less its shape repertoire than the workshop's equipment.

A Workshop Without a Lathe

Bennie Joe pipes have no lathe shaping the bowl. The workshop has no lathe, no drill press, no belt sander; the only electric tools are a hand drill and a hand grinder. Apart from drilling the chamber and smoke channel, the entire job is carried out by hand with a file and sandpaper. Wibowo describes this not as a design principle but as the result of woodworking machines being expensive and hard to find in his country.

The visible result of this working method is bowls that don't fit neatly onto a shape chart: the lines are freely measured, and the size difference between two pipes comes from the hand, not the catalog. In this respect the pipes are likened to early-period Danish school work made before the shape repertoire had settled.

From Architecture to the Pipe Bench

Necessity pushed Wibowo into this work as much as curiosity did. Although he had smoked a pipe for years, he had no broad collection; when an old Peterson he bought from an antique dealer and used daily suffered an irreparable burnout, he went looking for a replacement. Since pipes are considered a luxury item in Indonesia, he found it more accessible to try making his own rather than buy a ready-made one. On his first attempt, of the seven raw briar blocks he bought, he is said to have been able to produce only three usable billiards after several months.

The bond he built with the local maker community at this stage proved decisive. It is on record that he learned much of his advanced tool and technique knowledge from Abdul Karim, maker of Karim Pipes. Wibowo is today mentioned alongside names like Deden Hendan Durahman of Caxra Pipe, Edy Bima, and Wandi Riyadi as part of the Indonesian artisan scene that took shape in the 21st century. His shift to full-time work coincides with 2020; the account holds that the closure of the real-estate company he worked for during the pandemic sped up this decision.

Shapes and Materials

The rounded family is where Wibowo puts his emphasis: apple, egg, and tomato shapes stand out both because they're easy to grip and because they spread heat over a wider surface. Alongside these he also works the blowfish and fugu shapes familiar from the contemporary artisan repertoire. Among the names he cites as influences, besides Karim, are Tom Eltang, Hiroyuki Tokutomi, Bo Nordh, and Mihail Revyagin.

Bowls are made of briar, stems of vulcanite; product records show worked Spanish briar standing out among the examples. Bamboo shanks are frequently used as accents, and examples with horn accents and morta bowls are also on record. Both smooth-polished and rusticated finishes are seen.