Tine Pipes

Tine Pipes is the name architect Martin Steinthaler, who lives in Klagenfurt in southern Austria, uses for the pipes he makes himself. The name comes from "Tine," the nickname by which the maker is known in the community. There is no registered trademark or regularly operating business behind it: what exists is a personal production line, limited in number, kept up as an extension of a professional interest in design.

From Architecture to the Bench

Steinthaler's introduction to pipes goes back to December 1997; his own attempts at making pipes by hand did not begin until April 1999. The link between these two dates is Peter Matzhold, a well-known master from the Kärnten region. What first brought the two together was not pipes at all, but the design of Matzhold's website. An acquaintance that began as a business relationship soon turned into a friendship, giving Steinthaler the chance to use an experienced master's bench and tools.

The first Tine pipes were shaped in this workshop, under Matzhold's supervision. In other words, it was not formal training but time spent directly at a master's side that proved decisive — a common form of transmission in small-scale Austrian pipe making. The relationship between the two names is sometimes referred to in the community as a mentor-student bond.

Design Approach

Steinthaler treats pipe making as a design exercise familiar from his profession: fitting volume, line, and proportion together. As a result, his work does not repeat the classic pipe shape catalog exactly, leaning instead toward a freeform approach. By his own account, his shape choices also diverge from those of Matzhold, under whom he trained. Briar is used as the material.

Production is not series-based; pieces are made one at a time. No regular model line, catalog, or detailed stamping system has been recorded; beyond whatever sequence the maker keeps himself, no externally traceable numbering system is known.

Place in the Community

Steinthaler's name circulated in the online pipe community of the early 2000s, both through his pieces and his personal website. What order or volume production has followed since then cannot be traced through independent sources. As it is known today, Tine Pipes remains an example of personal production with no commercial goal, learned at a master's side and grounded in a search for form.