Pohlmann Pipes (Brad Pohlmann)

Pohlmann Pipes is the brand of handmade briar pipes American master Brad Pohlmann produces under his own name. Pohlmann's story is a clear example of a pattern often seen in American pipe making: workshop training in youth, a long career gap, and a return made in maturity.

From Apprenticeship to Workshop

Pohlmann, born in California, saw his interest in pipes turn into a professional pursuit in the mid-1970s; records say he toured England and Scotland's established pipe firms in 1975, and the following year researched the addresses of small American benches to find a place to apprentice. In 1976 he entered The Briar Workshop in Stowe, Vermont. The workshop, run by Elliott Nachwalter and Jorg Jemelka, was a place well regarded among the young American benches of the era.

Pohlmann stayed there for roughly five years and became one of the few able to carry out every stage of the work on his own. During this time the team moved from Stowe and Hyde Park to Coral Springs, Florida; the master's first technical foundation formed during these years.

A Long Gap and Return

Pohlmann returned to California in 1980. There he completed a four-year apprenticeship in tool and die making, training that later proved decisive in the interior work of his pipes. A sixteen-year career in the computer industry followed, and pipe making was reduced to the occasional piece for friends and small repairs. His return to production under his own name came, as the account goes, when that period closed in the early 2000s.

The moment that set the direction of his return is described as his meeting, at the 2004 Chicago pipe show, with new-generation American makers such as Todd Johnson and Jody Davis. Following this meeting Pohlmann changed his method: instead of drilling the body first and then shaping it, he began roughing out the shape first and drilling afterward. This sequence made it possible to follow the grain direction more freely and to try shapes less bound to the workshop mold of his early years.

Style and Current Status

Pohlmann's early work is regarded as a derivative of the Briar Workshop line; in the later period, a language stands out that combines classic English shapes with touches of the Danish school in his own measure. His tool-and-die background is read as a pursuit of tolerance beyond the ordinary in the working of the airway and the mortise. Production, as would be expected of one-person workshops, remains limited in number.

The master works today in rural Oregon, in a workshop he shares with his partner Silver Gray, herself also a pipe maker. Pohlmann's career is cited as an example of how the knowledge of small American benches founded in the late 1970s carried across a generational gap into the American handmade pipe scene.