Thurmann Piber

Thurmann Piber is the brand of the workshop that Danish pipe maker Bjørn Thurmann founded under his own name in 1976. Thurmann is known in the community not only for his pipes but as the author of a handbook that brought pipe making down to the home workbench. The workshop first operated in Copenhagen, then after 2005 moved to the town of Svaneke on the Baltic island of Bornholm.

From Shop Counter to Workbench

For Thurmann, born in 1946, the trade began with the pipe shop his family opened in central Copenhagen in 1953. Taking his place behind the counter at a young age, his first job was sorting and grading the pipes to be sold. In the early years the shop's stock came from the Copenhagen house of Larsen & Stigart. The family later decided to make its own pipes, and in 1968 set up its workshop in North Jutland, where experienced pipe workers could be found.

That same year brought Thurmann an entirely different kind of training: working in a series of tobacconist shops in London. This apprenticeship period ended at the Dunhill shop on Duke Street. Shortly after returning to Denmark, he received a call from Iwan Ries & Co. in Chicago; between 1969 and 1970 he served on the eighteen-person sales staff of what was then considered the largest tobacconist shop of its day. His years in London and Chicago gave him an unusually international perspective for a maker raised within the Danish school.

Independent Workshop and Bornholm

Thurmann began working as an independent pipe maker in 1976 and ran shops in various Copenhagen neighborhoods over the following thirty years. In 2005 he left the capital for the town of Svaneke on the Baltic island of Bornholm; in this town, home to a small artist community, he ran his shop and workshop out of a hundred-year-old building for the rest of his life. Records indicate he died at the end of 2016; his son took over the business.

Pibemagerens Håndbog

Thurmann's most lasting contribution is the short guide Pibemagerens håndbog: fra klods til pibe (The Pipe Maker's Handbook: From Block to Pipe), published by Erica in 1987. Its starting point is simple: a ready-drilled briar block (klods) and the ordinary hand tools most households already have. Thurmann walks through the stages to be followed with these tools, noting that a masterful result comes only through repetition. The book is said to have served for a long time as a reference text among Danish hobbyists, and reportedly was also the starting point for the Swedish duo Vollmer & Nilsson, who later founded their own brand.

The Angler Pipe

Thurmann's second pursuit alongside pipe making was fly fishing, and in one of his later designs he brought the two together. In the straight model known as the "Angler," the bamboo shank between bowl and stem was made from hand-split cane familiar from fishing-rod construction, with feathers used in fly tying fastened onto the shank. A tamper made from the same material, with silver-capped ends, accompanied the model. It was produced in a numbered, limited run, and is remembered as an example of the maker carrying his personal interests directly into his craftsmanship.